Luck and Love: Arcane Dice Wars
Journey Through this Article
If you love dreamy fantasy worlds, swoon-worthy characters, and a bit of strategy to keep things interesting, then Arcane Dice Wars is definitely worth checking out! It blends isekai adventure with fast-paced battles and just the right amount of romance, making every choice feel exciting. In this interview, we chat about what went into bringing this world to life—the inspirations behind its story, the challenges of balancing heartfelt moments with tactical gameplay, and why it’s such a special experience for fans of fantasy and romance.
Jen: I first got into game development in 2020 at the ripe old age of 40. In my 20s and 30s, I was a comic artist, graphic novelist and animator. I gave these things up when I became overwhelmed as a new mother and started working part time in a library for some stable income and health insurance.
As my son got older, I switched to working full-time as an associate librarian and taught some community programs. During the Covid pandemic, there was a growing interest in teaching kids coding, so I decided it would be fun to learn how to code simple games like interactive fiction and visual novels. Given I already had experience with art and writing, I thought it would be a good fit for my pre-existing skill set.
After teaching myself some basic python, I became addicted to game development because it was so much fun to use my art background while constantly learning new things about programming. To be honest, drawing comics and animation had become very tedious and monotonous work. I had suffered from severe burnout many times.
The deadlines and constant crunch of that industry is well known, but I suppose it did install a sense of discipline, efficiency, and patience. Nowadays, I’m careful to create games in a sustainable way and have happily avoided the burnout for years now. I think having a non-art related job and family responsibilities forces me to work in smaller intervals and actually helps me maintain balance in that regard.
Arcane Dice Wars Story and Inspiration
Jen: I had been reading a lot of Korean, Chinese and Japanese web novels, where the “isekai” genre is very popular. Though some might think it’s overdone at this point, the more I read, the more charming it became to me. Especially in today’s stressful world, I think it’s really special to be able to immerse yourself fully into fiction. I wanted to make my own spin on it.
This is also my first attempt at a “self insert” protagonist, as I came from a comics background. This presented some new challenges from a writing and presentation perspective. How can I make these supporting characters, each very different in their own right, fall for the protagonist that could have all kinds of possible traits? This is where the divine aura of the story did a lot of heavy lifting. In my mind, the protagonist’s aura causes the other characters to see a projection of self. They will interpret the protagonist as whatever they most need and desire. This idea is elevated to a toxic level in “A Villain’s Heart.”
Jen: Once I start writing their stories, I get very immersed, so that child will be my favorite for the day. I usually have to stick to that one character until their section is done and then move on to another character another day. It takes me time to switch my mindset, especially in the more emotionally intimate scenes. I will only be able to write for around an hour and then switch to a drawing task if I have more time that day.
I would say I am also equally invested in the non-romanceable characters, such as Miyetta, Jonas and Eve. Perhaps I will take a moment to stand up for poor Mikaylis and Beileph, ha ha. Even if they are largely unmentioned by players, I still care just as much for their stories and development.
Jen: I’ve been a long time fan of jrpgs, especially from the 16 bit era. I like the clean, simple art, augmented with focused little details that were popular then. I knew that my characters would be animated to some extent, so I wanted them to be something that I would be able to stand drawing over and over and over again. I also like blending inspiration from both eastern and western fantasy.
Jen: This is my first time dealing with such a large cast of characters. Since the characters already had elements and factions related to their combat roles, I thought I would keep ‘track’ of their individual personalities by assigning traits loosely based on tarot (for faction) and astrology (for element).
Eventually, I got used to working with them as characters beyond just their stereotypical traits, but it was a great structure and point of reference to start with. I tried to use battle as another way to communicate the essence of character to the player, whether through their animations, supportive or aggressive style of skill triggers and voice lines. I’ve always loved how much characterization is conveyed in fighting games, so it was part of my intent, even if the execution is not so sophisticated.
Jen: The whole project idea actually started with me just wanting to see if I could make a simple combat system in Renpy. I wanted each character to have their own strengths and weaknesses, so I thought the rock-paper-scissor strategy was the simplest way to achieve this.
Rather than having a lot of separate stats and selecting different enemies to reach the win condition of defeating the enemy party, I thought it would be simpler to have a shared health pool and set hp and dice with progression tied to relationship bonding.
Jen: The dice is based loosely on my experiences playing DnD. I wanted the encounters to feel like you could still win or lose at any time with outlier luck but also getting more powerful and having good deployment meant that you would have static bonuses that would push RNG to be more and more favorable. In other words, as the game progresses, the static bonuses and penalties become larger, multipliers with skill triggers with bond bonuses stack more and the RNG is more offset.
It’s not a very popular progression model these days, but I prefer making the protagonist frustratingly weaker in the beginning and snowballing absurdly in power by the end, rather than scaling up the enemies uniformly as “level checks” throughout the game. I know this can be off putting to some players, but I tried to make the consequences of losing early on negligible, with bond bonuses with morale boost being very strong at low level enemy encounters. This first dungeon is probably the worst because the player has such limited options but again, I felt the necessity to make it this way for story reasons.
I feel it is still very satisfying to get a huge multiplier with end game ultimate morale skill and blow up the enemy boss HP in one turn with a good dice roll and skill triggers! And this is even after playing my own game for so many hours! So I hope even if it’s flawed, there is something interesting there.
Community Reaction to Arcane Dice Wars
Jen: I’m used to having little to no feedback on most of my projects so I find it amazing that a little community has formed. I don’t really have people in my daily life to share my projects with, so I feel incredibly spoiled that there are people somewhere out there that comment, discuss and make art of this game! I feel so fortunate to have made these meaningful connections through my work. There is a lot of content throughout the three games, so the time invested by players is a lot. I’m very, very grateful for their time.
What the Future Holds
Jen: There are three faction and element combinations missing from the elite roster: Earth Priest, Air Knight and Fire Rogue. I had considered the possibility of a DLC or new game with these characters (I have a loose backstory in mind that would take place largely in Cape Town with the Southern Division.) But to be honest I think I’m ready right now to move on to a new concept. I think I’ll have a better idea if I’ll ever revisit ADW by the end of the year.
As a special treat for our readers, we have an exclusive piece of Arcane Dice Wars artwork—a fun group picture of the love interests dressed in school uniforms! While they may be far too old to be in high school, who says they can’t enjoy a little cosplay?
Before we wrap up, the developer shared a heartfelt message: “Thank you so much for reading this interview and for your time and consideration. And I apologize for the goofy-sounding title, Arcane Dice Wars. I should stop giving my projects ‘working titles’ on the fly because they end up growing on me—whether they’re good, bad, or embarrassing, ha ha! On the bright side, it’s silly enough that it wasn’t already taken. Or at least that’s what Google search is telling me!”
If you’re intrigued by Arcane Dice Wars, now’s the perfect time to check it out! With its unique mix of isekai storytelling, tactical combat, and rich character interactions, it’s a game that offers something truly special. You can experience it for yourself by visiting Itch.io. Or, you could check out our interview with the developers on Our Life: Beginning and Always. Happy gaming!
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