Overview
Thief Buster is a hyper-casual 2D action game where players take on the role of a security guard protecting a bank from thieves. Characters appear randomly across multiple lanes, and players must react quickly by tapping the correct button to punch thieves while avoiding loyal customers.
The game focuses on fast reflexes and precise timing, with increasing difficulty as the session progresses. A colorful pixel-art style, sound effects, and haptic feedback are used to create a fun and satisfying gameplay experience.
This project was developed as a challenge project during my time at the Apple Developer Academy, with the goal of exploring hyper-casual game design and Apple’s native game technologies.
Gameplay Highlights
- Thieves, customers, and special stars spawn randomly to keep gameplay unpredictable
- A grading system evaluates player performance based on score and accuracy
- Star power-ups can instantly clear all lanes, giving players a brief advantage
- Difficulty scales over time to continuously challenge the player
Tech Stack
- Swift
- SwiftUI – UI, navigation, and screen flow
- SpriteKit – Core game engine and animations
- Apple Audio APIs – Sound effects
- Core Haptics – Tactile feedback to enhance game feel
My Role
I worked as one of the developers in a team of five (four developers and one designer). I contributed to gameplay logic, SpriteKit implementation, and integrating game scenes with SwiftUI-based screens.
Learnings
- Learned how to ideate and design hyper-casual gameplay mechanics
- Gained hands-on experience building games using SpriteKit
- Improved understanding of game feel, including timing, feedback, sound, and haptics
- Practiced collaboration in a multidisciplinary team within a fast-paced development environment