New Demo Out! + Something Extra

Hey, high rollers!

If you're here from the Secret Sauce Showcase, welcome! Thanks for checking out Diecast. You picked a great time to jump in! The new demo is now available, and there's also a closed playtest running with even more experimental features.

Here's everything new in the latest demo:

Dice & Pins

• Over a dozen dice and pins have been added, and the selection of hands, dice, and pins have been reworked for the demo.

Features

• NEW Mechanic: Star-Touched dice have a 5% chance to appear in the shop. These dice have an extra bonus applied when rolling (more to come).

  • Star-Touched (Yellow): (50%) +10 POINTS to HAND when rolled

  • Star-Touched (Orange): (40%) +5 MULT to HAND when rolled

  • Star-Touched (Green): (30%) +8 CASH when rolled

• NEW Mechanic: Hand Cooldowns have been removed and replaced with Freshness.

  • Playing a hand sets its Freshness to x0.5

  • Other hands gain freshness when you play a hand

  • Max Freshness bonus is x2

• Pins can now be swapped while in the shop.

• Earn a BONUS for having ROLLS remaining when scoring a HAND (more to come)

• Added an optional grid overlay (ctrl) to help organize your dice.

• Added a new Game Modes menu. Dice Bags have been reworked into Game Modes, making it easier to choose how you want to play.

• Added a new Dice Bags mechanic where you can choose your starting dice (more to come)

• Nuggie now follows you around the shop.

• Added 15 unlockables earned by completing in-run challenges:

  • 5 Dice, 5 Hands, 5 Pins

Game Modes

• Two Game Modes are available in the demo: Classic and 100.

• Classic: The traditional Diecast experience. Score hands with limited rolls to break the target.

• 100: You only have 100 rolls for the whole run! Each time you reroll the dice, the Target increases by 10%.

Bosses

Cursed Boss Rewards

Bosses now have a small chance to offer Cursed Boss Rewards instead of normal rewards. These grant powerful bonuses, but always come with a downside.

Example: Bewitched Bag

• +3 Max Dice, -1 Starting HANDS (minimum of 1), -1 Starting ROLLS (minimum of 1)

New Final Boss

A second final boss has been added alongside the Jester.

Dungeon Master

• A random HAND has x1 freshness, the rest have x0.5 (includes ‘Cast’)

Boss Improvements

• Reworked boss visuals.

• Leech now displays the reduced score you'll actually receive after its penalty is applied.

Balance

Difficulty has been rebalanced:

Pip 1

• x0.5 Freshness gain

Pip 2

• x0.25 Freshness gain

• x2 Target Score scaling

Pip 3

• x0.25 Freshness gain

• x3 Target Score scaling

Technical

• Reworked the version control and save system to better support future updates and maintain save compatibility.

Controller Support

The demo now includes controller support. Controller-specific button prompts and layouts are still being improved, but the game is fully playable with a controller.

And one more thing...

I am so excited to announce that I have partnered with Caketown Interactive to help publish Diecast! They have been awesome to work with, and have the same passion I do to make Diecast into something special.

Thanks for checking out Diecast during the Secret Sauce Showcase! If you enjoy the demo, please wishlist the full game to be ready for its release this year! If you'd like more Diecast (and don't mind some bugs and major changes) you can join the Discord and request access to the closed playtest.

Your feedback has already helped shape many of the features in this update, and there's plenty more to come.

Good luck, and thanks for playing!

sofamire