Last updated on January 15th, 2026 at 01:20 am
Roll for the Galaxy – Board Game Review
Roll for the Galaxy is a Board/Strategy game from Temple Gates Games LLC, first launched in 25th August 2020.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 490+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Roll for the Galaxy Stand Out
Following the launch of Race for the Galaxy, Temple Gates Games in association with Rio Grande Games brings the Roll for the Galaxy boardgame to digital life! Roll for the Galaxy is a dice game of building space empires for 2-5 players. Your dice represent your populace, whom you direct to develop new technologies, settle worlds, and ship goods. The player who best manages their workers and builds the most prosperous empire wins!
This dice version of Race for the Galaxy takes players on a new journey through the Galaxy, but with the the feel of the original game.
Designed by Wei-Hwa Huang and Tom Lehmann, this dice version of Race for the Galaxy takes players on a new journey through the Galaxy. Keldon Jones, the developer behind the Race for the Galaxy AI, is at it again with Roll for the Galaxy. This game will feature a new neural network AI that will challenge even the most advanced players.
Features
- 2 – 5 player with network multiplayer
- Asynchronous and real-time multiplayer modes
- Advanced neural network AI by Keldon Jones
- Nine starting factions, nine starting worlds
- Sixty developments and settlements[/list]
This Board game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Roll for the Galaxy is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 4th September 2020
Recent improvements include:
Fixed bug with tiles being invisible in the construction zone
Fixed bug with Jumpdrive Research not giving credits correctly (could lead to credits=0)
Fixed bug with multiplayer games with optional seats
Updated tile discount/bonus color to be more distinct
Other minor fixes and improvements
Download & Availability
Roll for the Galaxy is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Roll for the Galaxy on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Its a good adaptation of the game and a great way to learn the tiles and combos. We have only played AI mode, and it seems challenging enough. It does what we want o a mobile game- plays in under 10 minutes and no in app purchases.
Very fun game. Single player works great. That said, pass and play has very frequent crashes. If the game wasnt good at saving board state constantly, it would be unplayable. Also one of the best visuals of the app, the dice roll, is almost never present in pass and play which is disappointing. EDIT: Would love the expansions released on here.
We love the physical game and have all the expansions. We were excited for the digital game because we dont always have people to play with. But the digital version is just the base game, which while not bad, is still not as fun with any of the expansions. The first expansion and promo pack have been listed in game as coming soon since the game launched 4ish years ago. Not to mention, links in game to the devs other games, actually link to the Google Play Store and not Apples App Store. A bug since day one.
Good implementation! Powers and abilities are highlighted which helps remind you to use them. We really wish they could get around to getting the expansions in.
Once you learn how to basically use the dice correctly the gameplay really opens up for a fun casual experience worth the price.
Very fun game. Single player works great. That said, pass and play has very frequent crashes. If the game wasnt good at saving board state constantly, it would be unplayable. Also one of the best visuals of the app, the dice roll, is never present in pass and play which is disappointing.
The game is a fabulous port of the physical board game. Cant wait for the first expansion. The only addition Id like to see would be to add a way to inspect all of the game tiles outside of playing the game (possibly as part of the rules section?).
Because it takes care of all the tedious dice mechanics and leaves you to enjoy a unique, beautifully designed strategy game. The app is as clean and user friendly as they come, and the game is sharp, fun, and endlessly replayable. Give it some time our first few tries we felt like we had no idea what we were doing. But the terrific tutorials and helpful app prompts enabled us to play through anyway, and after a couple of games all the lightbulbs turned on and we understood it all completely. Since then its been nothing but pure strategy delight. No ads, no IAPs, nothing to unlock, just an expertly ported implementation of an outstanding game.
Ive been enjoying this app a lot, the UI is beautiful and slick. Im starting to get the hang of Roll. This app is also great for learning and preparing to teach/play the physical game too.
Big fan of the board game and this app is very well made and done.
The in-game store that links to the companys other games, are links to the Google Play Store and not to the Apple App Store. So if you want to look at the companys other games for you iDevice, dont use the in-game store.
We have nothing other to say than Ive been completely satisfied with this app so far. Its just as good as the Race for the Galaxy app.
This is an excellent digital implementation of the board game. The UI is well designed and makes for a fun and fast game. This plays great on our iPad but our iPhone 7 screen is too small to really enjoy it. We look forward to the expansions coming to the app to make the game play more balanced. Ive only played a few games so far but we dont see much diversity in strategy pursued by the AI and we see it do nonsense things sometimes like scout for tons of cards it can never build.
