The Durak game that outgrew its simple plan

I started Doorak as a small learning project. I wanted to go through the full mobile publishing process once: from a release build and store listing to the required policies and a first test release.

The game then developed a thematically appropriate habit of throwing in extra cards.

First it needed a careful rules engine. Then matches had to be reproducible, so a bug could be traced back to a particular deal instead of merely caught by luck. Eight AI characters followed, along with game history and replays, local-network multiplayer, and QR-code joining. Somewhere along the way, the publishing exercise became a project that felt too substantial to release simply for the sake of ticking a box.

The game is now approaching its first closed test. The main loop works; the next useful step is to hand it to people who do not know how it was built and see what they do differently from the developer’s expectations (which usually means almost everything).

Perhaps testing will finally give the project clearer boundaries. For now it keeps growing — and that may be a good sign. I wanted to practise shipping apps. It seems I first need to practise knowing when to stop.

Read more about the game’s current state on the Doorak project page.