Half a dozen dice, cat statues, and a handful of lucky charms give the Balatro-like Cats & Dice an undeniable charm.
If you’re aware of Balatro, which has arguably been one of the biggest leftfield successes of the last year, then you probably don’t need much of an introduction to the core concept at play in Cats & Dice. For those that haven’t, you have to hit score targets of increasing goals through playing rounds of dice to create poker-style combos. Three of a kind will give you a nice boost, but not as much as four or five, for instance.
The real twist comes in that you can buy in a cat statue which has modifiers for each of the six slots that you can submit dice to. These cats might create a multiplier bonus for each other instance of dice face that is banked, or might give you bonus score if it’s your last Play in the round or you have no Rerolls left.
Critically though, each cat changes the dice that is rolled for that slot at the start of each play. A few rounds in (and a few visits to the shop later) and you’re not just rolling six traditional dice but rather a strange assortment depending on the cats you’ve chosen and any modifier tokens you have on them. At the start it’s about survival rather than getting a high score, but five or six purchases later the intensity comes from juggling your limited rerolls and cash to try to create the perfect play.
My game winning set-up came together quickly, with a cat that has a dice that only features faces of five pips. The cat itself banks extra if the dice that’s submitted there has a facing of five – simple, right? Add to that a cat which multiplies a modifier if the dice is equal to a space that the cat occupies (as they can be moved freely during play) and another which increases score exponentially if there are more dice with the same facing as the one in front of it. It’s obvious, but if I could get every dice face to be a five then each of those cats would create a magnificent combo score.
It doesn’t always work like that, of course. The cats don’t always land, you run out of rerolls, or one of the boon & banes that come to you between rounds as you play can limit (and enhance) your gameplay with its harsh modifiers. Cats & Dice already feels incredibly well balanced in its itch.io demo alone. There’s still about four months until it hits full release, but I’m really excited to see what the final game looks like.
Cats & Dice is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can grab a demo from itch.io and add it to your Steam Wishlist.
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