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Farkle Dice for iPhone and Android Rolls Past 500,000 Downloads

Our game Farkle has had tremendous success in 2011. I put out this press release today.

Bellingham, WA – May 25, 2011 — Smart Box Design today announced the chart-topping highly entertaining game Farkle Dice for iOS and Android has been downloaded more than 500,000 making it one of the most successful dice games available.

Farkle offers players an opportunity to challenge friends or compete against a variety of “intelligent” computer opponents with a wide range of personalities—from cautious to daring—that will determine the level of risk each opponent is willing to take when deciding just how far to push their luck.

Farkle is an enormously popular game throughout the world. Players roll a set of six dice for points and can continue rolling the dice as long as their roll continues to yield points. Any non-scoring roll is called a Farkle and the player forfeits their turn and any points accumulated during that turn. Like most games of chance and skill, Farkle’s attraction stems from players hoping to beat the odds and roll a high scoring combination.

Smart Box Design is known for the attention it places on both the playability and design of its games, and Farkle is no exception. There are very few dice games available for Apple iOS and Android with the quality and attention to detail that went into creating Farkle Dice. The game, which can be customized to accommodate regional rules, is extremely easy for users to pick up and begin playing upon installation. It is beautifully designed with the rich hues of a felt and wooden game-playing surface surrounded by a western theme.

Many games feature computerized opponents that are programmed with varying degrees of difficulty (smart, smarter, and smartest). Farkle, rather, comes with a collection of computerized opponents that are programmed to employ different strategies and take various degrees of risk when deciding whether to continue rolling for points—just like different people that Farkle players will encounter as they play the real dice game.

“We are delighted to bring one of the all-time classic dice games to the Apple iOS and Android Markets,” said Todd Sherman, Smart Box Design’s president. “Our version of Farkle provides mobile device users with a great game that can be picked up when they only have a few minutes to spare, but user beware—once the game is started, it can be very difficult to put down!”

Farkle Dice is available either as a free ad supported app or without ads for 99 cents.

Farkle Dice has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Korean.

Download Farkle Dice

Farkle Dice for iPhone / iPod touch
Farkle Dice – Free for iPhone / iPod touch
Farkle Dice for Android Phones and Tablets

About Smart Box Design

Smart Box Design, based in Bellingham, Washington, was formed in 2003 by game industry veterans who share a common vision of creating exciting, high-quality, strategy and thinking games for mobile users. Smart Box Design licenses, develops, and publishes games for iOS and Android devices. The company has previously released Farkle Dice, Triples, and WordPop!, a best selling strategy, puzzle, word creation game and continued the series with Word Monaco Solitaire and Word Watch.

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Resource: Farkle Rules in Printable Format

Many of you have asked for a printable version of the Farkle rules. They are now available in Word format. The file also includes an interesting history of dice and Farkle.

Not only is the document helpful in teaching others to play but is a great resource for children if writing a report on dice games.

Thank you for making Farkle Dice one of our best selling game.

Click Here to Download Farkle Rules

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Farkle Dice Upgrade for Windows Mobile – Same Game, but New Experience!

Many of you own the very cool Windows Mobile Treo 700w, 700wx, or 750 and have asked us to make Farkle Dice available for it. We have! Plus we’ve added several great new features for all Windows Mobile devices running 2003 or greater.

The FREE upgrade includes:
– Treo line support
– Two more computer players to match wits with
– Improved volume control
– Customized gameplay – you control the dice speed
– Improved phone control (game mutes on incoming calls)
– Updated compatibility and stability for OS 5 (yet still fully compatible with Windows Mobile 2003)

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Review: Bubble Girl Pops WordPop and Farkle Dice

WORDPOP

Word Pop is a delightful twist on the popular game, Boggle. Your goal is to make words of 2 or more letters from adjacent letters still, but as you make them, the tiles disappear. The goal of each level is to remove all the letters, leaving a clear board for the next round. If you get stuck with letters unable to be made into words, it’s game over. Valid words cannot be abbreviations, hyphened words, acronyms, contractions or pronouns. Acceptable words will change to bold text in the entry bar. At the same time, green tick will become highlighted and the chime sound as you select tiles will raise in pitch. Click the green tick to enter the word you’ve made and remove the tiles involved.

…however, that isn’t all there is to it. They have added another twist of bonus tiles. Large word scores and game difficulty level will determine how many you earn. Each tile is scored similar to Scrabble, each adding up into a score. If the score is high enough (40+ points in easy mode, 50+ in Medium, or 60+ in hard) you will receive a bonus tile, which could be another letter or a wildcard tile. If you have more than three, a letter tile will be changed to a wildcard. If you have tiles left, they will carry over to the next level.
What if you’re still stuck? Rotate it! The board will rotate, allowing you more options with your tiles. Press the round arrow button and watch your letters change places.

What I love most about this game is the separate scoreboard for highest ever word scores. You still have an Easy, Medium and Hard scoreboard, but you can also keep your best word creations in check too.

This has become my new word game obsession!

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FARKLE


Do you feel lucky?
Farkle is a developed style of Yahtzee, based more on luck and choice. 2-6 players (computer or human) roll six dice in the hope of rolling certain number combinations. However, in this game, you are aiming to earn the most points.
Possible point-scoring combinations are:
1 x 5s = 50
1 x 6s = 100
3x2s=200
3x3s=300
3x4s=400
3x5s=500
3x6s=600
3x1s=1000
3 pairs = 500
Straight (all 6 dice) = 100

Farkle earns a new category of its own, as you can choose to keep the score you have and pass, or continue rolling. Once all 6 dice are used, you can choose to try your luck again and roll your six dice again. The trick is to stop before you roll without earning points. Failing to score means your turn is over and any score you have banked up disappears — called getting Farkle. As the entire object of the game is to earn 10,000 points before the other players, you want to play on as much as possible, but you do not want to Farkle either. If you get 3 Farkles in consecutive shots, you lose 1,000 points. Strategy is very much part of this game, also. Consider using just a 5 or 1 in a roll to leave better odds for the next.

Once a player has reached over 10,000 (or 5,000 depending on game selections) they have finished the game. Other players now have one chance to score higher. If they do, they win the game.
Farkle has been kept simple in graphics and sounds, but to great benefit. The game remains the focus, allowing players to concentrate on the action and strategies.

The board is well set out, with a large scoreboard to place score and Farkle count in a well-spotted position. (The cute xylophone riff as music really endeared me, too.)

The controls are as thought out. Players can do all that’s required with one tap on the correct dice or button. No fussing with dragging or double tapping.

Great for PDA beginners.
Try these games at Smart Box Design
Read more reviews by Bubble Girl at http://www.bubblegirl.net/pda.php
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Strategies: Farkle Dice – Learn from your Opponents

Remember that when you’re playing against a computer, you are actually playing a program. While they do get lucky sometimes, they do not cheat. For this reason, you can learn from them. The reason that certain opponents do well is not because they really get that lucky, but because they know when to take risks and when to play conservatively.

If you’re way ahead, it pays to consistently receive points and maintain your lead, so you don’t want to roll if you’ve only got a dice or two left. However, if you’re behind, or somebody is nearly 10,000 points, what have you to lose? Roll again! It’s mastering these situational choices that will help you peel the “lucky” label off of yourself and reveal the veteran underneath!

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