Ates - A Vore Card Game

[FluffyLizardFunTime]

*16/4/23 Update*

Ates now has a dynamic audio system that gets more aggressive as one player nears victory. If you're playing against another person, you'll hear the exact same gurgles as they do from opposite sides of the stomach lining~

Pred POV

Prey POV

https://ravensates.com/ates/



Also, if you happen to like the deck, you can get a physical copy of the cards at this website - https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/m ... drils.html

I spent a loooong time designing and putting them together for publishing, and I love them very much >///>

Ates is, in essence, an asymmetrical card game against a predator and the prey in their belly.

Rules are in the spoiler. It started out as a physical card game I designed while bored at work, so you can totally play with a friend and a standard 52 pack <3 I did while I was at the pub recently, and we were sat there giggling over cocktails as I digested her over, and over, and over again. It works amazingly during roleplay and there's an integrated chat/export system so you can play entire scenes within the game as one player digests

Spoiler: show

Both players are dealt eight cards. The predator will then lay four cards—prioritizing hearts—to represent stomach walls.

Taking a turn
Each turn, the prey will select a wall and place a struggle card face-down next to it. The predator responds with a card of their own, then both cards are flipped upright. The player with the highest card wins the round and collects any hearts in play (i.e., struggle cards, the selected wall and any hearts stacked beneath it).

Whenever the prey wins a heart, they draw a new card from the deck and store the heart in a separate pile. If they collect eight hearts before running out of cards in their hand, they win the game.

Whenever the predator wins a heart, it is shuffled back into the deck. They win the game if the prey’s hand runs out before eight hearts are collected.

If no player has won, the predator draws two cards and uses one from their hand to replace the wall that was just played against (again prioritising hearts).

Judging a round
Most cards take their face value when determining who wins a turn (King beats Queen; Queen beats Jack; and so on). Aces and jokers are trumps, meaning they have the highest value when used to struggle, and the lowest value if played as walls.

If both played cards of equal value, the player matching the suit of the chosen wall wins. This rule applies for trumps too; e.g., the Ace of Hearts beats anything if the wall is a Heart. If neither player matched, any hearts in play are stored in the wall space to be won in following rounds, while non-hearts are discarded.

Struggle cards must equal or exceed the value of the wall, or they count as zero.

Prey recycling
Once a turn, the prey can recycle their hand, shuffling it back into the deck and drawing a new one. Any hearts discarded are placed in the predator’s heart pile and the prey draws the number of cards they recycled, less one.

Cards within the predator's heart pile are played one at a time underneath new walls as stored hearts to be won following a struggle.

Winning the game
The predator wins when the prey's hand is exhausted. The prey wins when they manage to acquire eight hearts.

[Whereaminow27]

Interesting !

[Bright]

I really like this idea.

[Gutlover]

I was sort of hoping this was going to be a mtg or pokemon card game but vore themed. Interesting non the less

[FluffyLizardFunTime]

I was sort of hoping this was going to be a mtg or pokemon card game but vore themed. Interesting non the less

If I had the patience for coding, I'd have made vorny Inscryption ~///~ but even then I think Duamutef pretty much had that niche covered with cartovore

[Sehnsucht]

I've had the cunning and luck to win an couple of rounds of this game against the author, but the pleasure and privilege to lose more, submitting to the relentless grind of her stomach.

It's a fantastic game and well worth playing with a partner. I'd suggest letting the pred do all the moving of cards except those that prey must choose, to reinforce the idea of their being in charge.

Losing for prey most often means exhausting their hand. Watching my hand dwindle as I spent the high cards, desperately discarding/redawing in an attempt to beat the high stomach walls my pred had put around me, evoked a gorgeous feeling of inevitability. It's a genius mechanism, especially if you're being mercilessly taunted at the same time.

I never tried to lose, but by God did I enjoy it when I did.

[humon]

What's the incentive to win a round if there are no hearts in play? Are the walls facedown? If they aren't, what's the point of trying to win a wall that isn't hearts?

