Rune Dice

Cannot use M&K on steam deck. Game is locked to controller only. Would be helpful if I could leave this in a discussion, rather than a review.

*below is an AI translated review from Ukrainian language* Cool simple concept, executed really well. Plus, the art style is pleasant, and the sounds and music fit the atmosphere perfectly, but... The core gameplay loop gets old very quickly. There’s basically no reason to pick a different class or subclass, no matter how different and creative the abilities are, because the core gameplay is always the same (roll the dice in a way that gives you the maximum number of combinations this already gets repetitive after the 10th time). The dice-rolling process itself is really missing more "fun" elements, as well as arena modifiers. I'm leaving a negative review purely because I want the developers to hear this feedback and hopefully one day deliver a more polished and fun version of the game. Крута простенька концепція, котра зроблена на відмінно. Плюс артстайл приємний, а звуки та музика ідеально вписані у атмосферу, але... Дуже сильно набридає основа ігрового процесу. Сенсу обирати інший клас тапідклас просто нема, хай там як і відрізняються ті здібності(доволі креативно), бо основа ігрового процесу завжди однакова(бросай кубик так, щоб отримати максимальну кількість комбінація*це набридає вже на 10 раз*). Дуже сильно не вистачає елеменів "фану" у процесі кидання кубиків + модифікаторів арени. Лишаю негативний відгук суто із бажанням бути почутим розробниками та можливо колись отримати більш досконалу та фанову версію гри.

J'adore! L'ambiance est très bonne! Très facile à prendre un main! Plusieurs classes à débloquer, et chaque classe à 3 persos/archétypes qui change leurs façon de jouer! La RNG n'est pas horrible, dans le sens où un lancer de dés bien cadré peut faire la différence. Bref, un très bon jeu que je recommande à ceux qui cherchent un roguelite sympathique!

While I usually like roguelikes with the random factor, I tried to give this game a chance, but I didn't seem to click with the gameplay, I unlocked a bunch of stuff , but didn't feel inclined to do another run after a while, tried multiple classes, didn't feel too different one from the other. It takes too long to upgrade your character/classes, and some of the requirements , I find them a little grindy. With that said, this is not a bad game in any sense, art is nice, music is engaging but the gameplay was not my cup of tea. Wouldn't recommend it right now, will probably come back to it later.

