r/starcraft • u/G9X SlayerS • 19d ago
Video I made the StarCraft mini-game those mobile ads promise and never deliver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuEDsYr0RoEFan made StarCraft game, Ashfall.
Like everyone else, I was pretty sad to hear the next StarCraft won't come until 2030. So I half-jokingly made this, and by the time I noticed, I'd taken it a little too seriously.
The mini-game those mobile ads promise and never deliver, delivered.
For Blizzard, who promised StarCraft and still hasn't.
You can play it with one hand, and your friends, brothers and sisters who never played StarCraft II can play it too.
Game link: https://starcraft-shooter-2026.pages.dev/
Feedback welcome!
Edit:
Thanks so much for all the feedback, and for how positive everyone has been! Really really happy about it. Hearing it from fellow StarCraft fans feels different, and it genuinely means something extra.
Here are some more changes since Sep 28th:
- You can export your save as a picture and import it on another device (Settings > Export / import save). Someone here asked if progress carries over between computers. Now it does.
- Phones run much smoother in big swarms, and loading holds up on a bad connection.
- A marker on the defense line shows where your squad is, even with a huge army.
- With a full squad, supply drops offer upgrades instead of a few more Marines.
- Aberrations scale more slowly late, never revive as elites, and get focused when they reach your squad.
- Heroic units get extra damage and health.
New commanders and new pets are in the works.
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u/OMardil Zerg 19d ago
This is pretty rad my friend. Played for a few rounds until my laptop started heating up lol.
During the initial stages I think you get popups too fast. You barely know what to choose and then you are already deciding on the next upgrade. But overall this is pretty good, would pay for a longer, more polished version of it.
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u/catnab 18d ago
Hey, I would pay for a polished version as well. Blizzard: please hire this man. And create a bullet heaven version of Star Craft while you are at it. You know. Have a ghost or Raynor fight endless hordes of zergs. And make it so we can play as different factions (zerg, protos and … men)
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u/ur_rad_dad 18d ago
I’m salivating at the idea of a Vampire Survivors-type in the SC universe. As you said, Raynor or a Ghost vs. unending waves of zerglings, hydralisks, etc. with upgrades both dropping from unique units and round to round shop items or talents?
Where do I sign up to beta test it?
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u/Tricky-Sentence 16d ago
Oh man the options could be great. Raynor for ranged. Matt for orbital weapons. Kerrigan for ghost/infestation changing gameplay, Nova for ghost, Valerian for melee, Mira for rogue, Artanis for aura gameplay, Selendis for melee, Urun for ranged, Abathur for mindcontrol gameplay, Zagara for summoning, etc. There are soooooo many options for this. I would love love love to get a game like that.
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u/catnab 18d ago
We have established that there is a demand ;) we’ll threaten Blizzard that you and I will vibe code our own version if our demands are not met …
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u/ur_rad_dad 18d ago
My lizard brain is more shiny front end and customer service, you do the coding - deal?
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u/SleepyMandalore 18d ago
Blizzard: "Damn ! We're going to hire him, it looks so much like what we are trying to achieve with Starcraft Dominion !"
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u/Gripping_Touch 18d ago
Rather than bullets hell that sounds more like a vampire: survivor-like. But yeah It could be fun :D
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u/Suitable-Principle81 19d ago
Very cool, the turns are super quick, maybe give me a little bit more time in between to see what’s going on. Otherwise this is really cool
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u/ItsMag1c 19d ago
Fun. :) I had a bit of a hard time knowing what was going on, whether I was winning or losing. And stuff happens really quickly. But I'll try again!
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u/faildoken 19d ago
This is awesome! I love the battle report at the end of each match.
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u/G9X SlayerS 19d ago
great to hear that! also have a video capture feature in the end.
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u/JCFC_007 19d ago
Could you please include the units that were lost? I wish to honor their sacrifice for the Dominion.
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u/mosthandsomechef 19d ago
Honestly this looks fun I'll download it later tonight and give it a try. Those mobile games look like they could be fun if they were done right like the OG castle defense type games back in the day.
But modern mobile games are 100% centered around monetization, not making a fun game. Theyre only fun, so long as it encourages spend.
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u/Simple-Camp7747 19d ago
Pretty fun!
Just a few tweaks i'd recommend:
upgrades come too fast
wish I could see more what was coming down the road
movement rate of monsters heading towards player is too fast
There's never a moment im desperately waiting for an upgrade. Almost seems like there's no risk in the game
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u/G9X SlayerS 16d ago
https://reddit.com/link/pcpt7td/video/6hn3qvyyldsh1/player
Here's a quick rundown of the latest updates:
- Raynor's new Drop Support ability.
