iPhone App Reviews

Posts Tagged ‘dice’

Pip

Swain Valasek | Jan 19, 2009 Games

User rating:

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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With Pip from Mystery Coconut LLC, you can craps yourself. Sorry but I just could not possibly resist that one. Note this is not a dice-crunching app for spitting out reams of statistics but rather virtual dice in your pocket, literally. You get a standard 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20-sided die set and you can select as many as you want to get things rolling (you had to have seen that one coming too). When I say as many as you want I mean you can keep dragging out dice until your iPhone is on its knees screaming for mercy and smoking out the speaker hole which is obviously not recommended as you might hose the app and have to reinstall. If you can get past the desire to feel live dice in your hand, this app completely eliminates the need to have a physical set of dice (beyond some crazy 1-off custom dice I reckon). Personally I think it’s a terrific idea and not only is it a creative use of the iPhone, it’s absolutely sure to impress anyone present when you whip this out on game night. The dice textures and sounds here are ultra-realistic and the physics of the dice collisions and interaction is simply astounding to watch in action (you can even end up with cock-dice!). Ok you get the idea of what it is so here’s the lowdown on the features that make it so cool.

Up to 10 dice sets can be saved (even after the app is closed) and it works like the pages of the iPhone springboard
Shake to roll all dice at once or hurl a single die into the others with a flick
Tap to lock 1 or more die and prevent them from rolling
Nifty slide-out ‘drawer’ holds the dice selection and retracts neatly out of the way when you’re ready to roll

One suggestion is to let us somehow name the saved dice sets, such as ‘D&D lucky 20′ or ‘Yahtzee’ or whatever.

Granted this is not an app most folks would use every day but it is an app you could justify making a permanent home for on your iPhone because you just never know when you need a little chance in your life. This is a slick, polished app that does exactly what it advertises and then some as it manages to turn watching dice roll into something fun in and of itself.

The author is very cool and allowed me to poke around with the latest beta build of soon-to-be-released v1.1 and after playing with it I can seriously recommend this app people. Check these awesome new features:

Double-tap to roll if you don’t feel like shaking the phone, perfect!
Single-tap dice in the tray to change color, sweet!
Double-tap the screen with the tray open to automatically clear out all dice (great for weenies like me who drag out too many dice just because you can)

On top of that add some streamlining of the user interface and a couple bug-fixes regarding sound and this is one GREAT app!

I showed this to an old D&D buddy I work with and he was positively giddy over it and spewing compliments. Don’t be swayed by what the ‘iTunes economy’ might say is a steep price for a dice app. This is what app-making on the iPhone is all about, true dedication to putting out quality software that is actually worth some of your hard-earned money.

Version reviewed – 1.0

iTunes music supported – yes