Post by LifesASkit in Dice Down jam comments

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I like the general concept and was able to win pretty quickly!

I think the upgrades aren't really the best, it mostly boils down to just 'get more money (which is perfectly fine of an upgrade)' and 'win easier (which is where I start having problems)'. I think there could've been room for strategy here. Maybe an upgrade that gives you more leniency, allowing for a wrong roll or two without breaking your streak? Maybe one that would count inconclusive rolls as the next number in the sequence? I feel there's a lot of room for strategy that could've been explored. The extra dice was a good step in this direction, but given how expensive it is compared to the other upgrades, going for it didn't really cross my mind at all.

TL;DR: I think more varied upgrades would've been good.

Even still, pretty solid submission! Art looked nice and the sound design was really good. Good work!

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kungfuisdead9 days ago (1 edit)

This is great feedback, and it gets at the hardest problem I faced making the game -- "How can I add gameplay depth and strategy to a dice roll?"

I really agree that the upgrades are lacking, and the 'weigh the dice' upgrade is really overpowered, while the 'add a dice' upgrade is way too expensive. The existing upgrades will need to be balanced for the post-jam version, but I'm at a loss for new upgrades at the moment. I think it's important to require the player to roll exactly 6 -> 5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1, so I'm against upgrades which would allow wrong rolls or count inconclusive rolls.

One upgrade that got cut was a physics simulation speed upgrade, where you can just make everything run faster overall. I like that and I think I'll bring it back, but it doesn't offer any strategy beyond the question of the upgrade cost vs. the expected value of faster rolling.

Anyway, I don't mean to ask you to design my game for me, but I really appreciate your thoughtful feedback! Thank you for really engaging with it. The constructive criticism is by far my favorite part of the game jam. Thank you for the nice comment!

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