Feed the Scorchpot

Each game of Feed the Scorchpot sees you place your two starting farms and buy a recipe. You roll the dice, hoping to get pairings of dice that will activate tiles adjacent to your farms (a 6 and a 5 pair together to activate 11s, and adding a 3 will make a pairing for 8 and 9). The resulting fodder is thrown into pot and multiplied by your Flavor and Essence (both of which you can get from buildings and recipes) to combine into how satisfying the meal is for the dragon. The dragon gets hungrier every year but you get more and better buildings, as well as tools to make the tiles produce fodder from more combinations of dice (or more times from the same combination). There are different dragons to unlock, each with their own quirks to keep things interesting, as well as challenges you can undertake to unlock additional recipes and buildings.

Balatro meets Catan, one of the best combinations of game mechanics I never thought I needed in my life. This game is a threat to anyone who enjoys One More Run's free time, and comes recommended if you have a strong enough will to put the game down. For a bit more detail let's start with what the developer has done right. The mix of new buildings, Tiered buildings, and the ability to scale in multiplicative ways makes the game a solid dopamine hit every time you roll the dice. The addition of multiple die and marks on tiles combined with the various types of buildings mean there is a ridiculous amount of customization to keep you on your toes every run. The additional difficulties thrown at you every few Rounds keep you on your toes even when you have a winning run. There are some Indie Dev hiccups in a few things, the boxes are a bit tight around items and the buildings, there's a few interactions that are undocumented and can mess with your flow, and there's generally an air of clunkiness to the game board (a lack of undo when you're forced to drag buildings to tile corners is devastating for those with hand control issues.) If the above aren't dealbreakers, and they really shouldn't be for what you're getting, I highly recommend this fun little indie with an insane level of replayability. Great job to Moravian and congratulations on really nailing the formula for Numbers Go Up dopamine games. I think I'm going to get more hours in this than Balatro!