I’ve recently discovered Diedream and I’m absolutely in love with this game! Huge props to Alfred Valley for crafting something so simple, yet so engaging. It’s perfect for those late-night solo sessions when you’re too tired for anything complicated but still crave a bit of adventure.
What I love most is how easy it is to customize. You can tweak the game to your liking, and the random number generator is a genius stroke! I will admit, though, that after playing a lot, my math brain sometimes tries to recalculate odds and guide the totals when there are important rolls. To counter this, I’ve started using numbers with 3 or 4 digits for the summing process, but that can take a bit more time.
I’ve been on the lookout for a less conspicuous way to generate random numbers, and I’ve explored quite a few alternatives, always keeping it within the mind. But I have to say, the method used in Diedream is the most elegant I’ve found. It reminds me of some classic randomness concepts, like those discussed by Marsaglia—such a neat implementation! (For the curious, check out this fascinating post on randomness: https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/randomness/)
In fact, I was so inspired that I decided to make an Apple Watch app! Yes, I know there are tons of random number generators out there, but most of them require some attention. With this app, you don’t need to look at your watch at all. I’ve even introduced haptic feedback to communicate the generated number—just tap the screen and feel the series of taps that represent your new number. Plus, there’s a night mode, so the screen stays really dim and doesn’t disturb anyone sleeping nearby… or give away that you’re sneaking in a game session. 😉
So, what do you think? Any suggestions for improving this little project (codenamed RandomDie)?
I’d love to hear your thoughts! If there’s interest, I might even create a TestFlight version of the app for others to try out. Now that I think about it, this app could potentially be useful for other mind games too—who knows what it could evolve into!