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Dicetris
Dicetris is one of 16 entries in the annual Mac game dev contest uDevGames. Developed by the Cosmic Exploration Group, Dicetris tells the story of an interplanetary exploration team who are intercepted on their journey home by some sort of “higher life form” - hence the intriguing tagline, “Does God play dice?” Unfortunately, the whole story didn’t make it into the game, so you’ll need to take a peek at their description page to figure out what’s going on plot-wise.
On the bright side, a deep understanding of plot intricacies is not a prerequisite for actually playing the game. Upon launching a freshly-downloaded copy of Dicetris, you’re greeted with a simple menu screen.
The Intro button will take you to a short cutscene that tells part of the plot. Unfortunately, there are no instructions to be found in the intro scene, or in any kind of included read me. This is by no means isolated to Dicetris - many of the entries, likely due to time constraints, neglected to include a formal tutorial or read me. The lack of read me, however, is somewhat mitigated by the gameplay screen.
Basic instructions are clearly visible in the main screen pictured above. However, this still leaves you with no concept of what you’re actually trying to accomplish by shooting the dice. As far as I have seen, there are simply no instructions to be found anywhere near the downloaded game - you have to visit the devblog to figure out how to play. For convenience, I’ve paraphrased the ground rules here. The basic objective of the game is to eliminate dice before they reach the bottom of the screen. This is done by rotating your own die to an appropriate number, and then shooting it at the falling dice. To eliminate the dice, you must form one of the following:
1. A group of three or more of the same number dice. (i.e 3, 3, 3)
2. A group of three or more dice in sequence(i.e 3, 4, 5)
3. A group of two or more dice that sum to 7 (i.e 5, 2).
The lack of explanation, in my opinion, is a major shortcoming in an otherwise cool puzzle game. Once you know how to play, it’s fun to see if you can get better scores by varying your method of elimination, and trying different block arrangements. The play on Einstein’s words is amusing. And a surprise at the end provides a great conclusion.
With some gameplay tweaks, some more plot development, and some general polish, Dicetris could be the next addictive puzzle game. Overall, it’s a solid game concept that needs a bit more work on execution.
Which for a three month contest, is amazing. If you agree, vote for Dicetris and other games at http://www.udevgames.com/vote/