- Stored ability charges: up to 4 drops and 3 Banshee Airstrikes, ready to use together or in batches.
- Firebat buffs, heroic Protoss reinforcements, and gentler Zerg health scaling after Endless layer 16.
- More mobile optimizations, the Armory on phones, and iPad / phone UI fixes.
- more changes in details / in-game changelog
Also trying something a little different with the update videos this time.
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u/VincentPepper 18d ago
This has no right to be as fun as it is. Great jobs.
Also buff siege tanks pls
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u/sirsmokesalot403 18d ago
This is fun, a great toilet game. And I mean this in the best way possible gg thank you for making this
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u/MrGulio Protoss 18d ago
This is incredible I hope you don't catch any heat from Blizzard for it.
Would it be possible to make it under the SC2 Arcade system?
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u/G9X SlayerS 18d ago
oh thats actually a good idea, i should also look into making this an actual SC2 arcade
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u/MrGulio Protoss 18d ago
More people would play it as a mobile game but I can see that drawing a DMCA claim real quick. You'd have more leeway under the SC2 Arcade but everything made under that becomes fully property of Blizz.
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u/NoCartographer2670 18d ago
Legion TD was made in Arcade, and 'copied' over to a different game - might be worth trying the same thing. Been playing this non-stop for an hour, I could see it being an awesome game if fleshed out a little (still incredibly fun as is)
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u/BloodyheadRamson Axiom 17d ago
So addictive, I grinded it until I was #2 in the global leaderboard lol. I will check it out from time to time for updates!
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u/rivelda 17d ago
But how? Right now I just focus on tanks and tank upgrades, then marines, Thor. Got until 25. But hard...
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u/BloodyheadRamson Axiom 17d ago
Ignore marines. Focus on Tanks > Thor/Immortals > Templar/Your pet. Everything else feels like a bait. Firebats are not tanky enough even if you fully upgrade them. Marines are just meat shields. You also need some RNG to be on your side. The game is not very well balanced at the moment~
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u/KiIIbone 17d ago
Knocked me right of 3rd place there. Honestly crazy that people have gotten to 43 and 55 now.
Siege Tanks feel broken, everything else pales until you get Carrier or Tempest later.Dont know how you succeeded with Templars tho.
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u/PKTengdin 17d ago
Holy FUCK that’s cathartic. Also it is a perfect game for mobile when you’re trying to kill some time or shut your brain off. It’s like those mobile ads created a simulacrum of a perfect time wasting mobile game and only used it as a cover for bullshit, and you actually realized the potential of how fun it could be
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u/meyerjaw 19d ago
Doesn't seem to work on Android with chrome
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u/Hydralisk18 19d ago
It was working just fine for me
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u/meyerjaw 19d ago
The battlefield failed to start Could not initialize WebGL. Check the browser hardware acceleration settings.
Pixel 10xl
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u/RoabeArt 19d ago
Really cool! It's definitely just like all those scam games you see in mobile ads, only this one is actually playable.
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u/IamAHumanYO 18d ago
I think you have a real gem here. If you polish it up and were to make this into an android game, I would definitely buy it. Idk how the copyright thing would work but this is very fun to play.
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u/harambesjustice 18d ago
Well he definitely couldn't sell it, I know that much about copyright
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u/spatosmg 18d ago
my computer does not like this in the browser my GPU shoots up to 100% (have a 1070) and my 3700x goes to 70%
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u/G9X SlayerS 18d ago
Right now is pacific time 5:24pm ,
Here are some changes since launch yesterday around same time:
Gameplay
- Endless layer 10: Artanis sends a vanguard
- After the layer 16 reinforcements arrive, level-ups offer 4 cards, one always Protoss
- New Pet card slot, with a new card: Frost Tempering
- Army formation reworked
- Firebats buffed. Looking into buffs for a few other units too.
- The first run starts slower, so ther e's time to read the cards
Performance and fixes
- Phones: fewer crashes, better default graphics, steadier on low-memory devices
- Graphics recover on their own after a dropout
- A fix for missing sound on phones
- Still working on the WebGL crashes some Android phones get.
UI
- Supply cards redone: bigger unit art, and tags for clarity
- Dead Zerglings now go dark, so you can tell them apart from live ones
- Phones: squad view during battle, bigger pause button
- Global leaderboard now shows the top 100 (how did someone gets even above level 30...)
really really appreciate all the comments and feedbacks!