Fl0m is responsible for this

Okay, first lemme just say, there are zero dice in this game, as well as zero things that function like dice. The title is misleading. Not deceptive, but it gives the wrong impression. More on that later... Went into this with a shrug and a "well, I can refund it if it blows". By the time I took a look at how long I'd played it...I was well beyond the two hour mark. Embarrassingly so actually lol! This is an absolute banger of a game, and I recommend it as hard as I can! This game has a ton of personality, an amazing amount of depth, and overall shows a ton of heart ♥ The actual mechanic is, I feel, WAY more interesting than what I was expecting! There's no simple term for it that I know of... Combat billiards with cube shaped balls is one way to put it. Or maybe somewhat like if you played marbles, but using dice? Bocce maybe? Point is, you fling stuff into other stuff, to make stuff do stuff 🤭 When done with the right amount of skill and a bit of luck...because these aren't pool balls, they are cubes, they sometimes bounce in absurd ways, which actually feels more acceptable than when a game decides to make balls bounce at angles that are scientifically speaking, utterly ridiculous...you get the wonderful experience of the whole board full of cubes erupting into numerical popcorn! Cube go brr, brain go brr, everyone goes brr! Especially you! The mechanic also helps relieve much of the post-run crash that these types of games sometimes cause. I'll compare it to Peglin to illustrate this term, since there's a lot of visual and mechanical overlap here. You finish a run of Peglin with absolutely absurd combos of balls and pegs and whatever other nonsense going on. And it feels good! Then you start a new run. Your first shot...hits one peg and bounces at some absurd angle...right into the abyss. That's very...underwhelming... We see that same effect in a lot of games...not just that you're not as powerful as you were a moment ago, you've also suddenly become very boring. This game addresses that quite well! I don't feel "ugh..." when starting a new run. There's no boring part to slog thru before your character's options begin being fun again. Really love that part ♥ Here, what happens is that even on room one, turn one, you still have a little geometry puzzle to solve, figuring out the best way to fling your one sided dice to make other dice donk into each other so they cause multiple paralell chain reactions, and usually pull off something that felt fun to do. Much greater room for player decisions to matter, and for them to feel good while doing so! It makes "one more run" a much more rewarding proposition than I see in many of these types! Rune DIce proves, you can remove power without removing fun! There's like...two whole D&D parties worth of characters here to play, each one comes in 3 flavors of starting loadout. Rogue, Warrior, Mage, Archer, Druid, Bard, Paladin, Necromancer. Each has it's own unique cubes and relics, with each one ending up feeling and playing differently than the others. I, at least, get a fair bit of run bleed from this game. You know the effect, you finish a run, then find yourself making tactical decisions based on effects that no longer apply from items you no longer own. Usually realized .1 second After you've already played your turn... I attribute this to the rather streamlined gameflow that seems to be the trend in these games. Finish run. Recap screen. Maybe some unlocks. Back to character select. The meta progression is passive, xp based basically, rather than collecting resources to upgrade stuff. I feel like adding the chance to go do Something else, even just for a minute or two, between runs would maybe help runs not bleed together quite so much. It doesn't even have to contribute any meta progress, gimme a town to decorate or something to do for a few minutes between runs. Okay, now I'm gonna ramble a bit about the title. No real "review" beyond this point. Rune Dice. Makes me think of someone trying to hop on the bandwagon with Dicey Dungeons, Die In The Dungeon, Astrea: Six Sided Oracles...to name only three contenders in that crowded category. And as mentioned, there are exactly zero dice in this game. That matters immensely, because whether you came looking for yet another take on "StS, but with dice", or find that idea offputting...this is not that game. I'm not just being Technically Correct Man from Well, Ackshually. I'm not just hairsplitting about the "dice" being cubes with the same number on each side. It sets an incorrect expectation. Even the "Rune" half of the title feels kinda...stapled on... The game does contain things called runes. This is true. They are consumable items. Potions, basically. They look like a d4, and have no properties that I would associate with runes. Mechanically, they are potions. There is no reason they need to be "runes", besides maybe as an excuse to use rune in the title. Put the two together...Rune DIce... The runes aren't really rune-like, and there are absolutely not any dice. Misleading title. Not necessarily deceptive, but misleading. Misleading in the worst way too, it makes the game sound lame! Honestly, very bland and SEO feeling title too. Like..."what are the most commonly searched words in gaming that we can plausibly use for a title?" It tells nothing about the game, worse, it gives an impression of a game that it isn't, a lesser game at that. Rune DIce makes me think I'll be rolling dice that have something that looks like runes on each side. You do not, the actual game is incredibly more interesting. In a world that is increasingly burying itself under unimaginative derivative soulless heartless bandwagoning nonsense...for a game that clearly shows more heart than a...uhhh...I dunno...something with a lotta hearts? Heart store? Spire? Anyway... For such a unique and interesting game, that someone(s) clearly cares a ton about, one that should easily stand head and shoulders above the crowd...to bury that under such a bland boring beige title like "Rune Dice" is like...some kinda crime against culture or something! I'd love to know how this title was chosen, and by whom, and why...it just feels so spectacularly bad, that the explanation is probably...completely mundane and possibly boring actually... And now...not because anyone asked me to, nor is it my place to do so...but if I'ma criticize a thing this hard, it's fair to offer at least one alternative, the "think you can do better, huh?" sorta thing. Hypothetically...if it was my decision to make? If I had a cube flinging/bouncing/merging game sitting in front of me, and my job was to name it? Here's one off the top of my head. Caromancy. See what I did there? Caromancy, from carom, a pool term referring to when the cue ball strikes multiple other balls in succession, which is very close to the gameplay here. And of course -mancy is what any fantasy setting school of magic appends to itself yea? I certainly like it better. But then, I'm no developer, or publisher, nor some corp goon with a marketing degree, nor a focus group... /end overbearing volunteer creative consultant mode Long and short... I think this game is equally as awesome and amazingly fun as its title is awful. And by now I think I've made both sides of that pretty clear 🤭

Highly enjoyable roguelite/like game. I put several hours into the demo before actually picking up the game. Its much more of a physics game than a dice game, but I don't think that takes away from it at all. It would be interesting to see some dice with multiple faces on them. Maybe DLC?