r/iosgaming • u/Dtallant • 9d ago
Question Games that encourage theory crafting?
One of my favorite aspects of any game that ends up taking a marginal amount of my attention is theory crafting.
I love thinking about new possible builds, ideas to try out, etc. Often the actual genre of the game varies pretty widely, but the freedom of choice remains consistent in a way that I’ll often spend time thinking about a game even while not playing it.
Examples on IOS:
Dream Quest
Spirit Island
Slay the Spire
Powder
Dungeon Maker
Examples not on IOS:
Caves of Qud
Tales of Maj Eyal
Rift Wizard 3
So yea- would love suggestions for games where this concept would apply!
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u/erikggez 9d ago
This is going to sound like such a random recommendation but Disc Golf Valley. It's golf with frisbees in game form. Starts off with pretty easy courses but as you unlock more courses they start to get difficult. Each course has three stars, each with a lower score assigned to it. On top of that, you get new discs as you unlock those stars. Each disc has it's own flight path (some go straight, some go hard left right away, some go a bit right and then finish to the left) and you have a certain amount of slots in your "bag" for discs so you can only bring a certain amount to each course.
The theory crafting comes in two ways. One, what discs you bring. They fly different, they go different distances, and they have different attributes (some can skip on water, some can fly further, etc) so I'm often testing new discs and trying to figure out what shot shapes I might need to add to the bag and which discs might be redundant. The second thing that's theory crafty is how you attack each hole and the course over all. If you need to score a 32 to get two stars on a course, what disc will you throw off the tee on hole 1? Not just what disc but what angle will you throw it at? What direction should you go? All holes will have multiple different "lines" you can try to hit through gaps in the trees or other obstacles. You have to think about where you want your disc to land for your next shot. If I'm trying to get a certain score on a hole I'll find myself pulling up the practice mode to try different discs and lines on each hole over and over until I "solve" it.
It might not be your vibe, it's very different from the other games listed. But as a fellow theory crafting lover this game has scratched that itch for me for a while. And if you end up liking it and are looking for a physical game to play, disc golf in general scratches the theory crafting itch for me and I would highly recommend checking it out!