Kritzel Krieg

Kritzel Krieg is a two-player lane battler where you draw your own army, base and turrets on squared notebook paper. Your ink determines your units’ stats: drawing more makes them stronger and tougher, but costs more gold. You earn gold, send out troops, upgrade your base and counter your opponent’s army in a single-lane tug-of-war.

Draw your army

You draw each unit by hand, and every painted pixel counts toward its health, damage and cost. Units of the same class can look and fight differently depending on how you draw them. You can save designs and use them in later battles; your base, turrets and profile avatar are also your own drawings.

The game has eight classes across base-upgrade tiers: Brawler, Archer and Dasher are available from the start, followed by Chunk, Healer and Bomber, then Banner and Catapult. You upgrade your base by drawing a new floor on top. Each tier increases its health and income, expands the canvas for stronger troops and unlocks new classes. You can draw turrets directly onto the base.

Abilities and match rules

As you level up, you unlock special abilities and choose one to bring into a match: the Eraser wipes out enemy troops in an area, Ink Splat Rain attacks, the Sharpener buffs your units, and Slow-Mo slows your opponent. If a match runs long, “The teacher’s coming!”: both bases take damage, forcing an end to the battle.

Game modes

You can play against a bot on Easy, Medium or Hard; it draws troops and counts ink by the same rules as you. A tutorial lets you learn the basics, and online 1v1 offers Quick Match or the option to invite friends through Steam. Online matches include a ready check, rematches and disconnect handling. The main menu has a leaderboard ranked by Quick Match wins.

The battlefield

The wide battlefield scrolls as the camera pans, with fixed notebook margins at both ends. The hand-drawn doodles have wavering “boiling” lines, alongside procedural sound, lo-fi music, screen shake and visual effects. A profile level and XP system tracks your progress.