Photon Swarm

A browser stress test that became a full arena roguelite: three distinct beam weapons, authored encounters, irreversible sector contracts, route commitments, scarce relics, and a run you can actually finish.

Each contact is an authored directive with a named formation, tracked targets, and an explicit reward. Source-side hit brackets, a local hull pulse, damage numbers, and the health rail make incoming pressure readable without shaking the cursor-aimed arena.

Every run binds one of three weapon blueprints before first contact. Lance, Prism, and Arc cards preview their real firing geometry, doctrine, build tags, and permanent trade-off before later drafts evolve the selected core.

The local ship-systems profile groups aim sensitivity, persistent audio, hit distortion, damage numbers, low-health warnings, colorblind palettes, and complete keyboard rebinding into a dense calibration console.

Info

I started this to learn Entity-Component-System architecture, with one concrete goal: 1000+ entities at 60fps in the browser. It grew into a complete arena roguelite built around memorable runs. Before first contact you bind a Lance, Prism, or Arc core that changes the real beam geometry; tagged mutations, sector relics, and two-sided anomaly contracts then evolve that identity. The first cleared sector closes one of two routes, higher Heat trades stronger opposition for better payouts, and horizontal Mastery plus a one-module hangar preserve long-term choice without flattening the run. Named formations, visible objectives, faction events, bosses, and a real victory state carry the arc across desktop and mobile.

Custom ECS engine built from scratch: all game objects are entity IDs whose behavior is composed from typed components at runtime
Directed encounter pacing: named formations, objective progress, clear rewards, timed salvage hunts, invasions, blackouts, and boss pressure
Three irreversible Beam Cores change collision and rendering together: long heavy Lance, three-ray Prism, or multi-target Arc cascades
Tagged mutation branches, scarce sector relics, and irreversible anomaly contracts create recognizable builds with explicit trade-offs
A Zone 1 route commitment closes the other passage, changes the next encounter ecology, and grants one run-scoped faction alliance
Build-aware drafts mix foundations, reachable evolutions, specializations, and one or two finite refit redraws
Horizontal Mastery unlocks higher Heat and refit capacity; the permanent hangar unlocks modules but mounts only one per deployment
Boss content: per-archetype ability loadouts, unique animated sprites, and telegraphed arena shockwaves
Enemy roles arrive in authored combinations: pincer hunts, crossfires, breaker lines, disruptor fields, and repairing royal guards
The original mouse combat stays intact: aim with the cursor, toggle beam or shot with LMB, charge with RMB, and use focus fire when the arena closes
Mobile touch controls pair with a compact tactical HUD that keeps vitals, radar, mission, sector clearance, and combat space separate
A visual enemy field guide teaches every silhouette, combat role, attack tell, and counter alongside complete ship-system settings
Winnable: clear the Zone 4 Deep Core boss and the run ends in victory with build, Heat, route, and Mastery context

About this project

Game DevECS ArchitecturePerformance OptimizationCanvas

Custom ECS engine built from scratch: all game objects are entity IDs whose behavior is composed from typed components at runtime
Directed encounter pacing: named formations, objective progress, clear rewards, timed salvage hunts, invasions, blackouts, and boss pressure
Three irreversible Beam Cores change collision and rendering together: long heavy Lance, three-ray Prism, or multi-target Arc cascades
Tagged mutation branches, scarce sector relics, and irreversible anomaly contracts create recognizable builds with explicit trade-offs
A Zone 1 route commitment closes the other passage, changes the next encounter ecology, and grants one run-scoped faction alliance
Build-aware drafts mix foundations, reachable evolutions, specializations, and one or two finite refit redraws
Horizontal Mastery unlocks higher Heat and refit capacity; the permanent hangar unlocks modules but mounts only one per deployment
Boss content: per-archetype ability loadouts, unique animated sprites, and telegraphed arena shockwaves
Enemy roles arrive in authored combinations: pincer hunts, crossfires, breaker lines, disruptor fields, and repairing royal guards
The original mouse combat stays intact: aim with the cursor, toggle beam or shot with LMB, charge with RMB, and use focus fire when the arena closes
Mobile touch controls pair with a compact tactical HUD that keeps vitals, radar, mission, sector clearance, and combat space separate
A visual enemy field guide teaches every silhouette, combat role, attack tell, and counter alongside complete ship-system settings
Winnable: clear the Zone 4 Deep Core boss and the run ends in victory with build, Heat, route, and Mastery context