Inspiration
8bitVampHunter is a fast-paced 2D survival game where the player is surrounded by waves of vampires and must survive for as long as possible while fighting back against an increasingly dangerous horde.
What it does
The player controls a pixel-art vampire hunter while enemies continuously spawn and move toward them.
Weapons attack automatically, so the player's main focus is movement, positioning, collecting XP, and choosing upgrades.
As the player survives longer, new and stronger enemies appear, including Slimes, Bats, Skeletons, and Demons.
The game currently includes 12 different weapons, including:
Sword Magic Orb War Axe Lightning Garlic Daggers Holy Water Boomerang Fire Ring Shuriken Meteor Chain Bolt
Each weapon behaves differently, allowing the player's build to evolve throughout a run.
The game supports both keyboard and mobile touch controls and can also be installed as a Progressive Web App (PWA).
How we built it
8BitVampHunter was built using HTML5, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript, with the gameplay rendered through the HTML5 Canvas API.
The core game—including rendering, enemy behavior, combat, weapons, XP, level progression, effects, and game logic—is implemented without relying on an external game engine.
For audio, we used the Web Audio API to generate retro-style sound effects directly in the browser. The game also includes MIDI-based background music playback.
We added a service worker and web app manifest so that the game can function as an installable PWA with offline support.
The result is an extremely lightweight game that can be opened and played directly from a browser.
Challenges we ran into
One of the biggest challenges was managing many enemies, projectiles, effects, and collisions simultaneously while keeping the game responsive.
Balancing progression was another challenge. The game needed to start simple while gradually introducing faster and tougher enemies without making the difficulty spike feel unfair.
Implementing 12 weapons with different behaviors was also interesting because each required different gameplay logic—from homing projectiles and orbiting weapons to area attacks, returning projectiles, meteors, and chain lightning.
Supporting both desktop and mobile controls while keeping the same gameplay experience required additional consideration as well.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're especially proud that the entire game was created as a lightweight browser experience with zero external gameplay dependencies.
What we learned
Building 8BitVampHunter taught us a lot about creating game systems without relying on a traditional game engine.
We gained experience working directly with the Canvas rendering loop, JavaScript game state, collision detection, enemy spawning, projectile systems, procedural audio, touch input, and browser performance optimization.
It also reinforced an important game-design lesson: complexity doesn't necessarily require complicated controls. Giving the player simple movement controls while weapons operate automatically allowed us to put more emphasis on positioning, progression, enemy pressure, and build choices.
What's next for 8BitVampHunter
There are several directions we'd like to explore next:
More enemy and boss types Additional weapons and weapon evolutions More upgrade choices Character selection Different maps and environments Permanent progression between runs Improved pixel-art animations More music and sound effects Achievements and challenges Online leaderboards Better mobile support
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