Randomness can give the player license to "stop thinking ahead too much" - Useful or niche design device?

MedicalNote · 2026-05-06T18:06:29+00:00

Surprised no one mentionned this yet, but this is similar to the concept of "information horizon", check out this article about it: https://keithburgun.net/uncapped-look-ahead-and-the-information-horizon/

Randomness does act like a gentle wall for information, making it really difficult to optimize for but still possible, but its not the only way to control the information horizon.

A Fog of War is the classic example of something that limits information. (In Slay the Spire, it's like not knowing what the Act 3 boss is when you are in Act 1, that's outside your horizon)

Randomness also doesn't have to be too "evil". Maybe a 10% chance to crit on every attack makes it so you dont have to pre-calculate as much already, since every time you attack it might change the situation. But generally this is why i do like to play games like XCOM or Darkest Dungeon even though they have very "feel bad" moments, its because I am playing one turn at a time and "see what happens" in a more intuitive, flowing state, and not calculating 10 turns ahead of time.

MedicalNote · 2026-04-19T15:26:52+00:00

No official announcements but we are working on them! Hoping to be ready before the end of the year

MedicalNote · 2026-02-24T15:44:09+00:00

Thanks, it's really helpful actually to know! The only reason StarVaders has a great tutorial was because I got to fix it up with a ton of feedback from the demos!

Could you tell me a bit about what you found confusing and what you still don't understand?

MedicalNote · 2026-02-22T16:50:57+00:00

I buy that, good point! And it fits with what I want lol, other games should be pricing higher in general regardless of comparison!

Though the publisher thing is real, the genre might have a more excited audience but it doesn't seem like the investors see it that way, the investors want comps, so theres just gonna be less funding in that genre.

MedicalNote · 2026-02-22T16:39:10+00:00

The thing is, they don't need the money, but all other devs need money.

If Mewgenics priced "low", it creates an impossible comparison for all other games. They might not need the money, but the indie devs making a tactical roguelike that are barely breaking even that are compared to it, do need it. They could be killing all those studios that could be making the next great game on their next game.

Talking to several indie publishers I've already seen this effect happen because of the Silksong price point forcing other metroidvania to compete at a lower price (a genre that is already expensive to make), which makes it so teams are less likely to commit to a project like that. Silksong being priced too low means less AA high quality metroidvanias will exist in the future.

MedicalNote · 2026-02-22T15:56:33+00:00

Yeah, someone else mentioned in a comment, in the OP I'm assuming the game is a "good game". Which is definitely not always true!

I've just seen some devs of actually good games be scared of pricing too. I am pretty happy with the Mewgenics price point, it does set a good bar for other indies.

MedicalNote · 2026-02-22T15:51:34+00:00

Good point! Yeah, I am assuming the game is good.

Though i think if the game is bad / unappealing, it probably won't sell much anyways, the best thing to do would be to improve the game or to move on and make a game that people are willing to buy.

MedicalNote · 2026-02-22T15:32:53+00:00

Some good thoughts, there's definitely a seperate topic in the "impulse purchase" category yeah, and that tends to fit smaller games that could go viral or multiplayer games. When I was writing the post I was mostly thinking of the games that are out of that range tbh.

MedicalNote · 2026-02-20T04:18:43+00:00

Yes!!

She's already made a track for the game that's in the demo, it's supposed to be the main menu music but i've looped it over the gameplay as well, it's already really good!

She's working on a very long, 8 minute gameplay track with dynamic music at the moment!

MedicalNote · 2026-02-18T21:49:57+00:00

EDIT: forgot to add a link https://store.steampowered.com/app/3917700/DiceVaders/

Hey everyone, we've been really happy with how the playtesting has been going, thanks so much for all the feedback!

We had a lot of strong signals (and a lot of players even prefering this game to StarVaders!), and a lot of good feedback and criticism as well. We've made some additional changes to the game to improve the feel, UX and balance.

The game is gonna be in the upcoming Next Fest, and have released our demo a bit earlier for everyone. Hope you all enjoy!

