Wicked West

Overview

Wicked West is a top-down survival shooter with roguelike elements. The core loop is deceptively simple: survive waves of enemies, earn XP, unlock upgrades, repeat until you die. The challenge was making that loop feel tight, fair, and endlessly replayable.

This project was about building systems that create emergent gameplay. Every run feels different not because we scripted variety, but because the systems interact in unpredictable ways.

Systems Implemented

• Wave Manager — Budget-based spawning with dynamic difficulty scaling and spawn point validation
• Progression System — XP accumulation, level-up choices, and persistent unlocks across runs
• Enemy AI Framework — Modular behavior system for bandits, cowboys, riflemen with shared and unique behaviors
• Boss State Machine — Phase-based AI with health-triggered transitions and attack chaining
• Blood Splatter System — Persistent decal system for environmental storytelling and visceral feedback
• Upgrade Manager — Stat modification system with stacking and interaction rules
• Audio Manager — Layered music system that responds to combat intensity

Architecture Decisions

The game uses a component-based architecture where enemies are assembled from interchangeable parts: movement behaviors, attack patterns, death effects. This made it trivial to create new enemy variants—a "fast bandit" is just a bandit with different movement parameters, not a whole new class.

The upgrade system uses a modifier stack pattern. Each upgrade adds modifiers to player stats, and the final values are computed at runtime. This allows for complex interactions (upgrades that multiply other upgrades) without hardcoding specific combinations.