I just beat the game, so I feel now is a good time to properly review it. This game was fantastic! It's fun and relatively difficult, especially with its mechanics. The dice fit together so seamlessly that the right setup can allow you to achieve incredible things, so how the game plays is truly up to the player. Despite beating the game, I will definitely be coming back for more, 9/10
was doing pretty well then boom floor 16. before, each floor was doing 10 damage per turn at most. floor 16 there were 2 enemies that did 10 damage per turn each.
I absolutely love this game! I can honestly say this is one of the few games I actually really look forward to seeing update in the future!
The concept is fantastic, the mechanics work perfectly, if albeit infuriatingly so in some cases, and the dice diveristy, while limited for now, has still yet to disappoint after multiple replays!
I love the enemy design, and while it is painful to get round where you're desperately trying to kill 3 archers before they shoot you full of arrows, or trying to bludgeon your way through 2 flies so you can finally murder that Elite hiding behind them that just won't stop making it a nightmare to survive, or slowly chipping your way through a shield while it's not only boosting itself but getting supported by an Elite while both take whacks at you (and then after breathing a sigh of relief once you survive immediately feel yourself inhale it back in as the next floor is the exact same duo).
The dice are really fun, from 'The Poop's' hidden mechanic, to rolling that perfect RNG and getting not only a gold, non-crystal heal, but then also a heavy, gold, miracle, non-crystal heal (though then you get a beatdown by a Shield defending an Elite shield for two rounds in a row, and barely survive the final boss with 3 HP).
Though I will admit I'm still confused by some titles, such as miracle, overkill, and trickster. I don't know if they're supposed to imply extra hidden abilities like 'The Poop' has, or just to imply they deal extra damage compared to their standard gold versions.
Sure there's some minor issues, if you remove the heal-dice from the attack layout it'll leave the green + icon next to your character until you put it back on the layout and then take it off again, or the rounds end, sometimes you only get the same rewards for multiple rounds, up to 5 or, though quite rarely, more in a row such as only heal/upgrade health and remove dice, or add and heal despite you desperately needing to rebalance your deck with either some removals or upgrades so you'll stop only pulling ones.
But really all they are are minor ones that are either graphical glitches, or in all honestly just complaints about how certain functions don't work in a way that makes the game play a bit easier while in truth as it is doesn't actually interfere with the gameplay past sometimes making a run a bit harder than usual. Nothing that's actually game breaking, or can't be played with with a bit of extra strategy.
All in all, this is a fun concept, a fairly unique roguelike, and an all around fantastic game I'd honestly pay for even despite it already being free!
I can't wait to see where you take this in the future!
only complaint I have is that the elite archers are just stupid. they can do up to 14 damage, and even on a run where I had heavy gold healing and blocking dice, I still couldn't manage to take him down when he was in the back of a room. also, PLEASE let us choose which bug to attack first, or put elite archers only in the front or middle so you don't take all of your health's worth of damage just getting to him.
first of all, it would make it more strategic and they would have the freedom to be more creative with rooms, and second of all I suggested an alternate solution as well. also why do you go to everyone's suggestions and go '(suggestion) would make this way too easy' lol the game is rng reliant anyway so why not suggest a few changes to make it more fair to the player
The game is one of the best but I recommend doing something like putting a 2 super troops cap because once I got 2 elite blue bugs with an elite healer in the back and there was nothing I could do, but apart from that this game is amazing! Can't wait for the next update.
Well, I think this is easily the best game I ever played on itch.io!
I especially like the rogue-like permadeath, but I see three problems related to the "death drops":
They are too random: In my last game I only got "new dice" and "remove dice" in the first 10ish waves and only "upgrade dice" and "heal hp" in the last 10ish waves. The other way around can also happen and is way more useful.
In the first waves, the new dice you can get are boring. They are the same you already have. They should be at least one point better.
The heavy dice are far better than most others, since they are the only way to have more than three dice on the board. In my last game I had three heavy dice and losing was out of the question henceforth.
Apart from that, moths (the healers) are extremely hard to beat and annoying in the beginning. I think they should only show up from wave three or so...
good game, good combat, but its very frustrating to go all the way back to the start. It would be nice if there were some form of permanent upgrades, for example dice that you can keep from run to run to make death less frustrating.
What's the green dot that floats in front of the valorous frog?
Suggestions: you need something to nerf the tactic of amassing blue points, which is easy and boing.