If the predator draws double hearts, one will remain in their hand. Can they just refuse to use it?

What happens if one side has 7 hearts, while the other has 6? Goes until a hand goes empty?

If I count right, you require 4 hearts/pred aces to reach the end of the game (each round 3 is used, deck has 36 cards at start, 12/3 = 4), plus of course the amount of reshuffles.
If I read this right, this means the prey will have to try to get that +4 balance, while preventing the pred from securing an 8th heart. If they can do those two tasks, they win. If they can't, they lose.

[Slappy]

A new game that uses just the standard playing cards? I am highly intrigued. However, my attempts at understanding the rules of the game are giving me a bit of trouble.

Here's a game I played out with Alice as the pred and Bob as the prey (note that my main goal was to get into as many different situations as possible, so some of the moves, particularly in earlier rounds, are not necessarily optimal):

Spoiler: show

• Pregame
  
  • Alice draws 8 cards, 2 of which are hearts. She puts down the hearts face-up as well as 2 other cards to form the walls. The walls, starting north and going clockwise, are as follows:
    
    • 9 of pades
    • 10 of hearts
    • 10 of diamonds
    • Ace of hearts
  • Bob draws 8 cards
• Turn 1
  
  • Bob plays jack of hearts face down on the 10 of diamonds
  • Alice plays the 8 of diamonds face down on Bob's card
  • Their cards are revealed and, since 8s are trumps, Alice's 8 beats Bob's jack
  • The jack of hearts goes into Alice's heart collection - she is now 1/8 of the way to victory
  • The 8 of diamonds and 10 of diamonds are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the discarded 10 of diamonds with whatever she likes - she chooses the king of clubs
  • Since Alice played a trump, Bob gets to draw a free card
• Turn 2
  
  • Bob plays the king of hearts face down on the 10 of hearts
  • Alice plays the 2 of spades face down on Bob's card
  • Their cards are revealed and Bob's king beats Alice's 2
  • The 10 of hearts and king of hearts go into Bob's heart collection - he has now pulled ahead of Alice
  • The 2 of spades is discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the collected 10 of hearts with whatever she likes - she chooses the 5 of diamonds
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card - should he draw 2 since he won 2 hearts? I've just done 1 for now
• Turn 3
  
  • Bob plays the 6 of diamonds face down on the 5 of diamonds
  • Alice plays the 6 of spades face down on Bob's card
  • Their cards are revealed and, although they both played 6s, Bob's one followed the wall's diamond suit, so he wins
  • However, there are no hearts this time, so all three cards are discarded
  • Alice draws the 4 of hearts and a non-heart card, so she has to fill the empty wall slot with the 4 of hearts
  • Although Bob won this turn, he didn't get any hearts for his efforts, so he doesn't get to draw another card
• Turn 4
  
  • Bob plays the 2 of hearts face down on the 9 of spades
  • Alice plays the 4 of diamonds face down on Bob's card
  • Their cards are revealed and, although Alice's 4 beats Bob's 2, neither of them is higher than the wall's 9
  • The 2 of hearts is left behind, though it does not become the new wall - I'd like to point out that the playingcards.io game you made doesn't have anywhere to put the 2 of hearts in this situation
  • The 4 of diamonds and 9 of spades are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the discarded 9 of spades with whatever she likes - she chooses the 9 of clubs
  • Bob failed to win any hearts so he doesn't get to draw a card
• Turn 5
  
  • Bob plays the king of diamonds face down on the 9 of clubs
  • Alice plays the ace of diamonds face down on Bob's card
  • I don't know whether aces are high or low in this game - you said both aces and 8s are trumps, but which beats which? - but Alice's ace beats Bob's king
  • Although neither the wall nor either of the cards played are hearts, the 2 of hearts was left by that wall so Alice gets to add it to her collection - both players have now won 2 hearts
  • The other three cards are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the discarded 9 of clubs with whatever she likes - she chooses the jack of clubs
  • Another failure to win any hearts means Bob can't draw another card - he may be level with Alice in terms of hearts won, but his hand size is dwindling rapidly
• Turn 6
  
