MERIDIAN

MERIDIAN is a top-down arena survival game built in p5.js for ARTG-2262: Prototyping with Code. You play as UNIT-7, the last operational defense drone aboard the deep space station MERIDIAN, which has been overrun by a rapidly multiplying biological infestation. Your objective is simple: hold them off for as long as possible. The game is structured around a wave-based survival loop. Each wave sends a growing number of alien creatures charging toward you from the edges of the arena. Survive a wave and you stay alive. Get hit enough times and the signal goes dark. Every three waves, you're offered a choice of upgrade — boost your damage, speed, fire rate, or unlock abilities like scatter shot and piercing rounds — giving the game a light progression layer that keeps each run feeling different. At wave ten, the tone shifts. A single apex entity emerges: larger, harder, and relentless, firing alternating patterns of straight and curving projectiles across the arena while deploying tracker creatures to cut off your escape routes. Defeating it forces a final decision to keep fighting until you're eventually overwhelmed, or detonate the station's reactor core and end the infestation alongside yourself. The project explores how simple mechanics like moving, shooting and selecting upgrades can carry emotional weight when paired with a clear visual identity and a narrative that escalates toward a meaningful choice.