Minecart Mayhem

Overview

Minecart Mayhem is a survival card game: each player extends their rail line while the cave collapses behind them. Sabotage other players or focus on staying alive—last cart standing wins. Created by modifying Up The River for CTIN 488 (Up The River Mod, two-week sprint).

Duties

• Analyzed Up The River to preserve core mechanics while designing a new experience
• Co-designed card effects, dice checks, and elimination-focused win condition
• Ran in-class playtests and balanced cards from feedback each week

Gallery

Brainstorming on Discord whiteboard

In-group playtest of the first iteration

Final iteration with finalized materials

Process

We identified Up The River’s core: pressure to keep moving, special help/hinder elements, and a changing board. Ideas ranged from circular chase boards to reversing tracks; we chose player-built rails destroyed from behind.

Iteration 1. Separate rail lines, five-card hands, draw on play, forward movement each turn, trailing tiles destroyed. Cards need dice checks; sabotage includes dynamite and stalactite. Original goal: reach a finish line.

Iteration 2. Playtests showed early eliminations, weak panic, and unfair cards. We added starting rails, changed the win condition to last player standing, and introduced the rocket to counter stalactite. Tuned success rates and interactions across the deck.

Rules: Minecart Mayhem rules PDF.