Cordial Minuet is "A two-player ONLINE STRATEGY GAME played for REAL MONEY" created by Jason Rohrer.
The game is under development as of this topic creation.
This image was taken from the Motherboard article linked below
I learned about the game after reading an article about a college student winning more than $6,000 in a few days playing it. The article I read can be found here.
The Game Cordial Minuet is played for money on a 6x6 magic square filled with the numbers 1 through 36 where each column, row, and diagonal sums to 111. There are three rounds in which you will choose one column for yourself and one column for your opponent. Your opponent chooses one row for themselves and one row for you in the same round. Your score is determined by the intersection of the column you choose for yourself and the row chosen for you by your opponent in that round. This results in three scores for each player, one score per round. Only the column you choose for your opponent is revealed to them and only the row chosen for you by your opponent is revealed to you. They are revealed simultaneously after each player has chosen. A round of betting ensues which I will describe in the Betting section. A second and third round of column and row picking occurs with rounds of betting after each. After the third round of betting is finished, each player must reveal one of their scores to their opponent. A final round of betting occurs. Both players' total scores are revealed and the player with higher total score wins the pot.
To the right side of the game board is a chart that shows all possible scores you and your opponent could have based on which columns and rows are known to you.
Betting Each player brings 100 coins to a new match. The 100 coins represent an amount of money agreed upon before the match begins. For example, if it is agreed upon that the match will be played for $1.00, each coin is worth $0.01. There is no limit to a player's bet in any round of betting except, of course, their own coin count; a player cannot bet more coins than they currently have.
In a round of betting, each player's bet is revealed simultaneously unlike Texas Hold'em Poker where bets are placed in turn. If a player bets more than the other, the other player may fold, match the bet, or raise the bet. There is no limit on the number of reraises.
An ante is placed by each player at the beginning of each game. The ante starts at one coin at the beginning of the first game and increases by one each game.
A rake is taken, but I am unsure how it is taken. I believe a rake of one coin is taken at the end of any game that has a pot greater than six coins.
Where to get Cordial Minuet cordialminuet.com There is a bit of mystery or puzzle solving to be done before gaining access to the game download. Since it is Jason's intent for this to be solved by the player before gaining access to the game, I will not be giving out the solution. Please do not share the solution if you know it. I hope this small hurdle will not deter anyone from playing this game.
Video This YouTube video, uploaded by Zach Fleeman, does a good job of showing and explaining how the game is played:
I remember the guy from Castle Doctrine, another excellent game which unfortunately were esoteric and had some problems which soured popularity of the game. Remember winning $20 net gain after purchasing the account during Real Money Robbery tournament. I'll follow progress of this game.
Yes, Jason is the creator of The Castle Doctrine. I've never played that game, but I did read about the Real Money Robbery tournament; it sounded fun. Congratulations on your winnings!
Cordial Minuet will be shown at PAX South this coming weekend, January 23-25, in San Antonio. Below is what Jason had to say about the event.
There will be a CORDIAL MINUET cash game pit at PAX South in San Antonio this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (23-25 of January). Booth number 1760. Custom booth designed and constructed by local artist Alex Diamond---like nothing else in the expo hall guaranteed. Special souvenir payouts available for people who win matches in the booth (my hands are bruised from hand-imprinting 999 of these over the past few days). PAX three-day passes and Saturday passes are sold out, but there are still some Friday and Sunday passes left. I'm not sure how it works regarding on-site purchase, or if any day passes are held back for at-the-door admission. Hope that some of you can make it to the show!
"I’m making this game because it’s a really interesting space to explore, not because I’m hoping that the gambling itch will manipulate people into losing lots of money and giving me lots of profit.”
I have been trying this for a while. It's good fun, a very clever concept, if a bit similar to poker. It's essentially a nice pause between working sessions.
Takes a while to learn, though, as it doesn't explain the information that you see and your opponent sees; so I recommend you spend time reading and watching videos before jumping right into it. And it's probably a good idea to keep to 0.01 or 0.1 dollar games.
P.S. Never mention this game to another living soul, though, as a gambling game called `demonic ritual' is not socially acceptable.
On January 21 2015 18:56 RoieTRS wrote: Game looks sick
It's a great game, RoieTRS. Have you tried it?
On January 22 2015 21:17 Ghanburighan wrote: I have been trying this for a while. It's good fun, a very clever concept, if a bit similar to poker. It's essentially a nice pause between working sessions.
Takes a while to learn, though, as it doesn't explain the information that you see and your opponent sees; so I recommend you spend time reading and watching videos before jumping right into it. And it's probably a good idea to keep to 0.01 or 0.1 dollar games.
P.S. Never mention this game to another living soul, though, as a gambling game called `demonic ritual' is not socially acceptable.
I left out all the demonic symbolism littered throughout the game thinking it could scare potential players away. Maybe I'm wrong and that it'd actually lure more players in! Care to play some time, Ghanburighan?
On January 23 2015 16:05 travis wrote: game looks pretty sick. might give it a spin when its fully released.
