MiniMayhem by Phyrocast
Pit little odd creatures against each other and fight against a computer enemy in order to survive! Choose from 10 different mini warriors and see if you can come out on top!!
This is my second Ludum Dare, and I'm pretty happy with what I've done this time! Had to downscope quite a bit to do it solo, but it was worth it! I'm open to all comments and criticism of course, if it can help me improve I'll gladly take it!
| Itch Backup | https://phyrocast.itch.io/minimayhem |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/minimayhem |
Ratings
| Overall | 306th | 3.786⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 201th | 3.81⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 490th | 3.369⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 375th | 3.881⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 577th | 3.619⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 601th | 2.929⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 634th | 2.875⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 680th | 3.369⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 38🗳️ | 69🗨️ |
Was this game a solo job or team?
Congrats on the submission!
I like the core gameplay.
Some thoughts on how the design could be evolved: it would be nice to have higher difficulty levels. The deckbuilding angle feels only partially incorporated, since you can always choose to spawn any of the creatures at any time. It might feel more card-like if you had to play a card from hand to summon it, and if you draw a new card afterwards. That would force the deck composition to matter more.
If you were to evolve this concept, you could also add some creature synergies, or deckbuilding restrictions...
I love the variety of monsters you get to choose from and the deck building. Theres definitely a lot of potential there. Some ideas that come to mind:
- manual deployment of the monsters (e.g. drag & drop)
- adding new levels with obstacles / different paths
- some sort of tooltip when hovering over the cards (mid round), so you can look their stats up whilst playing
- adding music in general
- generally what @silas-reinagel said. I think synergies could be really cool here, or maybe some sort of merge-mechanic where when you play 3x the same creature, it combines to a unique & way stronger version, etc.
Sound effects and visuals are also super fitting, love the small particle effects on the attacks.
Good job, really impressive, especially as a solo dev! :grin:
The concept of a deckbuilder auto-battler is really interesting, and I can see the potential here, but there are a few areas that could use improvement. First, while the variety of creatures is fun, it felt like spamming certain units (like the Rush Rams) made it too easy to win, and some units ended up feeling overpowered. I also noticed that some of my units got stuck behind obstacles, which disrupted the flow of gameplay. Adding clearer synergies between creatures or more deck-building restrictions could add a lot more strategy and depth. The idea of manual deployment or adding obstacles sounds great too and would really elevate the challenge. Overall, a solid foundation, but I’d love to see it pushed further with more balance and strategy options in future updates.
Great work.
It might have been random, but it seemed like the AI was adjusting what they were making in order to counter my army. In my first play I was trying to Zerg and the computer heavily invested in mortars which hard countered me. I want to play this PvP!
hope to see a post jam update!
But the rest of the game was great! It wasn't clear what a good counter was for bombers or rams, but I just kept spamming archers and bombers and eventually won. Lots of fun and it's incredible that you put this all together in a weekend!