Zereblast

Zereblast is a pixel-art arcade faller built around momentum, upgrades and escalating encounters. The founder led programming during a professional engagement at Gravity Software.

Context and challenge

Keep a fast, increasingly busy game responsive in WebGL while giving a multidisciplinary team an architecture that supports continued iteration.

Gameplay and progression

• Endless Descent Gameplay: Designed a high-speed, momentum-based faller where players dodge, destroy, and chase the elusive $zerebro coin.

• Player Progression System: Developed an upgrade system that enhances player stats and rewards skillful play with higher scores and power scaling.

• Leveling & Enemy Scaling: Implemented dynamic enemy scaling and level-up mechanics tied to obstacle destruction, increasing challenge over time.

• Biome & Zone Discovery: Built a system to unlock new falling environments with unique visual styles and enemy types as the player progresses.

Architecture and production

• Scalable Architecture Design: Engineered the core game architecture with a focus on modularity, maintainability, and scalability to future-proof development and support rapid iteration.

• Best Practices & Design Patterns: Defined and enforced coding standards and reusable design patterns to improve code clarity and long-term stability.

• Project Organization Overhaul: Optimized the folder hierarchy, asset management, and script architecture for a streamlined, intuitive development workflow.

• Git Workflow & Team Sync: Established a robust Git branching model to reduce merge conflicts and enhance collaboration between developers.

• Led core development and guided technical direction to ensure project scalability and maintainability.
• Collaborated closely with designers and artists to translate ideas into playable, polished mechanics.
• Mentored team members, promoted code ownership, and ensured consistent implementation across the game systems.

Professional context

Previous professional engagement at Gravity Software.