  • Bob plays the 7 of clubs on the ace of hearts
  • Alice plays the 4 of clubs on Bob's card
  • Bob's 7 beats Alice's 4
  • If, as a wall, aces are high, nobody gets the ace of hearts; if aces are low, Bob gets the ace of hearts
  • For the sake of not bringing this test run to a grinding halt, I'll give Bob a break and say he gets the ace of hearts
  • The 4 of clubs and 7 of clubs are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the collected ace of hearts with whatever she likes - she chooses the 10 of spades
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card
• Turn 7
  
  • Bob plays the ace of spades on the 4 of hearts
  • Alice plays the 5 of clubs on Bob's card
  • Bob's ace beats Alice's 5
  • The 4 of hearts goes into Bob's heart collection - he's halfway to victory now
  • The ace of spades and 5 of clubs are discarded
  • Alice draws the 3 of hearts and the 7 of hearts, so she has to replace the collected 4 of hearts with one of those - she chooses the 7 of hearts
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card
• Turn 8
  
  • Bob plays the ace of clubs on the 7 of hearts
  • Alice can't play the 3 of hearts on Bob's card so she chooses the 7 of diamonds instead
  • Bob's ace beats Alice's 7
  • The 7 of hearts goes into Bob's heart collection while the ace of clubs and 7 of diamonds are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she has to replace the collected 7 of hearts with her 3 of hearts
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card
• Turn 9
  
  • Bob looks at his 5-card hand and decides it sucks ass, so he puts it back into the deck, shuffles the deck, and draws 4 cards
  • Bob plays the 8 of hearts on the 3 of hearts
  • Alice plays the king of spades on Bob's card
  • Since 8s are trumps, Bob's 8 beats Alice's king
  • Bob adds the 3 of hearts and 8 of hearts to his collection - one more heart and victory is his
  • The king of spades is discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the collected 3 of hearts with whatever she likes - she chooses the 10 of clubs
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card - again, I don't know if winning more than one heart at once lets him draw more cards
• Turn 10
  
  • Bob plays the 4 of spades on the king of clubs
  • Alice plays the 3 of spades on Bob's card
  • Although Bob's 4 beats Alice's 3, both are lower than the wall's king and no hearts were played, so all three cards are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the discarded king of clubs with whatever she likes - she chooses the 9 of diamonds
  • No hearts won means no card for Bob - with only 3 cards left, can he snag that last heart he needs before he runs out of steam?
• Turn 11
  
  • Bob plays the queen of diamonds on the jack of clubs
  • Alice plays the queen of clubs on Bob's card
  • While Alice does win the tiebreaker by virtue of following the wall's club suit, it doesn't matter since no hearts are involved, which means the three cards are discarded
  • Alice draws the 9 of hearts and a non-heart card, so she has to replace the discarded jack of clubs with the 9 of hearts
  • Bob has only 2 cards left in his hand but seeing that heart on the table fills him with glee because ...
• Turn 12
  
  • Bob plays the 8 of spades on the 9 of hearts
  • Alice plays the jack of diamonds on Bob's card
  • Since 8s are trumps, Bob's 8 beats Alice's jack
  • The 9 of hearts goes into Bob's collection and he successfully escapes the confines of Alice's stomach

[FluffyLizardFunTime]

What's the incentive to win a round if there are no hearts in play? Are the walls facedown? If they aren't, what's the point of trying to win a wall that isn't hearts?

If the predator draws double hearts, one will remain in their hand. Can they just refuse to use it?

What happens if one side has 7 hearts, while the other has 6? Goes until a hand goes empty?

