Giusto

From the Devs

Welcome to Giusto.

Giusto (Joo-stoh) is a single-player, bidding, trick-taking card game where you'll need to be PERFECT in order to maximize your STASH.  What originated in a college dorm room decades ago and has been passed down through generations, is now a solo indie dev's first game in the industry as he decided share it with the world. 

Play at a five-seat table against four other bot opponents, and choose how long each round runs based on your mood and time constraints. Play a quick 3-round match, an easy 5, or the full 10 rounds for max stash.  Each round, every player is dealt a hand - one card fewer than the round before - and a "Clobber suit" is turned face-up in the middle.  Then comes the heart of the game, where you and every other player will secretly lock in a bid of how many "sets" (tricks) they believe they'll win that round.  Right before each round begins, everyone's bids are revealed, telling you if the table in general is fighting for sets, dumping them, or it's a balanced table.  Highest card of whatever suit leads the round, wins the round. But, a clobber beats everything (except a higher clobber card), and at the end you compare what you said you'd do vs. what you actually did.

Miss your bid in either direction and you WHIFF, and that's where you get punished.  Giusto rewards perfection. Overbidding and underbidding hurts exactly the same.  You NEED to be perfect.  Your penalty is the gap between your bid and reality, multiplied by the round number. So, the later rounds bite the hardest,  Lowest cumulative score wins. This isn't a game about winning tricks.  It's a game about knowing yourself, and the table - predicting your own hand with precision, while having the restraint not to reach for more than you can handle.

The Countdown Button.

When you earn a reward, Giusto doesn't just hand it over - it gives you a chance to make it huge.  A timer appears after 2 or 3 perfect bids in a row depending on the game you're in.  You click to start it and it ticks towards 10, at a different pace every time, and only showing you the first few numbers - then you're on your own!  Click again the instant you believe it's hit true 10.000 - there's no rounding and no mercy: the game reads your real elapsed time and shows it to 3 decimal places. The closer you land to 10, the rarer the reward you earn. Land dead on 10.000 and there's only one word for it - everybody yells "GIUSTO!!" 

Beat the Game.

Most games don't let you beat them anymore - Giusto says, "bring it on".  Everything you play feeds one lifetime number.  Here's what you need to know:

• Stash is your lifetime total that you'll use to compare against the global leaderboard and climb tiers to beat the game.  10,000 wins.

• Gems are earned when you hit a bid exactly - a perfectly bid round, either twice or three times in a row (depending on how long of a game you're playing).  And, each one can reduce your in-game total, bringing you closer to victory (lowest score wins)

• Matcha is won by winning a full match outright, and it's your chance to multiply your Stash - 2x up to 20x!! But, you'd better not be too far away because a bad miss earns a punishment from your Stash, too.

As your Stash grows, you climb a six-tier prestige ladder, and the armored woodland creature that sits at the center of your table transforms with you: from The Fawn (nervous, wide-eyed, just beginning) to The Firefly, The Phoenix, The Owl, The Mushroom, and finally - cross the 10,000 lifetime ranked Stash and earn The Machine Elf.  Your win is rewarded by the elusive Machine Elf, an inter-dimensional being that traverses space, time, and worlds in order to help  the Fawn get back to its' family.

Cross that line and you're permanently immortalized in the public Forest of Fame. From there, it's your call: Bloom - reset your Stash to zero and climb all over again with 1 bloom recorded on your Forest of Fame name, or keep playing as the Machine Elf, a new unlocked character that stays uncapped for as long as the forest holds your desire to compete for the top spot in the Forest of Fame

Made to Feel Just Right.

This game is meant to be an enchanted night of healthy competition, not a battlefield. But, the competition is real, and it's not to be ignored.  Just enjoy it at your own pace. There's no clock on any moves.  Take your time, or grind through to the top. It ships fully complete: no early access, no cut corners, no waiting for the "real" version.  Any monetization will be cosmetic-based only, and will never touch the playability of the game you're playing.  That's the promise. 

Sit down, breathe, and pick your moment...perfectly.  It's Giusto.