Guilds of Greybrook

Going to break my own rule on reviewing a little early for two reasons: 1. I'm a few beers down and vibing. 2. New dev, first game. Feedback is always good not just for them but for prospective players. The TL;DR is absolutely yes, grab this game. [h3] Atmosphere [/h3] The atmosphere is pretty casual, with soft music and colorful artwork. There isn't a need to rush, no quick time events that demand your immediate attention. You can save and quit whenever you want. The game is management focused, so there isn't really impending doom that isn't earnings related. Which brings me to the next thing. [h3] Difficulty [/h3] The "rules" of the game, namely how to succeed and not failing a run on your first tax day, are non-negotiable. They are also not overly complicated, so if you're not the type who wants to sit and digest RPG rule sets before jumping into a game, it's still manageable. You might just crash a few runs but that's also baked into the genre. I don't think you need to be a RPG veteran to get into the game, but you might need to be patient. On a difficutly scale of "1 - Visual Novel" to "10 - I'd rather fold a frisbee in half and try to swallow it than play that level again", I'd say it's probably a 5. Not forgiving but also not unfair, and definitely enjoyable to boot up a new run. [h3] Gameplay [/h3] I'd say what makes this addicting is the fresh set of decisions you need to make each game day. Which buffs to buy, which to equip, whether to invest in your guild or hold on to money to pay for people/taxes, or managing things like injuries and morale. There's a LOT of RNGesus to consider. Sometimes you're not going to get an ideal set of options, it's not Sim City where everything is truly under control. But the randomness makes things exciting in its own way, and you can put your finger on the scale with good preparation when it comes to the dice rolls on missions. [h3] Should I buy it? [/h3] I'd say at $6 it's a no brainer. It's a game I will certainly keep playing, as the attention span required for it is actually quite low. It is perfect for quick gaming sessions, or once I punch down a few more pints and am unable to dodge anything in Wukong. [h3] Lastly [/h3] I do want to name and shame a certain character in this game that you can recruit. This guy named Francis Crown. He stubs his ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ toe and he leaves. Not a mensch. Not a team player. Boo this man. Gets injured all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time, I'm putting him in the stables so he stops getting sad and making me buy him beer.

Such a cool idea to combine a deck building game with customizing dice faces! I absolutely LOVE the art and music. The difficulty curve can be quite challenging, but the achievements are enticing and give you a fun variety of goals to play with. You'll come away from failed runs with a good idea of which approaches could work better!

It can be a little difficult and buggy but it is a very easy to pick up and it can be a lot of fun. Hope they fix the softlocks or make a save system at some point!

This game is reminiscent of some of my favorite roguelike strategy tabletop games. It's so simple, but it just works. The systems are solid, combining deckbuilding with push your luck decisions which keeps it really engaging. I was worried about failing due to bad dice rolls, but there is plenty of room to come back after a bad day of quests, so the luck element didn't bug me. The art direction and characters are really strong and I loved the music as well! There is definitely room for some polish and bugfixing, but overall it's a great first game from this dev! And well worth it at such a low price.

Fun little indie game with lovely artwork!

If you're into management sims, Guilds of Greybrook flips the genre on its head. The dice features bring a completely new dynamic to the table that brings the whole thing together. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a more difficult sim game.

This game is really fun! It’s a unique spin on the genre and extremely addicting. Every run feels fresh and I have a hard time putting it down. I can’t tell you how often I think to myself “just one more turn” and then that one turn becomes many. The art and music is very pretty and the gameplay loop is refreshing and original. It’s a tad buggy at the moment but nothing game breaking and the devs are working on it. Overall, especially for the super affordable price, this game is a steal! Definitely pick it up if you like the genre.

For a first title launch by the developer, this is a pretty decent game. Yes, it has some bugs, but that's expected and not frowned upon...except the time my dice didn't show up to roll, and I couldn't access the menu, so I had to manually kill the game (and not being aware that auto-save wasn't a thing, lost the entire run). The premise is solid and I like each day having different contracts to tackle. The game is a solid team-management title, and you must learn how to adapt day-to-day to get the best outcomes. The item shops are helpful, even if completely random in what they offer. There is a wide varied mix of characters, and being able to modify them for different needs/uses is very useful. The general flow of the game is very good, but after a few days, the day-to-night-to-day animation gets old. There isn't any way to skip that, and it doesn't add anything necessary to the gameplay. Also, right before the first contract comes up for rolling, the night moon sky background quickly switches to the daytime with some guy and a horse. Seems like that bug would have been caught during playtesting. I wish the morale scaling seemed a little more balanced. It only seems to increase by 1 each time, and only when that character succeeds on a mission. However, I had a number of times where a 5 morale character would barely fail a mission (thanks to his teammate rolling horribly), and his morale went from 5 to 1. Like, don't get so sad so quickly, my dude. It's ok, we'll bounce back. Would also be nice if every two trainings or stable workings would bump morale by +1. Maybe I'm just not following the intended gameplay path to get me a win, but the costs of the upgrades in the market feel too steep. You have 42 days to raise 2,500 gold, and need to upgrade your storeroom alone 4 times to even hold 2,500. Add to that the need for more recruits (which costs more to upgrade than the storeroom) and the need to have better die-side upgrades, and it gets expensive quick. On top of that, you need to pay your recruits, which gets more expensive the more people you have. All of that compounds with the fact that two unlucky contract rolls could cause your uber-upgraded person to just up and leave you cause their morale dropped suddenly. IMO, the multi-day contracts are highly preferred, unless you have an 85%+ success chance on a single day contract. Yes, they generally take longer and can lock up 1-3 characters for many days, but there is no possibility of failure, and with the right die sides, you can come out very profitable. With all the above said, I do still recommend this game as it is fun and at a good price point. With more tweaking and adjusting, it could become a very solid title and open the door for future expansions and additions.

Great game! I've really enjoyed my time with it.