The catalogue opens this month with Chess and Rubamazzo, a few apps at a time after them. See the release plan.

Machiavelli app icon

Machiavelli — aiOrion GamesItalian card game · Third release

Expected October

Machiavelli

The whole table is your puzzle.

Rummy with a clever twist — take apart and rebuild the whole shared table, provided every group is valid when your turn ends — in three forms: the classic two-deck game, the contested scoop pile that punishes a stuck turn, and the looser game with two wild jokers.

3 games in one2–4Apple OS 27iPhone Duo readyNo adsOn-device play
Coming soonRead the rules
Machiavelli game artwork

Learn

Learn the game before you play it.

An illustrated, animated walkthrough of the rules, plus a short read on what the game asks of your mind. Both open here in your browser — no download, no account.

How to play MachiavelliWhat it trains in your mind

A guide for every variant

The rules

How it plays

  1. Use two full 52-card decks with the jokers taken out — 104 cards — and deal thirteen to each player; the con jolly variant adds two wild jokers.
  2. Lay sets and suited runs of three or more cards onto a shared table.
  3. Break apart and recombine any table melds during your turn.
  4. Every meld must be valid at turn end and you must add at least one card from your hand.
  5. Empty your hand first; opponents' remaining cards count as penalties.
Availability note. Expected October is an approximate target. The catalogue opens a few apps at a time, and each release waits until the one before it has settled in.

Ways to play

3 games for the price of one.

Every variant here is a game of its own — its own rules and legal-move checking, its own tables, its own illustrated guide, its own daily challenge, its own achievements and its own taught first game that walks you in. One purchase brings all 3. Each option below changes the table while keeping the engine's legal-move checks in charge.

Machiavelli

Classic Machiavelli: two 52-card decks, no jokers, free table manipulation.

  • Standard Machiavelli — Italian table-manipulation rummy — played with two 52-card decks and the jokers taken out: 104 cards, and no wild card anywhere.
  • Thirteen cards each; the shared melds on the table may be freely rearranged as long as every meld stays valid and you add at least one card from your hand.
  • Every rearrangement therefore has to work with the cards that are really there, which is the puzzle the game is made of.
  • Be first to empty your hand: every card left in an opponent's hand costs them one point, whatever card it is, and the lowest total wins.

Arena

  • Machiavelli Arena2 players · solo
  • Machiavelli Arena — four players4 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Machiavelli — tournament (club)knockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo
  • Machiavelli — four-player tournamentknockout of 8 · 4 a table · solo

Machiavelli — scoop pile

Stuck players flip to a shared pile that anyone can scoop by melding.

  • Machiavelli with one change to what happens when you cannot play.
  • Instead of drawing a card into your hand, you turn the top of the stock face up onto a shared pile — and any player who can use that card may scoop it by melding it.
  • The table therefore keeps a visible, contested reserve, and a turn you could not use becomes an opportunity for whoever is watching.
  • Everything else — thirteen cards, free rearrangement of the shared melds, adding at least one card from hand, penalty points for what is left — is Machiavelli.

Arena

  • Machiavelli scoop pile — Arena2 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Machiavelli scoop pile — tournamentknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Machiavelli — con jolly

Two jokers added as wild cards: a looser, more rescuable table.

  • Machiavelli with two jokers added to the pack — 106 cards — and no other change.
  • A joker is wild and stands for any card, which is what usually lets a blocked table be unblocked: a run can be bridged and a set filled by a substitute, so far more turns are rescuable than in the standard game.
  • A joker laid in a meld stays on the table: you may move it when you rearrange, but never take it back into your hand — reclaiming it with the real card is a rule you can turn on in a variant of your own.
  • Everything else — thirteen cards, free rearrangement of the shared melds, adding at least one card from hand, one penalty point for each card left — is Machiavelli.

Arena

  • Machiavelli con jolly — Arena2 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Machiavelli con jolly — tournamentknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Every online table is a ladder. Each Arena table and each tournament above comes at four entry levels — Challenge 10 GC, Contest 50 GC, Championship 200 GC, and a Friendly 1 GC table that returns the coin to everyone who finishes. The higher the entry level, the more places share the reward; aiOrion keeps 10% of a paid table's entries to pay for running the online game, and nothing from a Friendly one.

Make it yours. Start from any of these, adjust the settings the game allows, and save it as your own template. Online tables start the same way: copy one of the Arena tables, then set the entry, the rewards and who may join.

aiOrion events

Events in Machiavelli.

aiOrion's own tournaments in this game, read live from the game server: when the next ones are and how many places are taken. You enter from inside the app; the entry pays for the online game, and winning earns a reward.

Times are shown in your time zone.

Loading the events

Reading the event calendar from the game server…

All eventsAdd the aiOrion calendar

What is inside

Built around the game, not the grind.

01

Full shared-table rearrangement

Take apart and rebuild every meld on the table — as long as it is all valid when you finish.

02

Configurable match target

Set the score that ends the match.

03

Configurable cards per player

Tune the hand size for a tighter or richer puzzle.

04

High, low or high-and-low ace rules

Choose how the ace plays inside runs.

05

On-device AI opponents

Offline opponents that solve the shared table with you.

Next move

Follow the releases.

Explore every title now; the month labels are approximate, and each release waits until the one before it has settled in. The same rules and identity run on iPhone, iPhone Duo, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro.

Coming soonSee all 21 apps
Private local playOn-device AIConfigurable templatesCalm by design