The Dice Are Cast
A series of articles about the game Audamir, about dice and tokens, about how games are made today, and everything that was measured, broken and fixed along the way.
Start with the introduction All articles- 20 articles
- 48 k words
- last updated 6 November 2026
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- PART 20
The daily challenge in a strip and six games in progress at once
The big tile of the daily challenge turned into a low strip and a window, the game remembers the result of the day and each kind of game has a save slot and a lock of its own. How it was verified that no game in progress was lost in the move.
DesignEngineering and testing - PART 19
The first play under the new name: the menu, the windows and the state of the game
After the renaming came the first real playing and remarks. A bar with nine controls became a menu, the dice rolls got a window and the game learned to save its state for a bug report. What was measured in pixels and what went wrong in the process.
Design - PART 18
What the game is called: from Dice Wars - Forever to Auda Wars
The search for the name of the game took three days. A list of candidates, what was checked for each, why Kocka Wars fell and why the hero is Auda. What changed in the code and what remains open. Added on 31 October: the second round of checks.
Story and backgroundDevelopment diary - PART 17
A piece of music from one game: from an idea to a finished feature
In the article about the record a piece of music from a game was only an idea. Today the game has eleven styles, live music and a Listen button. How a record becomes a piece, what did not come out of the plan and what cannot be measured about the sound.
DesignEngineering and testingKastgard - PART 16
Five languages, one gender and the H key that did not work
Translating a game is not just swapping words. Plural forms, gender in the past tense, Cyrillic, the keyboard layout and machine translation, which is a rough draft until somebody checks it.
Engineering and testing - PART 15
What can be said about one game: a record, an analysis and a piece of music
A game in 1.3 kB, a chart of the chance to win that can tell luck from decision, and a piece of music that nobody has heard yet. Three things that grow from one idea: the game is deterministic.
DesignEngineering and testingKastgard - PART 14
The first three minutes and the first weeks: the introduction, the narrator and the achievements
How a newcomer learns how the game is played without being overwhelmed by it. Why the die has a narrator that never changes the result of a game, and why 138 achievements became 87 panels.
DesignKastgard - PART 13
How to test a game that never stops changing
More than twelve hundred tests, mutants that must be catchable, and a bug that was found by a player, not by a test. What the testing of a game really guards and where it fails.
Engineering and testing - PART 12
Boxes with visible chances: an economy that cannot be exploited
The player collected Golden Dice before there was anything to spend them on. How the die of the Avatar came about, why the casino with poker stayed on paper, and how a box of dice differs from the one the mobile market knows.
DesignKastgard - PART 11
A campaign with a budget: bosses, bonuses and the Iron Run
Thirteen missions, bosses built from a budget of points and a mode in which every attempt counts. How a measurement with games played by the AI found what is broken in the rules, and why the average lies.
DesignBalancing and measuringKastgard - PART 10
Puzzles without chance, where the solver proves that a task has a solution
In a game full of dice a mode appeared in which nothing is rolled at all. How to prove that a puzzle has a solution, and why almost the whole first set of puzzles was too easy.
DesignBalancing and measuringKastgard - PART 09
Tiles from small hexagons, or how to make a map that can be repeated
Every game of the original Dice Wars had a different map. The generator of irregular tiles is a short idea and a long contract with the past: saved games, shared links and the daily challenge.
DesignEngineering and testingKastgard - PART 08
What does a setting cost? Difficulty measured by the AI
A big map, eight opponents or fog of war. Which of them is harder, and by how much? Instead of a guess, the AI plays thousands of games and the result is given in points.
Balancing and measuringKastgard - PART 07
Why in a duel the player who starts wins 93% of the games
With two equally strong players (AI), the one who starts wins 93% of the games. How it was found out, what was tried to fix it, and why a random draw settled it.
Balancing and measuringKastgard - PART 06
How deep is dice poker? An exact calculation that comes before building
Five dice, two re-rolls and nine payout tables. An exact calculation shows how much better optimal play is than a simple rule, and that it depends on the table more than expected. The tool and the tables are given in full.
Balancing and measuringDesign - PART 05
Archaeology of the project itself: three and a half days from copies of a folder and the history of git
The git history begins only on 18 October at 12:24, but the game was made a day earlier. How the dates of files and four copies of a folder can reconstruct what happened, and what that says about working with an assistant.
Development diaryStory and background - PART 04
From the tavern to Knucklebones: why big games have dice of their own
Dice in The Witcher, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Cult of the Lamb, Assassin's Creed and Baldur's Gate 3. A list of games where dice are thrown, what the developers said about it, and why a whole game can be made of dice alone.
Story and background - PART 03
From bones to Ludo: a long history of throwing dice
When was a die first thrown? Nobody knows exactly. A survey from graves in Iran through the Mahabharata and the Indian Ludo to the first rules of probability, and a table of chances from the game this series is about.
Story and background - PART 02
When the game was finished: how games were made in the 90s and what they compete for today
Five people, one floppy disk and no fix after release. The world of the original Dice Wars set against a world where a game barely stays in sight, with numbers, and what it means for a game that is not meant to be finished.
Story and background - PART 01
Twenty years and almost no update
After twenty years the original Dice Wars is still unique and still almost the same. When exactly it came out, what happened to it, what it lacks for today's player and where this series is going.
Story and background