Gugong vs Caverna
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Gugong
Engage in a strategic board game set in 1570s China. Players represent powerful families vying for influence by exchanging gifts with officials, making strategic choices to outmaneuver opponents. Explore historical China, build the Great Wall, and seek an audience with the emperor.
- Historical setting in Ming Dynasty China
- Strategic gift-exchange mechanics
- Solo play against AI
- Multiple difficulty levels
- In-game tutorial
- Full rulebook included
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China, 1570. China is under the reign of the Longqing Emperor, of the Ming Dynasty. He inherited a country in disarray after years of mismanagement and corruption. He resided in the Forbidden city, which was the seat of many emperors under the Ming Dynasty. Constructed from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 ha (over 180 acres). It is also under the Ming Dynasty that the Great Wall of China was rebuilt, fortified, and expanded. Around this period, China was under heavy attack from the Mongols, so maintaining the Great Wall was essential. Most of what we now have left of the Great Wall, we owe to the Ming dynasty. The country was already famous for its very intricate bureaucracy, but this also led to a lot of corruption. Even though the penalties for corruption were very high, the highest Officials of the Forbidden City would pretend to uphold the ban on corruption, by accepting gifts of petitioners, and returning one of seemingly lower value. Gugong uses this extraordinary custom as its basis. Players take on the role of powerful Chinese families trying to gain influence and power by exchanging gifts with Officials. The gift cards you offer as a player have to be of a higher value than the one you receive, forcing you to make strategic choices regarding which actions you want to take each turn. You will travel around China, sail down the Grand Canal, purchase precious jade, help construct the Great Wall, secure advantages through decrees, influence the game through intrigue, and ultimately, receive an audience with the emperor. In this App version of the board game you will play vs. Meng, the solo automata, with three different level of difficulty. The App includes a short tutorial which explain the basic concepts of the game to help the player dive in immediately, and a full set of written rules.
Caverna
Lead a dwarf tribe to expand their cavern home and cultivate the surrounding forest. Dig deeper for resources, furnish rooms to grow your tribe, and forge weapons for adventures. Cultivate fields, breed animals, and increase your wealth to become the strongest tribe leader.
- Dwarf tribe management
- Cavern expansion and furnishing
- Resource cultivation and mining
- Animal breeding and farming
- Weapon forging and adventures
- Worker action system
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Caverna by Uwe Rosenberg makes you the head of a dwarf tribe, living in a small cavern. You cultivate the forest in front of your cavern and dig deeper into the mountain throughout the game. By furnishing rooms in your caverns you make space to grow your tribe and and create new goods from your resources. Deeper into the mountain you will find fountains as well as ore and gem mines. It's on you to decide how much ore and gems you want to mine, giving you the opportunity to forge weapons and go on adventures; a new way to do things in the game instead of using actions with your workers. Outside your cavern you can clear the forest, cultivate fields, fence pastures and grow crops or breed animals. All this in order to increase your wealth and become the strongest and best tribe leader of them all!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Caverna at 61% against Gugong's 0%. Caverna also leads on rating (4.1 vs 1.8) and device support. Gugong's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $3.99). On in-app purchases, monetization model and iOS requirement 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
Gugong costs $2.99 and Caverna $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Caverna holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 1.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 12 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Gugong's written reviews are positive against 61% of Caverna's.
| Parameter | Gugong | Caverna |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 1.8 (4 ratings) | 4.1 (12 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 61.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 12 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 6 days |
| Ads | — | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | — | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 124 MB | 450 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ycyclop games | DIGIDICED |
Customer experience
Gugong
Caverna
In-app purchases
Gugong
No in-app purchases
Caverna
No in-app purchases








