Good but with a major bug
Update: ugh, now that I'm playing longer games (6000-10000 points), the bug is happening every other game! Tempted to lower this to 2 stars. Obviously it wasn't tested enough before releasing.
Overall the game is a fun take on farkle. Music and the opponent comments get annoyingly repetitive though. But the worst part is that every so often, the opponent doesn't make a selection, which essentially freezes the game! You can still interact with it, but the game doesn't progress, so you have to abandon the match. I was 400 away from winning a 6000 point match when this happened - so annoying! That was the third time this has happened to me (update - it's now happened 4x). It also sometimes displays a message saying I'm about to abandon the game - the same message it shows after you tap the Abandon button then the "Go back" button (which doesn't make sense - I hit Go Back, so I'm obviously not going to abandon the game - in fact that message stays there even when you continue playing!).
If this bug is fixed, an option to turn off the commentary is added, and more songs are added, then this would be a 5 star game.
Response from developer
Good artfoundry, Seven months. I shall not insult thee with a tale about the roads ... a man with one laptop and nobody to answer the door tends to answer the code first, and thy list was long enough to keep me busy the whole while. Thou wert owed a reply far sooner. Taking thy complaints in order, for thou didst take the trouble to number them. The freeze. Thou wert right, and thou wert right about the longer games too, six thousand points means a great many more throws, and every throw was another chance for the thing to catch. That observation of thine was more useful than thou knowest. It was not one fault but six, each able to halt the game on its own, which is why it survived every patch I shipped. Dice that never came to rest. A die quietly destroyed mid-throw. The opponent's chosen dice refused, whereupon he tried to bank nothing at all and the turn stopped dead. Three more besides. All six now have a net beneath them, and I proved it by breaking the game on purpose, six ways, and watching it carry on regardless. Four abandoned matches, one of them four hundred short of victory. I am sorry. The lingering abandon warning. Thou hadst it exactly right, and the cause is stupider than thou couldst have guessed. The herald who warns thee about abandoning and the herald who narrates thy game were the same man. When he delivered the warning he forgot his other lines and stood there repeating it for the rest of the match. He has been given a second herald. The opponent's chatter. Two remedies. There is now a switch in the settings to silence him entirely, should thou wish to play against a mute. And for those who keep him talking, every character has twice as many things to say in every situation than he did before. The music. Here thou hast me. There is precisely one tune, and a man can only hear one lute so many times before he begins to plot against the lutenist. It is the single item on thy list I have not addressed, and I will not pretend otherwise. Two of three, then, and the worst of them mended. Fare thee well, and may thy dice roll true.
Almost perfect!
Response from developer
Good Shenalee8, Forgive the tardy reply. Pebbles took fright and bolted, and I was obliged to walk from Rattay to Kuttenberg to deliver the app bundle by hand. My boots are the worse for it. The horse remains unrepentant. Thou art too kind, and I shall blush into my tankard. A confession: there is no studio behind this game. One man, one laptop, and poor judgement about bedtimes. I built it chiefly for myself - it lives on my own phone and I play it more than is dignified - and published it only because it seemed a waste to keep it locked in the cellar. Thy wager, though. Thou hast struck the very nerve. The game did have betting once: stake thy silver, win double or lose the lot. It was glorious, and it was promptly rejected - the App Store decrees that even pretend gambling wants a licensed house standing behind it, and I am but a peasant with a compiler. So the coin was put to honest work. Silver now buys dice from the trader, and prestige carries thee village to village. Less sinful. Marginally. Thou canst play with a friend today - Pass 'n' Play sits in the menu. Playing across the realm is a far greater undertaking, but it is written upon my list, and my list is long. More dice are being carved. There shall never be an advert in this tavern, nor a die thou must buy to win - I have to live with this game too. Fare thee well, and may thy dice roll true.
Fantastic Game with Bad Bug
Response from developer
Good Tech Geek 10258, Forgive the long silence. Two months is a poor showing, even by the standards of a man who walks his own app bundles to Kuttenberg. I could plead bandits on the Sasau road, but in truth I was under the floorboards with a candle, hunting this very fault - for thou shouldst know there is no studio behind this game. One man, one laptop, and poor judgement about bedtimes. I built it chiefly for myself. It lives on my own phone and I play it more than is dignified. I published it only because it seemed a waste to keep locked in the cellar. Thou wert right, and so was the other fellow. The opponent did indeed sit there like a stunned ox, and no amount of tapping would rouse him. That is a wretched way to lose a match thou wert winning. I must also confess to a shabby half-remedy. A stuck die could be knocked flat by shoving another die into it, and once it lay down the game would carry on. But thou couldst only grab the dice that had already stopped, never the offending one, so the trick was near impossible to discover and fiddly even when known. Expecting a man to nudge my bugs out of the way with his thumb is not a fix. It needed doing properly. So, back to the cellar. It was not one fault but six, each able to halt the game on its own, which is why it kept returning. Dice that never came to rest. A die quietly destroyed mid-throw. The opponent's chosen dice refused, whereupon he tried to bank nothing at all and the turn stopped dead. Three more besides, each rare enough to pass for ill fortune rather than a fault. The shoving trick only ever helped the first, the rest it could do nothing about, which is why thy opponent kept freezing regardless. All six now have a net beneath them. I proved it by breaking the game on purpose, six ways, and watching it carry on regardless ... a strange way to spend an evening, but there it is. The mending rides in the next update. Should the opponent so much as pause to scratch himself thereafter, tell me and I shall walk to Kuttenberg again. Fare thee well.
If you are a fan of Kingdom Come Deliverance. This is what you’re looking for.
Response from developer
Good Neon Stardust, Over six months. I have no excuse that would survive scrutiny, not the roads, not the horse, not even the plague. A man with one laptop and nobody to answer the door tends to answer the code first. My thanks for the kind words, and my apologies for sitting on them so long. As for leaping up and putting a knife in a cheat: alas. I am reliably informed that even simulated stabbing wants a licensed and authorised entity standing behind it, and I am but one man with a compiler. The App Store is a stern magistrate. Pass 'n' Play remains the closest I can offer. Share a device, lose to a friend, and settle the matter between yourselves in whatever manner thy realm permits. I shall not ask. There is no studio here, no adverts coming, and no die thou must buy to win. This game lives on my own phone and I play it more than is dignified ... I'll not poison my own ale. Fare thee well, and may thy dice roll true.
Good but with a major bug
Overall the game is a fun take on farkle. Music and the opponent comments get annoyingly repetitive though. But the worst part is that every so often, the opponent doesn't make a selection, which essentially freezes the game! You can still interact with it, but the game doesn't progress, so you have to abandon the match. I was 400 away from winning a 6000 point match when this happened - so annoying! That was the third time this has happened to me (update - it's now happened 4x). It also sometimes displays a message saying I'm about to abandon the game - the same message it shows after you tap the Abandon button then the "Go back" button (which doesn't make sense - I hit Go Back, so I'm obviously not going to abandon the game - in fact that message stays there even when you continue playing!).
If this bug is fixed, an option to turn off the commentary is added, and more songs are added, then this would be a 5 star game.
