I. Goal of the Game:
The goal of the game is to get rid of all the cards in your hand.
II. Core Mechanic:
Set-up: Each player is dealt 7 cards. The rest of the cards are placed in the center of the playing field as a draw pile. Out of the draw pile, one card is taken from the top of the draw pile and flip up on the table to begin a discard pile.
Game Play: Players take turns in a clockwise fashion. Each player during their turn must match the card in the discard pile with either the same color or the same number. If the player is unable to make a match, then he must draw a card from the draw pile. If the player is still unable make a match, the players then passes his turn to the next player. Once a player is down to one card, that player must yell "Uno" that turn. If a player fails to do so, he/she must draw two cards. The game is won by the player who discards their entire hand first.
III. Space of the Game:
The game of Uno is a discrete two-dimensional game. There are two cells connected two each other, the draw pile and the discard pile cells. This is because at the begging of the game a card is fliped up and placed as the discard pile on the table. Next, players connected to the discard pile cell as well as the draw pile cell. Each player is also each considered a cell (another zero-dimensional space withing the two dimensional space linked). Each player cell is connected the player cell next to it, to the left and right. Each player space is also a nested space because each player has a cards in their hand, and each is also considered a cell.
This is better illustrated in my example below:
IV. Objects, Attributes, and States.
Each card in the game is an object. So there is a total of 108 objects. All cards have the following attributes: wild card, color, and number. Out of these attributes we have states for each depending on the card. The basic attributes and states are depicted on my table below:
Special cases: If the card isn't a wild card, then its "wild card" attribute is "no". In some cases, if the card is a wild card, then it may be multi-colored. In the case of a card that has the state and attribute of "wild card" or the "wild card" attribute of "draw four" then it will automatically have the state of "red, yellow, green, and blue" as well as "0" through "9".
All cards in the game also have the "match?" attribute. A card will gain the "mach successful" state only if a card being placed on the discard pile has the same color or number as the top-most card of the discard pile.
Two other objects in the game are the discard pile and the draw pile. The draw pile has the attribute of "availability" which asks: is the draw pile available for a player to draw from? The draw pile object will gain the state of "available" if it's a players turn and that player hasn't drawn yet this turn or placed a card on the discard pile first. The draw pile will gain the state of "unavailable if neither of those conditions are met. The discard pile also has the state of "available", with states being "available" and "unavailable". The discard pile gains the "available" state (which means the pile is available for a player to place a card on top of) only if it's the player's turn and a that player hasn't discarded a card already. Certain cards, such as the skip card, disable players from drawing or discarding a card.
V. Actions
Operative actions:
- Match a card in your hand with a card on top of the discard pile through color or number.
- Draw a card from the draw pile if you have no playable cards (or if you choose not to play a playable card).
- If you did not get a playable card from drawing in step two, then you must keep drawing until you you get a playable card and play it.
- Pass your turn to the next player in the rotation. You may only do this if you've played a card.
- Draw cards due to a card effect.
- Yell "Uno" as soon as you have one card in your hand.
- Pass your turn due to a card effect.
Resultant Actions:
- Play a card to switch the rotation of turns so that a player who has a low number of cards doesn't get a chance to win the game yet.
- Change the color of the top card in the draw pile so that you can play other cards in your hand of that same color
- Change the color of the top card in the draw pile in the assumption that you can force your opponent to draw a card because he doesn't have that color
- Play your skip card so that the next player in the rotation doesn't get to play his winning card.
- and more...
VI. Rules
- First player to discard their hand wins
- You must draw a card from the draw pile if you have no playable cards (or if you choose not to play a playable card.
- You must keep drawing a card from the draw pile until you get a playable card and play it.
- If you do not yell "Uno" you must draw two cards.
- You may NOT pass your turn.
- No peaking at other player's cards
- No revealing your cards to other players
- No marking of cards for identification purposes
- No physically harming other players
- No threatening or bribing other players for in-game benefits (or for any other reasons)
VII. Skills Players Learn
In Uno, players learn some basic mental skills. These skills include things such as matching a card by color or by number. Players also learn to predict what an opponent may have in their hand (what color card) in order to play the right card and make them draw a card. Some social skills are also involved, where players may read a player's face to see if they look like they have this game in their hands or not. Overall a very basic game that won't really work your brain too much.
