Slice & Dice Play Store release!
It's finally out on Google Play! It's been out for a few weeks on itch.io too; huge thanks to all the early players for helping me find bugs & improve things.
History of Slice & Dice
I haven't really kept a dev log and I thought it might be nice to write a bit about it here. Some people ask me how long it took to make Slice & Dice and I can never give a proper answer, maybe this will explain why! I was also working as a programmer for a lot of this time which made it a bit exhausting to continue coding at home.
Event Horizon (2012)
Event Horizon was one of the bigger games I've worked on, though I had only been programming for a couple of years so it was a bit of a mess. It was a ship vs ship card-based combat game; each ship had different weapons and subsystems which provided cards and if they got too damaged then you'd lose their functionality. Peter Queckenstedt did a great job with the art for the game. I was really happy with the gameplay, there were lots of interesting decisions on most turns.
Unfortunately I was too inexperienced to turn it into a proper game. The UI was very complicated, enemy turns were confusing. It was mostly just one-off fights, I started to make a tactical map screen but I couldn't make it fun. I consider Slice & Dice to be a kind of spiritual successor to Event Horizon though, so it's worth mentioning here.
Village (2016)
I wanted to make a game where your dice represented people and you could level them up! I did a lot of research around cool 2D ways to represent dice in games, but I couldn't find any that felt good to me. I didn't really want to delve into 3D but I had no choice. It took me a while but I eventually got it working: I could define graphics for sides of a dice and detect which side landed face-up!
I got a basic game working but unfortunately the gameplay didn't quite click. I learnt a lot making it and I knew I could make this dice idea work somehow. 75mb windows download
Dicegeon (2017)
I was really happy with how levelling up the dice felt, so I decided to try turning it into a combat game. Plus now I had a lot more coding and design skill, I thought I'd be able to use Event Horizon's combat system but make it simpler & more streamlined. I was at a friend's house doing a mini boardgame jam when I prototyped the game for the first time. I had some blank dice and drew some shield, sword and magic sides on them. I don't remember the exact rules, though they were very similar to the current game. I could see the game had potential from that, though it was a bit awkward to run the game IRL.
I reused a lot of code from Village and eventually got the game functional again. It was a lot simpler and more fun than Village.
Slice & Dice (2018)
I decided that I was going to finish this game and found a name I liked and reserved it on the Play Store and App Store. I also changed the game to use pixel art; I have a lot more experience with this style of visuals. I created an open beta on the Play Store around this time which turned out really well. I got a lot of emails and feedback from players, it was very motivating to hear that so many people were enjoying it.
One thing that's nice about not having a publisher or deadline is that I'm free to make big gameplay changes. It does have disadvantages: it takes up a lot of time and players who like the old systems will miss it. But I think it's good to rethink things before they get too established, especially if I can see problems with it in the future.
A change I made that was not very popular was the removal of combo abilities. At this time, the spell system was quite different. You had a deck of spells which you drew 3 from each turn, and you had to charge up individual spells with magic. I added some spells that required swords and shields in addition to mana. I also added some special combo-abilities that appear if you have certain combinations of abilities on your heroes! These were fun to make and added a cool sense of excitement and discovery as you played, because even if you've seen all the heroes there may be some combo abilities you haven't seen yet!
My reason for removing it was that it was too complicated. For players, it's unclear exactly how to get them, unclear which ones exist, they took up spell slots randomly which was sometimes annoying, plus the rules around exactly which sides can charge which spells was unintuitive. For me, adding any new sides would dilute things a lot and I'd have to think of new combo abilities. The concept of combo abilities is very cool though, I have a couple of ideas for how to bring it back in a simpler and hopefully more-fun form. We'll see if it works out!
The magic system now is a lot simpler and I'm pretty happy with it! I think mana in general is a bit too strong, but it may be a bit late to change this. We'll see!
Itch Demo (2020)
I quit my job and decided to live cheaply and pursue some projects, including finishing Slice & Dice. I spent about half the year on Slice & Dice and the rest on other misc programming stuff, I had a great time and loved being able to focus properly. I set up an itch.io page for the game and improved the desktop version a lot. I'm a big fan of itch.io, it's very intuitive for developers.
Full Game released (2021)
I created a discord server for the game and it's been fun interacting with the people who enjoy the game. Last month I released the full game on itch. Soon after this, I released on the play store and that's the story up to now.
I have skipped the art from the rest of the story because it's difficult to match up all the dates! The game started off just my terrible programmer art. I have a friend who likes doing pixel art and he offered to make some; it was great having some beautiful pixel art! There were no hero portraits in the game for a long time though.
After I saw the potential in the game, I tried to hire some pixel artists but it didn't really work out with any of them. I eventually decided to do all the art myself and maybe hire someone once the whole game was done.
Then I got an email from a fan who wanted to work on the game. He drew over some screenshots and sent them to me and they looked amazing. I think that working with someone who enjoys and understands the game is a huge plus so I decided to team up.
I've been talking mostly about my end of it in this article because that's what I know most about, but the art for the game turned out really well and, if the game does well, it'll be a huge part of that!
