DICETINY: The Lord of the Dice

This game is actually (and rather surprisingly) good. The only bad part is the writing - it's full of memes & pop-culture references & lolrandom stuff, so it comes out as rather tryhard-ish. But visuals, on the other hand, are pretty good (even the memes - lots of art is based on them) so, as long as you skip the text, it's not very annoying. I'll stress on this - the lead artist of this game is really talented and it's joyful to look on his works. But the most important part is that the core gameplay is rock solid. Yeah, you draw cards, sure, you roll dice, but the game is anything but random - all the abilities, deckbuilding, equip system (that one is badly explained in-game - basically, you pay points for the card now so later you can cast this card with a discount; great in early game and for expensive combos which are impossible otherwise; like, say, Juggernaut + Here's Johnny = whipe all minions on the board) and just the right plays allow you to prevail literally no matter what. The game is not very hardcore, but also isn't too easy - I say that the difficulty is just about right. Each class has its own cardpool (4 classes and ~170-ish cards in total) plus there's a bunch of common cards, shared between everyone. I wouldn't say that the possibilities are endless, but it's more than enough to have a fun run through main campaign (which is about 6-7 hours). Maybe with a bit of experimentation too - you can recruit several sidekicks and they have slightly different abilities from the player's version of the classes and, surprisingly, that changes their tactics a lot. So, considering there are four classes, one can expect something like 30 hours or so of rather fresh gameplay. Which, for 15 bucks, seems to be pretty good. Anyways, it's a pretty nice one, dunno why there seems to be zero attention to it.

Bought in Early Access and now it's not even in Early Access, the purchase button is disabled altogether. Game abandoned by devs, and apparently it's not even the first title they've done this (The Archetype?). Last announcement is that the game purchase is disabled due to a "legal battle" with no elaboration (great omen there!), they removed the Early Access tag and and even the community manager has now been offline 2 months since. Shame, the parts I was able to play it early seemed like it could be fun, but now it's unplayable due to bugs and unpurchasable due to hilarious reasons. Avoid these devs like the plague, and once again remind Valve of devs like these and the need for improving the collaboration between Steam and indie devs with the obligations to refund these cash-grabs and make the devs liable for their promises.

Edit: Removed a paragraph containing speculation as new facts were disclosed and toned down the negativity. Do you like broken english? Do you like meme references sprayed like there's no tomorrow? Do you like awkward gameplay that hinges more on luck than on strategy? Then this is the game for you! ...Or it would be, if: a) it was actually for sale, b) it wasn't left in abandonment limbo, c) it didn't run a pathetic Early Access stage that didn't change all that much from it's buyable phase to its unbuyable phase, d) it wasn't flawed on most aspects. I almost tried to get a refund once, but it wouldn't have stuck for two reasons: I had barely passed the 2 hour mark and I would have asked for the refund quite a number of weeks after I had purchased the game. Quite honestly, I'm tempted to just remove this game from my library and accept that I burnt (I forget how much amount of) money on this. Alas, even if the game does become available to buy, you should not buy it, at least not in the state it is at the time of the review. Even for a "card based" game which relies on dice, there's a lot of more interesting things out there than this.

It seems like it was trying really hard to be Culdcept, but it just didn't quite make it. The content is pretty minimal, but I expected that from an early access game. The main issue is that the core gameplay is very similar to Culdcept, but it lacks the depth that made those games fun (cards and spaces don't have suits, the decks are much smaller, a card's attack is the same as it's defence, etc.). The only area where it matches Culdcept is in quality of the writing. Which is terrible. Overall, I'm kinda disappointed. If they add a TON of content it might have some charm, but the gaps in the core game design are almost too big to fill with fluff. I don't hate it, but it left me even more bummed out that no one has made a decent Culdcept port/copy. Suggestions for the dev team: -Add multiplayer support -Add a card trading mechanic (I feel like I shouldn't have to say this) -Get a native English speaker to do the writing for you -Go replay Culdcept and copy it better

This game hits the target demographic that Culdcept, Guild of Dungeoneering, and Card Hunter does, with sarcastic humor and good board/card game design and card play. Right now it's early access, so the game is very incomplete, but something to put on your watch list to buy for sure when its ready to go! The game is a deck building game, but played on a board where you roll dice to move around, and deal with the challenges on each space through your characters abilities or cards you can play from your deck, all the while fighting the larger threat of the boss you must fight who is also traversing the board. It has good strategy elements, fun graphics, and a touch of randomness that can make you cheer or cry out in agony when that one die roll does or doesn't go your way.

