G@mebox author Ralf Togler writes about the game:

In Warcrow Adventures, we control a small group of adventurers through a dungeon that only gradually reveals itself to us. The group consists, as usual, of a mix of powerful warriors, skilled archers, and wizards who use good and dark magic. However, dark magic is powerful but has its pitfalls as it does influence the personality of the wizard a little bit. All heroes have their individual abilities, weapons, and equipment that are again influenced by additional equipment during the course of the game but otherwise do not change from their basic values. But, there are a lot of different states (e.g., poisoning) that can be suffered by opening chests or from combat results.

All probes, including battles, are carried out by rolling dice of different colours. As is typical for CORVUS BELLI (see, for example, the arena combat game Aristeia!), successes are achieved by rolling stars. Exclamation points, on the other hand, can trigger certain additional abilities. Opponents also defend themselves by rolling certain coloured dice, where a shield counts as a success. What is interesting about this mechanism is that the dice of different colours have different numbers of star symbols and exclamation points. So you are always trying to get better dice by triggering certain effects or obtaining new equipment.

Compared to Aristeia!, so-called energy dice are a new element. Depending on the character, you have different energy dice available each round. With these, too, special abilities of the characters can be triggered.

By the way, we are guided in the game by an app. In this, different scenarios are available, into which we are introduced thematically. In the course of the game, we then learn new details through the app that help us to progress in the story. The app also specifies the layout of the game board and introduces other game elements such as doors, chests, but also opponents. Often, a certain activity on our part, such as opening a chest, triggers new effects that can also expand or change the game board. Interactions with NPCs are also possible in the app, and depending on how we decide or whether a probe is successful or not, this triggers different developments in the game.

In my prototype, this connection between the app and the game worked quite well, but at this time only one scenario is available. So ultimately I cannot judge whether the app was absolutely necessary for the game, but there are already some interesting possibilities that can be seen.

Battles, an essential element in any dungeon crawler, are carried out without the app. When there are opponents on the map, we are led through the attacking order sequence by an initiative wheel. The respective initiative determines the position on this wheel on which the respective characters are placed at the beginning of the fight. Then turn by turn, the pointer on the wheel is moved one position further and the characters that are at this position are activated on the playing field and can attack, run or make other useful things. After each action, the character is then moved forward on the initiative wheel by as many positions as his individual initiative value says.

Overall, the prototype already makes a very ready impression. The combat and probe system is refreshingly simple to use after an initial introduction round, so that there is only little downtime. Although app-accompanied games are not my favourite genre, the integration here in Warcrow Adventures seems quite successful to me, and the app was not a disturbing factor in the played introductory scenario but accompanied the game well. The game is currently in production and will be released next summer.

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