Comparison

Text Maze vs Abalon

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Text Maze

Explore randomly generated mazes in a retro-style game reminiscent of classic Apple II titles. Search for a crown on each level, encountering helpful items and a monster. Enjoy unlimited replayability with increasing difficulty and authentic green screen graphics.

Highlights
  • Random mazes
  • Increasing difficulty
  • Overhead map
  • Sound effects
  • Retro graphics
  • Unlimited replayability
Features
Read full description

Text Maze is a great retro game invoking all the fun of the old Apple II games. In this game you explore various levels of a random maze looking for a crown on each level represented by a "*". Each level will become larger and increasing more difficult as you explore. There are several objects you can find to help you on your quest and at least one monster looking to stop you. Some features of the game include: * An overhead map * Sound effects * Basic Ray tracing * Cool Retro graphics * Authentic Apple II green screen look * Random maps of increasing difficulty * Unlimited replayability Thank you for your interest in this game. It's been something I've been playing with since the early 1990's on an old Apple II and Apple IIgs. If there is enough interest I have several upgrades planned in the future. If you have any questions or comments feel free to e-mail me at: don.espe@gmail.com. Please rate this App so I know if I should continue to add new features.

About

Abalon

Engage in tactical turn-based combat and deck-building strategy in a tabletop-inspired world. Command units, cast spells, and outwit opponents with creative combos and strategic positioning. Explore diverse biomes, collect cards, and build the perfect deck to become a legend.

Highlights
  • Turn-based tactical combat
  • Deck building strategy
  • Top-down battlefield control
  • Over 500 unique cards
  • Character-based abilities
  • Creative combo system
  • Procedurally generated world exploration
Features
Read full description

Welcome to Abalon, a legendary tactical roguelike and deck building RPG! CARDS. DICE. TACTICS. Embark on epic roguelike adventures to explore a tabletop inspired world and discover its secrets. Abalon combines turn based tactical combat with deck building strategy. Defeat monstrous hordes and powerful bosses to reap the rewards of treasures, allies, and spells. Roll the dice and become a dungeon crawling legend! COMMAND LIKE A GOD Command from a top-down perspective that gives you ultimate control over battlefield tactics. Your characters look up to you (literally) as their god to indicate they are ready to receive your orders. Commands are intuitive: Drag cards to cast spells. Drag warriors to enemies to attack. Drag healers to injured allies to heal. Play fast and fluid with 3-5 minute battles and without having to wait for animations. You can even undo failed attacks to try different approaches. Endless possibilities are at your fingertips! OUTWIT YOUR OPPONENTS Defeat overwhelming odds by mastering tactical positions, backstabbing, feinting counterattacks, knocking enemies into allies to trigger combos, leveraging traps for bonus damage and exploiting spell synergies to manipulate the battlefield in your favor. Abalon is deceptively simple to learn with an unrivaled depth of mechanics that are challenging to master. Position matters. Facing matters. Terrain matters. BUILD THE PERFECT DECK Choose compelling characters like squirrel hurling druids, menacing liche kings, psychic lizard wizards and steampunk time traveling rats. Abalon has over 500 cards including 225 hand-crafted characters with distinct strengths and weaknesses. Select your favorite summoner, build your team and construct a deck of 20 cards. Abalon differs from other role-playing games by removing grindy leveling systems in favor of fixed character stats and abilities and interchangeable gear-based upgrades. Use everyone you have and experiment to create unique strategies. UNLEASH CREATIVE COMBOS Combine your units and spells to create game-breaking synergies: Hurl a squirrel at your opponent and command your critter to bite them in the butt. Cast Animal Growth to mutate it into a super hulk squirrel. Then use Breed to multiply it into an army of hulk squirrels and decimate your opponent in the most satisfying way! Discover something new each time you play. EXPLORE. ROLL DICE. MAKE FRIENDS. Explore an ever-changing fantasy world filled with colorful woodlands, frozen peaks, barren deserts, and perilous dungeons. Abalon is rich in lore, both gritty and humorous, and each biome offers its own characters to find and mysteries to unravel. Collect and roll D20 dice to determine the outcome of fate encounters and make friends with charming bears and birthday goblins. EXPAND YOUR COLLECTION Play for free and grow your collection with paid expansions. Abalon is a premium CCG and RPG that respects your time and money. There are no ads, randomized booster packs, cards to dust, or grinding to level up. Each expansion contains a curated set of content so you know what you are paying for upfront. Like a board game hobby, Abalon’s expansions enhance your existing content. We aim to support the game’s development for the next 10 years and beyond with additional cards, challenge modifiers, game modes and more for infinite replayability. PLAY ON ANY DEVICE ANYTIME ANYWHERE Abalon offers a true cross-platform experience with support for phones, tablets, computers, TVs, portrait and landscape orientations and offline play. ABOUT D20STUDIOS We’re a passionate indie game team who aim to inspire creativity, critical thinking and positive community in people around the world. We value player-driven development, quality products and excellent customer service, and we’d love to hear how we can make your Abalon experience exceptional. Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios Email: contact@d20studios.com

Screenshots

Text Maze3 screens
Abalon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Abalon at Free against Text Maze's $0.99. Abalon also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 11 months) and ratings volume (1K vs 1). Text Maze's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and review sentiment (100% vs 84%). On ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Abalon is free to download; Text Maze costs $0.99 up front. Abalon sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Text Maze asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Text Maze holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Abalon has 1K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Text Maze's written reviews are positive against 84% of Abalon's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Text Maze ships an update every 11 months, Abalon every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Text Maze versus Abalon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterText MazeAbalon
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.8 (1K ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better84.1% of reviews
Number of ratings11K — better
Update frequencyEvery 11 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.613.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB117 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperDucky Planet LLCD20Studios, LLC

Customer experience

Text Maze

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Abalon

All ratings1,005 ratings
Positive96.9%
Neutral1.2%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews289 reviews
Positive84.1%
Neutral3.1%
Negative12.8%

Bugs and requests

Text Maze

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Abalon

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Bugs in second chapter dungeon
  • Unable to use satchel items

Requested features

3 requests
  • Controller support for Backbone and other third party controllers
  • More variation in encounter types
  • Dark mode option

In-app purchases

None

Text Maze

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

Abalon

One-time5
  • Animal Gear$3.99
  • Angels & Demons$7.99
  • Dark Legion$7.99
Show 2 more
  • Mean & Green$7.99
  • Space & Time$7.99

Questions

Is Text Maze free?
Text Maze costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Abalon free?
Abalon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Text Maze or Abalon?
Text Maze is rated higher. Text Maze averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Abalon averages 4.8 from 1K ratings.
Do Text Maze or Abalon have ads?
Neither Text Maze nor Abalon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Text Maze or Abalon?
Text Maze ships an update every 11 months, and Abalon every 2 days. Most recently, Text Maze was updated on October 6, 2026 and Abalon on October 17, 2026.

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