Build your run
Every run starts with a ship choice and an empty arsenal. As you level up, you pick from three weapon branches:- Ballistic — fast, precise, scales with crit and pierce
- Explosive — area damage, knockback, chain detonations
- Energy — beams, lock-on, energy regen synergies
Bosses with real mechanics
Forget bullet-sponges. Every boss has a kit: tells, weak points, phase transitions, and patterns you'll learn the hard way before you learn them the right way. Bosses appear mid-wave — not as discrete fights but as escalations of the swarm you're already in.Three ships, two meta layers
Start with one ship; unlock two more as you play. Between runs, two persistent systems shape your next attempt:- Mothership hub — 6+ unlockable upgrades and new functions that change what you can do mid-run
- Rescuable crew — randomly-spawning rescue capsules let you save crew members who stay with you between runs and give the only permanent ship perks in the game. Skip a rescue at your own peril.
Random rolls every run
- Weapon and passive unlock order shifts per save — different builds available each playthrough
- Random asteroid field layouts
- Rescue capsule spawn locations
- Elite enemy spawn chance — sometimes the elite that piles onto an already-tough enemy ends up harder than the boss
Built solo
SPACEFIGHTER is a one-developer project — first Steam release. Game design, balancing, level structure, audio direction and final integration are mine. Engine is Kotlin + LibGDX (custom JVM stack), with an original synthwave / electronic soundtrack. I used a modern AI-assisted workflow (Claude Code for codebase, AI tools for a portion of visual assets) to ship this solo — full disclosure in the AI Content section below.At a glance
- Top-down 2D bullet-heaven / survivors-like
- ~8 hours to the final boss, then freeplay opens
- Run length 5–20 min standard, 25–45 min endgame builds
- Branching upgrade trees with deep synergies
- Bosses with mechanics, not just HP
- Two-layer meta-progression
- Built solo, with transparency about tooling
Press kit:
Contact: [email protected]
The game's interface and audio are in English only. Store page is translated for convenience.
