Burrow Bout · Press kit
Burrow Bout title screen: critters gathered around a burrow card table under the Burrow Bout logo.

A cozy animal card duel: three sides, nine spots, one crowded burrow.

Every critter in Clover Meadow settles an argument the same way, with a deck of animal cards and a 3×3 board. Place a card beside a rival's, and if your number is higher, their card flips to your side.

Twenty-four critters from five habitats, eight rivals to beat, and Same, Plus and Combo flips that can turn a lost board around in one move.

I · Fact sheet

Fact sheet

Title
Burrow Bout
Platform
Playdate
Developer
Vincent (solo)
Release
Coming soon
Price
To be announced
Genre
Card game, tactics
Critters
24 cards, 5 habitats
Modes
Campaign, Quick, Pass & Play, Daily
Play time
About 2–3 hours to clear (estimate)
Controls
D-pad, A, B, crank
Crank
Browse cards; buttons work too
Players
1, or 2 on one Playdate
Language
English
Setting
Clover Meadow and the burrows below
Press
hey.vincent@icloud.com
II · Trailer

Trailer

72 seconds · 1920×1080, 30 fps · captured from the game running in the Playdate Simulator, shown at 4× with the Playdate screen’s own grey tones · trailer.mp4

III · The game

The game

Short description

Burrow Bout is a cozy animal card duel for Playdate. Play critters on a 3×3 board, flip your rivals’ cards with higher numbers, and chain Same, Plus and Combo flips across five habitats.

Long description

In the hills above Clover Meadow, the critters settle every quarrel the same way: a deck of animal cards, a wooden table, and a 3×3 board. It is called a bout, and no one has ever lost their temper in one for long.

Each card has four numbers, one per side. Place a critter beside a rival’s card and compare the touching sides. Higher wins the flip, and the card turns to your color. When the nine spots are full, whoever holds more cards wins the bout.

Some spots are habitats. Set a hedgehog on Woods and every side gets +1. Set it on the River and it gets −1. Read the board, the icon in each card’s corner, and what your rival still holds. Then look for Same, Plus and Combo: matching or equal-sum sides flip several cards at once, and every card they flip can keep the chain going.

Take on eight rivals in the Campaign, from Bramble the hedgehog in the Whispering Woods to Queen Mane on the Golden Plains, and win a card from each rival’s hand. Fill your binder with all 24 critters, tune your five-card hand, then take it to a Quick Bout, the Daily Bout, or hand the Playdate across the table for two-player Pass & Play.

Features

  • Triple Triad, in the burrow. A 3×3 board, five cards a side, four numbers on every card. Higher numbers flip cards. The rules fit on a card and the tactics do not.
  • Same, Plus and Combo. Match two sides, or make two sums equal, and several rivals flip at once. Cards flipped that way can flip their own neighbors: the chain that turns a bout around.
  • Five habitats. Woods, River, Meadow, Peaks and Jungle. A critter at home gets +1 on every side; away, −1. The board is different in every bout.
  • 24 critters, five tiers. From the Hedgehog and Frog to the Owl, Eagle, Bear, Crocodile and Lion, each drawn as a 1-bit line-art portrait with its own numbers and home habitat.
  • Eight rivals, four AI levels. A Campaign with a rival per region, and Quick Bouts from Easy to Master. Master searches several moves ahead and plays out the endgame.
  • Play it your way. Pass & Play on one Playdate, a Daily Bout with the same table for everyone each day, optional flip hints that preview every flip before you place, and a crank that browses your hand.
  • Made for the Playdate screen. White cards and black cards, a dithered table, and a bold rounded type, all drawn for the 400×240 1-bit display.
IV · How it plays

How it plays

A card is chosen, placed, and flips two rivals.
Place and flipPick a critter, choose a spot, place it. A higher touching number flips the rival card.
Placing a card that matches two neighbors flips them both.
SameTwo or more touching sides match: those rivals flip.
Placing a card whose sides add up to the same total as two neighbors flips them.
PlusTwo or more pairs add up to the same total: those rivals flip.
A Same or Plus flip runs on into a chain of further flips.
ComboCards flipped by Same or Plus flip their own neighbors.
A critter placed on its home habitat gets plus one on every side and wins a flip.
HabitatsOn its home habitat a critter gets +1 on every side. Anywhere else, -1.
Holding B to inspect a card in hand: numbers, habitat and a note.
Inspect a cardPress B on a card in hand to see its numbers, home habitat and a note.
Browsing the eight rivals, then choosing five cards.
Pick a rivalEight rivals, five cards from your binder, then the bout.
Flipping through the pages of the binder.
Browse the binderCrank or D-pad through all 24 critters.
V · Screenshots

