Post by Max Stern in Kyubu Kyubu Dice jam comments

AGDG DEMO DAY 57 » Entries » Kyubu Kyubu Dice

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Presentation is top notch. Characters lack variety, though, all being petite girls/guys and one bishounen. The Japanese VA confused me, since this is clearly a Western game. I think the cube should be transparent, or there be some other way to improve visibility, since only 3 faces of the die are visible at any one time, but you need to know all 4 cardinal sides to play correctly.

The game progressively becoming harder at the timer passes is brutal. At some point you become stuck and have to watch yourself slowly be boxed in to death. I get that's how Tetris works, but this puzzle is far less intuitive and less user friendly. Overall this is a very difficult style of puzzle game which I don't see reaching mass appeal. The presentation is amazing, but I don't think this gameplay type justifies the effort.

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eldelnacho67 days ago (3 edits)

Thank you for playing it and thanks for the feedback too!

I just want to mention that this isn't the first "Dice" game out there. The XI SAI (Devil Dice) series was a fairly popular franchise since the PS1 days, spawning many games in different platforms up to the PS2 era, which is why there are some fans of those games expecting my game in particular, many from Japan. This game can be just as 'confusing' as mine in terms of mechanics, and to some extent it could be perceived as harder or easier depending on how you look at it.

I understand that the gameplay isn't necessarily 'mass appealing', but when you make a game for 'everyone' and devoid yourself from risks you end up making a game for no one and end up competing in a much larger pool of games that are thinking the exact same thing as you are saying. By creating/choosing your own niche you start building up a small community that potentially grows over time (as it is happening to me). This has worked for other games as well, like the Dark Souls series or Puyo Puyo (which is also definitely not a game for everyone) and many others.

Difficulty is also content, and when you allow players to challenge themselves, you give them a chance to prove themselves as gamers, especially in this modern gaming age where everything is being aimed at the lowest common denominator. A better tutorial and more advance lessons can help out newcomers to the game as there's already people liking the gameplay as it is (of course adjustments are always a possibility). And also other simpler game modes can also ease up on the game's mechanics (a puzzle mode for example).

The characters and visual appeal are there to attract players. They also bring some nice fanarts (see links bellow):

https://x.com/tkomone/status/1607533996015259648/photo/1

https://x.com/opt_oem/status/1784321038093812016

https://x.com/tipushii/status/1647816171939405826/photo/1

That said I'm very much aware of the points you mentioned. I do plan to use these characters and settings for other types of games too, so expect a lot more content! Thank you! All the best!

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