ANTE ZERO

COUNT DOWN TO NOTHING.

ANTE ZERO is a dark, poker-inspired psychological card game where every bad decision costs a finger.

You and your opponent each receive five cards and secretly choose three. Add their values, apply a pattern bonus, and try to reach the table’s COUNT without going over.

The highest safe Pressure wins.

The loser meets the knife.

HOW TO PLAY

Choose exactly three cards from your hand.

Aces automatically count as 1 or 11, whichever produces the stronger result.

Your cards can receive one pattern bonus:

• Pair: +2
• Run: +3
• Matching Sigil: +4
• Triple: +6
• Suited Run: +7

Stay at or below the displayed COUNT.

A safe hand defeats any bust. If both players bust, the smaller overflow wins. A true tie causes a redeal with no injury.

FOUR OPPONENTS

EASY — THE FATHER

A frightened man playing for reasons he would rather not explain.

This guided match teaches the rules, highlights his mistakes, and gives you time to understand the table.

NORMAL — THE NEWCOMER

He did not know what the game involved when he sat down.

As he loses fingers, fear begins to affect his decisions.

HARD — THE PATRON

A wealthy regular with six fingers and little sympathy.

He plays almost perfectly and only begins making rare mistakes when the knife has taken enough from him.

EXTREME — THE BOSS

No visible hand. No mistakes. No limit to what the house can take.

Pay a $1,000,000 entry fee and open ten house locks before losing all five fingers.

The prize is $1,000,000,000.

The game is not fair.

FEATURES

• Single-player and Multiplayer modes
• Dark, fully 3D table environment
• Poker-inspired card combinations
• Mouse, keyboard, and controller support
• Timed Normal, Hard, and Extreme matches
• Dynamic opponent dialogue
• Multiple difficulty levels with different behavior
• Accessible card-count assistance
• Stylized, non-bloody finger-loss effects

CONTROLS

Keyboard

• 1–5: Select or deselect cards
• Left / Right: Move between cards
• Space: Select the highlighted card
• Enter: Lock your selected cards
• Esc / P: Pause

Controller

• D-pad / Left Stick: Move between cards
• A / Cross: Select the highlighted card
• Y / Triangle / Start: Lock your selected cards
• B / Circle: Pause or go back

CONTENT WARNING

ANTE ZERO contains implied finger loss, coercion, gambling themes, threatening dialogue, and stylized violence.

Created by ToShamara for the GMTK Game Jam 2026.

CREDITS

3D Models

• Hand by Michael Carey (Source) — CC BY 3.0
• Iron Knife by Clint Bellanger (Source) — CC0 1.0

Textures

• Oiled Oak Wood Veneer by Textures.com (Source)
• Dish Cloth 2 by Textures.com (Source)

Fonts & UI

• Go Mono by Bigelow & Holmes Inc. (Source) — BSD 3-Clause
• Font Awesome 4.7.0 by Dave Gandy and contributors (Source) — SIL OFL 1.1

Audio

• TimGM6mb General MIDI SoundFont by Tim Brechbill and David Bolton (Source) — GNU GPL v2