I know - it's what the world has been demanding. A different solitaire game - even though Solitaire has come pre-installed on almost every computer since the dawn of man!
Well I don't appreciate your sarcasm but THIS AIN'T FOR YOU
There are always going to be factors that contribute to my impostor syndrome as someone living in Silicon Valley and working in tech. But the biggest ones by far? The fact that:
Almost everyone in this industry is super into D&D or first-person-shooters. And to be a team player in your company you should participate in these things. But I'd rather first-person-shoot myself in the face.
I am however, quite the aficionado of solo games like Solitaire, Sudoku, Crosswords, etc. And when they are implemented digitally in just about a thousand different ways, I have strong opinions on the intricacies of how they're implemented.
So when Google launched their within-search-engine Solitaire game, I was delighted.
Their custom search engine apps, like the Calculator, are incredible. I mean, I don't even use my pre-installed Windows Calculator Utility App anymore - I just go straight to Google Search for all of my calculator needs. And I thank the Seven every day that y'all don't have access to my browser history for evidence of just how rudimentary these calculations are. Last week I may have Googled "6 * 12".
So imagine my surprise when this Solitaire app was not only weirdly buggy, but also had some of the most frustrating UX I'd experienced in a Solitaire game. Notably:
I've been playing games like these for a good portion of my adult life, but I've only been a developer for a small fraction of that time. So it took several frustrating Solitaire games for me to remember that no one is forcing me to play Solitaire and that I can actually just build one my damn self if I care so much about it.
And because I do love our all-powerful Google with its blackmail-worthy database of information (they've got more than just arithmetic searches on me, you know) I kept the UI Google-inspired. I just redid it in a way that was specific to my desires.