Gather your Minions, conquer the Living and become the Darklord!
The Pitch
Grim Horde is a fast arcade game with roguelike elements, where you lead your armies through the lands of the mortals, raze villages and claim souls.
The Challenge
At the height of the survivors-like popularity, together with the team at RedKoiBox we decided to put ourselves at test and fast-track a game release following that trend.
As we shipped the game in ~3 months, this required from us to be highly efficient in delivering a game that piggybacked on the emerging hyper-hardcore genre’s popularity, maximizing the possibility of exposure in front of streamers and influencers.
Game Loop
The DarkLord can spawn a Tower and attract dozens of minions on their side, leading the assault on a small town populated by angry villagers.
The DarkLord can’t attack the villagers directly, so the Player must rely on different types of minions to destroy the puny humans, while avoiding their attacks.
In-game card upgrades shake up the gameplay with power-ups for the minions, while the meta offers permanent upgrades to the DarkLord (e.g.: increasing the maximum number of minions, Tower spawning cap, etc.).
Reception
Despite the very limited time constraint, we were able to break even and create a tight-knit community.
Many players were attracted by the game’s fantasy of incarnating popular villain tropes. Our twists to the Vampire Survivors’ formula resonated positively.
Despite the game’s rough edges, we’ve found “something”, and I wish that we could have supported the game more to further flesh out the game.
Still, I gained a deeper understanding on how to create a quick, small hit game navigating trends and the Steam algorhitm.
Tasks
- Design the game mechanics
- Create and maintain documentation
- Balance classes, enemies, upgrades, and levels
- Support the lead programmer during the implementation
- Collect and react to the community’s feedback
- Create and edit units, UI pixel art assets
Will De Gregori 