Roll Player vs Ark Nova
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Roll Player
Strategize by drafting dice to build a fantasy character's attributes, gear, and skills. Compete to create the most reputable hero and win the game. Features include multiplayer, AI opponents, and solo challenges.
- Dice drafting and manipulation
- Character attribute building
- Weapon and armor purchasing
- Skill and trait acquisition
- Cross-platform online multiplayer
- AI opponents
- Solo and local multiplayer modes
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Roll Player is a digital adaptation of a dice manipulation, strategy board game where you will compete to create the greatest fantasy character in the role-playing world! Roll and draft dice to build up your character’s attributes! Purchase weapons and armor to outfit your hero! Gain skills and discover your hero’s traits to prepare them for their journey. Earn Reputation Stars by constructing the perfect character. The player with the greatest Reputation wins the game and will surely triumph over whatever nefarious plot lies ahead! At the beginning of the game, each player is assigned a random RPG class, alignment and a backstory. Through a series of puzzle-like dice manipulations, a player optimizes their character's attributes and attempts to maximize their alignment and backstory points. Earned gold is used to purchase various skills, traits, weapons and armor in the market phase of each turn. The game ends with a fully created character sheet of an RPG character and the player whose character has the most reputation points wins the game. The best character sheets are stored in the Hall of Heroes. FEATURES: - Cross-platform online multiplayer! - Private online games with friends - Synced progress across all your devices. Play online game on one device, continue on another! - Play against 5 levels of AI (or multiple AIs!) - Local multiplayer with friends on the same device - Challenge yourself in Solo mode - Keep a record of your best heroes, recent games and various stats - Interactive tutorial - Play and learn! LANGUAGE: English QUOTES: Zee Garcia (The Dice Tower): “The whole thing just comes together nicely! I think that’s a good, good app. It really works well.” Retromation (YouTube): “I think this game is fantastic! It’s such a good interpretation of a board game into a digital format. Just really, really, really enjoyable! Very nice!” AWARDS & HONORS: 2022 Golden Geek Best Board Game App Runner Up 2016 Golden Geek Most Innovative Board Game Nominee © 2026 Mipmap, under license from Thunderworks Games, LLC. Roll Player © 2016 Thunderworks Games, LLC.
Ark Nova
Design and manage a modern zoo to support global conservation efforts. Build enclosures, house animals, and utilize unique cards for special abilities. Compete to create the most successful zoological establishment.
- Plan and design a modern zoo
- Build enclosures and accommodate animals
- Support global conservation projects
- Utilize 255 unique cards (animals, specialists, projects)
- Upgrade action cards for gameplay
- Increase zoo appeal and scientific reputation
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Plan and build a modern, scientifically managed zoo to support conservation projects in an acclaimed strategy board game. In Ark Nova, you will plan and design a modern, scientifically managed zoo. With the ultimate goal of owning the most successful zoological establishment, you will build enclosures, accommodate animals, and support conservation projects all over the world. Specialists and unique buildings will help you in achieving this goal. At the heart of Ark Nova are 255 cards featuring animals, specialists, unique enclosures, and conservation projects, each with a particular ability. Use them to increase the appeal and scientific reputation of your zoo and to collect conservation points. Each player has a set of action cards, which you will use and upgrade to carry out your plans. Each player has a set of five action cards to manage their gameplay, and the power of an action is determined by the slot the card currently occupies. The cards are: BUILD: Allows you to build standard or special enclosures, kiosks, and pavilions. ANIMALS: Allows you to accommodate animals in your zoo. CARDS: Allows you to gain new zoo cards (animals, sponsors, and conservation project cards). ASSOCIATION: Allows your association workers to carry out different tasks. SPONSORS: Allows you to play a sponsor card in your zoo or to raise money. With high replayability and rich components, Ark Nova provides a remarkable gaming experience that will bring the game to the table again and again.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Roll Player at $4.99 against Ark Nova's $10.99. Roll Player also leads on review sentiment (90% vs 73%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). Ark Nova's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (1.3K vs 277). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Roll Player costs $4.99 and Ark Nova $10.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Roll Player against 4.8 for Ark Nova. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 277 and 1.3K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 90% of Roll Player's written reviews are positive against 73% of Ark Nova's.
Roll Player ships an update every 3 months, Ark Nova every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 30, 2026.
| Parameter | Roll Player | Ark Nova |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 — better | $10.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (277 ratings) | 4.8 (1.3K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 90.4% of reviews — better | 73.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 277 | 1.3K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #162 | #27 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 138 MB | 682 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mipmap | Dire Wolf Digital |
Customer experience
Roll Player
Ark Nova
User reviews
Roll Player
From 277 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Faithful adaptation of board game mechanics
- 🎮 Engaging puzzle-like gameplay with dice mitigation
- ✨ Clean, polished, and intuitive user interface
- 🎨 Visually appealing design and presentation
- 💰 No intrusive in-app purchases or ads
Room to improve
- 🐛 Online multiplayer games frequently disappear mid-game
- 🐛 Asynchronous game crashes causing progress loss
- 🎮 Limited character customization in solo mode
- 📱 Landscape-only orientation (not portrait-friendly)
- 🔤 Text size too small on certain devices
Ark Nova
From 1.3K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great implementation overall
- 👍 Lots of fun
- 👍 Good animations
- 👍 Choice of modes
- 👍 Clean, modern and enjoyable design
Room to improve
- 🐛 Tile placement/rotation issues on iPad
- 🐛 Building placement UI issues
- 👎 Difficult to read board state on mobile
- 👎 Lack of simultaneous view for key game info
- 👎 Cumbersome to create games with friends
Bugs and requests
Roll Player
Reported bugs
7 issues- Asynchronous multiplayer games disappear and reappear randomly
- Online private games crash causing all progress to be lost
- Games disconnect mid-play with no recovery option
- Online multiplayer services intermittently unavailable
- Account functionality not working properly
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- Special abilities sometimes hidden from UI (e.g., Bard class)
- Colorblind mode not adequately supported
Requested features
13 requests- Monsters & Minions expansion pack
- Fiends & Familiars expansion pack
- Additional expansion content from physical game
- Full character customization in solo play
- High score/leaderboard tracking
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- Portrait orientation support for one-handed play
- French language translation
- German language translation
- Ability to view opponent actions during multiplayer
- Online multiplayer functionality improvements
- Mac compatibility (M1 MacBook support)
- Text scaling options for accessibility
- Stable asynchronous multiplayer games
Ark Nova
Reported bugs
2 issues- iPad Flash exit issue
- Rewards screen being blocked by other UI elements
Requested features
4 requests- Option to enable larger UI buttons for modal panels
- Full screen mode
- Option to reverse zoom direction
- Improved card readability/zoom
In-app purchases
Roll Player
No in-app purchases
Ark Nova
No in-app purchases