I hope you do try it out! Because of your AA icon, I will try to appeal to your interest in poker and say that for a while the ELO leader in Cordial Minuet was a poker player. There are "quite a few" poker players according to Jason. Here's a topic he created about antes in his forum: + Show Spoiler +
I'm experimenting with something new. Instead of antes that are fixed at 3 coins or any other number, antes now start small and rise in each new round. These settings (starting point and rise rate) can bet tweaked on the server, but they currently are: --Ante starts at 1 coin --Ante increased by 1 coin each round
I just played a few games with the new setting, and it adds a very dramatic feeling as the pressure builds for both players. Furthermore, it adds texture to the game as the strategy balance changes on a curve. In the beginning, betting skill matters the most, and picking skill is less important. But several rounds in, the picking skill becomes more and more important. I believe this increases the skill depth of the game, because the necessary skill changes across a game. Expert players will learn to manage early vs. late game, for example. Staying at a table longer is very different from hopping tables. And so on.
I've talked to several poker players about the ante, and they ALL say the ante is too big already (at 3, or even at 1), and that this "reduces skill" in the game. But poker players have a strong interest in their POKER skills, and having those skills translate to this game. The best players in this game so far include quite a few poker players (including the current Elo leader). When the ante increases, their poker skills (betting skills) become less important. But, I've come to realize that this isn't the only skill in this game. That's kindof the point. On one far end, you could have a 100 coin ante and play one round. In that case, the skill of picking would be the only skill on display, winner take all. On the other far end, you could have a 0 coin ante, and your skill in the first pick wouldn't matter at all. You could just keep folding for free until you finally got a good first-round number by accident, and then employ your betting skill. Rolling dice to pick in the first round would then be totally viable---after enough rounds, you'd have a guarantee of eventually getting a high number on turn 1. By settling on a fixed ante, we're essentially saying, "this is the right balance between these two skills." By "right" I guess we mean "most interesting." But it seems like having the balance between these skills change over time is actually even more interesting than a fixed skill balance. Finally, it makes sense for the picking skill to start diminished (because you know nothing about this opponent) and grow over time. A skilled player SHOULD be able to read their opponents picks better over time, and that skill should be rewarded. I feel like I've been in lots of situations where, after several rounds, I could read my opponent's picks like a book, FINALLY, but have them just fold away against my superior picking skill.
It's totally playable now, but there are plenty of features that would make this game much more accessible.
The game currently records all mouse movement and clicks from when you open the game until you close it, so you could replay your entire session. The only way to fast forward through the replay is to change the playback speed in the record file which is just a .txt file. Cordial Minuet would definitely benefit from a replay viewer and I'm sure Jason is aware of this and I think he's got plenty of other ideas to implement into the game, but is hesitant to implement them if the game doesn't go anywhere.
Another feature the game would benefit from related to replays is something similar to poker's hand history. It would be nice to review the history of your games against your opponent to perhaps learn their play style. However, the game is designed to keep every player's identity anonymous in game. Your opponent's name is never shown and neither is yours. There are leaderboards in the forum that show names, but even then, it doesn't give you any information about who you're currently playing. Using the leaderboards, a forum goer, jere, created a twitter bot that scans the profit leaderboard and detects profits and losses. It will match up nearly equal profits and losses that occur in a small interval of time and assume these two players faced off. The bot then tweets the results.
Despite the game being pretty bare bones right now, I'm still enjoying it immensely!
Started playing today with a $5 buyin and already up $2. Moving my way up the leaderboard too lol
Game seems super easy when I get a good read on opponent, and super hard when they inexplicably have me figured out. Sometimes I join a game and the guy is immediately giving me the worst numbers in every row I pick. Probably best to just leave those and go elsewhere I guess.
Sometimes when I feel like my opponent has me figured out, I assume they'll anticipate me changing strategy so I stick with the same strategy! It could also be coincidence you're getting the worst numbers in your column for a few consecutive games, but you could always bluff and place bets to represent a stronger number.
Thanks for the post, sjon03. I plan on trying this game out sometime, looks very interesting and in-depth. Not sure if I'll be good at it but it's worth a shot.
You're welcome, GoShox, I hope the post makes enough sense to garner interest in the game. It's more in-depth than I had first thought. You'll probably be good at it. It has a very similar skill set to poker's which most say also has a similar skill set to StarCraft's.
Your post was very well written, user sjon03. I started playing some games tonight and have already won roughly 5 cents. I love the amount of mind games that go on and it reminds me a lot of Brood War in that area, such as understanding what your opponent knows and doesn't know, controlling what he sees and doesn't see, knowing when to bluff what you have, and so on. As I gain more confidence in my ability, I look forward to playing games with a higher amount of money involved.
Is it true that worshiping satan gives you an advantage in this game? It seems very demonic / diabolic to me. I like it though! I'm seeing the number 36 in a completely new light.
won 50c already, although still not 100% sure what I'm doing, haha.
Its fun but I feel the game would be boring if it wasnt played for money. So the real money element makes it interesting, but is this the only reason why the game is interesting?
No, worshiping Satan does not give you an advantage in this game!
Great playing games with you GoShox and Snowster. You both reached the top of the leaderboards so quickly! I hope you both continue to play.
seom, I agree that the game would be less interesting if not played for money. Fortunately, it is played for money! For me the money aspect isn't the only interesting part of the game. I like the game for the same reasons GoShox mentioned above.
For anyone else playing Cordial Minuet, keep in mind the game is still being developed so changes happen without notice. Jason posts any changes that he makes in the forums, but if you don't ever read them you can miss big changes! The most recent change implemented is a leaving penalty. When you leave a game before a player reaches zero coins, you will lose six coins.
EPT![[image loading]](http://images.vice.com/motherboard/content-images/contentimage/17284/1417451564759298.gif)
