Stellar Frontier: Rush began as a class assignment: build a basic Space Invaders-style game in under six hours. I managed to fulfill the core requirement, but felt there was much more potential. So I continued improving it in my spare time (between work and studies), refining systems, adding polish, and pushing its presentation further.
As a clone, I wanted the game to feel distinct while still honoring its inspiration. I kept the core gameplay true to Space Invaders, but focused on polishing everything around it so it wouldn’t feel repetitive. Each time I learned something new, I’d rush to fold it into Stellar Frontier: Rush- a new mechanic here, a fresh enemy variation there, even a parallax background to bring the world to life. Bit by bit, the project grew beyond its simple roots into something uniquely mine.
One of the highlights of Stellar Frontier: Rush is the boss fight, which I showcased as my 2nd Semester Project. It marked a huge milestone for me- developing my own reusable finite state machine (FSM) )system, something I can carry forward into every game I make.
Check out the full breakdown in my presentation:
Didn't have enough coding skills: When I started, my coding experience was limited. Over time, I repeatedly refactored the codebase, each iteration improving efficiency, readability, and maintainability. Seeing these improvements was very rewarding.
Asset coherence vs. time constraints: I needed to balance visual consistency with efficient workflow. Buying assets enabled me to focus more on gameplay and code, while tweaking them ensured they felt unified in the game.
Animations: Since all the assets are pre-made and contain only one sprite per character, I had to use movement and VFX for the animations, in order to make the game feel more alive.