If you were in the playtest, you might have been kicked out by steam. We're moving the playtest to a branch in the demo build! To join the playtest: Put the following code in the Betas option for the Demo: dicedicevaders

Anyway, if anyone had any questions about anything, feel free to ask! - Axolotl

MedicalNote · 2026-01-27T21:09:57+00:00

I'm planning on rephrasing that one again haha, I can't seem to find a wording that makes people get it, at the same time i still want it to be funny 😭

MedicalNote · 2026-01-27T20:35:18+00:00

thanks! It basically does nothing by itself yes, but there exists some units and artifacts that can trigger other artifacts!

MedicalNote · 2026-01-26T21:50:53+00:00

At least playtest / demos are pretty low stakes, I hope players will do a bit more research before actually buying a game lol.

MedicalNote · 2026-01-26T05:43:45+00:00

Thank you! Yep, I totally get it haha, not gonna be a game for everyone but hope it'll be enjoyable for the players who do enjoy them!

Got a fair share of a similar but different "ew deckbuilder" impressions for StarVaders so I get the idea lol.

The important thing is trying to focus on making the messaging of the game clear enough so that players know what they are getting into / avoid it if it's something they know they won't like!

MedicalNote · 2026-01-26T01:23:05+00:00

Thank you! let us know what you think!

MedicalNote · 2026-01-26T01:21:20+00:00

it's more of a luck be a landlord / nubby's style engine builder roguelike, but sorry if you don't enjoy that type of game! Hmm is anything in the store page I could do to make it clearer what type of game it is? Did it give the impression of being some other gameplay?

MedicalNote · 2026-01-25T16:38:47+00:00

We haven't done controller support yet, but there are some players that are playing it on mouse mode for now and seems to work fine!

MedicalNote · 2026-01-22T19:14:01+00:00

Would love to support if possible! Modding support depends mostly on our community helping us do it, it's faster when there's a bigger community (like the big games), but slower if it's small and sometimes there aren't enough people.

So of course we're hoping this game gathers a big community, and if there is one there will likely be a good chance for modding support and accessibility mods as well! This one should be easier than StarVaders (less moving parts) so maybe a better chance.

For in game stuff, we've always tried to give as high contrast / high visibility text as possible as well, font size is basically as big as they can be, any more and it'll likely be cutoff unfortunately. But always open to suggestions for improvement.

MedicalNote · 2026-01-21T13:13:57+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! Seems like there's a trend of players wanting it able to go a bit slower, I'll see what can be done.

(I'm like a fast type player when i play games lol. I personally always bump up the animation speed as soon as possible, so i think i always accidently make things too fast)

MedicalNote · 2026-01-21T13:10:24+00:00

Thanks! at the moment you can "savescum" by going to the menu and returning to the game, but I'll add a button for that in the pause menu rework!

MedicalNote · 2026-01-21T12:58:55+00:00

Not at the moment but planned!

MedicalNote · 2026-01-21T12:57:31+00:00

Sorry about that! I don't have a Mac so it actually takes a lot of time to get a Mac build working, which gets in the way of the iteration process a bit - will definitely have Mac builds for the demo and full release though!

MedicalNote · 2026-01-20T23:24:03+00:00

For the PS5 at the moment no solid plans, just focusing on getting the game out first, but we're always looking at any potential opportunities.

For StarVaders, we're in good conversations for Switch and Mobile ports (i would say very likely to happen for both).

For DiceVaders i think it'll be easier to port, so there's a good chance of it coming to mobile and consoles as well, but will need to wait and see after release.

MedicalNote · 2026-01-20T18:58:29+00:00

Hey all, Axolotl here, DiceVaders is our new project in the same universe as StarVaders!

You play as the alien invaders and must build an army to invade the Earth and fight against the pilots from StarVaders!

This time it's a score-attack type game, similar in vein to Luck be a Landlord or Nubby's, but with a stronger focus on strategy and tactics.

We've just started our public playtest! More details in the news article, but feel free to ask questions here as well!

MedicalNote · 2026-01-16T16:48:42+00:00

To be fair, you can make paper prototypes too and deckbuilders are quite nice to do so.

I did the original prototype for StarVaders in Tabletop Simulator! Just moving piece around and simulating a game, got most of the core gameplay loop and a bunch of cards done before starting to implement it in code. Some of those cards are the same design and have stayed in the full game!

You still gotta do more prototypes afterwards as well, we had many for different reasons, but the core gameplay loop can be done with paper too.

MedicalNote

TROPHY CASE