Screenshots

Title screen: critters gathered around a burrow card table under the Burrow Bout logo.
Title screen
Main menu: Campaign, Quick Bout, Pass and Play, Daily Bout, Binder and How to Play as rounded cards.
Main menu
Campaign screen: a list of eight rivals with Bramble the hedgehog selected and his portrait card.
Campaign · eight rivals
Deck picker: a 3 by 3 page of critter cards, five chosen, with a detail panel for the hedgehog.
Choose your five
A bout begins: five cards a side, habitat spots on the 3 by 3 board.
A bout begins
Choosing a spot for the hedgehog on a board of Woods and Jungle habitat spots.
Placing a card, with flip hints on
Card detail: the squirrel enlarged with its numbers, home habitat and a note.
Card detail
A freshly placed card turning over a rival's card.
A card flips
Victory panel over a finished board.
Victory
After a win you claim one card from your rival's hand.
Claim a card
Lining up a card to flip two rivals at once.
Lining up a flip
Lining up a card whose sides match two neighbors.
Lining up a Same
The SAME badge as matching sides flip rival cards.
SAME
The PLUS badge as equal sums flip rival cards.
PLUS
The COMBO badge as flipped cards flip their neighbors in a chain.
COMBO
Aiming a card at a home habitat spot for a +1 bonus.
Habitat spot
A habitat bonus turning a rival's card.
Habitat bonus
Quick Bout setup: rival level and the Same, Plus, Combo and Habitat rule toggles.
Quick Bout setup
The binder: ten of twenty-four critters collected, with a detail panel.
Binder
How to Play page 1: the bout.
How to Play · 1
How to Play page 2: flipping.
How to Play · 2
How to Play page 3: Same, Plus and Combo.
How to Play · 3
How to Play page 4: habitats.
How to Play · 4

All 23 screenshots are in screenshots/1x (native 400×240, pure black and white, exactly as the device draws them) and screenshots/4x (1600×960 in the Playdate screen’s grey tones).

VI · Background

Why a card game about animals

A tiny 3×3 board is one of the best puzzles ever put on a card table: every move changes what your rival can do next. It also fits a Playdate perfectly, with a screen made for crisp cards and a crank that is happy to riffle through a hand.

Burrow Bout began as one question: what if the cards were animals, and the table was a burrow? The critters, their numbers and their habitats grew from there. A hedgehog is strong on its sides and weak on top. A rabbit is quick on the left and careless everywhere else. An eagle owns the sky and nothing else.

The whole game is drawn for Playdate’s 1-bit screen: cards are white or black, art plates are engraved line-work with hatching, the table is a fine dither, and every menu is a rounded card of its own.

Sound

Two short chiptune loops, one for the menus and a brisker one for bouts, with a square-wave lead over a soft triangle bass. Every flip in a chain plays one step higher, so a big Combo climbs the scale.

The roster

Hedgehog
Hedgehog
Frog
Frog
Rabbit
Rabbit
Marmot
Marmot
Gecko
Gecko
Sloth
Sloth
Squirrel
Squirrel
Duck
Duck
Meerkat
Meerkat
Goat
Goat
Monkey
Monkey
Parrot
Parrot
Fox
Fox
Otter
Otter
Deer
Deer
Wolf
Wolf
Panther
Panther
Owl
Owl
Heron
Heron
Bison
Bison
Eagle
Eagle
Bear
Bear
Crocodile
Crocodile
Lion
Lion
VII · Logo & art

Logo & art

Pixel art is 1× at heart. Scale it by whole numbers only (2×, 3×, 4×) with nearest-neighbour sampling, so every pixel stays square.

VIII · Credits

Credits & contact

Made by
Vincent, solo: design and direction
Built with
Claude (Anthropic): code, pixel art, fonts, music and sound were created with AI assistance
Engine
Playdate SDK, Lua
Press
hey.vincent@icloud.com
Website
burrow-bout-playdate.pages.dev
Social
[@handle]
Review builds
[how to request one]