A few options for you (maybe, all of them):
* "critical hit": occasionally, an enemy will score a critical and remove all your blue points instead of inflicting damage. Maybe warn about this: at the end of the previous turn, a crosshair moves from that enemy to the character, and stays there -- this means that, at its next turn, that enemy will score a critical -- assuming it survives. Some enemies will do this more often than others. (dont' make them do this if they inflict more damage with a normal hit.)
* "stale blue points": at the end of each turn, after the enemy scored their hits, some 1/3 or 1/2 of your leftover blue points always evaporate (not the enemies). Edit: it's important that you lose a fixed %, like 50%, rather than a fixed amount, to make it less and less convenient to accumulate points.
* "fatigue / time limit": a hourglass counts down combat turns. After it runs out of turns, you get to play one fewer die per turn, and it resets. (note: even after you are without any die left, you might still miraculously win, thanks to heavy dice). Edit: I know that this means that when the fatigue kicks in, you are pretty much dead. But it's better than a "hard" time limit i think. (Edit 2: maybe: fatigue timer does not tick if you willingly use one fewer die, and recovers if you use two fewer dice.)
* "all dice can shatter": crystal dice break every time, but even standard dice can shatter occasionally. (This gives you some pressure to do things rather than just wait amassing blue points). Edit, a better option: they occasionally shatter when you DON'T use them, not when you use them. (and when they do, they don't get put back into the pouch). So it's not a shatter, it's a "decay" (maybe make them evaporate, graphically). Edit2: a new type of "long preservation" dice which never "decays" like this.
i just beat this game and have a few problems with it, firstly the final boss is a bit too easy, you should give it a few minions, or break it up into three enemies with different strengths, and there is no reward for beating the game, nothing like a cute drawing, or an unlock, but even with all the problems i see the game is still incredibly fun and intresting
YOOOOOOOOOO I beat the game (holding on with 8hp) and I feel so EPIC!!!!!
I just have two things to say:
One: When you get new dies, it's always the same sides if it is silver, gold, ect. So possibly make a pool of what is the max and spread it out along all the sides??? I don't know how hard that would be, I don't know what game engine you use and how it would work in that engine, but I think it would allow for some planning ahead if you were given lets say, a silver die with one 6 but the other sides are trash, or one that is all 3s. Agen, I don't know how hard this would be for you, but I think it will increase the strategy.
Second thing is that I saw some people saying they wanted to target enemies, and because I like to logic puzzle myself, I thought about it, and came up with an idea of a target die, that switches your target by the number you roll. This may or may not be a crystal die, but doing this would allow for larger (but weaker) groups of enemies to exist. This probably would be extremely hard to implement and was just a random idea I came up with from reading the comments, so take this with salt.
Anyways, I can't wait for the next update, and I'm thinking of joining the discord (I feel strange in bigger servers)!
nice game, finished on first play through. I think you need something to limit block-stacking like crazy. on the other hand, it's great the way it is. I think there is a lot of potential to expand on the idea, nice work!
The getting a block build is not, but for when I beat it I didn't get rid of my attack and upgrade by boost dies, because boost dies strangely get weaker as they get stronger, and some times I needed to do a lot of damage to take down a guy, expressly with healers. Soo this strategy mayyy work, but it is riskier when you get rid of attack.
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I just beat the game, so I feel now is a good time to properly review it. This game was fantastic! It's fun and relatively difficult, especially with its mechanics. The dice fit together so seamlessly that the right setup can allow you to achieve incredible things, so how the game plays is truly up to the player. Despite beating the game, I will definitely be coming back for more, 9/10
was doing pretty well then boom floor 16. before, each floor was doing 10 damage per turn at most. floor 16 there were 2 enemies that did 10 damage per turn each.
extremely hard and very fun
İ love it it is very interesting game .
i love it
I'm addicted send help. Such a fun game, looking forward to the second update!
me too
So Cool!!!
wait i get it now because die is also the singular name for dice oh my god amazing game 10/10
can someone give a good list of strategy games?
1. This one
2. This one
3. This one
nice
Best music and combination of mechanics!
great!
I was afraid when I read the description that I was going to run into a copy of dicey dungeon, but not at all!
It took me a while to get to the "fin", and I loved trying to find optimal strategies! Congrats!
agree, i just hope the next update changes it some since once you find the strongest strat, game becomes pretty easy
This game is amazing.
