VR Roguelike Tower Defense Shooter

Solo Unity Developer

Ultralab Oct 2022 – May 2023 8-month development cycle

Overview

Solo-developed a sci-fi VR shooter combining tower defense, bullet-hell, and roguelike elements for Meta Quest and PCVR — from concept through AppLab release. Ran playtests with 150+ users and iterated on analytics and community feedback.

Tech Stack

Unity, C# (DOTS/ECS), Burst Compiler, C# Job System, FMOD, Meta XR SDK, OpenXR, Boids Algorithm, Custom Procedural Generation, Unity Timeline/Animator

Game Concept

1 billion years in the future, a robot collector scours space for ancient technologies. Navigate cosmic junkyards defended by swarms of enemy drones in this fast-paced VR shooter with procedural generation and permadeath mechanics. Gameplay: Sci-fi bullet-hell tower defense featuring swarm-based enemy AI, 12 fantasy weapons with unique mechanics, procedural arena generation, and dual progression systems (session-based and meta-progression).

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Technical Implementation

High-Performance Swarm AI (Unity DOTS/ECS)

  • Built full ECS implementation running hundreds of simultaneous enemies and projectiles at 72fps on Meta Quest 2
  • Developed custom flocking behavior using the Boids algorithm for coordinated swarm movement
  • Implemented ECS-based pathfinding for large-scale enemy coordination
  • The performance comes from job system parallelization, Burst compilation, and data-oriented design

Massive-Scale Object Optimization

  • Built object pooling for projectiles, enemies, and VFX to eliminate runtime allocations
  • Implemented spatial partitioning (octree/grid-based) for collision detection and culling
  • Designed ECS component archetypes for cache-friendly data layouts
  • Used the C# Job System with Burst compiler for multi-threaded AI and physics
  • Aggressive LOD and frustum culling
  • Batched draw calls through GPU instancing for identical enemy meshes and projectile effects
  • Asynchronous scene streaming to keep memory in check across procedurally generated arenas

Weapon Systems & Combat

  • Designed 12 weapon types, each with its own VR interaction model: laser beams, ballistic projectiles, energy weapons, grenades, explosive ordnance, gravity traps, and black hole generators
  • Each weapon has its own physics behavior and a tactical role against particular swarm patterns

Procedural Generation & Roguelike Systems

  • Built procedural arena generation with randomized enemy configurations and spawn patterns
  • Designed session-based progression with weapon/upgrade unlocks and persistent meta-progression between runs
  • Implemented permadeath mechanics with build variety through combinatorial upgrade systems

Audio Design (FMOD Integration)

  • Integrated FMOD with adaptive music that responds to combat intensity
  • Implemented 3D positional audio for enemy localization and weapon feedback

Data-Driven Iteration

  • Set up analytics tracking retention, session length, difficulty spikes, and player progression
  • Ran 150+ playtests with recorded gameplay analysis and community surveys via Discord
  • Tuned difficulty curves, weapon balance, and progression pacing on the combination of metrics and player feedback

Cross-Platform Development

  • Delivered optimized builds for Meta Quest standalone and PCVR using OpenXR abstraction
  • Maintained unified codebase with platform-specific performance tuning

Additional Contributions

Contributed prototype work, technical consultation, and testing for Ultra Boxing VR Advised other Ultralab teams on VR performance, comfort, and interaction design.