Playing cards have been around for hundreds of years, but we still don’t really understand how they work. Modern games like Balatro give us a glimpse of the limitless possibility of cards — but that’s not the card game Polygon’s Simone de Rochefort is hooked on right now. She can’t stop playing Solitaire, so she turned to Baba Is You developer Hempuli, who just published A Solitaire Mystery on itch, to figure out why.
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48 Comments
Note that this was filmed in early December. I have now beaten 1,309 games of Sawayama Solitaire. – Simone
hm. its been a minute since i played pocket card jockey.
Hi Simone
Cards has always been a fascination and joy for me. I love that they have found a resurgence beyond poker. I have been playing Euchre, Spades, Hearts, and all kinds of card games with friends and it fills me with joy.
So if possible combinations might be infinite then how do people count cards?
Asking for a friend. Who moved recently.
To Canada. You wouldn't know them.
So this is spider solitaire?
card games just Hit Different sometimes. my "i've become addicted to this" version of Solitaire for many years was FreeCell. i found a list of how many possible FreeCell deals there were on my version of Windows, made a note of the ones said to be unsolvable, and then went through each deal, one by one, in order [you could type in which number deal you wanted to play and the same number would always be the same deal], with a goal of eventually beating every deal that could possibly be beaten on that system on my own. i did this from middle school and into college. UNFORTUNATELY that laptop died its final death a few years into college, and because i couldn't confirm whether deal number [whatever] on a newer OS would be the same as deal number [same whatever] on my original laptop [Windows Vista, the heinous thing], i was dejected enough to give up and never played FreeCell again. i'd beaten around 10,000 games of FreeCell by then.
Zachtronics is a menace. I've lost chunks of my life to him.
I love your shirt
i've beaten 667 games of windows solitaire. this is not normal?
idk why but this host rubs me weird
No slay the spire in the intro – questionable
On BoardGameArena there is an amazing solitaire, called "For Northwood!". It's a trick-taking solitaire, super addicting and the challenge is at the perfect spot
Izzzyzzz but a geek instead of a nerd
When I was taking AP stat in high school, I showed my teacher the hypogeometric calculator used to determine mulligans in Magic: the Gathering. He told me it was way above the level he was teaching at.
I failed that class.
Still play magic tho
Thank you for the interview and the neat video!
Why does it have easy & hard modes? WHY?
Overboard when
I bought A Solitaire Mystery and now I, too, am addicted to Solitaire 😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔
TL;DW: annoying lady thinks being ignorant is lowkey fascinating and brilliant. It’s not. She’s not. You’re welcome.
I own two Ganjifa decks, and I have a copy of David Parlett's "The History of Playing Cards" on my shelf. I have invented a few games, including a form of solitaire. There are one or two points where this video is at odds with other sources, but I don't want to get into that, I just want to say that I appreciate you making it. The world needs more videos about cards.
Why is that everything I heard about Polygons written material was terrible and yet every video host is putting out 11/10 bangers. Are they under new management or something?
my favorite card game is dutch blitz because group solitaire is fucking epic
I've been getting really into playing Regicide recently – a co-op card game with fantasy ttrpg vibes where a group of misfit rebels band together to defeat the 12 face cards and overthrow the kingdom. Being played with a standard set of cards gives it this aura like you could be playing in a bar in the old west, or a fantasy tavern, or even 400 years ago in the servant's quarters. Timeless themes, playing cards and overthrowing the ruling class!
Being co-op, it has more in common with a solitaire, and it gets really tricky fast. According to the rules, you're not supposed to discuss your cards at all (that one gets fudged a little in my house) isolating each player in their own puzzle.
Unrelated but alongside the growing popularity and evolution of solitaires, I also love seeing trick-takers find new footing and exciting twists. Cat in the Box is a masterpiece of a puzzle trick-taker that combines quantum physics with probability.
Maybe they aren’t part of the club.
Simone, thanks for reminding me Solitaire exists. I opened the basic Windows version and had five straight unwinnable games Dx
52! = 52 Factorial, which is how many different arrangements a 52 card deck can be random shuffled into. How many times would you need to win the Power Ball to match 52!? You would need to win the Powerball about 276 trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion times to match that number.
War was awesome… I haven’t played it since I was a kid 🙁
14:17 😂 is the allaguglia card on the right holding a skateboard?! 😎
Gina Bloom's Gaming the Stage? Is this video influenced by Game Studies Study Buddies? 😊
I once did a daily solitaire game on a mobile app every day for a year (2017? 2018?), made it my game of the year that year, then deleted it off my phone. Too addicting.
A new game from Hempuli!? Bought before the video was over. <3
Yeaaaah
Let's get this video to a lot of views in the first hour so that it gets love from youtube
Algorithm bless this video which i liked even before watching it because it's that good
Seriously, sometimes i end up pissed off because i can't like it again after watching it, fix that youtube
Lots of words lots of engagement, yadda yadda
Simone and Alec from Technology Connections crossover when?
I feel like the only person in the world who doesn't get the appeal of balatro lol. I honstly would much rather play windows' solitaire.
In klondik (solitaire), all the information is available to you. It's not all available to you at the same time, but no rules prevent you from going through the deck once to obtain all that information if you want to. And if you want to minimize losses, it's a good strat to go through the deck once.
Fun fact! St Andrews University's Computer Science division did actually figure out to within a very small margin the percentage likeliness that a solitaire game is solvable, so that quote is no longer accurate! Or is at least less accurate. They did it for several different games and I'd argue it's pretty huge in the field. They're British so mostly call it "Patience" but yeah! Look it up and I'm definitely not biased because it was my dad.
was there no relation to Tarot decks?
Omgs!!! Somebody made 52 Pickup into a legit game!?
Well now I feel motivated to make a PDF of a very obscure Rose of Versailles deck of cards (that I found out, is from a coloring book for some reason) and sharing it somewhere, is too pretty to lose it in the void
ZACHTRONICS MENTIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Yeah experts dont understand playing cards, but the famously shittiest gaming portal Polygon does. Give me a break.
That's because Spade, Diamond, Monarch and Heart as well as Jack, Queen and King are Liabilities and Red, Blue, Yellow and Green as well as Skip, Reverse, Draw two, Wild and Wild plus Draw four are Assets
Marvel SNAP is banned 🙂
Anyone want to play Solitaire with me?
SHE'S HOT
elvis presley 1972 comeback special
Had a bit of a fan girl moment when i found out that the interviewee Hempuli is the Baba is You creator! That game is fiendish – ruthlessly makes me feel stupid until a moment where I suddenly feel like a genius