- Challenge Roundup - Rotating #6: Mage Academy - 14 August 2026
Last week’s challenge introduced the “Anima” mechanic - a spellcasting resource that you generate by rolling certain spells to empower others. The main new Anima spell featured was the Cue Ball spell, which just sends out a rolling projectile. This was the only spell that was needed for newcomer Senbai2638’s 16-move solution. This path might seem obvious, but Senbai had to figure out some clever positioning for their Anima generation spells to pull off this many castings of Cue Ball, which costs 2 Anima each time, so finding a path this straightforward when working with such a prescriptive mechanic is very impressive.🎲 Spellsided Rotating Challenge: Mage Academy - 16 moves1️⃣ Awaken 2️⃣ Awaken 3️⃣ Cue Ball 4️⃣ Dash 5️⃣ Cue Ball 6️⃣ Awaken + Dash⬆️⬆️⬆️⏺️⬆️ ⬇️⏺️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬅️⏺️➡️⬆️⏺️ ➡️⬆️⬅️⬆️⬆️The part of the Anima system that excites me the most isn’t just the Cue Ball spell though, it’s the…
- Devlog #8 - The Anima Era - 11 August 2026
What have we been up to?The FeltfieldsAfter a quick touch up of the Casina Bank, we continued our marathon of designing all areas of the game with a return to the Feltfields! The Feltfields are the elevated plains where the factions of Ringbands and Purehides clash (basically just a pool table populated with striped and solid-colour pool balls).So we’ve been having a lot of fun designing a bunch of ridiculous puzzles involving manoeuvring pool balls around. Here’s a sneak peek (with placeholder visuals). You can also spot another new mechanic in the top left, which you’ll see more of in our latest challenge.Controller supportWe've unfortunately needed to delay controller support a little as it was blocked by an important new feature (related to the super secret spell stuff we've been teasing in the devlogs). That feature is now done and we are tentatively targeting next challenge releas…
- Challenge Roundup - Rotating #5: Clovers - 3 August 2026
Last week’s challenge was testing some ‘passive' spells, which provide passive buffs while equipped rather than casting when rolled. These buffs turned out to be incredibly effective, with Lucky Charm giving a significant boost to damage output, and Heart Charm acting as a single-use Shield with no positioning requirements. The Ace of Clubs enemies served as predictable ‘dummies’ to work against.Both spells were critical in the 13-move solution found by DZUltra. Heart Charm let him ignore an instance of damage to get to an optimal position, and Lucky Charm let him defeat both enemies in just 3 hits. Otherwise, this solution just uses the classic method of hitting as many enemies as possible with each spell - first with Splinter, then with Champion’s Lance.🎲 Spellsided Rotating Challenge: Clovers - 13 moves1️⃣ Splinter 2️⃣ Dash 3️⃣ HeartCharm 4️⃣ Lucky Charm 5️⃣ 6️⃣ Dash + Lance⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️…
- Devlog #7 - The city is alive! - 29 July 2026
If you missed it last fortnight, we’re going to Gamescom! More details over on the announcement post: What have we been up to?Casina CityIn just the past two weeks, we were able to get a whole new area - Casina City - in a fully playtestable form. This involved the design and implementation of 2 boss fights, 6 spells, and 8 puzzles working with new mechanics. We’re very happy with this pace! It feels like the groundwork we did for the demo is paying off and we can just seamlessly fill out the rest of the world now.As a sneak peek, here’s a ridiculous idea we had for a novelty puzzle in Casina City where you get poker chip spells equipped to each of your faces, summoning poker chips of different values which you need to send into goals. The aim is to hit the exact value of the goals. If you bust, you lose! It’s so silly but also so genuinely difficult. (Yes we are using writing desks as…
- Challenge Roundup - Challenge #20: Loaded die - 17 July 2026
Last week we tested the Loaded Roll and Hop spells which give new ways of manipulating the die’s positioning. These spells gave a surprising amount of room for optimisation to the simple task of breaking a bunch of ceramics.The best solution was this 16-move path by Grolter, using a technique they call “counterhopping” to pass a turn by triggering Counterfeit, which refreshes the Hop spell, allowing infinite hops on the same face. Even with this technique, the path they found is super impressive, using Gust to line up the ceramics for that perfect opening.🎲 Spellsided Challenge #20: Loaded Die - 16 moves1️⃣ Gust 2️⃣ 3️⃣ 4️⃣ Dash + Hop + Splinter + Counterfeit 5️⃣ 6️⃣⬆️⬆️➡️⬆️⏺️ ⬅️⬆️⬇️⏺️⬅️ ⏺️➡️⏺️⬆️⏺️ ⬆️➡️⬅️⬆️⬆️ ⬆️Grolter's 16 move solutionWe’ve wanted spells like this in a game for a while. They really change the way you think about your movement. I played a bunch of campaign levels with…