I have never played a game like this before, and I have to say man.... You did a FANTASTIC job on this I love it
When do you put the android version? I love this game
I absolutely love this game! I can honestly say this is one of the few games I actually really look forward to seeing update in the future!
The concept is fantastic, the mechanics work perfectly, if albeit infuriatingly so in some cases, and the dice diveristy, while limited for now, has still yet to disappoint after multiple replays!
I love the enemy design, and while it is painful to get round where you're desperately trying to kill 3 archers before they shoot you full of arrows, or trying to bludgeon your way through 2 flies so you can finally murder that Elite hiding behind them that just won't stop making it a nightmare to survive, or slowly chipping your way through a shield while it's not only boosting itself but getting supported by an Elite while both take whacks at you (and then after breathing a sigh of relief once you survive immediately feel yourself inhale it back in as the next floor is the exact same duo).
The dice are really fun, from 'The Poop's' hidden mechanic, to rolling that perfect RNG and getting not only a gold, non-crystal heal, but then also a heavy, gold, miracle, non-crystal heal (though then you get a beatdown by a Shield defending an Elite shield for two rounds in a row, and barely survive the final boss with 3 HP).
Though I will admit I'm still confused by some titles, such as miracle, overkill, and trickster. I don't know if they're supposed to imply extra hidden abilities like 'The Poop' has, or just to imply they deal extra damage compared to their standard gold versions.
Sure there's some minor issues, if you remove the heal-dice from the attack layout it'll leave the green + icon next to your character until you put it back on the layout and then take it off again, or the rounds end, sometimes you only get the same rewards for multiple rounds, up to 5 or, though quite rarely, more in a row such as only heal/upgrade health and remove dice, or add and heal despite you desperately needing to rebalance your deck with either some removals or upgrades so you'll stop only pulling ones.
But really all they are are minor ones that are either graphical glitches, or in all honestly just complaints about how certain functions don't work in a way that makes the game play a bit easier while in truth as it is doesn't actually interfere with the gameplay past sometimes making a run a bit harder than usual. Nothing that's actually game breaking, or can't be played with with a bit of extra strategy.
All in all, this is a fun concept, a fairly unique roguelike, and an all around fantastic game I'd honestly pay for even despite it already being free!
I can't wait to see where you take this in the future!
This is fantastic! I had a tough time balancing out my moves and hoping that I'd get the right dice
A little on the easy side but a neat little game.
only complaint I have is that the elite archers are just stupid. they can do up to 14 damage, and even on a run where I had heavy gold healing and blocking dice, I still couldn't manage to take him down when he was in the back of a room. also, PLEASE let us choose which bug to attack first, or put elite archers only in the front or middle so you don't take all of your health's worth of damage just getting to him.
being able to choose target would make this way too easy
first of all, it would make it more strategic and they would have the freedom to be more creative with rooms, and second of all I suggested an alternate solution as well. also why do you go to everyone's suggestions and go '(suggestion) would make this way too easy' lol the game is rng reliant anyway so why not suggest a few changes to make it more fair to the player
Very good game :D
NICE!!!
The game is one of the best but I recommend doing something like putting a 2 super troops cap because once I got 2 elite blue bugs with an elite healer in the back and there was nothing I could do, but apart from that this game is amazing! Can't wait for the next update.
Playing this was amazing!
Oh wow! I remember playing this during the jam -- glad to see its getting updates! Great work, guys!
wow... what a great game! So simple and yet so cool! very nice!
Well, I think this is easily the best game I ever played on itch.io!
I especially like the rogue-like permadeath, but I see three problems related to the "death drops":
Apart from that, moths (the healers) are extremely hard to beat and annoying in the beginning. I think they should only show up from wave three or so...
good game, good combat, but its very frustrating to go all the way back to the start. It would be nice if there were some form of permanent upgrades, for example dice that you can keep from run to run to make death less frustrating.
would make it too easy
This is really cool!
I would love this game if you could restart the last battle if you lose. Or if your dice carried through to the next play.
dice carry over would be way OP
And that's a problem how? X3 Leave my set of heavy dice alone.
Great game! Love it!
What's the green dot that floats in front of the valorous frog?
Suggestions: you need something to nerf the tactic of amassing blue points, which is easy and boing.
