Charming roguelike deckbuilder Dicey Dungeons will see six new episodes added to its gameshow on July 7th in the free Reunion update for all players. Hailing from designer Terry Cavanagh, the DLC gives each of the base game’s six contestants an episode with “wildly new designs and rules”, the devs say. Play through all the episodes and you should get another 4 to 5 hours out of the game.
]]>Localisation is a tough task, even when not considering languages English has tried its hardest to stamp out over the centuries. But today's 1.8 update for Dicey Dungeons brings developer Terry Cavanagh's dice-roller a little closer to home by adding full Irish language support, alongside proper gamepad controls, balance overhauls and two new baddies who've been waiting on the sidelines since launch.
]]>When the historians of the future cast their cyber-eyes over the deluge of stupidity we encrusted upon the primitive internet, they will see that our fables, our moral storytelling, was mostly conducted with flashing colours and double-jumps. Yes, videogames have adopted the moralistic finger-wagging of fairytales and Victorian novels, for better or for worse. They have taught us a lot about ourselves and our place in the world. Here are 13 of the "best" moral lessons from PC games. Yes, you may take notes.
]]>It’s Friday the 13th, the day of Saint Badluck, patron saint of ladders and casinos. And it is a fabulous holiday. Out there, parades are getting ready to be rained on, and children are looking forward to tonight’s shenanigans, when they will dress up as mirrors and knock on doors, declaring: “sweets or I’ll smash myself”. I love Friday the 13th. So many cherished memories. So many splinters of reflective glass.
So, Happy Bad Luck Day. Here’s a list of the 9 unluckiest characters in videogames. Spoilers for pretty much every game mentioned. So, watch out.
]]>Lately, whenever I've had a spare couple of minutes, it's become a habit to fire up Dicey Dungeons. It's an RPG that is played over the course of many, many runs. I've succeeded rarely and failed often, yet somehow I've come back for more. Lady Luck has enticed me with her lethal game show of dice rolling.
]]>Some big updates, ports to new platforms, and expanded mod support are coming to Dicey Dungeons, lead developer Terry Cavanagh has announced, laying out his plans for the deckbuilding roguelike's future. Our Brendy said the game was quite good in our Dicey Dungeons review when it launched three months ago, not just because you can power through episodes as furry bearlike dice, and the devs have since given it six updates and a Halloween event. Soon players will be able to make even more of an impact on Dicey Dungeons themselves, thanks to the upcoming mod-focused update 1.7.
]]>As I was lurching around my neighbourhood, dressed like a scary poll tax collector, I banged on a door and readied myself for my traditional Halloween scare-a-thon. To my surprise, it was Terry Cavanagh’s mansion. He gave me a hearty laugh and tipped a new Halloween-themed Dicey Dungeons update into my plastic pumpkin. His cute deckbuilding roguelike is now 100% more Halloweeny for the next week, all for free! Let’s see what he gave me, shall we?
]]>Dice? Cards? I often feel Terry Cavanagh's quite brilliant little puzzler Dicey Dungeons could've easily been a board game. Thankfully, it's a videogame, meaning balance changes and new challenges don't require sourcing a printer to download pages and pages of errata.
All you need to get a hold of today's 1.5 update, the "biggest since launch", is a couple of minutes of internet access, and voila! New bonus rules, tweaked eliminations and a host of heartbreaking new spells for the most enchanting cuboid this side of the tabletop are all yours.
]]>The German Play is happening next week, or Gamescom, as you may have heard it called by uninformed proles. The big games show will see a few of the RPS treehousers zipping off to Cologne to breach and clear the whole city of all its games, like a well-oiled unit of militant journalists. On this week’s podcast, they prepare themselves for the mission. Thumbs at the ready, maggots.
]]>Terry Cavanagh is known for making difficult games, including the likes of Super Hexagon and VVVVVV, two tough-as-nails gauntlets that challenge digital dexterity and reaction speeds. They're crucibles where the sting of failure is treated by the balm of an instant restart. They're not, notably, deckbuilding roguelikes that revolve around dice manipulation. That would describe Dicey Dungeons, Cavangh's latest and (according to him) greatest game.
Back at GDC in March, I got the chance to ask him about it. "People hate dice and randomness," I said. "Why did you make a game about dice and randomness?"
]]>There is a happy Saturday morning feel to Dicey Dungeons. It's as if you’re munching on Coco Pops and watching cartoons, as you fiddle with some toy dice that came free in the cereal box. This is a sorta-deckbuilding game about being transformed into a walking, talking dice and battling creatures on a rigged game show for a chance to "SPIN THE WHEEL" (the wheel always lands on a skull). It’s a make-your-own-luck strategy game about micro-arithmetic, about adding up chump change into shiny pound coins, then flinging those pound coins straight at the forehead of a toothy cowboy. It’s not bad.
]]>It's normal to have a little dice-rolling in a game. Putting them in the hero's chair, not so much. Dice are normally the silent judge, deciding clutch victory from horrific failure on a whim. They're what separate mission success from a pile of dead XCOM squaddies. Maybe it's time to put those bones through the wringer themselves. See how they like it.
Dicey Dungeons is the latest project from a team of talent headed up by hexagon masochist Terry Cavanagh, reunited with musical bleep-bloop maestro Chipzel. It's random, it's tactical, and it's out in three weeks.
]]>'Dice equipment management' might not be a phrase that ignites your passion for turn-based roguelikes, but it does accurately describe Terry Cavanagh's latest game. Don't be fooled though: Dicey Dungeons is still in alpha, but it's already a blast.
Update 0.11 landed last night, introducing new art from Marlowe Dobbe and new music from Chipzel. You might remember Chipzel from Super Hexagon, a previous game by Cavanagh that I found hard to stop playing for entirely different reasons - apart from the music. As of this update you'll need to pay if you want access to the latest version, but you can still play the builds from the pre-Chipzel era for free. You might not want to though, after bopping your head to the trailer below.
]]>There's a temptation to look at games with dice in them and go 'EW! Randomness!'. I'm aware of that because it's sometimes my instinctive reaction, even though I know better: dice can be a fantastic driver for Interesting Decisions, and Terry Cavanagh's latest project proves it. He's been working on Dicey Dungeons for the past 3 months, though it was only this week that he confirmed it'll be his next commercial release. It's a roguelike with more than a pinch of Slay the Spire to it, despite swapping out deckbuilding for... dice equipment management?
Cavanagh reckons it's shaping up to be one of his best games, and well, he would say that - but I've been playing the latest free online build, and I agree with him. And I bloody loved Super Hexagon.
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