Designing Neon Drift's survival loop

Neon Drift started as a hidden experiment inside the portfolio and grew into a standalone survival shooter. The core loop is simple: survive, collect upgrades, stack synergies, die, try again — but the threat model comes from every direction at once, so positioning matters as much as reflexes.

Canvas 2D keeps the frame budget predictable on mid-range laptops and phones. Upgrades are designed as readable combinations rather than opaque stat bumps — players should feel why a build works after one or two runs.

The global leaderboard adds long-term motivation without forcing competitive mechanics into the first minute. Auth and Postgres came later; the loop had to be fun in a local session first.