If I count right, you require 4 hearts/pred aces to reach the end of the game (each round 3 is used, deck has 36 cards at start, 12/3 = 4), plus of course the amount of reshuffles.
If I read this right, this means the prey will have to try to get that +4 balance, while preventing the pred from securing an 8th heart. If they can do those two tasks, they win. If they can't, they lose.

Walls are always face up. If none of them are hearts and you don't have any hearts in hand (speaking as if you're playing prey), your options would be to use your weaker cards or to risk a reroll. You're essentially waiting for a heart to come up, but there's no value in winning a wall in that situation

The predator can't play with hearts, but if they have one in their hand they must use it to replace a wall as soon as they can. They aren't allowed to hold it

And yes - if one side can collect 7 hearts, they start a stalemate in which they can just wait for the other player to starve. But to be completely fair, none of these rules are set in stone; I like the cards-running-out mechanic more than winning through hearts, but if you'd rather set 7 hearts as the win condition go for it


I really have no clue when it comes to strategies - I've only been able to test it with a few people, and I always play pred. I've found that if I'm too liberal with my trumps, the prey has too wide an advantage, so it's made me really consider when I want to use them. It does always feel like the prey has a slight advantage, but if the pred can keep them from collecting too many cards early on they're quickly smothered

[FluffyLizardFunTime]

A new game that uses just the standard playing cards? I am highly intrigued. However, my attempts at understanding the rules of the game are giving me a bit of trouble.

Here's a game I played out with Alice as the pred and Bob as the prey (note that my main goal was to get into as many different situations as possible, so some of the moves, particularly in earlier rounds, are not necessarily optimal):

Spoiler: show

• Pregame
  
  • Alice draws 8 cards, 2 of which are hearts. She puts down the hearts face-up as well as 2 other cards to form the walls. The walls, starting north and going clockwise, are as follows:
    
    • 9 of pades
    • 10 of hearts
    • 10 of diamonds
    • Ace of hearts
  • Bob draws 8 cards
• Turn 1
  
  • Bob plays jack of hearts face down on the 10 of diamonds
  • Alice plays the 8 of diamonds face down on Bob's card
  • Their cards are revealed and, since 8s are trumps, Alice's 8 beats Bob's jack
  • The jack of hearts goes into Alice's heart collection - she is now 1/8 of the way to victory
  • The 8 of diamonds and 10 of diamonds are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the discarded 10 of diamonds with whatever she likes - she chooses the king of clubs
  • Since Alice played a trump, Bob gets to draw a free card
• Turn 2
  
  • Bob plays the king of hearts face down on the 10 of hearts
  • Alice plays the 2 of spades face down on Bob's card
  • Their cards are revealed and Bob's king beats Alice's 2
  • The 10 of hearts and king of hearts go into Bob's heart collection - he has now pulled ahead of Alice
  • The 2 of spades is discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the collected 10 of hearts with whatever she likes - she chooses the 5 of diamonds
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card - should he draw 2 since he won 2 hearts? I've just done 1 for now
• Turn 3
  
  • Bob plays the 6 of diamonds face down on the 5 of diamonds
  • Alice plays the 6 of spades face down on Bob's card
  • Their cards are revealed and, although they both played 6s, Bob's one followed the wall's diamond suit, so he wins
  • However, there are no hearts this time, so all three cards are discarded
  • Alice draws the 4 of hearts and a non-heart card, so she has to fill the empty wall slot with the 4 of hearts
  • Although Bob won this turn, he didn't get any hearts for his efforts, so he doesn't get to draw another card
• Turn 4
  
  • Bob plays the 2 of hearts face down on the 9 of spades
  • Alice plays the 4 of diamonds face down on Bob's card
  • Their cards are revealed and, although Alice's 4 beats Bob's 2, neither of them is higher than the wall's 9
  • The 2 of hearts is left behind, though it does not become the new wall - I'd like to point out that the playingcards.io game you made doesn't have anywhere to put the 2 of hearts in this situation
  • The 4 of diamonds and 9 of spades are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the discarded 9 of spades with whatever she likes - she chooses the 9 of clubs
  • Bob failed to win any hearts so he doesn't get to draw a card
• Turn 5
  
