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PewPew Live

A fast-paced multiplayer twin-stick shooter game, where I am the lead contributor to the project.

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PewPew Live

Overview

PewPew Live is a high-performance, retro-themed twin-stick shooter with a strong focus on community-created content and competitive play. My journey with the project began in 2022, and over the course of 4 years, I have made over 630 commits, evolving from fixing minor bugs to architecting major system overhauls.

Key Engineering Areas

1. Core Game Engine & Gameplay (C++)

  • High-Performance Entities: Ported complex gameplay logic (like WeaponZone and ScoreBox) from Lua scripts to native C++, significantly reducing CPU overhead.
  • Deterministic Systems: Implemented a “Golden Master” determinism testing suite to ensure cross-platform replay compatibility.
  • Input & Physics: Rewrote movement interpolation for NPCs and projectiles to eliminate stutter, and expanded controller support (vibration, shoulder triggers).

2. Backend & Scalable Infrastructure (Go / GAE)

  • Leaderboards Era 2: Architected the second generation of the competitive ranking system, focusing on anti-cheat security and efficient rank computation for thousands of players.
  • Security Suite: Built a comprehensive moderation backend including IP/Email bans, automated comment censoring APIs, and expirable data purging.
  • TSA API: Implemented a custom Timestamp Authority API to provide cryptographically secure verification for world record attempts.

3. Platform & Release Engineering

  • Steam Integration: Led the integration of the Steam SDK, implementing Rich Presence, cloud saves, and automated CI/CD pipelines for desktop releases.
  • WebAssembly: Maintained and optimized the Emscripten-based build for the browser version, including custom Windows-based build utilities.

4. Internationalization (i18n)

  • Technical lead for the translation pipeline (i18n.py), supporting complex scripts like Vietnamese, Kazakh, and Georgian.
  • Engineered a mesh-based font generation system to render custom glyphs within the game’s retro vector aesthetic.

Tools & Technologies

  • Languages: C++17, Go, Lua, Python, GLSL.
  • Platforms: Windows (Win32 API, XAudio2), Linux, Android, WebAssembly.
  • Backend: Google App Engine (Datastore, Task Queues), Discord API.
  • SDKs: Steam SDK, SDL2, GLES 2.0.