Solavantage Newsletter #4

Hello Solavant players!

The Solavantange Newsletter is now being published every two weeks. I felt that once a week was too often, especially with us sending out update notices every week already. This also gives everyone more time to play the featured game between newsletters.

Thanks to everyone who voted in our poll for the game Scorpion. 83% of voters loved it, 17% hated it. I thought a bit more than that would hate it as it's quite a frustrating game. It may be that some people hated it so much they didn't even vote. :)

Many player ideas and requests have been added to Solavant so far. I really appreciate everyone's input and time helping us make the game better. If you ever have any suggestions for the game, find a bug, or have ideas for improving the newsletter, please send me a note. I'd love to hear from you.

– Tom Cain, Smallware

Featured game - Provisional

Provisional is a new game of my own invention that was recently added to Solavant. It is a variant of Golf with an extra strategic element added: a provisional reserve space. The added strategy makes Provisional much more winnable if you play well than the harder Golf.

The objective is to play the 7 columns of the fairway into the single golf hole. Only end cards are available for play. The hole is built up or down in consecutive rank, with Aces and Kings built on each other, regardless of suit.

The provisional reserve space can hold any one card.

Provisional strategy

A good tip is not to immediately play the first cards you see. Check for other options – you will often find a longer playable sequence. Don't forget that you can move any card to the reserve to release the card beneath, which gives even more potential sequences.

Note that in Provisional, Kings and Aces may be built on each other. This is different than Golf, where you usually hold out Twos for playing Aces and Queens for playing Kings. You can go ahead and build sequences as long as you like.

Final Provisional thoughts

Golf-type solitaire games are fun because there are lots of cards moving around and you can get your mind into a groove looking for sequences. Provisional expands that groove by allowing longer sequences and giving more options in planning them.

Random Solavant tip

If you use the game timer and want to pause a game in progress, minimize the game window to the Mac OS X Dock. The timer will stop running until the window is restored. You can minimize the game window using the Mac OS X minimize button in the upper-left corner or the Minimize menu item in the Windows menu.