Immerse yourself in the dynamic world of Arithmometer, a captivating card-playing and deck-building game that seamlessly blends strategy, quick thinking, and arcade-style excitement. Engage in four unique games, all of which are played with the same deck, and each presenting its own set of challenges, as you strive to achieve high scores and climb the ranks on the online leaderboard.

Between levels, enhance your gaming capabilities by acquiring new cards and choosing from a variety of abilities that can turn the tide in your favour and provide the edge needed to conquer increasingly difficult challenges.

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Quite a few individuals have expressed concerns about not fully grasping the rules of each game — perhaps they accidentally skip the tutorials or simply don't pay enough attention to them. To address this, here are concise summaries for each game mode.

Ascension/Descent:

This game mode is likely the most straightforward, as the main rule is displayed on the screen at all times. Your objective is to achieve a target number using the selected cards, and later on, subtraction becomes an option as well.

You can freely move any open cards to empty spots on the field (but can't put them back on the mountain). However, be cautious, as moving a card to an empty spot resets your multiplier.

Strikes are issued for each row of unopened cards at the end.

Balancing Act:

In this mode, there are two slots for adding cards. Your goal is to minimize the difference between the sums of all cards in each pile. Aim for a zero difference to increase your multiplier; if the difference exceeds 10, the multiplier resets.

Strikes are assigned based on the difference between the scales at the end, capped at the level number to avoid excessive early penalties.

Running the Scales:

Engage in a turn-based duel against an opponent. Play cards with values equal to or higher than the card on the pile. Playing a card of the same value reverses the goal, requiring smaller value cards. The playing direction is indicated by an arrow next to the play pile.

If a player can't play a card, their opponent receives a tick, the playing direction flips, and they get another turn.

Reversing the playing direction increases your multiplier, resetting only if your opponent gains a tick.

The game concludes when a player runs out of cards or reaches 5 ticks. Strikes are given based on the difference in tick counts.

Descale:

Simplicity defines this mode, yet it often leads to confusion. Select a root card and surrounding cards that add up to or subtract the same value. As shown in the picture.


Cards drop down to fill empty spots as long as cards remain in your deck. Strikes are issued for all cards left in your deck, including unflipped ones at the top of a lane.


StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux, HTML5
Rating
Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars
(10 total ratings)
Authoranttihaavikko
GenreCard Game
Tags2D, Arcade, Deck Building, High Score, Score Attack, Unity

Download

Download
arithmometer-win.zip 51 MB
Version 2 Dec 01, 2023
Download
arithmometer-osx.zip 61 MB
Version 2 Dec 01, 2023
Download
arithmometer-linux.zip 51 MB
Version 2 Dec 01, 2023

Comments

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Noooo it crashed!!!

Oh dang, sorry about that! Awesome score though. 

(5 edits)

Somehow it's very addictive even though theres lot of weird interactions or bugs that kill a run. Like the fact you can use the special cards in the reward section is really confusing at first, or the card that Average everything, i feel like it produces a lot of bugs (like if you do it in running the scales, you can play cards even if they're not under or over, in the Balancing Act it just makes it so you can play the cards that are on the scales again). Just in general the special cards create a lot of unintended behavior I think.

https://imgur.com/a/UiyUxjW

like what happened here? I added the Joker to the left and somehow the other scale got +8?

Also unfortunate we can't check our local highscore.

Also the balancing could be better, the game is breakable if you keep your deck count low and a bunch of jokers, which makes it really not about math anymore. But still really addictive!

How would it work if i get two of the same skills? I just got the option to get a second Laughter Medicine skill. Would they stack?

They do. 

I have never enjoyed score based games… until today, that was amazing! Haha there’s so many crazy synergies, and seeing that score stretch into the millions via devious tactics was so rewarding, incredible game!

You have a lot of games.

Are all these games Unity games?
Unity games from 2017 onwards do not work for me.

Almost all are Unity yes. I think Casual Crusade might be the only exception. Why don’t ”recent” Unity games work for you? Web and standalone builds both?