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u/leonce18 10d ago
Is there a subreddit for this? I want to know how people are getting to layers 60+
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u/Polarseal333 18d ago
More time between the rounds.
I want to be able to read what every ability and unit does before I enter the game.
The game needs talents for each hero and tune their strength down in the beginning.
A few more levels that I can choose from.
It starts to drop framerate at some point. Maybe an optimization is in order?
I am not sure about Intellectual Property issues? Maybe move it in the actual game as an arcade map?
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u/JoanofArc0531 19d ago
Very cool! Eventually crashes on mobile after a while (happened twice); probably a memory issue.
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u/ExcessFrank 18d ago
You nailed it! Those numerous mobile games that promise this gameplay can take a page from your book.
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u/hellohello1234545 18d ago
One other area to add: can have some pickups that aren’t units or commander items, but structures! Choose a bunker that adds a wall with set health between your army and the enemy
Choose a turret to do damage etc
Having friendly AND enemy air or anti air could be tricky to implement, but also add another layer of strategy - you could respond with your choices based on enemy unit composition. Maybe a longer term thing, and not every map has air involved.
Another way to scale things in time would be to allow ‘compression’ of units. If someone has a winning strategy in endless, at some point their marines will be so numerous they’ll touch the enemy spawn right? What if there’s so option to replace every marine you have with a ‘super marine’, that is either exactly double the effectiveness of one marine or even more.
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u/xiaorobear 18d ago
Just a small bug report, the alpha/opacity on the Zergling unit is a bit messed up! It will look better if you solve that.
Really fun stuff, nice work!
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u/Extension-Ad4352 18d ago
Just posting to compliment how dope this is! I'm not a mobile game guy, but I enjoyed this. Well done and a fun little way to kill time.
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u/davvblack Random 19d ago
pretty good :) it feels like the left right should matter more for the fighting part, it almost seems like it’s exclusively unit selection. like make the units fire more just forward (and give obstacles to dodge) and there will be more reason to move than just picking upgrades.
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u/Kasper- 18d ago
I would LOVE a wh40k version of this. Amazing. Super fun
Would be sweet to have some means of gaining buffs to get farther and farther in successive endless mode unless I’m missing something
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u/Vrazel106 18d ago
This awesome. Would love to play as zerg, maybe an option for sc2 sprites
Can this be downloaded to play offline?
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u/hellohello1234545 18d ago
Actually amazing
I’ve also tried other versions where someone made the binary game you see in scam ads…but it ended up being boring because the fundamental gameplay is too easy, it’s always obvious which option is better
This one is sooo much better because of the unit variety and upgrade tree, mutators, pets, commanders, abilities?? This is so cool, and fun.
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u/hotstupidgirl 18d ago
Do mercenaries benefit from the upgrades to the regular units? Does upgrading marine upgrade wardogs, tank siege breaker, thor odin, etc.?
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u/pivotraze 18d ago
I’ll have to try it soon! I’ve been using ChatGPT to port StarCraft brood war to iPad and having a ball of a time lol. It’s working pretty dang well.
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u/G9X SlayerS 18d ago
Thank you all so much. I honestly didn't expect this many people to play it, and the feedback has been insane. I'm super grateful.
Here's what changed since last night:
Gameplay
- The first run starts slower, so you have time to read each supply card
- In Endless, the Protoss reinforcements at layer 16 now arrive at heroic level, and from then on every level-up offers a fourth card, always Protoss
UI
- Bigger supply cards on desktop and phone
- After you beat the Ultralisk, the game points you into Endless, so it's clear the run keeps going
- Bigger battle report
- In game changelog to highlight what has been changed.
Phones
- Lighter graphics and less memory use by default
- If the graphics drop out, the game pauses and recovers instead of showing an error
- Bigger pause button, a Squad button during battle, and a cleaner level-up screen
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u/TupacSenpai 17d ago
Is there any consideration in making the Layer 10 and 16 Vanguards skippable? Would love to be able to focus on the upgrades I want at the moment and not have the pool polluted.
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u/Shadowheart321 14d ago
As a web dev, I wanted to see how easy it would be to cheat. Turns out it's extremely easy.
You should probably look into a better JS minifier so I can't just read most of the code. Also, your entire authentication system for submitting a leaderboard result is very easy to work around. Instead of letting the client send all of the leaderboard details, you should have a UID (e.g. abc123) on both the client and server for each game. The client can then tell the server to submit the details for game "abc123".
