[B25] Archer Defense

🧠 Inspiration

We wanted to prove that Horizon’s new portrait mode can deliver true mobile-first, hyper-casual gameplay - fast, simple, addictive, and built entirely without the default avatar system.
Archer Defense explores how portrait-first action can feel when everything is designed specifically for vertical play.

🛠️ What It Does

Archer Defense is an endless vertical action game where players fight rising waves of enemies, push for new high scores, and join forces for chaotic co-op runs.
The experience is built to feel immediate, readable, and satisfying on a mobile screen.

🔧 How We Built It

We built every system from scratch, including the camera, input interactions, and a mobile-first UI.
All art, effects, and audio were tuned specifically for vertical play, ensuring the game feels like a native mobile title rather than a traditional Horizon world.

🚧 Challenges

While building a single-player version would have been straightforward, creating a game that feels equally good in solo and multiplayer became our toughest challenge.
Wave pacing, sync, enemy logic, and readability in portrait mode required continuous iteration.

🏆 Accomplishments

• ✅ Fully custom gameplay systems
  
• ✅ Smooth solo + co-op modes
  
• ✅ Fast, polished hyper-casual loop
  
• ✅ A Horizon world that feels like a native mobile game

📚 What We Learned

Portrait mode demands rethinking the fundamentals - pacing, UI, and camera framing all behave differently in vertical orientation.
We also discovered how much custom-built systems define the feel and polish of a Horizon world.

🚀 What’s Next for Archer Defense

• 💥 Power-ups
  
• 🏹 Weapon skins
  
• 👾 New enemy types
  
• 🏰 Alternate layouts
  
• 🤝 Expanded multiplayer modes
  

Built With

• horizon
• typescript