700 Points, One Die Left: The Story Behind Five or Fold

1/5

You’ve got 700 points on the table and one die left. Bank the points and end your turn, or roll again and risk losing all 700.

That’s the decision I built Five or Fold around.

2/5

I wanted it to feel like a tabletop dice game you could open in your browser. Five dice, three computer opponents, and a race to 5,000 points.

The dice decide what you have to work with. You decide when you’ve had enough.

3/5

After each scoring roll, you choose which dice to keep. You can bank your turn’s points when eligible, or roll the remaining dice to try to add more. If the next roll scores nothing, you lose what you’ve built up that turn.

My favorite moment is when one die is left and rolling it still feels like a good idea.

4/5

One rule gives the game its own wrinkle. If two 5s come up on the same roll, you can score them as a single 1. The points are the same either way, but converting the pair leaves you an extra die to roll if you keep going.

5/5

Five or Fold is a free browser game that is just launching. You can play without creating an account.

If you try it, I’d love to hear what happened the first time you chose to roll again with one die left.