These games are a passion project of mine that has grown over the recent years as I have been working hard to increase my skill set supporting a complex Microsoft Technology Stack as part of my role as an Architect. You can always learn more when you code something fun and interesting to you as a developer. You don't need to code a generic app to learn. Games that support logic and puzzle-solvingare excellent learning tools. (View Full File: https://gist.github.com/StevenSSparks/dcb1401a9838c8bec1b8a53c6b82185d)
I have recently began to push my "Simple Text Games" out on the Microsoft Store as free games. The games using a simple approach but a complexit that is what I hope is unique to games running inside a console app.
Simple Text BlackJack - https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9N7QJXL60JKB
The Blackjack game is a version of standard single-deck Blackjack you might find in many casinos. You don't play for money but for points. I am very proud of my use of a single deck and the text cards you see playing the game. Playing this is a lot of fun for a few minutes of distraction.
Simple Text Hangman - https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9PNBJ6064X3Q
During 2020 I was on the phone with my development team every day, working on dozens of integrations for a large Workday project. Sometimes at the end of the meeting, we played Hangman as a group I had hosted on a small Linux box. This version of the game was recently developed as I started working on other large projects and wanted to use my own version. I also wanted to test out some development techniques. This was a great exercise and a lot of fun to code. The game has a lot of fun little features and some fun text graphics.
Adventure House - https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9N01PKFTC7Z4
I LOVE text adventure games. However, I needed to ramp up my development skills, so I started looking for a development project. I had been poking around PowerShell scripting and found a text adventure in Powershell. I wanted to know what I could do to make it all work in C#. That led to a few years of off-and-on development with a lot of enhancement and additional items to this game. The game is easy to play but has many little hidden features that make it fun to play over and over.
I have had a passion for simple games since my Dad surprised me with a TRS-80 color computer in 1980 and later provided me with an Atari 2600 and a collection of about 30 games. That COCO computer booted into a BASIC interpreter that has 4K of memory. I had spent hours and hours programming the COCO at the local radio shack. When I finally got that computer home, I spent hours and hours writing simple games and other programs. I was fortunate that I could save them to a cassette tape!
All the games use a layered service architecture.
- Each Game has a game service that supports functionality for that particular game
- Each game can run on more than a single platform (I provide the Console Windows Version).
- The games can scale out inside a hosted web platform because every game instance is unique and cached.
- These are written in C# .NET 6 and built as a single self-contained EXE.
Game talk is cool for nerds, but most players don’t care how it’s built, just how it feels. Casino game design nailed that years ago. Look at lottomartcasino.co.uk, a regulated UK online casino with polished slot titles and lottery betting options. Everything’s licensed, transparent, and designed for smooth user experience. Devs could honestly learn from how casino platforms balance simplicity, trust, and long-term engagement.