GameSmith is an online community of card players just like yourself. Connect to GameSmith to play cards, make friends, and take part in special events. After you launch your desired card game, select Network when prompted, or choose Connect from the Network menu. (Note: You must have an active Internet connection for network play.)
The very first time you do this, you will be asked if you would like to customize your appearance. Your appearance is how you will appear to the other players in the game. You may also select Preferences under the Edit menu to bring up this window. When you play online, you need to select a puppet to represent you at the card table. This can be any of the puppets you see in the game; Monty the monkey, Sue the lady with grey hair, Ian the handsome young man, etc. You may also choose three letters to represent you on the scorepad. If your username is “Maverick,” you might want to choose MVK; if your username is “Patricia,” you might choose PAT, for example. If you are confused about any of the other checkbox options in Preferences, don’t worry. The game defaults to the most popular options, and you can experiment with them all later. Once you have done that, click OK to return to the card table and click once more on the card table to select a Network game.
You will be asked to enter a Username. Your username must be unique and can be up to ten characters long. This will be how other players know you, so choose something that reflects who you are (or would like to be.) Some examples of usernames that people have chosen are, “SlotcarBob,” “Ophelia” and “Tymbo.” If you do not already have a username, click the Create Account button to create a new GameSmith account with your desired username.
Once you have entered your username and password, click OK to be taken to GameSmith!
The GameSmith window will open and you will see a Player List on the left-hand side. The right-hand side is the Game List. The small icon before each name indicates which game they are playing. If you scroll through the Player List, you will find your own username. Names that appear “greyed-out” are currently playing games or away from the keyboard. Names that are dark, like yours, are waiting to join games, or perhaps just chatting with friends. Games that are greyed-out are full and cannot be joined.
For additional help with GameSmith you can visit the GameSmith Support web site, which includes a GameSmith Tutorial.
You will see people’s chat at the bottom of the GameSmith window. When you feel comfortable, join in the conversation; say “Hi!” There are many special commands you can use when chatting&emdash;type help to get a list of them.
To get more information about a player, double-click their name in the player list to open the Player Info window. (You can also control-click their name.) You can also control-click a game to open Game Info (who is in the game, what its rules are, the current status, etc.)
Double-click a game to attempt to join it. Once you have succesfully joined, the game window will return to the front and the GameSmith window will optionally hide depending on your preferences.
You will quickly find that playing online with real people is a very different experience from playing Solo with the puppets. It’s more demanding&emdash;you have to keep up with the conversation and keep the cards moving&emdash;but it’s also more rewarding. No matter how good the puppets are, people&emdash;being more devious&emdash;make for a better game.
You may also change your puppet at any time by clicking the Puppet Menu on the lower right of the game window. (This box displays your current puppet, or how you appear to the other players.) Select My Puppet, and you will be shown the names of the other available puppets.
Upon joining a game, a dialog will ask if you would like to view the rules of the game. This will show you what rule variations the host of this game has chosen. Only the host of a game is allowed to change the rules. The rules may be viewed at any time by selecting Rules under the Game menu.
When the people at the table chat, their chat will appear in Chat Bubbles above the heads of their respective puppets, as well as at the bottom of screen. Clicking on a puppet’s head will reveal that puppet’s name, and whether it is a computer or human player. It will also show the last few chat comments that the player has made, in case you missed something.
The Emoticon button menu, just to the left of the Puppet Menu, can make your puppet smile and frown, gasp and more. Your puppet will animate and speak for some of the emoticons.
The bottom of the gmae window will contain instructional messages for network games. When you are ready, click the card table to let the host know that you are ready to play. The host will start the game, and the cards will be dealt when everyone has indicated that they are ready. Let the games begin!