Brackeys Game Jam 2026.2

Hosted by Brackeys, AquaXV, Yasahiro, Duxez · #BrackeysGameJam

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A jam submission

Hands Made TalesView game page

Texas Hold Em, against archetypal AI opponents, trying to hide their tells.

Submitted by 11bitbay — 12 hours, 3 minutes before the deadline

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Hands Made Tales's itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Gameplay	#883	2.765	2.900
Audio	#918	2.765	2.900
Enjoyment	#942	2.860	3.000
Overall	#1196	2.590	2.717
Visuals	#1268	2.574	2.700
Theme	#1338	2.479	2.600
Innovation	#1473	2.098	2.200

Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does the game fit the theme?
Poker is the archetypal bluffing game, being both a great game and the most apt at addressing the issue of trust and deception within the medium of game.

What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
They are all in the credits, though the cards are PD (Byron Knoll) and need not be. Couple of tracks from pixabay. About half the portraits came from Morgan Strauss. Clay chip sounds by SilverDubloons. The itch banner is PD art, not by me.

How many people worked on the game?
1

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Comments

darkfenixSubmitted10 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Actually came here after reading the back and forth in the Discord about your game getting DQ'd. Well, I see it's up now so glad you were able to get that sorted. Any publicity is good publicity as it goes...

As for the game itself, it's a nice Hold 'Em game with a solid game loop. Really intrigued with the enemy AI; I could imagine the complexity involved with creating these archetypes, in such a game with millions of probabilities. Also liked the music choice and the sfx when ante'ing up, as well as the character art. Nice job!

Submitted

khaledpngSubmitted11 days ago(+1)

nice

Submitted

Comandos Tactics(Game)

checkmate101Submitted17 days ago(+1)

I think the highscore is busted and didn't save mine. Anyway, I went the trusty raise the stakes to the moon route and the bots had very little recourse. Took me forever to figure out how to bankrupt the guy in the first round - then I figured out the pot was too big. So I just checked until i won the pot and he finally went 0.

Plus points for using Dogs Playing Poker, very on brand.

If you don't mind sharing, what was it like developing the various archetypes? I stopped at one bot because it started getting complex and I was running out of time.

Submitted

Honest Abe Cannot Be Trusted

11bitbayDeveloper17 days ago(+1)

I think the submit button may not work, but the enter key definitely does! Thanks, I’ll put a notice somewhere.

To make the archetypes, I reduced the play style to 5 dimensions. I thought each play style would max one of them out. It became a more nuanced and they each have their branches in the decision logic. They played a terrible game putting all their points in one stat. I compromised the purity of their archetypes.

I did some research (googling). I wanted to get the Gambler Achievement in RDR2 and was basing my knowledge of poker off of that! Which was insufficient. I found their black jack table, no more skill needed.

KervitSubmitted19 days ago

Poker

Submitted

11bitbayDeveloper19 days ago

Themed poker. But ok, I’ll bite and check your entry’s incredible original idea.

KervitSubmitted19 days ago (1 edit) (+2)

It wasn't like a bad critique, sorry if you took it wrong, should have typed more, i liked the game, but how do i exactly win? I understand poker (i think) but i just started doing all in every time and the bots would just fold everytime until they had no money left

11bitbayDeveloper19 days ago(+1)

Ah, a connoisseur.

Hmm, that tactic used to be much stronger, they would match, blindly, and either you won the round, or went bust, quickly. It’s how I got the high score in the screenshot I didn’t bother replacing.

I fixed it yesterday and tested thoroughly. They don’t always fold, at least not all the archetypes do. You might have got a table that did, I still wasn’t aware of any the “always” fold.

The objective is to beat 4 matches. There’s an indicator in the top left showing match 1/4. Speed running decides the ordering in the leaderboard. A tactic to save you time is leave the table for 10 minutes at the start of every match so the ante goes up.

I consider not announcing the ante increasing more prominently a bug I will be addressing now.

Thanks for playing and reviewing.

KervitSubmitted19 days ago(+1)

This is why i love videogames, thanks for playing my game too man! Have a nice day

forceofwhatSubmitted20 days ago(+1)

Poker is always a good game. I believe you could have expanded the game in different manners. At this stage it's like any other poker game.

Submitted

One Letter Away

11bitbayDeveloper20 days ago(+1)

Do all other poker games have archetypes? The idea here is very on-theme.

I could have done more, sure, just didn’t want to dilute the theming.

forceofwhatSubmitted20 days ago

Obviously not all of them. But popular ones has characters with different play styles and strategies. From expansion I meant to add dialogues, to fool the player or maybe adding roguelike elements to create an illusion of safety and lies. Poker itself is already a game built upon no trust. You can really aim the moon here. Really fun playthrough btw.

11bitbayDeveloper20 days ago

Thanks. There are dialog lines, but as the objective is deduce the archetype behind the mask, I had to restrain myself from adding too corny, obvious, tells. I can’t say more without spoilers.

Poker has the bluffing element, but archetypes that are prone to bluffing, versus risk-averse human calculators. Here you must decide who is who based on the hands you can see, and the odd line of dialog (it’s in blue above the portrait). Then you must decide if the tells you have read are statistically significant, enough. This is easier in the earlier rounds.

The ultimate boss is your standard computer poker player, giving nothing away. That was the only strategy I expected to see in “other poker games”.

charxbeanSubmitted21 days ago(+1)

Straightforward and addicting poker game. I really like the cover image lol.

Submitted

Escape The Shape

SaberHareSubmitted21 days ago(+1)

We love a good poker game. Pixel art of the characters was really good!

Submitted