There is a big difference between a game prototype that technically works and one that feels like a game.
Movement, spawning, upgrades, and collision can be built with colored rectangles. That is often the right way to start. But the moment you want an animated player, a family of enemies, weapon variety, collectibles, and a consistent visual identity, the art pipeline can become the project.
For a recent experiment, I wanted to see how far I could get by combining three tools:
Phaser 3 for the game runtime
Codex for implementation and iteration
