A Wutch deck contains 48 cards, with 4 each of 12 different card types, identified by numbers 1 - 12 and pictures.  Players try to score points by matching cards from their Hands with cards on the Table.  Token Cards, indicated by small images in their upper-right corners, can be collected in combinations to score extra points. 

Click this miniature sample Wutch screen to view a full-size image, with a brief synopsis of how the game is played.

Visit the Ultimate Wutch High Hands Hall of Heroes!

A Theme defines the appearance of the card deck used in a Wutch game.  The entire look and character of Wutch can be altered by switching to a different Theme, though the game playing rules remain the same.  Each of the 12 card types can have a different color and identifying picture.  Small Token images differentiate the various card groups that are used to make scoring combinations.  While playing a Wutch Game, the Themes screen can also serve as a quick reference for the possible card combinations and their point values.

Two Themes are included with the Wutch package (Seasons and Maps).  As time allows, I hope to create additional Themes and make them available for downloading from this Web site (see Download Themes).  If you are a patient person, you might also create your own Themes or variations of existing Themes (see Creating Themes).

The Options screen provides settings to configure the operation and appearance of Wutch.  The Human and Computer Player Names can be set to your preferences.  The levels of Computer Brains and Game Play Speed can be specified.  The appearance of the Wutch game playing surface can be controlled by customizing the Border Color, Table Background, Player Background and Card Backs.

Wutch can be downloaded to evaluate on a trial basis: 

After trying Wutch, it can be purchased and registered, without having to re-download it:  Register Wutch

High Hands Hall of Heroes

The player who wins a Hand collects money from the other players, based on the number of points earned and the number of times Go! was called.  Calling Go! multiple times can greatly increase the amount of money the opponents will have to pay (but there are also risks!).  When someone plays such an outstanding Hand that the money won qualifies to be included among the elite top ten, a ceremonial screen appears to enshrine that person into the Wutch High Hands Hall of Heroes.  A choice in the Options screen can be set to also permit Computer players to compete for entry into the Hall of Heroes, otherwise only Human players will be eligible.

The Ultimate Wutch High Hands Hall of Heroes shown below will exhibit the illustrious achievers of the top 10 highest money earning Hands in the entire history of the game!  If you should win a Hand with a particularly impressive money amount, you might qualify for induction by sending me an with a screen shot of your High Hands Hall of Heroes. 

So far, the top player worthy of inclusion is one of my Computer enemies called Beast, who made me feel stupid by winning $152 in a single Hand, after making 17 points and calling Go! 4 times!  I’ve never come close to winning that much myself.  The cards have to fall just right, and a player must make all the right decisions to earn money like that.  It is fairly rare to have an opportunity to call Go! more than twice in a Hand.  So don't be discouraged if you don't immediately beat Beast's Hand.  Even winning $50 is quite good, and might qualify you for enshrinement. 

The accomplished Wutch player Valerie also reported that the notorious Beast won $144, brutally shoving his way into 2nd place.  Surely the time has come for some Human champion to step forward and show that the human race will not be kicked around by these arrogant Computer bullies.  Where are you Gary Kasparov?  (The Garry listed above, top Human so far, is actually my brother, not Mr. Kasparov.)

Download Themes

As additional Wutch Themes become available, you are welcome to download them from here (just one so far):

   US States Theme ->  US States

Creating Themes

Actually, you can create your own Themes for Wutch, though it is a rather tedious process.  A Theme is really just a JPEG or Bitmap image file that contains Card and Token pictures formatted into a grid.  You can get a pretty good idea of how a Theme is constructed by just displaying one of the included Themes with an image viewer program.  The included Themes are Seasons.jpg and Maps.jpg in the Themes folder of the Wutch directory.  To create a Theme with your own pictures, you might start by loading one of the existing Theme files, paste in your own images over the existing pictures and then save it to a different name.  It will help to use a decent image editing program that allows you to crop, resize, copy and paste image fragments with precision.  I use Jasc’s Paint Shop Pro and highly recommend it, but many other programs would do the job, including some available as freeware (Irfanview for example).

Feel free to me with any questions.  If you create a unique Theme that you want to share, let me know -- I might post it for download on this Web site, or add a link to your Web site if you prefer.  If there is enough interest in Wutch, I might someday develop a ‘Theme Builder’ program that would make the Theme creation process much easier.

Acknowledgements

I derived the idea for Wutch from the excellent War of Flowers game, which was created for the Macintosh by Minho Choi.  That game I believe was based on a card game called Go-Stop that is popular in Korea.  After searching for and failing to find a comparable game for the Windows environment, I decided to try to develop something along the same lines.  Though the general appearance and scoring differ somewhat from War of Flowers, the overall concept and rules for Wutch are quite similar.