A hot topic that surpassed 200,000 Steam wishlist entries with just one question
A new challenge for Butterscotch Shenanigans, a studio created by three brothers.
A delightful question has posed itself to the indie gaming scene: How many people would it take to defeat a gorilla? A thousand babies? A duck the size of a horse? A god? *How Many Dudes?*, an auto-battler roguelike currently in development by American indie studio Butterscotch Shenanigans, has quickly captured the Steam community’s attention with this ingenious question.
The crowd is soon the star… “The combination of Ballatro and TABS”
*How Many Dudes?* is a game where players control a “crowd” rather than a single hero. The development team describes it as “a combination of Balatro and *Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS)*.” This means the design focuses on building a synergistic army rather than focusing on individual character development.
The game begins with a single “Regular Dude.” “Dude” is the in-game term for an individual unit deployed in battle. As the game progresses through battles, players will collect various Dudes (combat units) to gradually build a massive army.
As you level up, you’ll be given the option to expand your forces, strengthen specific units, or purchase relics from the shop. This repeated choice and expansion, characteristic of roguelike gameplay, broadens the scope of your strategy.
A feast of extraordinary and bizarre synergy
The game features a variety of combat units, including Undead Doods, Walking Doods, and Warrior Doods. The bizarre interactions between them are a key element of the game’s appeal. Zombie units grow stronger as their allies fall, ninja units enter stealth mode after defeating enemies, and merchant units earn money with each victory. Add dozens of artifacts to this collection, and the very rules of battle can change.
Although battles are automatic, the unpredictable nature of the game makes it a great match for streaming content.
From a game jam to over 200,000 wishlist items
This game originated as an entry in the 2025 GMTK Game Jam. The prototype ranked high in the “Fun” category, demonstrating its potential. Full-scale development began, but initial marketing efforts proved challenging. By the end of November, the number of wishlists remained at 6,400, and individual promotions to select streamers yielded no response.
But the team didn’t give up, shifting gears and releasing a public demo on December 17th. The results exceeded expectations. The demo reached 3,000 concurrent users, ranking it among the top five most played demos on Steam, and over 100,000 wishlist items were added within a month.
As of February 2026, the cumulative wishlist is known to have exceeded 200,000 . Since the release of the demo version, it has secured over 300,000 players , and despite being a simple demo, it is evaluated as highly addictive, with an average play time of 4 hours and 35 minutes per user.
In particular, a video showcasing the unexpected item synergy of “a vampire who eats a burrito and comes back to life with a fart” went viral on social media, generating explosive interest. Following this, broadcasts from major streamers continued, leading to a surge in concurrent users.
User response: “The demo version alone is worth the money.”
The core of user response is the density of content and the novelty of the ideas. Adventure Gamers commented, “The amount of content in the demo is surprisingly rich. Even after just an hour of playthrough, I felt like I hadn’t even scratched the surface. Dedicated players could easily pour dozens of hours into the demo alone.”
A lively uproar continued on the Steam community and across various platforms. Voices ranged from shared strategies like, “Adding stealth kills to zombie fighters will blow up the game,” to balance feedback like, “The randomness factor (RNG) is sometimes too brutal.”
A studio created by three brothers, immersed in development while undergoing cancer treatment.
Butterscotch Shenanigans, the creators of How Many Dudes?, aren’t just any indie studio. Founded in 2012 by brothers Seth, Sam, and Adam Koster, they’re a veteran team with over a decade of experience making games.
The studio’s history is punctuated by one of the most moving stories in the gaming industry. Sam Koster was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma in 2013. Despite undergoing chemotherapy, the three brothers persisted. Instead, they dedicated themselves to developing their debut game, Crashlands, determined , “If we’re running out of time, let’s make a game for ourselves, not for the market.”
Sam’s talk at GDC 2017, “The Last Game I Make Before I Die,” where he took the stage and honestly shared the parallel stories of cancer and development, remains a memorable lecture in the developer community.
The fact that the team that achieved cumulative sales of hundreds of thousands of copies through Crashlands, Levelhead, and Crashlands 2 is back with an entirely new genre and concept is also raising fans’ expectations.
The release date is yet to be determined, but expectations are high.
The game’s official release date has not yet been announced. However, its powerful “hook” concept, streaming-friendly structure, and combination of roguelike and auto-battler genres have already generated a significant response in the market.
How many fighters does it take to defeat a single gorilla? The answer will only be fully revealed after the official launch, but it was enough to at least shake up the Steam algorithm.
Steam Store Page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3934270/How_Many_Dudes/
