Mayhem in Single Valley
Mayhem in Single Valley
Game
Game2019
Sea Salt
Developer YCJY Games
Sea Salt is a dark fantasy reverse horror action-strategy game where you play as the nightmarish force of Dagon by controlling and growing a horde of minions. From the Steam store page
258 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 28, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
67
Fresh
121 positive · 59 negative
95% range 60–74%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 121 | 59 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 33 | 0 | 44 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
328 of 415 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
66% recommend · 121 yes, 61 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 182 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (577 of 735 positive).
Players praise the game's atmosphere, art, and Lovecraftian theme. [1][2][3] Many reviewers criticize the lack of control over minions and poor AI. [4][5][6] Some players recommend buying only on deep discount due to short length and repetitive gameplay. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [5]
A strategy game without strategy? Great.. I love the way the game is set-out for you to play, the backdrop and the presentation, but I really don't love my watery horde getting firebombed to death nearly off-screen while the smaller critters chase down other squishy meatsacks. It's like controlling a slime instead of a humanoid character, without a roll or dodge button, no way of marshalling or separating the horde, …
- [6]
The game is extremely annoying because of bad AI prioritization and bad pathing. Often ranged minions will decide to stand still and target walls instead of enemies, and sometimes your minions will path in the wrong direction when trying to go around corners. The game's art is good, and the design isn't bad, but the gameplay really suffers when the AI decides to be useless. Most of the difficulty is trying to get …
- [1]
After I bought Keep Driving by YCJY Games,decided to support developers team by purchasing all their games in deluxe edition and I am extremely happy by my choice. Sea Salt is an atmospheric blend of horror and strategy,with a recognizable visual style that immediately grabs you.The dark art by Josef Martinovsky is heavily inspired by Mike Mignola,gives the game a moody, gothic feel that perfectly complements its …
- [2]
Sea salt is a wonderful swarm simulator. You play as an eldritch God frustrated with a neighboring town for their heresy of not worshipping you well enough, and you have decided its time to unleash your babies onto them to correct their non worshipping ways. The game is a delight and gives you access to so many different little horrors that you never get bored with munching, blasting, and ripping your way to …
- [4]
The game is good for the most part. The issue with it is lack of player control over minions. If the game played like and RTS (Think Starcraft) where I can select my minions and micromanage my units it'd be incredibly more fun to play. Due to the issues with control a lot of the combat feels up to the AI. That wouldn't be too much of a problem if the AI wasn't wonky. Unit will willingly walk into traps and aoe …
Summarised from 34 of the 250 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
66% of the 182 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Sea Salt. The complaint that keeps coming up: poor minion control and AI pathfinding. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 258 · most liked firstI've reached 2k friends! 🥹 Thank you so so much! I appreciate you all and I hope you enjoy the random game/Kingdom Hearts posts I do 🫶 Gives you all Sea-Salt Ice Cream 😊
neutral · AI labelView post →Board games are art. Today's proof is my interview with Pierre-Yves Gallard, an origamist who helped bring the endlessly charming Sea Salt & Paper to life. See more of his incredible work, and discover how the game was made. 🦀💙🎲 www.moregamesplease.com/art-in-board...
neutral · AI labelView post →I was introduced to Sea Salt & Paper! today, by a friend playing over on BGA - Which I then promptly taught Joana for our breakfast board game 🥣 It's a really nice, quick game, with a bit of set collection, open drafting, and push-your-luck. She demolished me in our first play 😅 #BoardGames
positive · AI labelView post →Expansion: Sea Salt & Paper: Extra Pepper (Bruno Cathala & Théo Rivière) has 12 cards. At the end of each round, the player with the most/fewest points gets one depending on whether it’s a nerfing or boosting card. Each player can have only one. BGG game page: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/44... —WEM
neutral · AI labelView post →This would be an easy recommend if the game were at all respectful of my time. There isn't a lot to the gameplay, but thanks to the solid visual and sound design, what's there is pretty fun. However. Every time you start a game, you have to start from ground zero. Which means: replay the tutorial. Kill the first boss. Kill the second boss. This would arguably be fine (sans the tutorial) if there were any persistence to the game, or if the unlockables were less obnoxious to unlock.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hey! We're Y/CJ/Y a two person game studio making games since 2015: The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human, Sea Salt, and POST VOID. We're working on Keep Driving, set for Q1 2025!! 🍻Christopher & Josef (Y/CJ/Y) linktr.ee/ycjygames #gamedev #indiedev #steam
neutral · AI labelView post →I admit I was wrong to dismiss Sea Salt and Paper as looking too simple, and now own my own copy. Any game that can set you cackling with laughter after drawing a single card is good actually.
