It’s like Peggle meets 2048 meets Balatro, all with the aesthetics of an early 2000s Flash game site.
I mean, do I even need to write the rest of the review? That sentence alone should tell you whether you’ll love this game or not.
Nubby’s Number Factory, developed and published by the solo developer MogDogBlog, is a fresh and unique take on the recent wave of roguelike deckbuilders. Where games like Balatro and Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers rely more on strategic planning than fast-paced action, Nubby injects a new level of dynamism into the formula, keeping players engaged moment to moment.
You play as an unnamed factory worker, launching the titular Nubby, a small blue orb, into a structure of 21 ‘pegs’, similar to a pachinko machine. The pegs all have numbers, which halve whenever Nubby touches them. When Nubby hits a peg, the number on it is added to your score for the round. You must surpass a scaling target to beat each round. The pegs increase in value and reset position each round, and you restock lives based on how high above the target your score was. There are four twenty-round ‘zones’, and you must beat an ‘Apocalypse’ boss in round 80 to win and subsequently optionally enter endless mode.
There are occasional special rounds, such as choosing between two permanent perks, a shop where you can pick items to add to your seven-slot inventory, a café with food that provides various benefits, a grabber machine that can give items or a key to the black market which contains very powerful items, and rounds where certain pegs are modified to help or hinder you.
All these additions make the game a deceptively cerebral experience. The items all have trigger effects based on a certain action (popping the first peg, Nubby dying etc.) and can sometimes be forcibly triggered, usually by perks. This creates an interesting system where you have to consider the relations between different items, between perks that force trigger items in certain inventory slots, and which items from the black market you pick as these cannot be force triggered. And, of course, careful aiming is key – popping the right pegs is the difference between success and failure.
When I reached out to him, developer MogDogBlog described the game’s addictive nature as stemming from the appeal of ‘number goes up’. He was inspired by mobile merger games such as 2048, and how they become addictive due to their unique progression system where progress is quick and very visually stimulating. It’s very easy to initially decide to play one run, and end up playing five or six before you realise what’s happened. MogDogBlog also deliberately embraces the fun of “breaking” the game, as he believes it’s part of the appeal. He balances the experience by only nerfing elements that become “like a win button” rather than a clever strategy.
The aesthetic of the game is excellent. During gameplay, you’re treated to some relaxing lo-fi background music that you can zone out and chill to, and every sound effect is so satisfying and enjoyable, making the rounds fly by. You’re supervised by a man named Tony whose pixelated face, decked out in green sunglasses, goes crazy whenever you get a high score. According to MogDogBlog, the choice of an unconventional lo-fi art style was intended as a nostalgic call-back to the Flash and edutainment games of his childhood. In an era where many games strive for hyper-polished visuals, Nubby stands out with a personality-filled aesthetic that feels both familiar and fresh.
If the main game mode isn’t enough, Nubby offers 10 different challenge stipulations to test your skills – and the challenge part is no joke. You’ll need lots of luck to even get past the first zone. Beating them unlocks alternate supervisors with various gameplay-related perks, similar to the alternate decks in Balatro. Most of these challenges felt frustrating rather than fun, and a bit more balancing would make them more engaging without removing the difficulty. MogDogBlog acknowledged that some challenges are too random and frustrating, and while they won’t all be reworked, future tweaks aim to make them tough-but-fair rather than outright punishing.
As is a pitfall with many roguelike deckbuilders, Nubby‘s endless mode struggles with balance. I beat my fourth run with a busted Pregnancy Test-Laser Pointer-3D Glasses build, and once I’d set it up by about round 50 it wildly outpaced the scaling and made endless mode a joke. I was consistently scoring in the sextillions while the target was only in the billions. Additionally, the Cheese House item is too strong (for the early rounds) and can almost become a ‘win button’, especially combined with the Void perk. These will all most likely be fixed or tweaked in coming updates.
It’s heart-warming to see a small, personal project resonate with so many players. MogDogBlog stated he originally created Nubby as a passion project while studying an unrelated field in college, but its unexpected success made him consider a future in game development. In the past few weeks, he’s been “ecstatic” watching streamers share the game and seeing players break it in ways he never anticipated. If this is just the beginning of this young developer’s career, I’m excited to see what’s coming next.
Overall, this is a very fun game, but slightly lacks in long-term replayability, especially if you are stuck on the challenges and can’t unlock the alternate supervisors. However, this will be addressed soon, with MogDogBlog stating he is “planning on adding more content to Nubby“, with new items, food, perks and balancing updates, to extend its lifespan. As it stands right now, this is a really solid and innovative addition to the wave of roguelike deckbuilders, with enough charm and depth that anyone can pick it up and get hooked. And for a mere £4.29 price tag, who wouldn’t?
Nubby’s Number Factory is available on Steam, or from MogDogBlog’s itch.io page.
