KAISER IN THE CLOUD
Sask. man develops Kaiser card game app for iPhone/iPad
Fans of the card game Kaiser can now deal themselves into a game on their iPhone or iPad.
Tod Baudais has developed the Kaiser card game app for iOS, available for free on iTunes.
“Kaiser is a very Saskatchewan game,” Baudais said. “Different communities have different variations of game play and I tried capturing the major ones (in the app).”
Baudais, who recently moved back to Saskatchewan after living in California and Toronto for the past 12 years, decided to develop the app after a number of people mentioned they’d like an app to play Kaiser. “So I did it,” he said. The free version is the full Kaiser game. You can also pay $1.99 to unlock a number of variations, such as passing cards.
Kaiser is played by four people with teams of two players each. Only 32 cards are used, from eight to ace inclusive from each suit. The other four cards are the seven of clubs, seven of diamonds, five of hearts and three of spades. The object of the game is to bid on how many tricks you think you can take in each round. The five of hearts is worth an extra five points while the three of spades is worth minus three points.
“I used to play (Kaiser) in high school a bit,” Baudais said. “But I’m not a really big gamer. I’m more interested in the technology that all this stuff is based on.”
A neighbour, Kevin Cook, helped with all the ins and outs of the game.
“I’d get emails at all hours with suggestions,” Baudais said. “With (Cook’s) guidance we have a bunch of those tricks in there so you can signal your computer partner what cards you want them to play, like I want you to play diamonds.”
The Kaiser app is a solo game played with a computer partner and against computer opponents.
“But if I sell enough copies I might make it multiplayer.”
Baudais said most people who play Kaiser win about two-thirds of the time.
“That is a pretty good ratio in my mind.”
Baudais grew up in Domremy and went to the University of Saskatchewan. After working in Saskatchewan for a year he and his wife moved to the San Francisco area for a few years and then to Toronto.
There he made a career change, moving into gamed evelopment and animation.
He worked on a couple of Xbox games and then became involved in animated feature films.
“I worked on Gnomeo and Juliet, Dolphin Tales,” he said. “We even worked on a Simpsons episode.”
Baudais also started a company called Padworx Digital Media and did projects for Tourism Australia, Universal Pictures and Electronic Arts.
He has recently moved back to Saskatchewan and is pursuing game-making projects through his company, Smells Like Donkey Software Inc.
His latest creation, besides the Kaiser app, is called Zombie Stickmen Tower of Death (iOS Game) and Tap-Fu for the iPhone. There is also an Android version of Kaiser coming soon.