v0.5

Closing up March with another update for Roll or Nothing, and this one is quite big! 🎉🎲

In the last update I introduced 3 new dice types, but I've walked those back now in this update. I thought they might make the game more exciting by adding variety, but in reality they just added complexity for the sake of complexity without any of the fun. In my play tests I found them quite lacking any of the excitement I was looking for and tended to steer clear of buying them. Disappointed and frustrated, I removed them and went back to the drawing board to find new ways to add stakes and excitement to every roll.

I began thinking about rolling dice in other mediums. For instance, what makes rolling dice exciting in a regular board game? After some thought, it struck me. Doubles! Rolling two or more of the same number usually comes with some kind of bonus, like being able to take a second turn, and can turn any mundane roll of the dice into a jackpot win! Here was a mechanic staring me in the face that I'd failed to capitalize on. So late one evening I threw the new system together and introduced a new mechanic that changed the game in a fundamental way:

Bonuses

After your initial roll is scored, any multiples of the same number (doubles, triples, etc) and any runs (3 or more consecutive numbers in a row) are calculated and added to the score. So rolling triple 8's will add another 32 to your score. As you can imagine, this impacts your score in a big way, and one number's difference can take you from a losing hand to a skin-of-your-teeth win. Here was the excitement I was looking for!

Adding such a large change to the scoring system threw every other system out of balance. Suddenly I was earning truckloads of cash and I could buy everything under the sun, which made the game far too easy to beat. So I had to spend some time rethinking and balancing some of the core mechanics that have been around since the first game jam prototype.

Earnings

Your earnings at the end of the round are no longer calculated from your round score, instead you earn cash based on half your total roll (before bonuses are added). So if you roll a 12, 4 and 5, you will earn $11 (rounded up). You still earn money from interest and unspent rerolls.

Item upgrades

Certain items can be upgraded between rounds, making them all the more powerful! Look out for the Upgradable Item tag.

Boss rounds

This one is quite exciting, and something that I've had in the pipeline for some time. Every 3 rounds (starting at round 4) you will encounter a boss round that adds some kind of obstacle to your roll. Sometimes what looks like a sure win can turn into a quick loss if you've put all your eggs into one basket during the run. It's not all doom and gloom, though. As a reward for beating a boss round you are awarded a free upgrade at the end of the round. Pick wisely!

Restart

You can now press R at any time to start a new run. If at any time you're just not feeling your current setup, you can press R to start fresh instead of closing and opening the game (or refreshing the page if you're playing on web). Eventually I'll have this built into some kind of menu, but for now you can use the R shortcut key.

More inventory space

That's right, you can now hold more than 3 items in your inventory! Look out for the inventory space upgrade as part of the rewards when beating a boss round.

Dice availability and scarcity

I have made all dice available to purchase at any time, instead of presenting the player with just 3 options to pick from. I thought this might make it easier on players who are trying to design their hand around a certain type of dice. Upon playtesting though, I did find that this "always available" change made things a little bit too easy, so one of the very last things I added to this build was the concept of "scarcity" meaning that the store can run out of a certain type of die or might not even have stock of the particular die you want. You can always restock the store if this happens, but that comes at a small fee.

That is it! Thanks for reading this far and as always, thanks for playing! See you next time with (hopefully) another cool update. 🫡