Conquer the dungeon with your rolls
Die in the Dungeon is a free card video game wherein you make use of dice more than cards. A joint project by Alarts, Jaun, adrioxo, and SexyBuggy, this 2D pixelated role-playing game is a deck-building turn-based rogue-lite adventure that lets you challenge a tricky dungeon.
Similar to Circadian Dice and The Endless Wyrd, Die in the Dungeon features turn-based combat mechanics as you plan your move with every die that you randomly get. While the pixelated font can be hard on the eyes, the graphics and overall aesthetic of the game itself are quite charming.
Every die counts
In Die in the Dungeon, you play as a sword-wielding green frog who aims to conquer all 20 floors of a magical dungeon filled with various enemies. Instead of skill cards or simply skills and items you can freely use as you plot your next turn, you get random dice on hand and must utilize them to either attack, block, and heal against the opponent’s moves.
Inspired by Dicey Dungeons, the differently-colored dice represent different actions you can take for every turn you get. You can only place a maximum of three actions on the board so it’s best to place them in spots where your purple multiplier die can boost their value. Unfortunately, there’s no tutorial available so the gameplay can be quite confusing for players new to this subgenre.
It doesn’t help that the pixelated font can be hard to read, especially when the game’s on Windowed mode. For veterans at this, the game can be easy to master, though, as there aren’t a lot of dice available for you to use. The selection will only get expanded once you reach the higher levels. Plus, pressing and holding the Give Up button won’t bring you to the main menu.
Lacking an important feature
All in all, Die in the Dungeon looks great and offers solid turn-based rogue-lite fun at every dungeon level, but it’s not the kind of game that players new to deck-building mechanics should tackle first. It has no tutorial at all so you’re going to be confused at the very first fight if you’ve never tried this subgenre of card games before.
