Evil Master Builder

A platformer – the other way round.

(Linux and MacOs are experimental!)

You are the villain. Hordes of tiny heroes sprint, jump and climb from the left towards your castle – and you build them the road to hell: spikes, saws, springs that launch them into the sky, crushers, pitch pits, crossbows. Every hero who makes it through the gate costs you castle health. At zero, it's over.

And time doesn't stand still. Every 6 waves the heroes advance an era – from cavemen to musketeers to teleporting space marines. Your castle grows with them: from a stone cave to a moon base, with new traps for every era.

Features

• 8 eras – Stone Age, Antiquity, Early and High Middle Ages, Early Modern Age, World War II, Near Future and the Space Age. Each era brings new heroes with a new trick: hoplites block shots from the front, berserkers ignore brakes, musketeers shoot your traps, drones fly over everything.
• 8 traps per era, 64 in total – upgrade your castle and retrofit your old traps. Weapons that survive 10 waves earn stars and hit harder.
• 8 ultras – once every 6 waves: Mammoth Stampede, Catapult Barrage, A-10 Squadron, Nuclear Strike, Ion Cannon …
• Endless mode after the Space Age – how long can you hold?
• 4 difficulties from EASY to ARE YOU NUTS.
• Random levels with a level code – send a code to a friend and play exactly the same level.
• Online leaderboard for the classic level and all random levels, per difficulty.
• Duel (1 vs 1) – both defend a castle on a mirrored field and send champions at each other. Play online against a friend (connect with a 6-character code) or practise against the bot. A handicap (more gold for one side) keeps it fair between beginners and pros.
• Every graphic and every sound is generated at runtime – including a chiptune soundtrack for every era.
• English and German.

Controls

• Mouse: left click builds (hold to build a row), right click sells
• 1–8: pick a trap · Space: start the next wave (early start = bonus gold)
• B: upgrade castle · U: retrofit old traps · X: fire your ultra
• F: speed 1x/2x/3x · A/D or mouse wheel: camera · C: champions (duel)
• Esc: pause · H: how to play · O: options · F11: fullscreen

Status

Version 0.10 – fully playable, still growing. Runs on Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux; the Mac and Linux versions are brand new, so please tell me in the comments if something doesn't work. Feedback and bug reports are very welcome.

Online features & privacy

The leaderboard sends your player name, waves, heroes defeated, level, difficulty, play time and game version to derkarussellbremser.de. For online duels, the server only passes your connection address to your opponent and deletes it as soon as you are connected (after 10 minutes at the latest); the two games then talk directly to each other, so both players see each other's IP address. Everything else stays on your computer.

Credits

• Idea & game design: Robin Peltner
• Content design: Nils N., Marco B.
• Beta testing: Nils N., Otso N.
• Multiplayer Idea: Otso N.
• Code, graphics & sound: made with Claude (Anthropic)
• Inspired by Hostile Architect by LaminatedCheese
• Made with C# (.NET) and raylib 5.5

Deutsch: Böser Baumeister ist komplett auf Deutsch spielbar – die Sprache stellt sich nach dem System ein und lässt sich in den Optionen umschalten. Ein Jump'n'Run, nur andersrum: Die Helden wollen in deine Burg. Bau ihnen die Hölle.