[h1]Portable Description[/h1] DICETINY: The Lord of the Dice is a fun, singleplayer deck-building board game filled with pop-culture references and parodies. Your goal is to defeat the opposing heroes, using spell and minion cards, to ultimately find the ONE DICE that rules all others and defeat the very evil and serious sage Dead Serious. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] [u][b]Rules[/b][/u] A great in-depth guide created by a couple of the developers is presented [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=539542847][here][/url], detailing the user interface, spell cards & minion cards, the board and spaces, and gameplay. I’ll only provide the important gameplay basics and information not in the guide below. When you first start a new game, you must choose a starting class and hero. They each have unique abilities (classes and heroes) which can be used once per turn, or passively active, and lap bonuses (gold, attack, defense, AP, card draw, etc.) which are additional passive events that occur when your hero goes around the board. Each hero will also have different starting AP, Health, and Armor. So far, I have not found any disproportionate imbalances between any of the classes/heroes; however there are a couple easily favored ones. The classes and their unique abilities are listed below. [list] [*]Warrior: class ability is Low Blow (+3 Dmg when battling enemy hero). [*]Wizard: class ability is The Next Great Wizard (Max AP +3 [up to 10]). [*]Rogue: class ability is The Aura of Charisma (10% higher chance to Hire minions). [*]Cleric: class ability is Members Only (use the Temple for free). [/list] At the beginning of a game, you start with 3 cards, and 100 Gold; however, the next person to start gets 150 Gold. A start bonus is then selected: permanent +1 to attack, temporary +1 to AP, or 100 Gold, and the turn begins. There are a few actions that can be performed in a single turn, including: Roll Dice, Draw a Card (by spending gold), Use Hero Ability, Cast a Spell/Minion Card, Equip a Card, or End Turn. These actions can be performed in whatever order you wish. Multiple cards can be cast (assuming you meet the AP requirements) but the Draw a Card and Use Hero Ability features can only be activated once per turn. Every turn, your hero levels up - your AP is replenished, and the maximum AP is increased by 1. The game rules are automatically enforced so there is nothing to keep track of, except for planning out how much AP you will need to use. Applicable targets/spaces will be highlighted for ease of use. Gold is provided upon defeating enemy or neutral minions, opening chests, activating event spaces, etc. Gold is primarily used in-game to Draw a Card, and Hire neutral minions. Hiring a neutral minion (a minion with no allegiance that is already summoned onto the board) will make it become allied to you, and will fight for you as if you summoned it yourself. Battles occur whenever any hero lands on a space with an occupying opposing minion/hero. After every game, gems are awarded. They are used for purchasing additional spell and minion cards to customize and improve your deck(s). DICETINY is first and foremost, a deck-building game. Decks can be reorganized outside of matches, and each hero in your party can have a deck assuming your collection is large enough to support it. [u][b]Match Types[/b][/u] A single game ends whenever the match requirements have been met. The different match types and their requirements that I have come across so far are listed below. [list] [*]Duel: defeat enemy hero. [*]Annihilation: defeat enemy hero and all enemy minions. [*]Betrayal: force opponent to lose all gold. [*]Transport: retrieve all artifacts, then return to starting space. [*]Rush: complete the required amount of laps around the board. [/list] [u][b]Board Design[/b][/u] The general board design and enemy hero encounters will not change if you start a new game; however, spaces and minion locations are procedurally generated. There are 4 different types of spaces, listed below. [list] [*]Base: contains a certain action, such as: the starting point, shop, dungeon, temple, or an event. Minions cannot be summoned here. [*]Event: one time use random event space. [*]Minion: allied, enemy, or neutral. [*]Empty. [/list] [u][b]Video Gameplay[/b][/u] https://youtu.be/yyQdUsEFjJI [h1]Solo Experience[/h1] [u][b]AI Difficulty[/b][/u] So far, I have not had any issues with the AI difficulty. I have not faced any enemies that were either too easy, too hard, or would make stupid decisions. Although some of the enemy heroes seem to have a certain style to them, their predetermined decks will dictate the aggressiveness or difficulty of the encounter. Since the enemy decks were carefully designed, the AI seem to be fairly well balanced. I have seen them: enter shops and purchase spells, hire minions, chase after me, run away from me, target all of my minions, go for the objective, etc. [u][b]RNG[/b][/u] From [i]my[/i] experience, the RNG seems to also be fairly balanced. I believe it has largely to do with deck-building abilities, but for the most part, every action, dice roll, card draw, etc. seems perfectly acceptable. It is very hard to determine the quality of the game’s RNG without running into problems, which I have not. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [u][b]Current State of the Game[/b][/u] The development roadmap, along with update frequency, is outlined [url=http://steamcommunity.com/app/318090/discussions/0/496879865896327732/][here][/url]. As seen with their frequent Steam interactions, the developers definitely seem to take care into providing the love and support needed to nourish DICETINY, and keep it balanced while introducing new heroes, cards, stages, etc. In fact, after 9 months of early access feedback, the official launch has commenced! [u][b]Bugs[/b][/u] There were a couple bugs that I encountered; they are listed below. [list] [*][strike]Achievements are not yet supported, although they show up in the Library/Store pages. Not really a bug, but possibly a useful bit of info.[strike] [*]ALT-Tab will sometimes cause the game to freeze, generally during a loading screen, with a priority to show the window above all else. Only way to kill the process is to restart the computer, or if on Windows 10, go to Task View, add a New Desktop, and open Task Manager there. [/list] [u][b]Verdict[/b][/u] DICETINY is a great way to experience some single-player dice-rolling action. The light-hearted banter between heroes, vast amount of pop-culture references and bravery to use curse words make this game very relatable to young adults. Due to its polished presentation, great card mechanics/deck-building synergies, and hefty game length, DICETINY is definitely recommended to fans of the card/board game genres and those looking for some RNG fun. [table][tr][td]Review copy provided by Fakedice[/td][/tr][/table]

I liked the game but it seems to have been abandoned...

Could have been great. It's in the same vein as Culdcept. It basically plays like Monopoly crossed with a CCG. Unfortunately, it appears to have been abandoned by the developers. They've just left it with several game crashing bugs that make it unplayable. Don't buy it until it's fixed.

Fun game until the racist joke about Koreans made by my character. Way to go scumbag devs! P.S.: This isn't a joke. Beat the "big, bad wolf" character and watch the dialogue afterwards. Your character quips that he will have his Korean friend come to cook and eat the "big, bad wolf" character. Get it? FUNNY, AMIRITE?!!?!!?

Game is ok, but constant crashes take away any pleasure from it.