Go Fish

Go Fish card arena for Algorithmic Games. Collect books of four matching ranks (one per suit), ask opponents for ranks you hold, and draw from the pond when they say “go fish.” Highest score when no cards remain in play wins.

Rules

• Players: at least two teams; one participant per team (header.limits).
• Deal: each player gets rules.startingHandSize cards from a shuffled pond (one or more standard decks; optional knights via deck.knights).
• Books: whenever a hand holds all four suits of the same rank, those four cards are removed and that player scores 1. Hands below rules.minHandSize are topped up from the pond (pick-up).
• Turn: the active player receives an ask message and names another player plus a card id from their own hand (the rank asked for). Matching-rank cards move from the asked player to the asker.
  • Hit: asker keeps asking.
  • Miss: asker may draw from the pond (go-fish when the pond is non-empty), then turn passes per rules.nextPlayer (Asked = the player who was asked; Clockwise = the next team after them).
• Empty hand on ask: that player is skipped; the next team asks.
• End: when the pond and every hand are empty (all books taken), the match ends. Scores are the books each player completed.

Cards

Each card object looks like:

{
	id: 0, // unique across the whole match
	card: '🂡', // Unicode playing-card glyph
	deck: 0, // which physical deck (0 .. numberOfDecks-1)
	suit: 0, // 0 spades, 1 hearts, 2 diamonds, 3 clubs
	rank: 0, // 0 Ace … 10 Jack, 11 Knight (if enabled), 12 Queen, 13 King
}

Asking uses id, not rank or card. You may only ask with an id currently in your hand. Success transfers every card of that rank from the target’s hand.

Setup

On init you receive match settings and opponents. Then the arena sends your dealt cards:

Input

{
	type: 'starting-hand',
	hand: [/* card objects */],
}

Return: any value (e.g. null). The match waits for a reply before continuing.

Input (arena → participant)

Every later message is a post whose payload includes a type field. Keep your own hand in sync from hand whenever it is present.

ask — your turn

{
	type: 'ask',
	hand: [/* your cards */],
	opponentsHandSizes: [null, 5, 3], // your team index is null; others are hand lengths
	pond: [0, 0, 1], // deck index per remaining pond card (faces hidden)
}

go-fish — draw after a miss

Sent only when the pond is non-empty.

{
	type: 'go-fish',
	pond: [0, 0, 1], // same encoding as ask.pond
}

pick-up — refill toward minHandSize

{
	type: 'pick-up',
	pond: 12, // remaining pond size (number), not an array
}

Informational (still reply)

type	Payload highlights
hand-update	askingPlayer, playerAsked, card, result, hand
go-fish-result	card (array of one card drawn), hand
pick-up-result	card (array of one card drawn), hand

hand-update is broadcast to every participant after an ask resolves. result is how many cards were taken (0 on a miss).

Return (participant → arena)

Message	Return shape	Notes
ask	{ player, cardId }	player = team index to ask; cardId = id of a card in your hand
go-fish	number	Index into the current pond
pick-up	number	Index into the current pond
other	any (e.g. null)	Required so the worker handshake completes

Example ask reply:

{ player: 1, cardId: 42 }

Example draw reply:

0

Invalid responses

Situation	Arena behavior
ask missing/invalid player, asking yourself, or unknown cardId	Turn skipped; next team asks (Clockwise from you)
Non-finite pond index on go-fish / pick-up	Treated as 0
Pond index out of range	Wrapped with modulo into [0, pondLength) (negative indices wrap upward)
Not enough cards for the opening deal	Match rejected: Did-Not-Start

There is no substitute ask: a bad ask simply loses the turn. Empty pond on a miss skips go-fish and only advances the turn.

Configuration

Setting	Effect
rules.startingPlayer	Random or First in line (team 0)
rules.startingHandSize	Cards dealt to each player at start
rules.minHandSize	After losses/books, draw until hand size ≥ this
rules.nextPlayer	After a miss: Asked or Clockwise
deck.numberOfDecks	How many decks fill the pond
deck.knights	Include knight rank (rank === 11)

Local development

1. Keep this folder at public/srcArena/Arena-Go-Fish/ in the main app repo.
2. On the Setups page, point the arena URL at http://localhost:5173/srcArena/Arena-Go-Fish/ (trailing /).
3. Add at least two joinables (e.g. participant-TEMP.js twice on different teams, or a human interface from properties.json).
4. Run deno task dev and start the match from Setups.

File	Purpose
arena.js	Match logic
properties.json	Limits, settings, replay path
participant-TEMP.js	Smoke-test / random participant
html/	Replay and human interface