- Devlog #6 - We're in control - 14 July 2026
We have some big news to share this week - if you haven’t seen our announcement yet, we’re going to Gamescom! More details over on the announcement post: And now, for our (somewhat) regular fortnightly devlog!What have we been up to?Controller supportWe’re hard at work on controller support, and expect to have this in the game within a few weeks. It’s taken a bit longer than we expected because our original UI framework that we set up when we were new to Unreal was pretty bad, and so we’re needing to convert some old stuff to the new framework. But at the end of it, hopefully we’ll have a clean and bug free interface that feels smooth and comfortable to use.We’re expecting to have controller support in either the next challenge update, or the one after that, depending on how we go.Spellsided style controller icons!Controller button hinting in the challenge menuSpinning up the pipelineWe…
- We're going to Gamescom! - 14 July 2026
Spellsided is going to Gamescom!!We’re very excited to be taking our baby to the world’s largest gaming event! We’ll be bringing some exclusive game content plus some trinkets and doodads to share if you can make it! You’ll be able to find us at the WINGS booth at Indie Arena :)
- Challenge Roundup - Challenge #19: Pincushion - 3 July 2026
Last week’s challenge featured a mechanic we’ve been wanting to test out for a long time - a weapon which attaches to a die face and rotates with it. It’s a very different way of thinking about the die’s positioning and it resulted in some very brainbending solutions from our Discord members.The best solution was this 13-move path by Grolter which exploits a few high-level techniques. The main technique they’re using is passing turns using trigger spells, since using triggers doesn’t add to the move count. This lets them deal the tick damage with the sword while it’s inside Goodfellow without using extra moves. But then that ending combo is just pure shape rotation mastery, keeping a sword in Goodfellow on every step.🎲 Spellsided Challenge #19: Pincushion - 13 moves1️⃣ Shield 2️⃣ 3️⃣ Spectral Sword 4️⃣ Counterfeit 5️⃣ Spectral Sword + Dash 6️⃣ Spectral Sword + Dash⬆️⬆️⏺️⬆️⏺️ ⬆️⬅️⏺️⬆️⬆️…
- Devlog #5 - Back in Gear - 28 June 2026
We’re finally back with our fortnightly devlog! Hopefully you’ve been enjoying the demo 🙂 If you missed it, you can find the demo here:We’re making a small change to the devlog - patch notes for demo updates will now be posted here instead of in a separate post. Hopefully this consolidation helps to make it easier to find patch notes and avoids redundant information.We’re also making some changes to the Challenge Roundup! We are instead going to move to doing the Challenge Roundup separately to the devlogs, a week after each challenge release. We felt that reviewing your best solutions a whole two weeks after the challenge comes out dampens the excitement a bit. Let us know what you think.What have we been up to?So much has happened! Besides the new Domino Ruins campaign, we’ve made significant progress on UI, audio systems, voxel tech, optimisation, and other behind-the-scenes work. W…
- DEMO LIVE NOW! - 7 June 2026
The Spellsided demo is now live!!Featuring the first major region of the game, built around the Cut, Shield, and Gust spells. Here, in the fallen kingdom of the dominos, you’ll face two major bosses and a variety of strange cube-brain puzzles that test your mastery of these spells.This demo is a huge improvement from our first prototype we released a couple years ago. We have a lot of people to thank for that, and we’re incredibly grateful for every opportunity we’ve had to do justice to the many possibilities the premise of this game has offered us. But the most important people to thank is those who’ve shared our undying curiosity for what we can do with this silly little dice game. This is a huge day for cubes everywhere 🎲From here, we’ll keep releasing new challenge levels and devlogs every fortnight as we continue tinkering with new silly mechanics to share :))You can share your t…