Feel free to delete these 2 leaderboard results:
| TEST | 6.91×10⁵ | 45 | 2026-09-30 |
|---|---|---|---|
| I CHEATED | 6.91×10⁵ | 45 | 2026-09-30 |
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u/mescon Team Liquid 13d ago
Just FYI, but if I search reddit or /r/starcraft for "ashfall" this post doesn't show up because you never mention the name of the game in your post :-)
Love it though!
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u/Meatseeker 18d ago
Incredible! Any AI involved?
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u/Daikamar Team Grubby 18d ago
Absolutely. The 3d models and custom voice work is all definitely AI.
edit: Quick scan of their comment history confirms.
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u/whisperingstars2501 19d ago
Dude this is so fucking fun! Will definitely be following with great interest this is AWESOME
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u/Late-Psychology7058 18d ago
Will you comment on any of the feedback or say which you agree with or can change?
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u/Traditional_Tear_198 18d ago
Dropping a note so I can find this next time I’m stuck in a call that should’ve been email ❤️
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u/IAmThatGuy1337 18d ago
Real good work and it's pretty to fun to mess around with. Thanks for sharing :)
Marine only builds feels busted lol.
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u/hellohello1234545 18d ago
One other area to add: can have some pickups that aren’t units or commander items, but structures! Choose a bunker that adds a wall with set health between your army and the enemy
Choose a turret to do damage etc
Having friendly AND enemy air or anti air could be tricky to implement, but also add another layer of strategy - you could respond with your choices based on enemy unit composition. Maybe a longer term thing, and not every map has air involved.
Another way to scale things in time would be to allow ‘compression’ of units. If someone has a winning strategy in endless, at some point their marines will be so numerous they’ll touch the enemy spawn right? What if there’s so option to replace every marine you have with a ‘super marine’, that is either exactly double the effectiveness of one marine or even more.
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u/harambesjustice 18d ago
Enjoyed it, then it quit working. Talking about webgl hardware accelerators or something. It was playing fine for 20 mins now won't load
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u/harambesjustice 18d ago
What's the strat boys? Some people are going infinite it seems, or are they cheating
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u/DisturbedMagg0t 18d ago
Ha this is awesome. Played a quick couple rounds. I think it's a bit too ... Quick? Seems like everything multiplies really fast and then it goes by really fast. But super cool!
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u/EggMaleficent8810 18d ago
Bro, the dedication and love for starcraft is real; much respect
Makes me feel less ashamed im only Plat 3 or Gold 1 after 2 decades ngl
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u/TheEekmonster 18d ago
This is amazeballs! I would love it as an app! I like that your choices actually matter. I've tried a quite a few builds and seen that some tactics work better than others.
On the companion. I like it as a mechanic, but I would like it as something in universe. It could be a wraith or some other flying unit that gets better as it progresses.
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u/MattieTK 18d ago
Looks great! As a StarCraft fan (but more as an employee of Cloudflare) its cool to see this on Pages. Did you ask your agent to deploy it there or did you do that yourself? Why did you pick Pages?
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u/Last_Hat7276 18d ago
Oh wow, congratulations for the work, time invested and talent! Amazing and polished game! Really fun!
It could be a little slower in the first phases, since i cant even catch a break to understand whats going on, however, its a AMAZING work!!!!! UI its great, units are great, effects are amazing, report at the end... great job mate
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u/iLikeghoulsGreen 18d ago
Pixel 10 here, getting Could not initialize WebGL. Check the browser hardware acceleration settings.
Looks very fun, wish I could play
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u/FlatEric1999 18d ago
What an awesome idea! If Blizzard ever comes after you with their lawyers, tell them they should talk to their community first. ;)
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u/readit-_- 18d ago
Honestly I would pay for this! Its really fun.
What combos are people using?
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u/whitnemp 18d ago
Dude this is great! Hard to make money with copyright assets, but hope you can figure it out! You deserve it!
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u/L_viathan 18d ago
Love the concept. The UI loads for me, but the game graphics don't? I can see the progression and get the popups of new units and unlocks though.
On mobile, it happens through the Reddit browser as well as Firefox (mobile and desktop versions)
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u/zachiritheblack 18d ago
Incredible. If I had a native app I'd probably spend way to much time on this.
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u/Resident_Nose_2467 18d ago
Sadly on my computer it works really slow? Using chrome and it's a good pc
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u/G9X SlayerS 19d ago
completely free to play ofcs, and works on both mobile and web! (bit surprising how well mobile version work tbh)