Little Guy Games · Psychological Metroidvania
Endless Night
The Darkness Within
Game Programmer
Scene streaming, persistent world state, and performance optimization for a growing 2.5D world.
EXPLORE MY WORK ↓My contribution
I implemented the scene-loading architecture for the game’s transition to a connected Metroidvania world. I also reworked world-state saving and respawning, built editor tools, and handled performance optimization and ongoing gameplay fixes.
About the game
Developed by Little Guy Games, Endless Night follows Jake through surreal dreamworlds shaped by his memories and fears. Exploration combines platforming, combat, puzzles, and fireflies that grant movement boosts and other abilities.
The demo released on August 12, 2025. The full game is in development.
- Role
- Game Programmer
- Studio
- Little Guy Games
- My work
- February to August 2025
- Technology
- Unity · C# · URP
- Platform
- PC · Steam
01 / World architecture & tools
Scene Streaming
Expand the world without keeping the entire map loaded.
Master Scene
Player · Managers · Shared UI
Level Scene
Level data & subscene references
Streamed Subscenes
Load inside entry bounds.
Unload outside exit bounds.
A persistent core, a streamed world
- I separated the persistent player and managers from level content, then loaded nearby subscenes additively based on the player’s position.
- Separate entry and exit bounds control when each area loads and unloads, avoiding repeated transitions at a single boundary.
- I built a Scene Loader editor window to open levels, choose subscenes, and inspect their bounds, and documented the setup for the team.
Preparing the world for streaming
I split authored areas into subscenes and refined their boundaries as the map grew. I also serialized generated path data to reduce work when scenes initialize, coordinated loading with player controls and camera changes, and added shortcuts for testing individual areas.
02 / Persistent world state
Save & Respawn
Keep progress intact as areas unload, reload, and reset after death.
I reworked world-state saving around reusable savable properties. Stable object IDs connect an object to its saved values, so a gate, puzzle, or encounter can recover its state when its scene returns.
Remember the world
Integrated puzzle states, boss zones, collectibles, destructible objects, dialogue events, and generated grid data into the save system. Automatic ID assignment and prefab checks helped keep scene instances distinct.
Recover after death
Reworked checkpoint selection and respawn loading, with configurable object categories that reset on death. Fixed issues with abilities, camera locks, prompts, and world objects returning in the wrong state.
Saving through transitions
Savable components restore their values when save data is available and record changes as objects are destroyed during unloading. I added saves during loading screens and equipment changes, restored the last respawn position after quitting, and corrected demo reset and save-file deletion behavior.
03 / Runtime & rendering
Performance Optimization
Reduce work in areas the player cannot currently see or reach.
Focus updates on nearby content
- Added a cheaper reflection-camera mode when no reflective objects are visible, and refined which objects the cameras render.
- Limited enemy physics updates by player proximity and spider ground-orientation and leg updates by screen proximity.
- Adjusted offscreen firefly particle updates, baked lighting, and split expensive areas into smaller subscenes to limit how early they load.
04 / Gameplay integration & maintenance
Gameplay & Demo Polish
Follow issues from playtesting through fixes in the game build.
Alongside the core systems, I worked through ongoing QA reports and integration problems across combat, dialogue, UI, and demo transitions.
- Combat and encounters: fixed uppercut interactions with breakable floors, spider reactions, and state problems after respawning.
- Dialogue and presentation: integrated merchant animations and voice lines, and fixed dialogue input, audio, and pause-menu layering.
- Demo flow: connected the main menu to the scene architecture, refined intro fast-forwarding, and corrected restart and end-of-demo behavior.
- Playable cinematic: integrated a playable character and spider encounter into the movie-comic scene, then fixed dash-punch timing, damage, and effects.
Endless Night · Little Guy Games