Skat

SBComputing

About this game

Skat is a German three player card game. This app implements the standard rules of the game Skat (+Ramsch).

Please note: This app does not replace a professional Skat player. It plays on a leisure level. The AI player are a test for a neural network algorithm which has learned the game of Skat by observation and self play. For interested readers the networks have around 250 neurons for each game and auction type. This method works not so bad but does generate odd moves occasionally. It is currently not planned to replace the neural network players by a more algorithmic Skat AI players.

Android rights:
* Needs SD card rights to use own player photo in game


Game Rules: Of the three players two play versus one using 32 cards to score more than 60 points. The single or "alone" player is determined in a pre-game auction where all players can bid to become the alone playing player. The winner can then determine the trump color (which must exceed the auction bid value!), exchange two cards and player alone against the two other players. Additionally to the choosen trump suite all Jacks are always trump. All cards played have to follow suite of the first player. If the suite is not available a card can be thrown or a trump can be used to win the trick. Otherwise the highest card wins. The winner of the trick can play the next card. The card's sequence is Jack of Clubs, Jack of Spades, Jack of Hearts, Jack of Diamons, Ace, Ten, King, Queen, 9, 8, 7. A special game mode "0" is so that the alone player gets not a single trick.

Tapping on any card which can't be played will highlight all possible moves. Tapping of animations does speed them up.

Skat game features:
* Play endless mode, tournament mode or "give me good cards" mode
* Play against several different computer AI player
* Accelerate play by tapping a card
* Show possible cards when tapping a wrong card
* Upload own player photo
* Android app of the popular German game Skat

Ratings and reviews

Well designed app for an addictive game. I learned the rules off the Internet, but not knowing any other Skat players, I used this app to learn strategies by playing against the AI players. It comes with AI that can play at a few different levels. I started at the easiest level and was easily defeated. But after a week of play, I was able to crank up the AI difficulty level. After about a month, I am now able to consistenly beat the highest level AI in the app (not including the most CPU-intensive AI, which unfortunately is not supported on my older phone). It was satisfying to feel myself get better, and to crank up the AI as I got better. Now that I've exceed the game AI's capabilities, I guess I'll have to find humans to play with...

Very addictive. Haven't played Skat for years, but now since a couple of days to reanimate and improve my skills. The computer opponents are quite challenging. For completely new Skat gamers some tutorial or list of rules would make it perfect. The text is to small to be easily readable. It would be better for the eyes to have a less blue background when playing in the dark.

I consider myself a pretty good player, but when my game partner teams up with the opponent, l get pretty peeved. I lost games with various computer errors, that should, and in a real game, would have been won. Nevertheless, this is annoying, but in the end it is a very good and addictive game.

What’s new

No more statistical logging
Upgrade to higher Android version to make SD card rights on newer devices less intrusive.