Design
Words
The site’s one vocabulary, from the names of the things on a card table to the one word for each button, and how copy should sound.
A UO game speaks plain American table talk: Hoyle’s names for the things on the table, short verbs on the buttons, and one word for each action across the site (Plain words, Same place, same word). This chapter is the vocabulary. A game’s rules come from its own document (the card games play David’s family rules, as written in docs/euchre.md, docs/contract-rummy.md and the rest), not from Hoyle.
Names in the code may stay as they are (waste, march, the move codes): the referees replay them, and players never see them.
How copy sounds#
- Sentence case, contractions, US spelling. No “please”, no “successfully”.
- Warm and plain. Buttons are verbs and labels are nouns.
- A hint is one short sentence at most. Detail goes in How to play.
- A heading may have the game’s voice (“Case closed”, “Euchred!”). A button may not.
- Talk to the player as “you”, and name other players by name: never “a player” or “someone”.
On the table#
| Say | Not | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| stock | deck, talon, draw pile | The face-down cards you draw from |
| discard pile | waste, waste pile, discards | In every solitaire too: “the top of the discard pile” |
| foundation | home cell | Builds up from the ace |
| pile (the tableau’s) | column, stack | How to play may say “the tableau (the seven piles)” once |
| space | gap, hole | An empty pile |
| reserve | Canfield’s thirteen | |
| redeal | turn over, recycle, pass | Turning the discard pile back into the stock: “2 redeals left”, “Last time through” |
| hand | deal (as a round) | The cards you hold, and one round of a card game (“Hand 3 of 7”) |
| deal | game | One game of solitaire (“New deal”); also the verb |
| round | Party games only | |
| trick, lead, follow suit, trump | ||
| call (trump) | order up, name, make, pick it up | Euchre, both rounds: “Call ♥” |
| up card | turned card, upcard | The dealer’s turned-up card |
| go alone, sit out, partner | ||
| euchred | The callers took fewer than three | |
| right bower, left bower | ||
| discard (the verb) | bury, throw | Including the Euchre dealer’s card after picking up |
| meld, set, run | group, book | |
| go down, go out | Contract Rummy’s family words, kept | |
| play on | lay off | Adding to a meld (“Play 7♠”) |
| joker | wild | “the joker” in every sentence |
Never on screen: maker, march, order up, bury, waste, talon, kitty, Bot in.
On the buttons#
One word for each action, site-wide.
| Action | Say | Not |
|---|---|---|
| Start a fresh one | New {noun}: New deal, New puzzle, New case | Open a new case, Another |
| The next in a sequence | Next {noun}, “Next: 15×15”, Next hand | Continue (for this) |
| Pick up where you left off | Continue | Resume (that’s Pause’s) |
| The same one from the start | Restart | Try again, Reset, Clear |
| End this one as a loss | Give up | Forfeit, Quit |
| End a table (the host), or leave it | End game, Leave game; Leave table while waiting | |
| Take back, put back | Undo, Redo | |
| Help | Hint; Finish | |
| Stop the clock | Pause, Resume | |
| Close a sheet you opened | Done (and ✕, “Close”) | Got it, OK, Close, Back to the table |
| Put a result away | See the table, See the board | View the board, Look at it again |
| Tell someone | Share result | Share results, Copy result, Copy share link |
| The rules | How to play | Rules, Help |
| Preferences | Options | Settings (in a game) |
| Retry something that failed | Try again | Retry |
| Go home | Back to {Game} (the arrow’s name) | Back to the menu |
| Bidding | Call ♥, Pass | Order up, Pick it up |
| A lobby | Deal me in, Start a table, Join, Deal, Add a bot | |
| The host hands an away seat to a bot | Replace with bot | Bot in, Let a bot play, Cover |
{noun} is the game’s own word for one game: a deal, a puzzle, a case. The house kit’s result() takes it as noun and writes every result sheet’s buttons itself, so their words come from one place. Each ending’s heading starts from the house’s, and a game may give it its own voice (“Solved”, “Case closed”):
games/static/games/house/end.js HEADINGS · line 27const HEADINGS = { won: 'You won', lost: 'Not this time', stuck: 'Out of moves', gaveup: 'Not this time', hand: 'Hand over', over: 'Game over' };
The words of a few things the house shows#
- Home Screen is two words with capitals, as Apple writes it: “Add to Home Screen”. The app is “Obstacles” under its icon.
- How to play, Options, Leaderboard, Stats and Feedback are the same words in every game’s bar and sheets.
- A result’s kicker is its parts joined by a middle dot, never broken inside one: “Contract Rummy · 7 hands”.