- Devlog #4 - A New Challenger Approaches... - 7 May 2026
Challenge RoundupThe last challenge involved Dash platforming with your choice of spells on top to switch things up. The best solution was 17 moves by Discord member Four, but my favourite is this 19-move solution by Grolter, featuring a clever use of the Counterfeit spell!What have we been up to?Dominica has arrived! We hinted at Dominica a long time ago, and we've finally gotten around to making her playable. We've put her in a rotating challenge to test how she feels to fight and iron out some bugs. She has two primary attacks, and a “dust wave” phase:Work on the 3D spell switcher has now resumed and it’s coming together! Here’s the new net/cube animation that makes it much easier to visualise how the spells on the net map to the die:A new challenge awaitsThis weeks' challenge is a WIP gameplay test for Dominica, the Dustmancer!! She was once a champion of the gods, now turned to her…
- Devlog #3 - The Feltfields Begins! - 22 April 2026
Challenge RoundupThe last challenge, ‘Dustbin’, felt like one that would be a lot more linear, but your solutions had surprising amounts of variety! The fact that the level was built around managing objects in a tight space resulted in some deeeep shape brain strategy from you folks.The best solution was actually found by a newcomer to the Discord! anjos_taylon’s 20-move solution involves a lot more backsteps than you’d expect for supposedly the most optimal solution, but the combos it efficiently lines up with Dash and Gust are worth every backstep. We absolutely did not find this solution in our own testing.What have we been up to?It’s time for Feltfields! The Feltfields is a pool-inspired area ruled by rival factions Ringbands and Purehides. We’ve been putting together references, concepts, and initial asset lists for the area and starting up initial production on the grassy/felty vi…
- Devlog #2 - 8 April 2026
Another one!Welcome back for our second devlog! A little late because of Easter break, hope you all had a good one!Challenge RoundupIn last fortnight’s challenge we finally introduced a new spell, along with some new enemies which you folks found many ways to circumvent, resulting in some very satisfying solutions, weaving through dust and clearing enemies away. Discord member Grolter managed to find the best solution for this one, just slipping right through everything in their way. (Dash spell is visually bugged right now)Grolter’s 21-move solutionBut our favourite solutions were from people who just went cat-mode with Gust spell, using it to knock everything off the table.What have we been up to?As mentioned in the last devlog, the new in-house voxel plugin we’re now using allows for some fun visual effects! The first of which has come online: the new death particle effect (some of y…
- Devlog #1 - 21 March 2026
Dear diary,Welcome to our first fortnightly devlog! As mentioned in our announcement last month, now that we have funding we’re able to spend a bit more time on Community Engagement and that means you’ll all get a lovely letter from us every two weeks!Challenge roundupLast fortnight’s challenge was Rotating Challenge #3: Goodfellowship, where we dumped three Goodfellows into an arena and gave you fully upgraded faces to use every spell currently in the game. We were a little swamped with production, so this was flagged as sort of a “low effort” challenge from us. But apparently, giving the players full reign of the game’s mechanics actually made for a crazy sandbox of some very creative solutions.This challenge was the most we’d ever seen the Discord server pop off, with everyone trying to break literally every facet of this level.The best solution from our Discord server was, as usual,…
- Big News for Spellsided! - 27 February 2026
WE GOT FUNDING WE GOT FUNDING!!We’ve been working on Spellsided for 3 years now on a budget of zero Australian Dollars (which converts to $0 USD). In that time, we’ve released 61 short videos, 15 challenges, released and re-rereleased our demo, and exhibited twice at PAX Aus. All the while, we’ve been tentatively pitching to various publishers, grants, and funds, being sure to find the best fit for us, and we’re happy to announce we’ve finally found what we were looking for!We’re so grateful to the wonderful teams at WINGS Interactive and VicScreen for giving a first-time team like us a chance to dream big with our baby. We feel so much more security now with their support and mentorship, and the path ahead has become much clearer for us.What does this mean for you?Since we have some extra hands on deck now, you can expect a lot more pre-release content further down the line, featuring…
