I have fond memories of playing Loteria with family at carne asadas and holiday parties. It was always a fun time. I also really liked the art included in the cards and the descriptions.
On one of my several doomscrolling sessions, I saw a funny clip of some friends playing Loteria through Zoom. One of the players realized they bought a different version of Loteria at the end of the session after failing to complete their Loteria Play Board. It was really funny and made me wonder why there wasn’t a Loteria web application where you can play with friends.
I haven’t researched if there even is a Loteria web application, but I thought I would just go ahead and make one myself. Since I really enjoyed the art of the Loteria cards, I thought I might practice some pixel art and make my own art for the cards inspired by the original cards. I also want to use the same descriptions, or maybe I’ll write my own. I want to have some type of creative control about the look of the game. I really enjoyed the art of the game as I mentioned previously, so it would be great to add my own vision into this project.
Loteria is a Mexican game of chance similar to Bingo, but played with a deck of cards instead of numbered balls. Each player is dealt a board which contains a 4x4 grid consisting of different images included in the Loteria deck. The traditional Loteria deck has 54 cards with different images on them. They also come with a description for the image, as well as a number. A dealer is picked at the beginning of the game who shuffles the deck, draws the cards each round, and reads the description given with the associated card drawn that round. The players keep track of their board by marking squares that match the card announced by the dealer that round. The different patterns to win the game are: row, across, diagonal, and 4 in a square. After finding one of these patterns, the player claims loteria and has their board state confirmed by the dealer.
Single Player
Start Game
NOTE: In Single player, dealing is automated.
Multiplayer
Start Game
Create randomized Player Boards
Shuffle deck
Game Loop (repeat until Loteria called)
NOTE: