Roll-and-write – Stately Play

Dicey Dungeons rolls onto PC/Mac/Linux

August 16, 2019 Tanner Hendrickson 3

PC/Mac/Linux Do year hear that? That’s right, it’s the deck-building roguelike alarm! So soon after the last one, too! This time, it’s VVVVVV/Super Hexagon developer Terry Cavanaugh’s Dicey Dungeons, and it’s just wonderful. The pitch? It’s Dream Quest, but instead of building a deck of cards you’re designing your own roll-and-write sheet on which to delegate dice rolls to deal damage and defeat the denizens of these damned dicey dungeons. And it’s a game show!

Another quick roll-and-write has landed on the App Store: Noch Mal!

August 22, 2018 David Neumann 1

iOS Universal, Android • Remember Yahtzee, that dice rolling game you were forced to play with your grandparents because if you didn’t the only other option was helping them weed the garden? Anyone? Okay, maybe it was just me, but I grew up with Yahtzee as a gaming staple, spending long days at my grandparents’ house while they babysat my brother and I all summer. While it’s somewhat poopooed these days, I don’t really hate Yahtzee. Sure, strategy is almost nil, but there’s something about chucking dice and filling out that score sheet that hits me in the feels. Today, game designers are turning that simple roll-and-write mechanism on its head with games like the recently released Ganz Schon Clever. A similar roll-and-move game with complex rules just landed on the App Store and it too has a German title: Noch Mal!

Short cut: Ganz Schön Clever

July 31, 2018 David Neumann 14

iOS, Android • I didn’t pay much attention to the Spiel des Jahres this year, so I’m a little behind on telling my Azuls from my Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburgs. Yes, that last one is a real game and it actually won the Kennerspiel des Jahres. Thus I was unaware of another nominee vying for “complex game of the year”, Ganz Schön Clever. A quiet release of a digital version has allowed me to give the game a go, however, and I’ve determined that the English translation of Ganz Schön Clever is “what the hell have I stumbled on?”