Canasta - 0.1

A computer implementation of the game of Canasta. Can be played in single-player mode, or by multiple players over the Internet. Requires Twisted in addition to python+pygame, but the Windows executable should work out of the box without any additional installs.

I'm a novice at Python, and this is my first attempt at writing a game with it. Canasta is mostly awesome, to me, because of its social aspects, so this program focuses heavily on the multiplayer element. You can start a game and have other players connect to you over the internet, as long as you have an accessible IP address and an open port. A chat window is provided throughout the game for players to communicate with each other.

A one-player game is available as well, although the computer opponents are still in a fairly rudimentary state.

If you don't know how to play Canasta, a Google search will turn up some good explanations. When you start the game, you can hit F1 to see a brief explanation of the controls. There is also a manual included in the form of a text file.

The very first alpha release. It contains all major features and should be playable, but you are bound to encounter bugs and instability. Requests for features as well as bug reports are welcome.

Note especially that because the game server is launched as a subprocess of the main application, crashes tend to leave rogue instances of the server process hanging around, which then need to be killed by hand.