Desolate For Alexa

The second Alexa board game adaptation I was working on was Desolate. The game is now available for you to play for free!

As I mentioned in my previous post, the first game I started working on was Desolate, but once I got a playable beta version for it, I moved on to the actual project which was adapting Dungeon Roll for Alexa. After releasing Dungeon Roll, I had to go back and finish what I started.

Most of the game was ready at this point. The game was missing sound effects, a step-by-step guide on how to play the game, and a few improvements for the text descriptions. Most of the code was reusable from Dungeon Roll, so it did not take too long to get everything together. Amazon has a free sound library of over 3000 sound effects, and this time around there were plenty of science fiction sound effects I could use. Sadly the selection in the Fantasy category was lacking which is why Dungeon Roll does not have more sounds. I will need to host my own sound effects on a server if I want to include custom sounds. Perhaps I will do this for a future update.

Game Overview

Desolate is a solo science fiction game where your spaceship has crash landed on a remote moon and you are required to explore a space station to acquire five power cells to power up your ship and escape. While you’re looking for those power cells, you will encounter unfriendly aliens that need to be dealt with. In the beginning of the game, you can choose two items that give you various bonuses, so there are plenty of combinations to try since there are a total of seven items. Some items are more powerful than otherse, so once you beat the game with a certain set of items, you should attempt to play again with a different combination. The game usually lasts around ten minutes. You can read the full game description on the Alexa Skill’s page.

How to launch Desolate on your Alexa device

To start playing, all you need to do is say “Alexa, enable Desolate Board Game”. The game is available in all English locales (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and India). If the game does not start for any reason, try enabling it from the Amazon Skill Store first, and then try the “Alexa, open Desolate Board Game” command again.

Desolate is designed by Jason Glover and published by Grey Gnome Games. If you like this version, which was created to make it accessible for blind players, consider buying the physical board game from The Game Crafter.