Overview: Monsters are an undeniable truth of the world you live in, wreaking havoc and terror and rampaging their way through the region. You, brave hero, have taken up the noble (and well paying) job of beating those beasts down using your own unique set of skills under the title of ‘Monster Masher’. But competition is the name of the game in your line of work, and there can only be one “World’s Best Monster Masher”, right? You’re determined that it will be you who claims the title in the end. Prevent the world around you from falling to the persistent monsters that plague it, while always staying a step ahead of your rivals.
A competitive monster mashing game! Build out the board and make the land work in your favor- or to your rival's detriment. Earn gold and buy upgrades to bolster your monster mashing arsenal. May the best masher win!
Team: Canberk Sönmezer, Kaelyn Beeman, Cameron Adams, Liam Andres, Sijal Jaradat
February - March 2023
My responsibilities:
Documentation and Task Management
Design and Product Development
How It Went:
Having sent this game in to be made with custom printing and pieces through GameCrafter really brought this game to life. We thought our game was pretty fun and well done for the time constraints we had been given, but what we weren't expecting was the incredibly positive response from the public. When showcasing the game at Imagine RIT as an unpublished copy, the game was an absolute hit with younger crowds than we had planned, with many players coming back more than once throughout the day long showcase to play again, or having to be actively coerced by parents to stop playing. We were asked many times that day how people could purchase the game, which has given us a strong sense of wanting to continue refining this project down the line. The only thing that is currently stopping us from going further with this game is the cost, as a single set of custom game components costed us nearly $300, which is not reasonably going to go down unless we buy in bulk- which is a potential logistical nightmare for a group of college students.
What I Learned
I learned that even if I CAN do something, it doesn't mean I have to. Often on small team projects where I am the producer I also end up making all of the art assets for the game, which can be an overloading task depending on what the game needs. For this project, I handled a small portion of the art (box art, rulebook design, card backs, player mats, character cards) and had someone else handle the assets for the tiles and card sets. By doing that, we were ablet to quicken our work pace as I was able to put the assets into the card format they needed to be in to get them printed through GameCrafter while the other person could start on the next piece.
I also learned that your most successful audience might very well not be the one you targeted at the start. You are then faced with a decision: To alter the game more to appeal to your original intended audience, or play into this new interested demographic. In our case, the kids interested in our game were quite a few years younger than we intended. With that being the case they ended up making a lot of their own rules, some of which simplified the game greatly for younger minds and gave us an entirely new perspective on how to approach the difficulty and age suggestion for our game.