As a lifetime member of the massive nerd club, there’s little I love more than rolling dice. When I was a kid it was to kick my grandma’s ass at Ludo, and as I grew up it became more likely to be as part of some Dungeons and Dragons inspired video game. Moves of the Diamond Hand is a game almost entirely based around rolling dice, and is also quite possibly the absolute weirdest gaming experience I’ve ever had the pleasure to dive into.
For this preview I was able to play the first chapter of the game, which saw my character arriving at a train station on their journey to join a group called Circus X. Without getting deeper into the game it was hard to really figure out if this group was a bunch of geniuses banded together or a shady cult, but my primary goal was to use one of my skills to impress them enough to join (I decided I’d try to make them the perfect sandwich). I’m sure that would have gone wonderfully if I’d been able to leave the train station.
The station is where the entirety of chapter one takes place, because security isn’t letting anyone leave until a crime is solved. The Jade Bass has gone missing, which it turns out is an AI-powered one of those singing fish you hang on the wall that assists an up-and coming-politician. Yes this is strange, but it’s also the perfect representation of what it seems like Moves of the Diamond Hand is all about: political intrigue in a sci-fi world full of giant pigeons.
To actually unravel this train station mystery you’ll need to interact with the people and objects that fill this place, and succeed at using your skills when faced with problems. There are seven key skills your character has, ranging from the usual suspects like Physique and Deception to the more unusual Cooking and Music. Immediately I decided that I wanted my main focus to be using my food based knowledge to succeed in the game, and to my delight that was absolutely viable in many situations.
Each of your seven skills has an associated six sided dice, which you can use funky looking square skill points to upgrade. Initially these dice will only have zeroes and ones on them, but by spending a few skill points you’ll start to add higher numbers to them that’ll help you in your quest. When one of these skills is tested you’ll roll the dice against the situation you’re facing, and will succeed if you score equal or higher to the enemy. This sounds simple enough, but with an absolute shedload of extra things that can affect your final score there’s loads you can manipulate to succeed in a skill check.
The most simple of these are effects you pick up from exploring the world. Succeeding in a previous check might make you confident, adding an extra dice to your next roll with a few +1s on it. These effects are also found on your enemies, and there are ways to deal with these too. Cooking rolls are harder when you’re using a dirty pizza oven that gets extra dice added, but if you clean it then it’ll get its score reduced. You can also equip outfits that improve certain skill rolls (like the cheap blue suit I bought from a vending machine to improve my wit) or use items to add an extra dice to your next roll. With all sorts of interesting extra dice effects and ways to beat the system, it’s really fun to figure out ways to overcome a particularly difficult skill challenge.
Despite being set in a small area, this build of Moves of the Diamond Hand is full of weirdos to chat to, side objectives to complete and secret loot that’ll help you on your mission. I did pretty much anything and everything I could in this first chapter, which meant two hours of dice rolling fun. Every character can be pick-pocketed if you’re deceptive enough, pizza can be cooked with all sorts of ingredients you’ll find in stinky bins, and you can even do a bit of busking for extra cash. There’s clearly going to be a lot of depth in this bizarre game, and I can’t wait to do everything possible in later chapters.
Above all else, what really gets me excited for more Moves of the Diamond Hand is just how spectacularly weird the game is. One of the first skill checks in the game involves dealing with spilt bubble tea, which I used my cooking skills to taste before stepping over. Although this meant I succeeded the skill check I was left with “Puddle Breath” which made me less charming in my next dice roll. The entire game is this weird, right down to the off-putting face scan characters and massive animal heads that decorate the station.
I’ve never played a game quite like Moves of the Diamond Hand, with its dice rolling focus and exceptionally bizarre world. I also can’t begin to imagine what direction the game will go in next, and that’s perhaps more exciting than anything. With a whole lot of depth and seven interesting skills to improve, this is a weird game you should be keeping an eye on.
Moves of the Diamond Hand is coming to early access on PC via Steam. You can play chapter one in its entirety today as a demo.