Spawnimon: A Pokémon/Cthulhu Parody Mashup Game

There have been dozens of “Pikathulhu” mashups of much-beloved pocket monster Pikachu and much-terrifying Lovecraftian horror Cthulhu, but why stop there? Spawnimon is a battling card game of 153 mashup beasties from Bulbokrug to Mew-go and even the bonus Unnoable pairing MissingNo and “The Unnamable.” They all launch soon with the game on Kickstarter.

While Jacob Blackmon’s art alone is a lot of fun (horrifying? adorable? horrifyingly adorable?), we’ve spent years fine-tuning the gameplay. Its basic mechanic is simple: ensure your monsters have powers stronger against the opponent: water is strong against fire, avians are strong against insects, and worms are strong against stone. Once players master that, the core of the game is studying the field and maximizing their attacks with the player deck of one-time bonuses.

Each game begins with shuffling and dealing a new zodiac of Spawnimon. This makes for millions of combinations to keep players on their toes. Every game is different as players choose their creatures, battle, call in reinforcements, and finally capture victory by knocking out their opponents. With every round full of decisions to optimize, players will develop their own strategies, whether bold strikers or more defensive stances, to outlast.

The main gameplay in Spawnimon is dueling, whether in the classic one-on-one, as teams, or in a massive free-for-all, but we’ve also developed a single-player mode for solitaire games. Here, players draw their Spawnimon monsters and fight their way through a zodiac of enemies, picking their targets depending on their strengths and weaknesses. It worked so well that we even made a multiplayer mode where a team can go up against the terrors from beyond to see how far they can last.

One of our playtesters said the vibe was “TCG in a box,” giving the thrill of mixing cards and finding advantages without having to dig through pack after pack for something good. Another playtester called it “Magic lite,” which was quite a compliment. He wanted a set to play with his kids before they got into the intricacies of Magic: The Gathering down the road. That’s exactly what we wanted: a game packed with action, giggles, and not-too-heavy play that will keep gamers coming back again and again.