  • Bob plays the king of diamonds face down on the 9 of clubs
  • Alice plays the ace of diamonds face down on Bob's card
  • I don't know whether aces are high or low in this game - you said both aces and 8s are trumps, but which beats which? - but Alice's ace beats Bob's king
  • Although neither the wall nor either of the cards played are hearts, the 2 of hearts was left by that wall so Alice gets to add it to her collection - both players have now won 2 hearts
  • The other three cards are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the discarded 9 of clubs with whatever she likes - she chooses the jack of clubs
  • Another failure to win any hearts means Bob can't draw another card - he may be level with Alice in terms of hearts won, but his hand size is dwindling rapidly
• Turn 6
  
  • Bob plays the 7 of clubs on the ace of hearts
  • Alice plays the 4 of clubs on Bob's card
  • Bob's 7 beats Alice's 4
  • If, as a wall, aces are high, nobody gets the ace of hearts; if aces are low, Bob gets the ace of hearts
  • For the sake of not bringing this test run to a grinding halt, I'll give Bob a break and say he gets the ace of hearts
  • The 4 of clubs and 7 of clubs are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the collected ace of hearts with whatever she likes - she chooses the 10 of spades
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card
• Turn 7
  
  • Bob plays the ace of spades on the 4 of hearts
  • Alice plays the 5 of clubs on Bob's card
  • Bob's ace beats Alice's 5
  • The 4 of hearts goes into Bob's heart collection - he's halfway to victory now
  • The ace of spades and 5 of clubs are discarded
  • Alice draws the 3 of hearts and the 7 of hearts, so she has to replace the collected 4 of hearts with one of those - she chooses the 7 of hearts
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card
• Turn 8
  
  • Bob plays the ace of clubs on the 7 of hearts
  • Alice can't play the 3 of hearts on Bob's card so she chooses the 7 of diamonds instead
  • Bob's ace beats Alice's 7
  • The 7 of hearts goes into Bob's heart collection while the ace of clubs and 7 of diamonds are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she has to replace the collected 7 of hearts with her 3 of hearts
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card
• Turn 9
  
  • Bob looks at his 5-card hand and decides it sucks ass, so he puts it back into the deck, shuffles the deck, and draws 4 cards
  • Bob plays the 8 of hearts on the 3 of hearts
  • Alice plays the king of spades on Bob's card
  • Since 8s are trumps, Bob's 8 beats Alice's king
  • Bob adds the 3 of hearts and 8 of hearts to his collection - one more heart and victory is his
  • The king of spades is discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the collected 3 of hearts with whatever she likes - she chooses the 10 of clubs
  • Since Bob won a heart, he gets to draw a card - again, I don't know if winning more than one heart at once lets him draw more cards
• Turn 10
  
  • Bob plays the 4 of spades on the king of clubs
  • Alice plays the 3 of spades on Bob's card
  • Although Bob's 4 beats Alice's 3, both are lower than the wall's king and no hearts were played, so all three cards are discarded
  • Alice draws 2 cards, neither of which are hearts, so she can replace the discarded king of clubs with whatever she likes - she chooses the 9 of diamonds
  • No hearts won means no card for Bob - with only 3 cards left, can he snag that last heart he needs before he runs out of steam?
• Turn 11
  
  • Bob plays the queen of diamonds on the jack of clubs
  • Alice plays the queen of clubs on Bob's card
  • While Alice does win the tiebreaker by virtue of following the wall's club suit, it doesn't matter since no hearts are involved, which means the three cards are discarded
  • Alice draws the 9 of hearts and a non-heart card, so she has to replace the discarded jack of clubs with the 9 of hearts
  • Bob has only 2 cards left in his hand but seeing that heart on the table fills him with glee because ...
• Turn 12
  
  • Bob plays the 8 of spades on the 9 of hearts
  • Alice plays the jack of diamonds on Bob's card
  • Since 8s are trumps, Bob's 8 beats Alice's jack
  • The 9 of hearts goes into Bob's collection and he successfully escapes the confines of Alice's stomach

I appreciate the enthusiasm, thank you! I'll do my best...

