Frustration

FRUSTRATION is a card game built as a tribute - to the hours, the tea, and the chitchat spent playing the real thing with my grandmother Pat.

You play against Pat. She's warm, she's sharp, she has opinions, and she will absolutely tell you what she thinks of your last discard. Work your way through nineteen progressively harder goals ~ three of a kind, runs, combinations ~ and try to out-lay and out-discard the woman who loved a competitive game of cards.

FEATURES

• Play against Pat - a rule-based AI with personality. She reacts to the game, throws the occasional compliment, and is not above a little needling. • Nineteen goals, one round each. Start easy with "three of a kind twice". End with "seven of a kind plus a run of three". Feel the squeeze. • Local multiplayer. Pass the phone with up to four players. • Play Nearby. Connect nearby devices via QR code for a shared game without needing the internet. • Tabletop Mode. Use your iPhone as a score tracker for a physical card game - perfect for time with the family. • Resume in progress. Leave a game mid-round, come back tomorrow, pick up where you left off. • Game Center. Track your best finishes against Pat if you're into that. • No accounts, no ads, no in-app purchases, no tracking. The app never goes on the internet except through Apple's Game Center plumbing, which Apple handles itself.

HOW IT PLAYS

Each round you're dealt eleven cards and given a goal. You draw, you meld, you add to what's on the table, you discard. First to empty their hand closes the round. Complete the goal and move up to the next one. Don't, and stay put while Pat probably advances. Cards in your hand at round-end count against you. The first person to clear all nineteen goals wins.

Wilds (twos and jokers) help, but they're worth twenty points in hand, so hoarding them costs you. Pat knows this. Pat will remember.

A TRIBUTE

Pat taught me how to play. Building this app was the best way I could find to say thanks. I hope you enjoy the game. I hope somewhere it makes you think of yours.