A few options for you (maybe, all of them):
* "critical hit": occasionally, an enemy will score a critical and remove all your blue points instead of inflicting damage. Maybe warn about this: at the end of the previous turn, a crosshair moves from that enemy to the character, and stays there -- this means that, at its next turn, that enemy will score a critical -- assuming it survives. Some enemies will do this more often than others. (dont' make them do this if they inflict more damage with a normal hit.)
* "stale blue points": at the end of each turn, after the enemy scored their hits, some 1/3 or 1/2 of your leftover blue points always evaporate (not the enemies). Edit: it's important that you lose a fixed %, like 50%, rather than a fixed amount, to make it less and less convenient to accumulate points.
* "fatigue / time limit": a hourglass counts down combat turns. After it runs out of turns, you get to play one fewer die per turn, and it resets. (note: even after you are without any die left, you might still miraculously win, thanks to heavy dice). Edit: I know that this means that when the fatigue kicks in, you are pretty much dead. But it's better than a "hard" time limit i think. (Edit 2: maybe: fatigue timer does not tick if you willingly use one fewer die, and recovers if you use two fewer dice.)
* "all dice can shatter": crystal dice break every time, but even standard dice can shatter occasionally. (This gives you some pressure to do things rather than just wait amassing blue points). Edit, a better option: they occasionally shatter when you DON'T use them, not when you use them. (and when they do, they don't get put back into the pouch). So it's not a shatter, it's a "decay" (maybe make them evaporate, graphically). Edit2: a new type of "long preservation" dice which never "decays" like this.
Do you really want more random in a game that fed up with random?
Updated but still needs a HP counter (ie XX/XX). Otherwise you have to remember what Max HP is to properly strategise.
Also, "Heal HP" should be "Heal 10 HP".
Loved it, well done. Also first time I feel like I've ever been able to finish a roguelike :D feeling proud
this is so fun, i love it
i just beat this game and have a few problems with it, firstly the final boss is a bit too easy, you should give it a few minions, or break it up into three enemies with different strengths, and there is no reward for beating the game, nothing like a cute drawing, or an unlock, but even with all the problems i see the game is still incredibly fun and intresting
just noticed where it said that the ending isn't really the total end and there will problem be more updates so nvm on my second problem
what dose upgrading ur dice do
makes it so they roll higher
ok thanks
YOOOOOOOOOO I beat the game (holding on with 8hp) and I feel so EPIC!!!!!
I just have two things to say:
One: When you get new dies, it's always the same sides if it is silver, gold, ect. So possibly make a pool of what is the max and spread it out along all the sides??? I don't know how hard that would be, I don't know what game engine you use and how it would work in that engine, but I think it would allow for some planning ahead if you were given lets say, a silver die with one 6 but the other sides are trash, or one that is all 3s. Agen, I don't know how hard this would be for you, but I think it will increase the strategy.
Second thing is that I saw some people saying they wanted to target enemies, and because I like to logic puzzle myself, I thought about it, and came up with an idea of a target die, that switches your target by the number you roll. This may or may not be a crystal die, but doing this would allow for larger (but weaker) groups of enemies to exist. This probably would be extremely hard to implement and was just a random idea I came up with from reading the comments, so take this with salt.
Anyways, I can't wait for the next update, and I'm thinking of joining the discord (I feel strange in bigger servers)!
nice game, finished on first play through. I think you need something to limit block-stacking like crazy. on the other hand, it's great the way it is. I think there is a lot of potential to expand on the idea, nice work!
tips for begginers : go full defence ( upgrade block and boost dies ), and remove 1 of attack / block dies so you can upgrade it easily
sounds like an awful strat lol
The getting a block build is not, but for when I beat it I didn't get rid of my attack and upgrade by boost dies, because boost dies strangely get weaker as they get stronger, and some times I needed to do a lot of damage to take down a guy, expressly with healers. Soo this strategy mayyy work, but it is riskier when you get rid of attack.
ok thanks for the tip @Toaster_on_mass :D
@Toaster_on_mass
i also realized that upgrading boost dies to gold is a waste, instead you want silver ( boosters have diminished returns )
I JUT FOUND OUT A GAME BREAKING MECHANIC
so get a heavy die then place it, after you place it the next turn it will be in the same tile BUT it wont use any die cap
( so the die cap is now 4 )
omg that strat actually worked extremely well :o
@EchoCap really :/ try it first got me to wave 20
Very cool "just one more turn" kind of game !
Nice concept, nice execution, love the art style.
Needs some difficulty spike, or change of enemies.
Good Job!
Well done this is really a fun game - music is also very good