Bean with
the Guns

Game Concept & Design
The concept was inspired by titles like MegaBonk and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, 3D roguelike games where you fight endless waves of enemies. The goal was to create a 3D bullet hell experience in Godot with escalating enemy waves, satisfying combat, and extraction events at specific intervals.

My Role & Challenges
One of the main challenges was optimizing the enemy waves due to the short development window. I tackled performance by implementing object pooling, a spatial grid, dedicated manager systems, multimesh rendering, and Godot's Physics Server directly to bypass node overhead and keep the game running smoothly.

Project Outcome & Lessons Learned
The game made it into the PreBit1 online qualifier, but unfortunately did not advance to the Bit1 Finale. Competing as a solo developer against full teams presented unique challenges. The lack of team members and the tight deadline meant I had to prioritize heavily and cut features to stay focused.

Despite not reaching the finals, this project was worth it. I learned many optimization techniques and got much better at managing game state. I created reusable global script managers that I can apply to future projects, implemented a flexible manager system to control all enemies and entities, and built component-based systems like health components that can be easily attached to any entity. I also developed a dynamic weapon and upgrade system that provided players with many choices.

It would be interesting to see if game engines developed a feature like an AI-powered architecture reviewer that could scan my project files, suggest architectural improvements, highlight when my approach does not match common game development patterns, and recommend proven methodologies for systems design. Tools like this would help developers learn best practices faster and avoid architectural mistakes early on.