Dicey by Tim Eriksen

[raw]
made by Tim Eriksen for LD 41 (COMPO)

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Dicey is a "probability management" game about winning space battles by throwing dice! Gain experience points by winning, and spend those points on buying more dice and repairing your ship. Dicey can be pretty dicey (see what I did there?), so try a few different strategies and see if you can beat the odds!

  • Play Dicey here: https://timeriksen.itch.io/dicey

  • Play post-compo balanced version here: https://timeriksen.itch.io/dicey-balanced

How to play

The game is controlled by click on-screen buttons with your cursor. To roll your dice you press the button directly above the dice in the lower left corner. The game consists of several phases that loop until you either get all the way to the end and win or explode in a fireball of missing graphics.

The flow of the game goes something like this: 1. Jump forwards with your ship by throwing your jump dice 2. Encounter an enemy ship 3. Battle the enemy ship by taking turns throwing attack and defense dice (damage is calculated by the sum of the attack dice minus sum of the defense dice) 4. Win (or lose) the encouter and gain experience points (XP) 5. Spend earned XP on buying more dice or/and throwing your repair dice to attempt to repair damage 6. Repeat!

I recommend trying the balanced version as well as it is much more fun!

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Sadly, I did not get to spend as much time on my entry this time around as I had other work to attend to. So I'm sorry for the "developer art" and the missing audio! That being said, I'm very happy that I actually managed to submit something :)

Edit: I added a small fix for a rare bug that would completely freeze the game.

Ratings

Overall 334th 3.395⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 447th 3.105⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 369th 3.316⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 208th 3.868⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 461th 2.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 347th 3.029⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Given 7🗳️ 8🗨️

Feedback

John Darrington
23. Apr 2018 · 03:23 UTC
I got a very FTL like vibe from where the graphics are heading. I'm sorry you didn't have time to flesh our more of your ideas, I could see where this would have kept my attention for a lot longer. I like the concept of the game and I think it warrants some more Proof of concepts. Thank you for all the work you did!
Blinkenlights
23. Apr 2018 · 03:23 UTC
Reminds me very much of Pen & Paper games, perhaps a little idle.
vidsneeze
23. Apr 2018 · 12:28 UTC
Interesting. Luck based gameplay but you improve by adding dices.
Some sort of events to recover hp in between battles would be pretty awesome.
I like the repair but those extra dices are too tempting lol
🎤 Tim Eriksen
23. Apr 2018 · 12:56 UTC
@john-darrington Thank you! Yeah I think I will keep working on this game. It would probably work fine as a tabletop game as well :thinking: I published a balanced version of the game now if you would like to give that a try too :slight_smile:
🎤 Tim Eriksen
23. Apr 2018 · 12:59 UTC
@vidsneeze I'm glad you found it interesting :slight_smile: I have addressed many of the things that were annoying to me in the balanced version that I added just now. I would love to hear what you think about it after the balancing! :slight_smile:
zeMenno
23. Apr 2018 · 13:20 UTC
I think this i an amazing concept! with some more time spent on this, this could be pretty cool!
blubberquark
23. Apr 2018 · 13:26 UTC
This needs some sound effects, screen shake and maybe an animation that shows how the dice interact, by moving them around or hitting your ship with the dice after rolling. Or just showing how you shoot the missiles and how many miss. Otherwise, quite good. I like the clean art style.

Also 2 d4 are usually better than 1 d8.
🎤 Tim Eriksen
23. Apr 2018 · 13:27 UTC
@zeMenno Thank you! I hope to develop this further in the future :slight_smile:
🎤 Tim Eriksen
23. Apr 2018 · 13:29 UTC
@blubberquark I agree! It needs a totalt rework of all visuals when I eventually continue working on it.
Nick Rafalski
23. Apr 2018 · 13:30 UTC
I really like the concept! Making everything diced-based from attacking/defending to even jumping between encounters, was a really good use of the theme.

The upgrade system is quite nice for such a short time frame.

I just wish the actual combat rules were explained somewhere (unless I missed them?). I am still not 100% what they are.

The graphics are actually very pleasing for being so minimal.

Nice job!
🎤 Tim Eriksen
23. Apr 2018 · 13:39 UTC
@nick-rafalski Thanks! Yeah the tutorial sort of got deprioritised :grimacing:. I will add a short explanation to the entry page here, but to sum it up: the combat is just changing between you shooting the npc and the npc shooting you. The damage is calculated by taking the sum of the attack dice minus the sum of the defense dice.
MZA
23. Apr 2018 · 17:06 UTC
I like the idea. The game strikes as being highly randomised and i feel there should be something to control the randomness. At first I thought you had to click the dice to stop it rolling but it stops rolling itself.

Nevertheless, Great Job!
Jupiter_Hadley
24. Apr 2018 · 16:59 UTC
Neat concept! I included it in my Ludum Dare 41 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_9PaAd0SRA
khofez
24. Apr 2018 · 19:42 UTC
A little idle but interesting concept
McCordinator
25. Apr 2018 · 17:59 UTC
This is a really cool concept, and I'd love to see it fleshed out more!!


if you have time, checkout my entry: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/golden-beak-golf/