The Court of Seven Steps
A gothic Pyramid solitaire. Seven steps of cards, three vampires who would very much like you to lose, and thirteen, the number that clears the table. Play it on a screen of any size, or step inside the house in VR.
A hand against Lady Carmilla Nox. See the chains on the nine and the two sixes? They stay shut until the cards beside them are gone.
How it plays
Twenty-eight cards lie face up in a pyramid of seven rows, and twenty-four wait in the stock. A card is free once both cards covering it are gone. Take away the whole pyramid and the hand is won.
Tap a free King and it leaves the table. Nothing else to match.
Tap one free card, then another, and if they add up to thirteen the pair is gone. Ace is 1, Jack 11, Queen 12.
Stuck? Turn a card from the stock onto the waste: the top of the waste can pair with any free card. Run the stock out and you may turn the waste over, twice a hand.
Plain Pyramid with the lights low. No vampire, no pressure: as many hands as you like, with undo and hint cards, personal records and a saved hand waiting for you whenever you come back.
Choose Normal, the classic rules, or Easy, where a card with only one card still on top of it can go together with that card without waiting to uncover it. Every deal is an honest random shuffle.
Three vampires keep this house, and each will sit across the cards from you. Every one plays by rules of his own and has a trick he springs in the middle of a hand.
The Court of Seven Steps
They talk. They gloat when you lose, and they have something to say when you land a blow. Each one is harder than the last, and the last is very hard indeed.
The Knave of Midnight
BitesCharming, theatrical and always hungry. He has bitten a few of the cards: take one away and it costs you coins and breaks your streak. A kind first host, if you don’t mind bleeding a little.
Easy rule, three turns of the stock.
The Pale Lady
ChainsElegant, patient, cruel. She chains cards to the pyramid, and a chained card won’t stir while a card beside it in the row is still there. Plan the order of your plays, or find a sharper way.
Classic rules, two turns of the stock.
The Hollow King
HungerAlways hungry. Every few times you reach for the stock, he eats a card from the bottom of it. Every draw is a gamble on how long the stock will last, and he knows it. Bring a relic.
Classic rules, two turns of the stock. The hardest hand in the house.
Between hands
Between hands, Fenwick Grimm, the Grey Peddler, sells help for the coins you win. He is a wolf in a peace medallion, and he does not haggle: every price is fixed.
Every price in the Store is fixed. Every reward is fixed. Nothing in Tiepair sells you a chance at anything, and the campaign changes the rules around the shuffle, never the shuffle itself.
In virtual reality
On a Meta Quest the pyramid stands on a real table in a candle-lit Victorian parlour. Reach out with a controller (or a hand) and tap a card to pick it, then its partner to take the pair away. The three vampires watch from their portraits over the fireplace, and the moon outside the window is the one you chose.
The table, seen from where you stand. The toolbar floats above it and the duel panel stands to your left.
VR runs in the headset’s own web browser: open the game, press Enter VR, and you are at the table. It is the same game, with the same saves, the same vampires and the same Store.
The cards are easy to read: a picked card lifts and glows, one that cannot be taken yet is dimmed, and Seer’s eye fans the next three cards of the stock beside the waste. The menus, the Store and the story scenes appear on one large panel in front of you. Squeeze a grip to bring everything back in front of you.
Keepsakes
Win coins, earn trophies, and make the house your own. All of it is yours to keep, and none of it is random.
Six keepsakes on a shelf in the side panel: your first coin, a perfect hand, a trophy from each vampire you end, and one for finishing the whole campaign without losing a single hand.
Small, permanent helps against the hard vampires: a Garlic Wreath, a Locksmith’s Pick, an Iron Spoon, a Steady Locket and a Moonstone. You carry only a couple, so choose the one that suits the host.
Extra turns, the Easy rule, Dawn, Wild cards, the Seer’s eye and Wood Stakes: spend them when a hand turns against you.
Change the card backs, the table cloth and the colour of the moon over the house. Some you buy, some you earn from the vampires. They change how the game looks and nothing else.
Each relic is made for one vampire: the Garlic Wreath for Lucien’s bites, the Pick for Carmilla’s chains, the Spoon for Alaric’s hunger. Some can be bought, and a few are earned.
Card backs, table cloths and moons. Three tabs of small luxuries, and a few that only a dead vampire can give you.
What the Court says when you clear it. (Do try.)
Get Tiepair
One game, four ways in. Your progress saves itself after every move.
Nothing to download or install. Works on tablets and phones as well as computers, and once it has loaded it plays offline. On an iPad or iPhone, use Share, then Add to Home Screen, to keep it like an app.
Play nowOn a Meta Quest, open the game in the headset’s browser and press Enter VR. The page has to be served over https.
Open the gameA native desktop build with its own window and icon.
Download arrives with the full releaseA native 64-bit program: one file, no installer needed.
Download arrives with the full release
Tiepair