positive · AI labelView post →A magical thing happened today. My wife asked _me_ to play a game!!! Sea Salt & Paper. Thanks so much for your positive reviews, which convinced me to pick it up @boardgamestogo.bsky.social
positive · AI labelView post →In no particular order, Blood on the Clocktower Wingspan Slay the Spire the Board Game Parks Earth Red Dragon Inn Challengers Welcome To The Crew: Mission Deep Sea Sea Salt and Paper
neutral · AI labelView post →Sea Salt & Paper continues to hit hard for a 30 minute game. Love it! Final game of my birthday weekend.
positive · AI labelView post →My ‘anti-board game’ pre-teen daughter played Sea Salt & Paper and Architects of the West Kingdom with me tonight. I feel the tides changing!
positive · AI labelView post →SEA SALT, I NEED YOU SEA SALT, WHERE IS OMNI-MAN? Are you sure? YOU CALL THAT A pretty sure, threw a steak into a steak. YOU CALL THAT A STEAK? Mark, this is good news, we can finally be bees. IN 500 YEARS WHAT WILL YOU HAVE? Your steaks dad, I'd still have your steaks. WHERE IS HE? SEA SALT, SEA SALT I NEED YOU CALL THAT A STEAK? Mark, I made a steak. We may have made a steak. Me and your mom have something of a steak steak relationship. I'm from Viltrum but it's not the planet I told you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played so much of this game that it is a delight to be bringing you a tutorial video. Don't be fooled by the charming art (SO charming) - expect some cutthroat turns and unexpected surprises. Join me here and let's learn how to play Sea Salt & Paper! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsiw...
neutral · AI labelView post →I enjoy SEA SALT & PAPER more each time I play it. Portable, fun, love the origami. Crédits & info about game: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3 Thanks to @iheartmuseums.bsky.social @ericlang.bsky.social & Jacob Way for the game. #boardgaming #gof2024
positive · AI labelView post →Sunday games! I LOVE when we play multiple games in a day. I'm addicted. We played In front of the Elevators. Clever but simple card game. 10/10. Then Ahoy (w/expansion!) then Sea Salt & Paper (w/ expansions!) then Compile! Then RA (fancy version). Great games, great group. Let's do this again.
positive · AI labelView post →Sea Salt & Paper, still a great game after dozens of plays. Great one to take on vacation. #boardgames
positive · AI labelView post →Unfortunately the controls aren't working in the games favor. Controller, as well as mouse and keyboard are both very frustrating. I constantly felt like I was losing troops unjustified. I didn't do anything wrong and they died. They were barely doing what I wanted them to do, that was the main problem I think. And because of that, it always felt like "their" fault or "the games" fault when they died. I like the concept. The art .. the style is cool but troops, enemies, loot, everything is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Low Poly Sea Salt Chips for Shop Keeper Game #gamedev #indiedev #gamedevlopment
neutral · AI labelView post →No mouse control. Awful sluggish control moving a cursor around with WASD Feels like a console port. Except I plugged in a controller to try using that, and you can't use a controller with it! It's too bad, the 8 bit art style is fun. Can't stand the controls.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →@pandasaurusgames.com Sea Salt & Paper card game is excellent! Beautiful #origami art and colours on each card. Fun mechanic and small box, perfect sized #travelgame #boardgamesky
positive · AI labelView post →Getting in an IRL game of Sea Salt & Pepper before farmer’s market. #boardgames
neutral · AI labelView post →Great idea. Horribly executed. This feels like a one and done iteration and push out the door.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TFW you go into the assumed last round of Sea Salt & Paper as points leader and the two players you just taught the game to both get 20+ point rounds (and yours went absolutely pear shaped). Man, this game is fantastic. Board game holiday FTW even when I take the big L. #boardgames #pandasaurusgames
positive · AI labelView post →It was a fun month of March for board gaming! Learned several new games too, including Final Girl, Sea Salt & Paper, Finspan, and The Guild of Merchant Explorers 😊❤️ #boardgames #boardgamesky
neutral · AI labelView post →Played Sea Salt and Paper and Extra Salt expansion with my kiddo, as well as 5-Minute Mystery! Both great card and #boardgames but 5MM was so tense and fun! We picked three easy random cases and won by only losing 2 out of 3 lives (we houseruled this).
positive · AI labelView post →A strategy game without strategy? Great.. I love the way the game is set-out for you to play, the backdrop and the presentation, but I really don't love my watery horde getting firebombed to death nearly off-screen while the smaller critters chase down other squishy meatsacks. It's like controlling a slime instead of a humanoid character, without a roll or dodge button, no way of marshalling or separating the horde, they all just do their own thing when attack is pressed and do their best to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#Boardgame Saturday! We played Sea Salt & Paper. Turns out everyone was right, this game rules! Simple, fun, and addicting. Also, some of my favorite cards.
