Mayhem Masters

About the Game

Overview

Mayhem Masters was the first game my wife and I created as the small studio Digital Ballista and as such, it holds a very special place in my heart. We settled on this game because it was small enough that we could feasibly complete it within about a year of full-time development, which we did and the game released on Steam in March of 2020. I won’t go into details about the game here as it has its own website. Instead, I’ll jump straight into how it was developing this title.

Development

While Mayhem Masters was developed in Unity within a year of full-time development, a lot of preparation had gone into it beforehand. Core gameplay mechanics had been specified and illustrated, characters had been sketched and some rough prototypes had also been made.

As we drew close to Beta, we also recruited artists, composers and voice actors to take the game to the next level. To the right you can see the difference between an alpha build and the final build.

Mayhem Masters before/after

Concept Art

Mayhem Masters Concept Art A

Concept art for Mayhem Masters. The astute can tell that while this was made to look like a high-quality scan of a hand drawn sketch, it’s actually all Illustrator.

Mayhem Masters Concept Art B

Concept art for Mayhem Masters. While it looks like a cute game, that astronaut literally got blown to pieces.

Mayhem Masters Concept Art C

Concept art for Mayhem Masters. The philosopher is running for his life as he’s being chased by The Snake, the terror of Mayhem Masters.