I need a break from gamedev. I don't know how long I'll take but I do have some plans for Slice & Dice in the future. Some of this depends on how successful the game is, and I don't promise anything.
I have a huge list of ideas for how to expand the game. Slice & Dice is a bit of a toybox for me, it's been really fun adding anything and everything to it. I would like to release at least some extra stuff for free this year but we'll see.
An iOS release is quite likely, I have a friend who can build it for his iPhone but I'd like to wait for a bit to fix any remaining bugs so he doesn't have to keep updating it.
On Steam there is already a game called Slice & Dice which probably makes things awkward. I'll look into it at some point probably.
libGDX does not easily export to other platforms though, so this will probably be all that is possible.
Pepeboi 2021-09-18
Thank you for creating this game.
Hamjul 2021-11-16
It was all i want from dice games, thanks. Reslly lookin forward to this one
y4 2021-12-15
how to unlock all the classes? are some classes removed or disabled from demo version? any pages for information or wiki of all heroes and items and achievements?
Julia 2021-12-29
The game is really cool. I wish you creative success.
Lucky 2022-01-07
The game is amazing!! Thank you for creating the game!!
Goblins and Wisps are too strong. And they come in HUGE packs. Make them weaker and/or shrink the sizes of their packs. They should not be as strong as bosses.
Jarvis 2022-01-17
Hey Tann, I love the game!
Defender classes need more offense. Enemies create too many reinforcements. Those abilities should not create more than one new monster at a time. Tiny monsters shouldn't be creating monsters.
Nick D 2022-01-24
This is honestly the first game in like 10 years I've found for mobile that doesn't suck. It's a lot of fun - Thanks for making it! I'd happily buy an expansion, should one ever exist.
KFJ 2022-02-06
Excellent balance No idea what people are whining about. Best game since slay.
Floatious 2022-02-09
I concur with KFJ, there is nothing wrong with the goblins and wisps. It feels like a lot, but once you learn the game, they're absolutely manageable while still offering a sense of challenge and accomplishment. There are a few classes I don't like, but that's likely because I haven't taken the time to learn how to use them properly. Seriously though, this game is absolutely phenomenal. One of, if not THE, best mobile game I've ever played. Absolutely incredible job.
Abe 2022-02-26
This game rules and is absolutely worth the price, you and the artist did a fantastic job!
Jordan 2022-05-23
Agree with all the positive comments. I can't believe how much I keep coming back to this game. I have a home screen on my phone that can hold about 10 items and this game has a permanent slot there. Best money I've ever spent in the play store.
Adeel 2022-05-24
This game is so addicting. When you get some really synergistic equipment...! Will you be adding more content at some point? Wouldn't mind paying for an expansion. We want more! :)
Agovo99 2022-05-31
Best. Game. Ever. (For mobile devices) I've been playing board/computer/console/card games since the 1980s, this is am absolute gem (better than Slay the Spire)... and I'm not much of a pixel art fan, it's the gameplay that is so addictive... THANKS tann !!!
Damian 2022-05-31
Such a brilliant game. Will happily pay for any more content you create!
Ozzie 2022-06-03
Because of this game I will not finish my dissertation on time. Such a great game. I don't know if you even come back to read these comments but.. Thank you for this game and hope there will be more
bon 2022-08-24
This is a great game! I've spent hours on it, simple but deep. I'd love for more new content, but it's already perfect as it is. If not, I'd love to see Event Horizon make a return as a full-fledged game.
wheelercub 2022-09-05
This game took me by surprise and is one of the best games I've played this year. I'm thoroughly impressed by the strategy, retro graphics, sound effects, and cute combat animations. I showed a few friends who also loved it. Everyone, including myself, would love to see an endless mode where you can pick your own starting party from the unlocked characters, and continue battle after battle, leveling up the party with new items, bonuses, and skills. Then you can have personal and public leaderboards to show off your longest run, and highest level characters. Keep up the GREAT work, and thank you!
TheCthultist 2022-09-29
Had a friend suggest the game to me a few weeks back and I've been addicted ever since. So happy to hear that an iOS version is a possibility, as I've only been able to play on my pc while having this on the go for my ipad would be the most ideal possibility for it. Either way, amazing work and so glad to see a little behind the scenes of how it all came together!
SinDonuts 2022-09-30
I play this game nonstop. Excellent and worth every penny. Great job man. Would love to see a sequel based in a cyberfunk universe. Literally the same game engine with updated characters, attacks, and enemies. Im a 20 year vet in QA and work in the games industry. I'll test for free if needed.
Virgula 2022-11-21
Thanks for making this amazing game! I've been playing it for a week now and I've been obsessed! Just awesome design. Gratitude!
Molotovsky 2023-01-19
Should probably start a patreon, some awesome roguelikes support themselves with that. I'd pay monthly to see your dev process.
JAs 2023-01-19
Just FYI, would love to see this on Steam and when you seach 'Slice and' that game you mentioned doesn't come up :). I think people would be looking for this one anyway :D