positive · AI labelView post →Bit of a quiet month for us, but finally got around to playing Sea Salt & Paper for the first time. Shouldn’t have slept on it so long. #boardgames
positive · AI labelView post →Two other games I finally got to play, Sea Salt & Paper and Nana! These were both a lot of fun with 3 players. Loved the simplicity of both of them. Lots of fun, felt like your decisions mattered! (not just luck) Glad I got a copy of Nana a while back, the art is worth it. #boardgamesky
positive · AI labelView post →After I bought Keep Driving by YCJY Games,decided to support developers team by purchasing all their games in deluxe edition and I am extremely happy by my choice. Sea Salt is an atmospheric blend of horror and strategy,with a recognizable visual style that immediately grabs you.The dark art by Josef Martinovsky is heavily inspired by Mike Mignola,gives the game a moody, gothic feel that perfectly complements its eerie Lovecraftian aesthetics. Controlling a swarm of eldritch horrors to wipe…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sea Salt & Paper is such a gorgeous and unique card game!! I’ll always go for mermaids lol🧜♀️
positive · AI labelView post →Great game night with Lost Ruins of Arnak, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Sea Salt & Paper, and wrapped up with Machi Koro 2 (my first time playing). MK was a gap I wanted to fill in my game experience but with how similar it was to Space Base I don’t think it was needed. Every game was a delight.
positive · AI labelView post →Sea Salt and Paper is a beautiful card game about making matches. . #golfisnotmyonlyhobby #boardgame #boardgamegeek #seasaltandpaper_bombyx
neutral · AI labelView post →The jurors have chosen: This year, the À la carte Card Game Award 2023 goes to Sea Salt And Paper! Congratulations to Théo Rivière, Bruno Cathala and MM-Spiele! #ALaCarte #CardGameAward #SeaSaltAndPaper #boardgames #SPIEL23
neutral · AI labelView post →Hey! We're Y/CJ/Y a two person game studio that made The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human, Sea Salt, and POST VOID. We're working on Keep Driving right now. Cheers, <3 J & C
neutral · AI labelView post →Too clunky to play with no options to change how fast you move your cursor with a controller. The arena mode is 50% waiting for the enemies to finish their spawning cutscene. Most cutscenes or animations are unnecessarily slow. The minion controls are too simple, should have taken a page from Pikmin and allowed for controlling each minion type by itself. Really cool concept however.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun Game severely held back by price and gameplay. The main idea is that you are an unstoppable horde of ungodly creatures come to roll like a tide of evil and malice over the people. The humor and the style by which it is all portrayed alongside flavor text is all very good but the game's mechanics and balancing results in your hoard being absolutely chewed up by a burly lumberjack smacking the ground or the spray of a flame thrower that cuts through them like butter. Your Horde has paper…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm really torn. This game has such an incredible pouring in of love, and every frame of the animations are so polished. The music is immediately engrossing and perfectly sets the theme. But the gameplay it self just feels stale so quickly. The upgrades and unlockables don't promise much depth. It's neat that you can play with one hand, but the strategy seems to always just be "avoid boss attack, choose whether or not to hold down the space bar based on distance from foe." My recommendation…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks like a cool simple game, and actually does pretty good in setting, music, variety, price... but the controls? I'm sorry, minions are just beyond stupid, and since the game is all about them, this is a big problem.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"lets make an rts about resource menagement, where a bad fight can leave you in a dead spiral where you just don't have enough units to keep going, but the controls give you only the vaguest, tiniest bit of control of your units" Sadly, the mechanics are at odds with each other. The gameplay looks like it expects you to micro your army, squeezing as much value from the limited amount of units you get for each mission, then makes microing completely impossible. But if you just zerg rush the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Weekend game #2: the gorgeous and fun Sea Salt and Paper. During our second game I got all four mermaids in the first round 🧜♀️ #boardgames #boardgamesky #weekendgaming
positive · AI labelView post →Personally, it just genuinely makes me upset. Yes, you pick your fights and everything, tactics and strategy are required, but the actual setup is all so slow, and some cutscenes just aren't able to be skipped sometimes, like the display of a new enemy. This makes the pace of the game quite bad. Other than that though, it's VERY solid with everything else. The quality of life and some gameplay is just the problem, like the cultists targetting walls instead of enemies (therefore requiring…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great visuals, interesting story, kind of fun mechanics - up to a point. Then you face enemies that wipe out 75% of your squad in one attack. Meaning, you can play through half a level, get hit once, and be forced to restart the entire level because of one attack. Not much fun for a casual player.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Had an excellent game night last night. Aside from Wonderland’s War we also played The King is Dead, Boast or Nothing, and Sea Salt and Paper. AMA