Spoiler: show

Turn 2 - Bob won 2 hearts, K and 10, so he draws 2 cards

Turn 4 - if there are leftover hearts, keep them in the wall space - the pred stacks the new wall on top so that it can be collected when that wall is next played. when the cards are stacked on the website, it'll show a little 2 on the side of the cards

Turn 5 - Aces are high when played, but when used as a wall they're worth 1. As and 8s are worth the same value; say if the pred played an A of spades and the prey played an 8 of spades, it'd be a draw

Turn 6 - same as above, Bob gets a breather~

Turn 9 - again, he draws for each heart - sounds like you've been going hard on him...

lol and he won anyway ~///~

Hope that clears some things up? let me know if anything else is unclear, but it looks like you pretty much get it <3

[Slappy]

Great, thanks for the clarification!

Just one more thing: if one of the walls was, say, the 4 of hearts, Bob played the 8 of hearts, and Alice played the 8 of spades, Bob would win because he followed the wall's suit. Since Alice played a trump card, would Bob draw an extra card for that as well as the 2 for the hearts he won?

[FluffyLizardFunTime]

Great, thanks for the clarification!

Just one more thing: if one of the walls was, say, the 4 of hearts, Bob played the 8 of hearts, and Alice played the 8 of spades, Bob would win because he followed the wall's suit. Since Alice played a trump card, would Bob draw an extra card for that as well as the 2 for the hearts he won?

That's how I've been playing, yeh - he gets one for each heart + her trump. I played one game where the prey had 11 cards by about round 3

but someone has suggested that if both players use a trump they cancel each other out - sort of like you're both struggling and getting nowhere. You can play around with the draw rules to give handicaps, if say you want the pred to have an advantage

[Slappy]

Alright. I'll play through a few more games and see if any more thoughts crop up. At the very least, I might do a rewrite of the rules to make some things clearer.

[FluffyLizardFunTime]

Little bump - main post has been edited with new screenshots and teasers~

[Younger99]

I'm curious to try this admittedly.

[reptilemk5]

I love getting digested ^^ question: inside belly background means I'm the prey, right?

[FluffyLizardFunTime]

I love getting digested ^^ question: inside belly background means I'm the prey, right?

aha cute~ and yes, the background swaps based on player role. Preds see their belly, prey see inside <3

[Redicicle]

I was sort of hoping this was going to be a mtg or pokemon card game but vore themed. Interesting non the less

I've been thinking about that idea. Biggest problem is those games tend to work best when they're deterministic but have imperfect information.
Which requires either:
1. deterministic swallowing, struggling and digestion mechanics that are nonetheless interesting
2. no internal fights at all / instant kill swallowing.
3. heavily card effect-based.
4. abandon determinism in favor of dice roll or coinflip mechanics.

[Panzershark]

I was sort of hoping this was going to be a mtg or pokemon card game but vore themed. Interesting non the less

I've been thinking about that idea. Biggest problem is those games tend to work best when they're deterministic but have imperfect information.
Which requires either:
1. deterministic swallowing, struggling and digestion mechanics that are nonetheless interesting
2. no internal fights at all / instant kill swallowing.
3. heavily card effect-based.
4. abandon determinism in favor of dice roll or coinflip mechanics.

Eh, it might not be quite as hard as you think to map that sort of card game to vore purposes. Hard yes, but I would say it appears to be doable to some extent. I would check out the old Cartovore series—specifically Cartovore 2—as for how it went about tackling that problem. I hope that may help, if you were unaware of the series previously.

As for this game, I played a few rounds on playingcards.io, and am definitely looking forward to when the website goes public!

[geoleo11]

Is the public version with the AI and everything almost ready? I'm kinda excited for it.