Spite & Malice

**Take a seat at the round table.**

Spite & Malice is a card game of racing and blocking for two to six players. Everyone is trying to play out their stock pile first, and every card you play, or refuse to play, gets in somebody's way. Your rivals at the table are computer players, and they are not shy about letting you know how they feel about it.

**How to play**

- Each player has a stock pile of cards. Be the first to play your last stock card and you win.

- There are four building piles in the middle of the table. Each one is built up in order from 1 to 12. When a pile reaches 12 it is cleared away and the next player starts it again.

- Wild cards can stand in for any number. A ghost number on the card shows you what it is standing in for.

- On your turn you hold five cards. Play as many as you can, from your hand, the top of your stock pile, or the top of any of your four discard piles.

- To end your turn, discard one card from your hand onto one of your own discard piles. Think about how you stack them, because you can only reach the top card.

- Play all five cards from your hand and you draw five more and keep going.

**Short game or full game**

Choose a short game (10 stock cards each) when you want a quick one, or a full game (30 stock cards each, or 20 with five or six players) when you want an evening of it.

**What you will find at the table**

- Two to six players on a round table, you and one to five computer opponents.

- Five opponents to meet: Amy, Marian, Fiona, Jeems and Bill. Their faces are animated, and they react to what happens: delighted when they play well, smug when they block you, grumpy when you block them, worried when you are about to win.

- Chain plays together and the feedback builds. Play a card, play another, and the table starts to shake. The winning card sets off a BOOM, a shower of cards and a dancing winner.

- Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for. It runs in your browser.

**Controls (mouse only)**

- Click a card in your hand, your stock pile or one of your discard piles to pick it up.

- The piles you can play on light up gold. Click one to play the card.

- To end your turn, pick a card from your hand and click one of your own discard piles.

- Right click puts a card back.

- The MENU button in the corner lets you start a new game or change the number of players.

**Tips for a good time**

- Use a desktop or laptop browser such as Chrome, Edge or Firefox. It is built for a mouse and is not made for phones.

- The first load downloads about 30 MB, so give it a moment.

- Sound starts after your first click. Turn it up, the cards sound good.

- Full screen (the button at the bottom right of the game) shows the table at its best.

**Credits**

- Game design, production and rules engine: Bill Hall

- Programming: Lucas E. Denton

- Junior programming: Paige Polston

- Characters, environment and effects: Synty Studios (POLYGON Casino, POLYGON Particle FX and Sidekick Characters)

- Game feel: Feel by More Mountains

- Text effects: Text Studio by Impossible Robert

- Typeface: Bungee by David Jonathan Ross (SIL Open Font License 1.1)

- Sound effects: "Game UI Puzzle Sound Effects Pack" by WOW Sound

- Made with Unity 6 and TextMesh Pro

(c) 2026 Bill Hall. All rights reserved. The full list of third-party licences comes with the game in THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt.

Questions or feedback: bill.hall.code@gmail.com