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I'm working on a Vampire Survivors inspired top-down hordeshooter/shoot-em-up called Food Fight. I plan on keeping it lighthearted with puns and clever wordplay and designs wherever possible. This is my first Unity project and my first actual game with graphics since using Scratch as a kid
I've already been working on it for a couple weeks, so I'll show the clips that I've gotten thus far
03/18/2026
By this time, I put together a main menu, a placeholder character selection screen, a placeholder character who can move with WASD and faces the cursor, and a pause menu (learning the Canvas/UI system for this gave me a big headache and I had to go back and change things several times)
03/19/2026
On this day, I added the shooting mechanic with bullets that automatically despawn after being alive for 5 seconds using a coroutine (I'll probably tweak this down the line). I also added the visuals and unique firing style of each of the core characters I plan on having: Corn Cob, Pea Pod, and Toaser
Additionally, I updated the characters menu to include those three options. At this point I still didn't understand Canvas/UI very well so the selection indicator is just a square that changes position based on which character is selected. If it works it works! (I changed this later)
03/24/2026
I added a proper background that scrolls based on the player's movement and is intended to look like a marble countertop. I also added the beginnings of the XPea system including an XPea bar across the top to indicate how far you are through the level
03/26/2026
By this day, I had the most basic enemies functional (not including their automatic spawning). They all spawn on a layer specifically for enemies so they don't clog up processing by colliding with each other, even though their colliders are triggers. I also added the HPea UI and ammo UI with a reloading (restocking.. because Food) system, but the HPea didnt work just yet
03/27/2026
I spent this entire day trying to sort out how sliced/tiled images work and how to use them effectively and consistently. I eventually got it sorted out thanks to help from members of this server! I also made it so the player actually gets damaged when they come in contact with an enemy. Their HPea fades away, the character flashes red, and the camera shakes for a moment when damaged. They also get one second of i-frames so they don't get shredded if they bump into a few enemies who are stacked up
03/29/2026
Today I added the timer at the top and also tried to make the auto-spawning enemies work which.. technically worked. No super significant progress here, I just thought it was funny
(ignore the background sound, i forgot i had twitch open and got a burger king ad or something lol)
And that brings me to today, where I've been working some more on making the enemies spawn on their own without being onscreen when they appear, but also don't spawn too far offscreen, but also don't spawn at too predictable of a location. I think I've just about solved this using some strange math and usage of Random.Range for ints and floats together, but I need to test more to verify that
And I also updated the logo today! It's more in line with the vibe of the game than I started out with, opting for bubble letters and a bright colour instead of white block letters
fickle scaffold
I got the suggestion to change the fork to a wooden one to better match the colours and I definitely think that helps a ton with readability
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04/01/2026
I've gotten the automatic enemy spawning working, but plan on making it be more rapid as you spend longer in the round
Also, upgrades work!! This was a super intimidating hurdle and I'm so happy that it's functioning now! I've also made it super easy for myself to add new ones along the line, which may be one of the best choices I've made in this project
That's, like, the entire core of the game done now... I can just focus on unique enemies and upgrades now
Note that I upped the XPea yield for demonstration
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04/03/2026
I added a few more upgrades and flat upped the enemy spawn rate before sending it out to some friend to playtest! Im on the lookout for any glaring issues, unintuitiveness, or frustrations
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04/05/2026
I've begun working on the feedback that my playtest got me
I've added a custom cursor which is a nacho that gets dipped in guac when hovering something clickable and gets a bite taken when you click
I also made it so you can see your current upgrades and the effects they have. This took me literally all day and involved redoing my entire upgrades system but i think it's put together in a far more intelligent way now!
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04/14/2026
Been working on sound effects while worrying about other responsibilities. It has been rough
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04/15/2026
Some sound effects! The reload sound can get to be a bit much, so I think I'll add a toggle for that since I can't think of anything else to make it besides a microwave. I'm happy with the rest though, and will add some background music next
the audio lags behind in the recording 💔
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04/16/2026
Food Fight, in its beta state as a proof-of-concept / demo for a class, is complete. I've completely fallen in love with the project and plan to continue working on it in the future, although completely from the ground-up since I was brand new to Unity when I began and now all of my newbie spaghetti code answers to problems are catching up with me and I spend half of my programming time making changes to old systems that have broken with tiny changes