How Many Dudes: 100 Men vs 1 Gorilla (and more)

Do you remember when people on the internet were discussing who would win in a hypothetical death battle between a hundred men and one gorilla? Well, discuss no longer, as How Many Dudes? seeks to answer this as well as provide a conclusion to every other hypothetical brawl.

How Many Dudes? gameplay is a refreshing new take on auto-battlers, as well as providing some interesting rogue-like mechanics. Let’s delve into exactly what makes this hilariously wacky game so entertaining, as well as analyze its recently released demo and see how it fares when we pit How Many Dudes? against other auto-battlers.

What is How Many Dudes?

How Many Dude’s features large-scale fights between droves of random enemies and your selected characters, or “Dudes”. You start with a singular “Regular Dude”, winning the first combat with little issue, as you’re only fighting a toddler or similar small enemy. In this first encounter, you already get a taste of what’s to come with the clean art style and dramatic sound design; however, it is after this that the game truly opens up. 

While the game is an auto-battler, meaning control over your army is limited, How Many Dude’s rogue-like mechanics are truly where this game shines. Once reaching certain levels, options arise for the player to expand their army, upgrade their Dudes, or purchase items from vendors.

To assist you in your climb through the levels, the litany of items and upgrades helps to improve your chances in combat. There really is no limit to the available strategies, as the variety of Dudes is immense, the upgrades are in-depth, and the items range from simple healing to summoning meteors or lighting from the sky. 

Each level completed will provide the player with a choice of either harder combat and earning more money, or an easier one with less reward. Thus providing an interesting dilemma of whether or not you think your Dudes could outlast whatever outlandish group of foes they are up against, and if whatever items you used to beat the encounter were worth the extra cash. 

When could How Many Dudes? be released?

Currently, the How Many Dudes? release date is unknown, as the demo has only just dropped. Searching through the dev’s website and social media also came up with nothing. While we absolutely think this game should take as much time as it needs to be as great as possible, the content on show in the demo is abundant. 

This, in combination with a lot of faith in this development team, makes us hopeful that we won’t have to wait too long to see the final product, or at least see some updates on the development process. Suffice to say, we will be checking the How Many Dudes? news page on Steam often. 

Who’s developing How Many Dudes?

The How Many Dudes? developers are a team known as Butterscotch Shenannigans. Originally founded by three brothers (Seth, Sam, and Adam Coster), the trio founded the studio in 2012 and have been creating games ever since. If you wish to look further into the members of this development team, they have full bios for each member on their website. 

Additionally, if you’re especially interested in learning about these devs and how they operate, as well as get updates on their games, the three brothers actually have a comedy podcast, one episode of which actually discusses How Many Dudes? and the launch of its demo.

What’s included in the How Many Dudes? demo?

The How Many Dudes? demo has a surprising amount of content available. As you can see in the image above, not only are there a fair few “Dudes” the player can deploy against their enemies, but a whole host of items and upgrades are also available. It’s honestly quite a shocking amount of content, as some could argue the demo itself could be shipped as is and still be worth a fair price. 

We managed to get around an hour of playtime out of our first run; however, it quickly became clear that we hardly even scratched the surface of the content on show. It’s not hard to imagine that a player who is particularly dedicated to this game could get dozens of hours out of the demo. Whether that be through trying to get as far as possible, or unlocking as many collectibles as they can. 

Additionally, we assumed that once you reach the end of the first set of levels, the demo would conclude with the usual “purchase the full game” message that many game demos employ; however, it just kept going. This makes us think that the game itself will likely be an endless battle with no real conclusion. While we’re interested to see how that translates with the full release, it means that the demo itself is great fun for as long as you wish, all for free!  

Is How Many Dudes? a roguelike game?

While it would appear in the How Many Dudes? trailer that the game is a chaotic mash-up of inconceivable violence, there is actually quite a lot of strategy the player must deploy. All of which is found in its rogue-like mechanics. Throughout the course of a run of the game, the player will have to carefully select Dudes, upgrades, and items that they believe will help them throughout the course of the run. 

Some of these upgrades are dependent on the order in which you have your Dudes, as some will only apply to Dudes in certain slots. Items likewise must be used tactically, as otherwise something may be wasted that would save you later in the run. This is where the rogue-like elements truly shine. 

At the end of every run, all Dudes and upgrades are put back to zero; each playthrough of the game will end up looking different, no matter the strategy employed. This, combined with the seemingly endless amount of items, means that although the gameplay simply involves watching the fight unfold, it ends up acting as a sort of window into the effectiveness of any given employed strategy. 

How does How Many Dudes compare to other auto-battlers?

In terms of comparing How Many Dudes? gameplay with other auto-battlers, not too much can be said. As mentioned, the plethora of available items and Dudes does make the majority of the game focused on preparation, but once the battle does start, the player cannot do much to affect the outcome. While this is the case with most auto-battlers, what distinguishes How Many Dudes? from other games is its incredibly charming presentation. 

The creativity on show in this project oozes out with every level played, as the visual and sound design make each stage incredibly entertaining. Paired with a fantastic original concept, we here are very excited to see this game’s future, and are very curious to see what further additions the developers will make in How Many Dudes? full game release.

References

1. About the Studio (Butterscotch Shenanigans)