Blog

Game guides, the science of play, and stories behind traditional card games from 15+ countries. New posts every Tuesday.

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Building a Free Gaming Studio: The Cliko Games Story

I started with a Sudoku game as a proof of concept. It worked. So I kept building.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

Euchre: The Midwest's Card Game Identity

I discovered Euchre while researching North American card games for Cliko. An entire region's identity tied to one card game โ€” I had to build it.

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The Arcade Reflex: How Fast Games Improve Reaction Time

Arcade games aren't just fast โ€” they make YOU faster. The research on visual processing speed is hard to argue with.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

FreeCell: The Game Where Almost Every Deal Is Winnable

Out of 32,000 deals in Windows FreeCell, exactly one has been proven impossible. Its number is 11982. I find that beautiful.

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Strategy Games That Train Decision-Making

My father taught me chess. A computer beating a Go master taught me Go. Both games taught me how to decide under pressure.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

Schnapsen: Cards and Coffee in Vienna

I found Schnapsen while researching European card games for Cliko. The marriage mechanic โ€” a King-Queen pair for bonus points โ€” is the most elegant thing in any card game I've built.

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Teaching Kids Math Through Games (A Parent's Guide)

The best math tutoring doesn't feel like tutoring. I know โ€” the math puzzles I loved as a kid never felt like homework.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

Nurikabe: The Japanese Puzzle You've Never Heard Of

I found Nurikabe while researching Japanese puzzles for Cliko. It deserves to be as famous as Sudoku. It's not, and I want to fix that.

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Free Browser Games vs Mobile Apps: Why No-Download Wins

I build games as single HTML files under 200KB. The average mobile game is 150MB. That ratio tells you everything.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

The 24 Game: From a Chinese Classroom to Your Browser

Four numbers. Four operations. One target: 24. I played this in school in India before I knew it had a name.

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How Daily Game Challenges Build Consistency

I play an hour of games every day โ€” Sudoku, Canasta, Poker. The daily challenge is what keeps me showing up.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

Mahjong Solitaire Isn't Actually Mahjong

The most popular 'Mahjong' game in the world has almost nothing to do with the real Mahjong. Here's how that happened.

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Traditional Card Games from Around the World

Building Cliko turned me into an accidental card game historian. Every country has one. Most of them aren't online.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

Scopa: Italy's Other Great Card Game

If Briscola is Italy's strategic game, Scopa is its loud one. Fast rounds, table-slapping sweeps, and scoring rules that reward greed.

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Why Word Games Are the Best Brain Exercise

Word games light up more brain regions at once than almost anything else. I didn't need a study to tell me that โ€” I felt it.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

Minesweeper Was Built to Teach You Right-Clicking

Every 90s kid remembers Minesweeper. I clicked my first mine on a Windows 95 machine in Mysuru. Decades later, I built a better version.

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The Science Behind Pattern Recognition Games

Pattern recognition is how I read a Calcudoku grid and how I debug code. Same muscle, different context.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

Briscola: How Italy's Card Game Conquered the Mediterranean

I found Briscola in the same research rabbit hole that led me to Basra. The Mediterranean card game tradition runs deep.

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Mental Math in 60 Seconds: Why Speed Matters

I built my own divisibility theorems as a kid. Mental math isn't a school skill โ€” it's a life skill.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

Spider Solitaire: From Windows to 4-Suit Mastery

Spider Solitaire is the game I played until the moves became automatic. It's also the reason Cliko Games exists.

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5 Card Games That Teach Strategic Thinking

I didn't touch a 52-card deck until 11th grade. Then I couldn't stop. These five games are why.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

Calcudoku vs KenKen: Same Puzzle, One Trademark, and Why It Matters

I was seven when I found the book. Ten days later, every puzzle in it was finished.

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How Puzzle Games Sharpen Your Problem-Solving Skills

I grew up solving math puzzles in South India where teachers encouraged this stuff. Turns out they were onto something.

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๐ŸŽฎ Game Story

The Story of Basra: Lebanon's Beloved Card Game

I found Basra because Spider Solitaire got boring. I didn't expect a card game from Beirut to ruin my sleep schedule.

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