Critical Mass
A browser horde survival game where momentum powers your weapons. Stop moving, lose pressure, and get swallowed by the swarm. Built for Vibe Jam 2026 with AI-assisted design, code, and art production.
⚠️ Critical Mass — Keep Moving or Your Guns Go Quiet
🚀 About the Project
A fast browser horde survival game built for Vibe Jam 2026.
Your weapon runs on momentum.
Keep moving, keep pressure up, and try not to get swallowed by the swarm.
Built as an AI-assisted game project with Phaser, procedural systems, generated assets, and a slightly unhealthy amount of iteration.
🔥 The Problem
A lot of horde survival games treat movement as positioning only.
You kite, circle, optimize routes, and slowly become a lawn mower with legs.
I wanted something more aggressive: a game where movement itself is the weapon system.
If you slow down, your fire rate drops. If you stop, pressure bleeds off and the horde catches up.
🛠️ The Solution
Critical Mass turns momentum into a core combat mechanic.
- Move to build pressure
- Pressure increases fire rate
- Slow down and your weapon goes quiet
- Survive long enough to stack upgrades and hold the zone
The result is a browser survival game that feels familiar at first, but quickly becomes more about controlled aggression than passive kiting.
✨ Key Features
⚡ Pressure-based combat system
👾 Multiple enemy archetypes, including runners and ranged suppressors
☢️ CASCADE EVENT boss encounter
🔫 Combat modifiers like Lance Round and Twin Emitter
🎵 Dynamic music with smooth transitions
🌐 Instant-play browser build with no login or install
🤖 AI-assisted production workflow
📈 Tech Stack
Built with Phaser 3 + TypeScript + Vite
- Phaser 3 for gameplay, animation, camera, and combat systems
- TypeScript in strict mode
- Vite for fast iteration and static deployment
- Web Audio + generated / curated assets
- Sprite, effect, and UI pipeline assembled with AI-assisted workflow
🧠 Production Workflow
This project was built with heavy AI collaboration:
- ChatGPT — design direction, gameplay planning, naming, iteration guidance
- Claude — implementation and code generation
- Gemini — sprite and visual asset generation
The jam rule was 90%+ AI-written code, so instead of hiding that, I leaned into it and treated the whole game as an experiment in directed AI-assisted game production.
🎮 Design Philosophy
Movement should matter more than comfort
Pressure should be a mechanic, not a flavor word
Short runs, fast feedback, no dead air
Readable chaos > fake complexity
A strong vertical slice beats a bloated feature list
🔮 What's Next
More enemy/event variety
Extra combat modifier branches
More environmental identity in the arena
Further polish for feel, UI, and presentation
Possible post-jam expansion as a portfolio-quality vertical slice
📸 Screenshots
🚀 Try It
Play Critical Mass in the browser: jam2026.maxbasev.com