About NewfieCards

NewfieCards is a special place on the internet where traditional Newfoundland card games come alive. Created with love for my parents, Lorraine and Reg, who still call Newfoundland home, this site is my way of bridging the distance between us.

Whether you're a Newfoundlander far from home, missing family gatherings, or simply someone who loves a good game of cards, you'll find a warm welcome here.

The existing design of this site is clean and simplistic, based on how I currently design and build web applications in my work life. Full stack developer is a hat I wear... If you know what that is, then you'll probably understand. So form and function guide the initial design. However, this is NewfieCards, and that means something. So the design will evolve in that metaphorical direction, once function has been properly established.

For Family Near and Far

Distance shouldn't keep families apart. NewfieCards lets you sit down at a virtual card table with loved ones, no matter where life has taken you. From the rock to the mainland, from coast to coast, we're bringing Newfoundlanders together one hand at a time.

Remembering Those We've Lost

All of the AI "Computer" players are more than just computer opponents; they're loving tributes to real people who once sat around our kitchen tables, sharing stories and laughter over a deck of cards. Their spirits live on in every game we play.

• Scat (31) — playable now: A fast-paced game of collecting cards to reach 31 points in a single suit. You can sit down against the computer players and play a full game, round after round, until somebody wins. The rules are here, and they now match the game the table actually deals — including the bit where knocking and coming up lowest costs you two lives.
• 120s — playable, in beta: A traditional Newfoundland trick-taking game, four players in two partnerships. The rules are written up and the table deals them: bid 15 or 30, the high bidder names trumps, everyone throws what they don't want and draws back up, then five tricks a hand until a side reaches 120. It's new, so the table is plain and the computer players are sensible rather than clever.
• More games coming: Cribbage, Rummy, Krazy 8's and Go Fish are named on the front page and none of them is written yet — they're a wish list, not a menu.

• Working now: Play a full game of Scat against the computer players — deal, draw, discard, knock, lose lives, get knocked out, and somebody wins at the end of it.
• Working, but nobody's really tried it yet: More than one person at the same table, live. The plumbing is in and it's been driven with several connections open at once, but two actual people have not yet sat down and played each other a whole game. Expect to find something I haven't.
• Not built: Video chat at the table. It's still an idea and a sketch, not code.
• Partly there: The computer players. They play properly, they'll knock on you, and each seat now keeps the right name and face all the way through a game. What they don't have yet is a personality that changes how they play — Gus and Bessie hold their cards exactly the same way today.
• No downloads or installations needed—play instantly in your web browser
• Not built: A free demo game to try before signing up. There's nothing you can play without an account right now.
• Read this before you sign up: the site is invite-only while I get it steady. You can create an account, but it sits waiting until I let it in, and you won't be able to sign in before then. Nothing tracks your game history back to you yet either — games that finish are counted, but there's no page that shows you your own record.
• Not built: A mobile app for iOS and Android. Planned, not started.

I built this site, because even though I left Newfoundland 30 years ago, I never really left it behind... No Newfoundlander ever does. It's for mom and dad Reg and Lorraine Porter, who are still living on the rock, keeping our traditions alive. It's for my brother Reggie, who went east, completely leaving North America, when I went west. It's for all the Newfoundlanders scattered across our big country and far beyond.

Most of all, it's for anyone who's ever missed home, missed their family, or missed those who've passed on. Through these games, my hope is that we keep these memories alive and our connections strong, no matter how far we wander from home.

This project wouldn't have been possible without the incredible support and contributions from so many wonderful people. A heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped bring these memories to life and keep our traditions alive in the digital age.

We take your privacy and safety seriously. All registered users' interactions are logged to ensure a safe and respectful environment for everyone. We have zero tolerance for harassment or inappropriate behavior—this is a family-friendly space where everyone should feel welcome and most of all, safe.

Written September 2026. I've tried to keep this honest rather than flattering — if a thing is done I'll say so, and if it isn't I'll say that too.

What Works

• A whole game of Scat: This is the big one, and it's new. The table deals, you draw and discard, the computer players take their turns, somebody knocks, hands are shown, lives come off, players get knocked out, the next round is dealt, and eventually one player is left standing and the game says who won. For most of this site's life it played exactly one turn and then sat there. It doesn't any more.
• The computer players take their own turns, and they knock: They don't wait to be pushed and they aren't there to lose politely.
• The seats keep their names and faces: There are 6 unique AI characters at the moment — Bessie, Ed, Patsy, Dave, Gus and Harold — and the seat you're playing against stays that person for the whole game, portrait and all, even if the server restarts underneath you.
• Accounts, sign-in and the invite gate: Registration, login and profiles work, and the site is deliberately closed: a new account waits for me to approve it before it can sign in.
• Game rooms: Create a room, sit down, and let other people watch a public table.
• Nobody sees your hand but you: What each player is allowed to see is decided in one place and checked again on the way out to the browser. That's had more testing than anything else here.
• Fixed this week, and worth knowing about: when the last two at the table were both computers, they used to pass the same card back and forth and never finish — it stranded roughly a third of games. They no longer take a card they'd only throw straight back, and two hundred test games since have all reached a winner. The table still watches for it and will tell you if it ever happens again. If you do see a game sit there doing nothing, that's worth an email.

