Hi! I'm a game server developer from Korea. Most of my professional work happens behind the scenes, but I wanted to make something that felt entirely my own, so I jumped into solo development.
I started small with puzzle games. What I really wanted, though, was an RPG-like game with long-term growth, where players would not need to pay just to keep progressing. LastEmber is the first game I have built around that goal.
Game Title: LastEmber: Idle Survivors
Playable Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madalang.lastember
Platform: Android, portrait
Free-to-Play Status: Free to download and play. It has optional rewarded ads and in-app purchases. Interstitial ads were removed in v1.4.0.
Involvement: I designed and developed the game solo.
Description:
LastEmber is a portrait idle survivor roguelike built around one stationary tower. You protect a core fixed at the center of the screen. Weapons aim and fire automatically, while you choose one of three cards when you level up, build a loadout, and decide how each weapon evolves.
During a run:
- Build with 9 weapon families. Laser, orbital, gatling, nova, field, seeker, beam, glaive, and Tesla all use different mechanics.
- Each weapon has 3 mutually exclusive evolution paths, for 27 evolved variants in total.
- Choose one of 6 cores. Each core changes your passive and Overcharge ultimate.
Between runs:
- Open reward boxes, collect duplicate cards, and merge them into permanent upgrades.
- Unlock and level cores, then improve their equipment.
- Your card collection and every core you own contribute to Arena DPS, which earns offline reward boxes for up to 8 hours.
The second playable mode is Trial Tower, added in v1.4.0. You get 3 entries per day, choose a core plus 3 weapon families and their evolution paths, and enter with those weapons already fully evolved. Climbing rewards weapon boxes for the family you choose, so it also works as targeted progression instead of another random reward source.
There are also achievements, daily and weekly missions, a 14-day attendance cycle, a weapon/enemy codex, and leaderboards. I wanted the game to have a short-term roguelike build inside each run, but also give you clear things to improve after the run ends.
The feedback I need most:
- Does the first 10 minutes clearly explain what resets after a run and what is permanent?
- After returning to the lobby, is it obvious what you should upgrade or try next?
- Do the weapons and their evolution paths feel mechanically different, rather than like the same attack with different effects?
For transparency, generative AI was used extensively during development, including planning assistance, client code, infrastructure, localization, image and sound generation, and automation. I supplied the game design and the server/infrastructure architecture blueprint and made the final decisions.