The game play mechanics give the player so many options for strategic thinking. Deciding how to prioritise gives a great challenge.
Wow where to begin, the gameplay is an addictive and fairly quick like the board game. The UI is really smart here, looks great, zoom and hold function to see details is smooth, zero problems playing on IPhone 8+. Havent tried online play yet but our many ai matches are pretty well matched, just recently moved up to hard. TLDR; Getting one app over the next six months? Get this. BUG REPORT: You must spend all of your credits to recruit at the end of the phase? This has happened to us where we wanted to leave the other workers due to an ability firing off for those colored dice but the game would not let us proceed to the next round until all our credits were spent.
Beautiful what can we say its great love it keep it coming.
Rather than improve its strategy with the hard level, the AI cheats by drawing the tiles it needs out of the bag and rolling what it needs on the dice. The game is unbeatable at Hard AI, so if youre looking to improve your game by playing solo vs. The AI, this is a waste of your time. The same problem exists with their Roll for the Galaxy app.
Our wife, friends and we love the physical board game, and we bought this digital game day one. Saw the developers advertising the first expansion and promo cards in the in-game store, and was very excited. Unfortunately, many years later, those have yet to be implemented into the digital game, and even bugs that link their other games to the Google Play Store, instead of the Apple App Store, when playing on an iOS device still exist. This was a near launch bug, if NOT an actual launch bug, that the devs acknowledged after we sent an email. We love the game, but the expansions for the physical version really round out the experience. And it looks like this digital version will not be getting any of those. Im sure the lack of digital sales was the deciding factor to leave the game as is, which is a shame.
Its unfortunate that we still havent seen the promo pack or Ambition expansion. Theyve been coming soon since the app released. Id engage with the app much more frequently if the expansions were available.
For a $10 app, you want it to be reliable. Unfortunately, far too frequently, the game will crash. Kick you right out in the middle of a turn and take you back to the homepage with a server lost type message. Then either your game wont show back up. Or the play online option will be greyed out. Even shutting the app down and relaunching it doesnt help. We have several complex game apps on our phone (Everdell, Lords of Waterdeep, Catan, Splendor, etc). This is the only app that crashes at all. And it happens, like we said, 10+ times per day. Far too frequently for the cost. The game itself is very well done. The auto button for obvious moves saves time (we always double check the work before we save, but its always right where Iwould play the cubes). And it has succeeded in even giving us a better understand of the game as a whole. Great game. Great app. All ruined by poor tech.
The app frequently crashes and has issues maintaining game state. Often when trying to continue a multiplayer game, the state will reset to the beginning and the app will crash. On restarting the game, the correct state will display, but its very frustrating. Its disappointing that you still cannot view opponent score details, as was the case in Race.
The game closes for no reason and will not resume the game that was in progress. Very frustrating, especially given the price of the app. Hope the developers can find a way to prevent this from happening because it is otherwise a good game.
You can whip through games in five minutes. AI does what it does in in Race: sells goods (rather boring). Its not a development game, but a race for who can complete a tableau and who is selling goods the fastest. We always think the franchise would be more fun if it was more about building and less about selling goods and putting whatever cards you can down… Oh well. Always kind of bugged us about RftG actually. If you want an even faster more random experience than Race, try this. One of the cool things about the hardcooy is all the cool dice, somehow doesnt translate to a phone well. Its actually kind of annoying watching the AI just place whatever they can and sell goods. Come to think of it we hate this game.
This is a great strategy game, but its hard for us to recommend it since every time we start winning, the game crashes on us. (Playing on iPad mini A17 Pro – your results may vary.).
Really great boardgame app. Always been a big fan of race, and now Im thinking we may need to add this boardgame to the physical collection too.
It takes less than 1 second to load the splash screen on our iPad pro 3rd gen. And then another instant later the game screen is up. We select Online and we are there instantly. All this is done with such great professionalism by programmers who really know and care about their craft! The game is great. The tutorial left us wanting, but the fellow who wrote it understood the game so well and we guess he just couldnt connect to us beginners. But after struggling through a couple of games against the AI and being totally lost, we read the online, in game, rules and suddenly it all made sense. Now that we understand how to play we are having a great time in online games. We even joined one created by one of the Admins. We figure that one should be a great challenge. There are a lot of different strategies you can employ to win. Trying to figure out your opponents next move can be very helpful, but dont forget to watch their long term strategy as well. Great online game! The best to come along in quite a while.
Dolly for the galaxy is great. Buy it.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.01
- Size: 150.90 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Temple Gates Games LLC
Last updated: 4th September 2020 | Genre: Board, Strategy | Developer: Temple Gates Games LLC