What's Half Done, and What's Wrong

• Nobody has played a whole game by hand yet. Every complete game so far has been driven by a test script or by me chasing a bug. The game plays; it is not what you'd call play-tested. You are quite likely to be the first person to find whatever's next.
• AI personalities don't affect play. The names, faces and the people behind them are right. How they play is identical from seat to seat.
• 120s can't be started. Choosing it in the lobby fails with an error. It needs bidding, trump and card play built, and it needs a settled answer on how a failed bid scores.
• The face-down card renders blank. The card back art isn't wired up, so a face-down card shows as a plain white rectangle. Cosmetic, and on the list.
• Card animations and sound: The positioning maths is written; drawing, discarding and dealing don't animate yet, and there is no sound at all.
• Saved table layouts: Saving one works. Keeping several different named ones does not — there's a fault underneath that allows only one per game and table size.
• On a phone: The table is a fixed size and doesn't reflow, so on a narrow screen you'll be scrolling and pinching. It works, but it isn't comfortable yet.
• Two things I haven't decided how to rule on. If the last two players tie for lowest on their final life they both go out together, and the game ends with no winner — that's what the software does today, and it happens in a small handful of games. And if somebody knocks and then closes the tab, that round can't be finished; the table gives up on it after a while and stops. Neither of those is settled, so I've written down what happens rather than pretending there's a rule.

A correction

This page used to describe the multiplayer as nearly finished, with the last of it blamed on one browser needing a fix. That was wrong twice over. It was never anything to do with Safari or with any browser, and it wasn't a finishing touch: the game froze after a single turn for everyone, everywhere, because of a fault on the server side in how a turn was handed on. That is what has now been fixed. I'd rather leave the correction here than quietly delete the sentence and hope nobody remembers it.

Next Steps

The immediate priorities are:

1. Actually sit down with somebody and play a game through by hand, start to finish, and fix what that turns up
2. Two real people at one table, watched properly
3. The card back art, so face-down cards stop rendering blank
4. Give the characters card sense of their own, so playing Gus isn't the same as playing Bessie
5. Make the table work properly on a phone
6. Card animations, then sound
7. 120s — settle the scoring first, then build the bidding and the play
8. Open it up to family and friends once the above is steady

This site is still alpha, and it still has the rough edges you'd expect. But Scat plays now, all the way to a winner, and that's a different site than it was a week ago. Please do poke around whatever you have access to. If you hit an error, or something that just looks wrong, send me an email with a screen capture to shannon@newfiecards.com — that's genuinely how these get found. And always remember, it's just a game, so have fun.

Development Timeline

Working on this project one day per week, here's the estimated timeline:

• Phase 1 - Core Completion (9-12 weeks): Fix multiplayer, add animations and sounds
• Phase 2 - Game Expansion (4-6 weeks): Complete 120s, add Cribbage foundation
• Phase 3 - Video Chat (8-10 weeks): Integrate WebRTC video chat system
• Phase 4 - Mobile Apps (12-16 weeks): Native iOS and Android apps
• Phase 5 - Social Features (6-8 weeks): Tournaments, leaderboards, achievements

Total estimated time to full version 1.0 release: 10-14 months at current coding schedule

Hosting & Operating Costs (2 Years)

Here's a breakdown of estimated costs to run NewfieCards for two years:

Infrastructure Costs

• Web Hosting (DigitalOcean/AWS): $25-50/month = $600-1,200
• Database (PostgreSQL): $15-25/month = $360-600
• Redis (WebSocket support): $10-15/month = $240-360
• CDN/Static Assets: $5-10/month = $120-240
• Domain Name: $15/year = $30
• SSL Certificate: Free with Let's Encrypt

Third-Party Services

• Email Service (SendGrid): $10-20/month = $240-480
• Video Chat API (Twilio/Agora): $50-100/month = $1,200-2,400
• Error Monitoring (Sentry): $10/month = $240
• Analytics: Free with Google Analytics
• Backup Storage: $5/month = $120

Development Tools

• GitHub Pro: $4/month = $96
• Development Server: $10/month = $240
• Testing Devices: One-time $500-1,000

Marketing & Growth

• Google Ads (optional): $50-100/month = $1,200-2,400
• Social Media Promotion: $25/month = $600
• App Store Fees: $99/year (Apple) + $25 one-time (Google) = $223

I'd be honoured if you help support this project

NewfieCards is a labour of love, that I'm building to extend Newfoundland traditions into a virtual space to help keep families, like mine, connected across any distance. If you'd like to support the development and hosting costs of this project, please know every contribution helps ensure we can keep the virtual card table open for anyone and everyone to join. "Whether you be Newfie, or not B'y".

Support on GoFundMe

Thank you for being part of this journey to extend Newfoundland traditions into a virtual space.