Beard of Stone

This looked like a game that would be in my wheelhouse, and it may be, I just didn't get a chance to find out. I played through the tutorials, there were some red flags for me in that the tutorial wasn't always synced with what was happening on the screen, and some of the info was hidden behind game objects. Also on one section, the tutorial just stopped tutoring and the game state was unresponsive. Then I fired up a game (only sort of knowing what to expect), and the pacing of the gameplay/turn-transitions made it very hard to know what was happening. Some kind of announcement to whose turn it is or what phase we are in would be helpful. It felt like a bunch of stuff was just happening real fast, and I didn't have time to see who was doing it or what it was until the game paused for my turn. The game mechanics seem interesting, and I like the pixel graphics. It just needs some polish on the UX side of things for me. Some people may find that to be less of a barrier to entry, and for them, this might be a real gem, so I'm giving a thumbs up for now, with those caveats. Edit: After posting this the dev has already patched the issues mentioned here. Give it a spin.

(the few play hours are because I played the demo extensively) Overall I'd say Beard of Stone is an excellent "mythical creation" game. The only game that it reminds me of is a board game of bygone days called Imperial, so it's quite unique. The core is based on a system where each player bids on certain 'cards' that appear now and then, with the one who pays the most gets to reap the benefits. The bidding system itself somewhat limits snowballing into a powerhouse, as long as the other players bid intelligently, as do some of the other mechanics in the game. It's also pretty hard to review, since many of the said mechanics are quite novel. You don't actually play a single people, but rather can guide lots of different peoples, some that might have been created by other gods than you, with your ultimate goal being that you have the most influence over the mortal world, which is usually gained by worshipping the gods and doing acts that are in accord with the race in question(orcs want to burn cities, lowmen want to farm lands, highmen want to conquer kingdoms, elves plant forests, dwarves mine, etc). Essentially you try to win a "score victory" as the only way to win the game, but it's more exciting than it might sound. It's exactly in this kind of gameplay that the game's beauty is in. It's elegant and decently well balanced at the moment. The fun part is that even if you've tried to monopolize a race from early on and built a lot of influence in it, the other gods can invest in your race later on and reap the benefits of your hard work. As such you need to think quite a bit when playing, where to invest to, how to best prevent others from investing in something you're currently highly invested in, etc. Sometimes it might even be in your best interest to get another god in on the race so you'll get more points in the end as they're motivated to improve the race as well, even if you divide the points. Of course, that kind of gameplay can be incredibly frustrating for a player who hates that kind of dynamic in the game. Personally I think its a perfect fit for the game, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone necessarily. The AI is fine for the first few games you play, but once you get used to it it's way too easy to beat. On the other hand, there's a multiplayer element to the game. Thematically it's very reminiscent of stuff like the background lore of Middle-Earth and the like, with races being created slowly, and even the world itself is made piece by piece, with there being much less ground on the first ages than the latter ones. There's also stuff like monsters that can be controlled by any player should they have the proper card, but most of the gameplay and 'lore' is built around the races/peoples that you control through the various cards. The graphics are simple but distinct, as is necessary for a game like this. A single game itself doesn't last too long, somewhere around 2-4 hours I think. The replay value is decent, i'd estimate your average player will get around 3-5 playthroughs before it starting to feel repetitive(only applies to single player, the multiplayer aspect gives for much more replayability as is often the case in games such as this). If the demo is still available, I suggest you give it a try, it gives you a very good idea what the game's about.

Extremely cool digital board game with an extremely responsive dev. Worth picking up if you think it sounds cool at all

Beard of Stone Definition: A hidden gem of a game with a depth of a meteor impact crater that I'm so glad to have stumbled upon Genre is sort of a manipulation/planning game. You only are able to directly able to control those that follow you, everything else, not including those that follow other players, need something else in order to be partially controlled. You know what's bound to happen through prophecies, but its not necessarily guaranteed to go your way. Although you might be a powerful deity, the others grasping for control are quiet powerful as well. The gist of the game is easy to understand, but understanding the value of things like different prophecies and how different races function will probably require several games against the bots. Bonus points for bringing a friend to figure things out with. Although, be sure that neither of the two computers you will be using are on their last leg! (had that problem already) Does have some bugs, but the developer listens to what people say and tries to fix them. Along with that, there hasn't been any bug that can't be fixed by just relaunching the game. (that I've seen) Altogether a unique great game that I look forward to others discovering, exploring, and enjoying as well.