I made a Solitaire game called Red Queen's Dungeon
Table of Contents
Intro
I made a solitaire game called Red Queen's Dungeon. It's a one-player card game where you try to escape a dungeon by defeating all the guards using your weapons (cards)! It's a game that needs strategy, foresight, and of course some luck.
I worked on this game for the past few days as a creative exercise, thinking how someone would make a game with just the bare essentials. The initial draft was a bit too complex, so I simplified it until it became easy to pick up, and still fun to play.
Red Queen's Dungeon is made to be snappy and quick, so a round averages at around 5-10 minutes. All you need is one deck of cards and some patience reading the rules.
Setting up
All you need is a standard deck of cards (jokers excluded).
Take out the Queen of Hearts and put it anywhere aside. This will be the final boss.
Draw 3 cards. These will be your initial weapons[1]. If you draw a JQK[2], place them randomly back in the deck and keep drawing until you're holding 3 weapons, similar to the image above. Shuffle the deck lightly when you're done.
[1]: A weapon is any number card
[2]: A JQK is any Jack, Queen, or King
Draw Phase
Every turn, draw one card. If your card is a weapon (a number card), you can either add it to your hand or place it in one of your stashes. You can only carry 3 weapons at any time.
If you decide to add it to your weapons, you either add it to an empty slot or swap it with a weapon you're holding (the swapped card goes to the stash).
You have two stashes. I'll talk more about its uses in the future, but all you need to know is that you can only make use of the top card in each stash.
If you draw a JQK, go to the combat phase
Combat Phase
When you draw a JQK, you'll have to face it in combat.
Place it on the top of your field. Draw a card, if it's a number card then place it on top of the enemy (similar to the image above). This will be their weapon.
If you draw another JQK, place it next to the first enemy, you'll fight two at the same time. Draw a weapon for each. If you happen to draw yet another JQK, shuffle it into your deck. You can't fight more than two opponents at the same time.
If your deck consists only of JQK at this point, shuffle the discard pile and choose random weapons from there.
Defeating an enemy
To defeat the enemy, you have to either match the number on the card, or have a higher number of the same suite. In order from strongest to weakest: Aces > King > Queen > Jack > Numbers from 10 to 2.
When you defeat an enemy, discard its weapon and the weapons you used into the discard pile. Place the defeated enemy in the "defeated enemies" pile (Again, see picture on top for reference).
Whenever you hold less than 3 weapons, you can grab the top card from your stash and add it back into your hand.
Example: If my weapons are [7❤️, 4❤️, 10♦️] and my enemy is holding [3❤️], I can defeat it with my [4❤️] or [7❤️].
Example 2: If my enemy was holding a [10♠️] instead, I can defeat it with my [10♦️] because it has the same value.
Combining cards
If you don't hold a card that can defeat the enemy, you can combine cards together. You can only combine with one card, and it will stay the same suite.
For example, a [5♣️] combined with a [3❤️] will result in an [8♣️]. Combining loops around, so a [5♣️] combined with a [7♠️] will result in a [2♣️].
You can combine any weapons in your hand together, or use the top card from one of your stash to combine into one from your hand.
Example: I'm fighting a king holding a [9♠️]. My weapons are [7❤️, 4❤️, 10♦️]. The top cards in my stash are [2♦️] and [6♠️]. Can any card in my hand defeat the enemy's 9 of spades? No, so I'll have to combine cards to win. In this case, I can combine my [7❤️] with my [2♠️] from the stash, creating a [9❤️]. Since this is the same value as the enemy's weapon, I win the fight. My two combined cards and the enemy's weapon go to the discard pile. The enemy goes to the defeated enemies pile. Remember, you can now draw a top card from your stash to fill the empty space in your hand.
Running away
If you can't defeat the enemy under any circumstance, you can run away. This will harm you in the long term, but it's better than losing instantly.
To run away, you drop all weapons you're holding into the discard pile. The enemy (along with the weapon they're holding) will be placed next to the Queen of Hearts. Refill your hand by grabbing top cards from your stash. You will have to fight that enemy again in the final battle, so prepare accordingly.
You can only run away twice. If you need to run a third time, you lose the game!
If you run away and don't have enough cards from your stash to fill your hand, simply draw cards from the deck similar to the start of the game, ignoring any JQK until your hand is full.
Final Battle
Once you've cleared every card in your deck, you move on to the final battle. The Queen of Hearts will hold 2 weapons instead of 1. Shuffle your discard pile and draw two cards for the queen to hold.
You'll also fight every enemy you ran away from during this game alongside the queen. You cannot run away in this fight, so make sure to plan your moves so you don't get stuck. If at any point you can't defeat the enemies in front of you, you lose the game!
If you manage to defeat all the enemies, you win the game! Drop any remaining cards from your hand into your stash for scoring.
Game End / Scoring
The objective of the game isn't just to survive, but also to get a good score. When the game ends, your score is determined by the combined value of your stash. Aces are worth 20 points, everything else is worth their value (so a 6 is worth 6 points for example). You also get 10 points for each enemy you defeated, and 80 points for winning the game. (This means you get a total of 200 points + your stash value for winning).
In order to get a good score, you have to take a risk of stashing high value cards and try not to use them. You also want to avoid running away from enemies, as that makes you burn through your stash quicker. Of course, you want to do all that without losing!
Closing Thoughts
I know maybe 0.1% of people who will come across this post would be interested in playing yet another solitaire game, but the past few days have been a really fun experience as a developer and I just wanted to put it out there. I think everyone who's interested in game design should try creating something with the bare essentials, it really gives a new perspective on "less is more".