I have been through a full (winning) session to see what’s what, and here are some comments! :)
Remarks:
- I like the 3D setting; the ‘anonymous’ players and the polyhedral dice really make you feel taking part in a board game.
- WASD + QE makes being layout-independent even more important, and… once again, it is not. XD Nothing serious though, just wanting to draw attention to this point (and my little AZERTY) once more.
- I think this game is a good example of how making things clear to the player is critical and not granted at all — as you say (in your answer to fatedgamedeveloper), you could not implement all the explanations you wanted, and this is felt right from the beginning of the game. I think letting the player choose when to start would be a good idea, too, just so he can peek around and understand where the elements are and how things are going to proceed.
For example, at first, I did not even realize the other players were my allies; I thought I was playing against them and the skeleton was just some sort of passive skill activator. X) (Did not notice his health bar and that the other players were hitting him.) That may sound silly, but when you’re thrown into the game, you just do not know what is going on, as no clear objective is stated (I recommend doing so in the game page and in your comment, just for total fools like me ;))). Maybe will regular MMORPG / A-RPG players get it quicker, though. - Wow, building a long dice tower is not that easy, here! :o Although a short one (say, 2, 3 or even 4 dice) is manageable without even rotating the dice. I am not sure how to enhance this physics-based system, although I find it original and welcome. I think you made the battle rather easy so that the testers could see a full run, so maybe would have I been forced to go out of my way then and fiddle more with the dice-operating system.
- The ‘Restart’ and ‘Quit’ buttons that appear once you have won seem not to work (I used the desktop version, following your advice); or partially, because while the screen stayed the same, the game’s sounds started again! X)
I think the game is rather original and makes a smart use of the theme; funnily enough, while the context is (A)RPGs, the genre is… dexterity, rather than randomness. XD Literally stacking dice is a funny unexpected mechanic. I just wonder if this will not get repetitive a bit fast, or if there are other mechanics in store for such a game. And the atmosphere is great (I am sure some music would have made it even more so).
An interesting game! I did not know at all what to expect, and I was surprised.
PS: I realize dice-operating system sounds almost like disk operating system. X) I was not intending any promotional product placement for evil Microsoft, though. I allow you to steal this involuntary pun. ;)