The award-winning board game, Roll for the Galaxy, is making its way to phones, tablets and PC soon. Temple Gates Games in association with Rio Grande Games is launching beta signups for Roll for the Galaxy, a digital dice game where two to five players build space empires.
Roll for the Galaxy is a dice adaptation of the popular Race for the Galaxy board game, which Temple Gates Games launched as a digital card game in 2017. That game turned out to be the biggest hit yet for San Mateo, California-based Temple Gates Games, which was started by indie game developer Theresa Duringer.
Temple Gates Games is adapting Roll for the Galaxy for iOS, Android, and Steam. In Roll for the Galaxy, your dice represent your populace, whom you direct to develop new technologies, settle worlds, and ship goods. The player who best manages their workers and builds the most prosperous empire wins.
Board game heritage
Above: Roll for the Galaxy
Image Credit: Temple Gates Games
Designed by Wei-Hwa Huang and Tom Lehmann, this dice version of Race for the Galaxy takes players on a new journey through the Galaxy. Keldon Jones, the developer behind the Race for the Galaxy AI, is working on a new AI for Roll for the Galaxy. This game will feature a new neural network AI that will challenge even the most advanced players.
The game has networked multiplayer for two to five players. It has asynchronous and real-time multiplayer modes, nine starting factions, nine starting worlds, and 60 developments and settlements.
The game doesn’t have a formal launch date yet, but it is targeted for the summer of 2019.
“Roll for the Galaxy is a dice reincarnation of Race for the Galaxy,” Duringer said in a message. “There are a few games that have done this, Roll for the Galaxy, Roll through the Ages, etc. It is a completely independent standalone board game, but it shares a similar theme and similar iconography. Roll for the Galaxy is sometimes seen as a bit more beginner friendly because the randomness with the dice can be a bit more forgiving to new players.”
But it’s not a sequel and both Race for the Galaxy and Roll for the Galaxy have their own set of expansions.
Above: Theresa Duringer is founder of Temple Gates Games.
Image Credit: Temple Gates Games
Race for the Galaxy was designed by Tom Lehmann, and puzzle master Wei-hwa Huang approached Tom with a design for a dice version. Lehmann agreed to co-design Roll for the Galaxy as a board game with Huang, who co-authored a book with Will Shortz, and has had his crossword published in the New York Times.
This game took Temple Gates Games about a year to develop so far with a small team of employees and contractors. Keldon Jones, who made the AI for Race for the Galaxy, is working on a similar AI for Roll. Chris Haga is doing visual effects. Dylan Librande does the music. Jeff Gates is the programmer and Duringer handles the design.
“Digital board games are a niche of a niche, so keeping a small team size helps us sustain the company to keep working on projects we love,” Duringer said.
Temple Gates Games has also made VR: Bazaar, Ascension, Race for the Galaxy, and Shards of Infinity.