- Spellsided Demo Update 0.4 - The Challenge Update - 13 August 2025
Major ChangesThe Challenge Update is here!! ⚔️Prove yourself worthy of the Tabletop’s favour by finding the most efficient solutions to these bite-sized trials.This update comes with three new challenge levels, with a new level being added every fortnight. (Timeline may change depending on production craziness)Share your challenge solutions using our shiny new clipboard-based score sharing feature, which will give a summary of your spell loadout and the sequence of moves you made.We're hosting leaderboards on our Discord server at discord.spellsided.com for the best solutions from the community.Moved the Domino Den prototype to a beta branch. We learned a huge amount from releasing the Domino Den demo and its reception, but its current form isn’t representative of our vision of the final game, so we’ll be re-releasing it later down the line in a much more complete form ✨If you’d like to…
- Demo Update 0.3 - 21 December 2024
Hey folks! We’re very excited to share our first ever update for our first ever demo of our first ever game. Our focus for this update was making the experience of exploring the Domino Den more rewarding, with more detail and variety to the world you explore, and more incentive to keep poking at every corner of it! We’ve got puzzle-piece collectibles, a new NPC, three new challenges, some fancy new landmarks, and SO. MUCH. LORE. Major changes Spellsided has always been called Spellsided. But as many of you noticed, we previously made a minor typo in the name, so now it is correctly called Spellsided in the taskbar. This change will cause your save file to be reset. We recommend starting a new game anyway due to other potentially breaking changes, but if you wish you can restore your old save by copying %LOCALAPPDATA%\Local\Hexaquest\Saved\SaveGames\Unnamed save.sav to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Loc…
- 'Hexaquest' is now 'Spellsided'! - 8 November 2024
When we originally chose the name ‘Hexaquest’ for our little dice game, we had no idea we’d gain such an audience so quickly. The name was always a placeholder for us, so when we found out that there’s a board game of the same name that’s existed long before we even thought of our game, that was all the motivation we needed to brainstorm a new name that better captures the essence of our game. (Besides, their game actually has hexagons!) So hi! We’re making a game called ‘Spellsided’! I hereby declare that ‘Spellsided’ has ALWAYS been called ‘Spellsided’ and any who say otherwise will be cursed with terrible rolls for the rest of their life 👹🎲 Nothing else about the game is changing; it’s still our beloved dice-builder RPG. We’ve got some very fun plans for this next leg of production, updating the demo and developing the game beyond the Domino Den, so it’s exciting to kick this chapt…
- Kickstarter Cancellation - 18 October 2024
Hi folks! Thanks so much for all the support so far, but unfortunately, we’ve decided to cancel our Kickstarter campaign for now. We’ve been a bit too busy making our demo these past few months and we didn’t quite have time to properly hit those marketing beats to give our Kickstarter the strong start it needed. It’s our first ever game and our first ever Kickstarter, so it’s a learning experience for us all. But don’t let this worry you! Our silly little dice-builder RPG is still absolutely going ahead as planned. We know there’s a big and beautiful audience out there for this game (as we’ve seen on YouTube and at PAX Aus
- Kickstarter + Demo LIVE NOW!!! - 11 October 2024
OUR DEMO AND KICKSTARTER ARE LIVE NOW!!! Thank you all so much for your support, it really means the world to us and has constantly motivated us through tough times. It's been an awesome ride and we're so excited to share this demo with you. Give the demo a play, wishlist the game, check out the Kickstarter to snag an early-bird pledge, and tell all your friends! Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mti/hexaquest-the-dice-builder-rpg/ Discord: https://discord.playhexaquest.com/