This is probably a driver limitation of Nouveau 1.0.12.

Nothing works, not even Casual Crusade.

If you want you can see what I wrote in the game Gobliiins5:
https://itch.io/post/8901247/reply

Kind regard

(1 edit)

I have an idea: complex numbers!

Haha, that'd be nuts! 😂

it crash at 72 000 000 000 demet

your sacrifice won't be in vain

i find this ting what is this ?

i broke the game literaly i is broken i try to do a better score but is impossible

Good but crashed my second game >.<

How did it crash?

Some weird interaction with the J i think it was.

Can't wait to see what you make next (that doesn't require downloading)!

Why does making a card get over x100 make it turn into a death card?

To not allow you to make one absolutely broken super scoring card.

Thanks for explaining. I will note this.

what the cheat card do?

It should say what it does. It marks the value of the card on the back side. 

what it mean like 

sorry i dont understand the effect on the game using a cheated card

Like the middle card here. You kinda need to be looking for it to see.


ahhhhh tk soooo much im the second on the leaderboard for now yeeee

I can't triple dark blossom, it just activates the card.

Yea it's not supposed to. Well, I'm pretty sure you can drag the multiplier card to it and it will apply but will not do what you want it to do.

I don't under the descaling portion at all.  It doesn't make sense to me.

So you need to pick one root card and other cards surrounding it that add up to (or subtract) to the same value. So like these...

Okay. that makes a little more sense.

The lost phone?

What about it?

What does it do?

You can fiddle with it between levels and it gives you score.

What kind of value does the true joker become in the scales challenge?

I've now several times ended my run thinking i could just plop my true joker on a scale as a final move and instead got enough strikes to instantly kill me.

It should be equal to the difference between the scales. Not sure if there are some weird scenarios where it functions like not intended.

I'll try and take note of the scenarios where it doesn't work as expected. I think it may have to do with the multiplicators.

what exactly causes a strike? sometimes i can not quite perfect a level and not get one, othertimes like the balancing one i might only be 1 off and i get a strike

(+1)

It depends on the game. I added all the rules of different games to the description above (along with how the strikes are given).

Basically:
- Ancension: strike per unopened row
- Balancing: strike per diff (level number max)
- Scales: strike per diff in opponent ticks vs your ticks
- Descale: strike per unflipped card

Great game! Eager to understand what "Descale" rules are, maybe you could explain it here until there's an update? Many thanks!

So you pick a "root card" and some cards around it that sum or subtract to the root value.

For example


Ooooh makes sense! Thanks a lot!

please add option to read directions again, i forget them, also i think im soft locked on fish level but i might just be ba

really fun game tho

(1 edit)

Thanks! I've still got time today to work on this so I'll add tutorial reset option too. Don't think you can soft lock though, there probably was some match you weren't noticing. Think I will also show the continue button if enough time passes without doing anything to not force players to find all existing possibilities (leaves them some space to fail on their own 😅).

(3 edits) (+1)

what's the cap for multipliers? i got a strike when i tripled one of my card's multiplier

also great game, at the time i posted this i have #1 with 44 million

are your points supposed to carry over to the next game? i started a new game with 44 million points already there

(2 edits) (+1)

The score is not supposed to carry over. Good thing there is still a day left for the jam so I can do a quick fix.

The card multiplier max is 100, if it goes over it doesn't give you a strike but the card will turn into a strike giving one.

No limit on the generic multiplier.

I love the varying challenges! Really makes me want to see what the optimal kind of deck is. Also love the MtG references.

One thing I'm missing are audio options. While the music is cool, I'd love to be able to turn it down when I'm listening to podcasts while playing.

Cool, I'll add volume controls along with other changes today. Yea MtG cards were an straight inspiration for the some of the mechanics so might as well give them a nod to make it obvious 😉

(+1)

Volume controls are now there.

Thank you! :)

I get the feeling that I still don't quite get the logic behind how many strikes you get. May just be me though

Yea they can be a bit (too) cryptic as they're not really opened up can vary from game to game. I added those description to this page description along with different rules of the games.