Day 325 - Balls, Dice, and Stickers
Arcade, Has Treant Protector In It, Pinball ·
Sam’s Take:
Balls, Dice, and Stickers has a game in it. You have some balls that you aim, and they bounce around and hit dice. The dice give you points. After each shot you can upgrade once face of the die to have a special effect. You can even see the full trajectory of your shot, bounces and all.
The thing about BD+S is that the end game looks more like this:
Is it still aiming shots and shooting? Yea. Could I try to combo my dice in the right order to get a good set of triggers? Maybe, but BD+S is primarily about watching a ball bounce 14 million times while the screen gets covered in sprites. It’s chaos and about 90% devoid of strategy, but there are a few mechanics to give you and edge.
First of all, the game literally tells you what your best shot would be (my guess is most bounces is how this is calculated, but I’m not sure). If you don’t use this knowledge though and shoot at a different angle than your calculated best shot, you get a 15% score bonus. Can you find a second best shot that’s less than 15% worse than your best shot? You also get bonus for each face of the die having the same upgrade on it:
Figuring out the number of upgrades you have to fill in functions as your number of lives is a revelation I had later on as well. There are so many hidden mechanics at this game that I do wonder if you can get good enough to win consistently. At the moment, I’m content just clicking and watching the flashing lights, but I do wonder if there’s more to it then I’ve found so far.
BD+S is addictive dopamine nonsense, but I fear it might also actually be good. You can wishlist it on Steam now!!!
Recommend: Yes
Replay Percentage Chance: 50%
Time Played: 2 Hours
Skeeter’s Take:
I have no idea what’s going on, but I know I triggered a dice that made a police officer chase down a drunk driver and I got bonus points.
There’s a lot to like about Balls, Dice, and Stickers. I won’t be going into detail about the dice system, or how the health system works (Sam had to explain that one to me), Really, BDS stands out to me in two aspects.
-1. A ton of items trigger or combo with other items. The combinations are often kind of silly, and I appreciate that. For example, you can trigger a UFO that will abduct a human (among other things) and you need a house to spawn a human. I like this. It gets my roguelike-enjoying part of my brain revving. And it’s fun to watch the chaos unfold on screen.
-2. The fact that you can see the complete trajectory of the ball really adds an element of strategy to the game. It allows the player to pre-meditate their shot for optimal points, which in reality usually culminates in slowly moving the mouse across the screen until the trajectory lines up with all three dice. These are shots no human would ever consider making, and I love it:
I find this a refreshing approach to the “ball bouncing roguelike” genre, as I’ve been playing a lot of Nubby’s Number Factory (great game btw), and that game feels like it’s up to chance most of the time. This was an interesting approach that BDS took.
It’s fun. It’s free. There’s a Steam release coming out soon - go watch Pokeballs and Rain Clouds spawn all over your screen!
Recommend: So she said, “What’s the problem, baby?”
What’s the problem? I don’t know
Well, maybe I’m in love (love)
Think about it every time
I think about it
Can’t stop thinking ‘bout it
How much longer will it take to cure this?
Just to cure it ‘cause I can’t ignore it if it’s love (love)
Makes me wanna turn around and face me
But I don’t know nothing ‘bout love, oh
Come on, come on
Turn a little faster
Come on, come on
The world will follow after
Come on, come on
Because everybody’s after love
So I said, I’m a snowball running
Running down into the spring that’s coming, all this love
Melting under blue skies
Belting out sunlight
Shimmering love
Well, baby, I surrender
To the strawberry ice cream
Never ever end of all this love
Well, I didn’t mean to do it
But there’s no escaping your love, oh
These lines of lightning mean
We’re never alone
Never alone, no, no
Come on, come on
Move a little closer
Come on, come on
I wanna hear you whisper
Come on, come on
Settle down inside my love, oh
Come on, come on
Jump a little higher
Come on, come on
If you feel a little lighter
Come on, come on
We were once upon a time in love
We’re accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally
I’m in love, I’m in love
I’m in love, I’m in love
I’m in love, I’m in love
Accidentally
I’m in love, I’m in love
I’m in love, I’m in love
I’m in love, I’m in love
Accidentally
Come on, come on
Spin a little tighter
Come on, come on
And the world’s a little brighter
Come on, come on
Just get yourself inside her
Love
I’m in love
Replay Percentage Chance: 50%
Time Played: 1 ½ hours
Random Review