positive · AI labelView post →The game is extremely annoying because of bad AI prioritization and bad pathing. Often ranged minions will decide to stand still and target walls instead of enemies, and sometimes your minions will path in the wrong direction when trying to go around corners. The game's art is good, and the design isn't bad, but the gameplay really suffers when the AI decides to be useless. Most of the difficulty is trying to get the AI to hit what you want them to hit and go where you want them to go.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Had this one on my list forever, and finally played. It's okay; fantastic vibes, fun horde like gameplay- but it's a little bland. It doesn't hit you with enough lore of this Lovecraftian world, at least in the beginning, and considering over 90% get past the first boss, but only less than 10% beat the last one, even though I was kinda blowing through it with very forgiving continues, I imagine many felt the same way. Good game at the core, but lacking that special something. Anyways, I'll be…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lucien Derainne and Pierre-Yves Gallard created some really special art for Sea Salt & Paper. The simplicity and whimsy match the game. This makes for some great tabletop art. #boardgames #boardgamesky #boardgameart *pictures from BGG*
neutral · AI labelView post →Tailgate food prep is DONE for tomorrow! 🥔 Confetti potatoes 🥒 Pickle Roll Ups 🧈 Gooey Butter Bars 🍘 Oyster Snack Crackers 🍭 Browned Butter & Sea Salt Rice Krispie Treats Almost game time! ❤️🏈💛
neutral · AI labelView post →Played Sea Salt & Paper 2 times today. Love love love this quirky little game with all the origami artwork. Fast and engaging, with lots of spur-of-the-moment decisions. Amazing! boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36... #bggplay via @boardgamegeek.com
positive · AI labelView post →Questionable balance turns what could be fun little game for 2-3 hours, into frustrating mess. I don't know what kind of nightmarish swarm can be one-shotted by a single dog or decimated and outrunned by shotgunner, this feels neither fun nor fair because unlike hotline miami you don't have precise control, mouse not supported!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Every part of me wants to love this game. Lovecraft, play as a swarm, great atmosphere, satisfying meatsplosions... There's just too many consistency, readability and control issues. The muddy visuals and effects make it impossible to reliably track minions, minions die due to poor pathing, minions prioritize based off proximity instead of player targeting, classes lack any kind of direct gameplay action and the only defensive option against the opposing human swarms is to run away. There was…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My fatigue is off the charts. Blame it on a packed weekend. Rock concert + Saints game + Bike ride + Sea Salt. I gotta find some energy for the State Fair before chemo comes calling.
neutral · AI labelView post →Sea salt is a wonderful swarm simulator. You play as an eldritch God frustrated with a neighboring town for their heresy of not worshipping you well enough, and you have decided its time to unleash your babies onto them to correct their non worshipping ways. The game is a delight and gives you access to so many different little horrors that you never get bored with munching, blasting, and ripping your way to victory. the economics of units is pretty solid and the game doesn't ever feel…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →End game work keyboard Athena 1800 raw FR4 plate Dybox stabs Gateron Sea Salt linear switches GMK Red Alert PBT key caps All foams #mechanicalkeyboards
neutral · AI labelView post →I had an online board game night w/ my hubby and some friends and it was soooo fun 🥹 We played Sea Salt & Paper + Pixies and both were rly cute and fun games 🤍
positive · AI labelView post →Surprisingly boring game. No complaints about the setting, no complaints about the atmosphere, no complaints about the graphics, but after half an hour the charm of the dark Lovecraftian universe disappears and only dull, casual gameplay remains in the form of a crowd of minions following the player's pentagram (WASD). You can attack with them, you can dodge projectiles with them, you can do nothing with them, that's all. Sometimes the minions, in their boundless hatred of civilization, begin…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My best hand in Sea Salt and Paper yet! Won me the game! 😍
positive · AI labelView post →Had a great time playing games over the weekend with @kymberleecv.bsky.social and her sister. Played Avatar Fire Nation Rising, Tetris, Sea Salt & Paper, Patchwork Doodle, Cryptid Cafe, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Hand-to-Hand Wombat, Horrified Greek Monsters, and Viticulture World.
neutral · AI labelView post →Frustrating, atmospheric, extremely fun.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →your little minions are much more interested in attacking barricades and other things than what you ask them to do and it unfortunately makes the end of the game very frustrating and annoying, you feel like you can not really improve anything to move on
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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