The Brief
The operator needed two distinct game titles — a Crash multiplier game and a Mines grid game — to go live on the same crypto casino platform. Budget and timeline constraints meant a shared codebase was essential.
Shared Engine Architecture
Rather than building two separate games, I designed a GameCore abstraction layer that both game modes extend:
- A unified asset manager handles texture atlases, audio sprites, and animation definitions shared across both modes.
- A WebSocket client with reconnect and state recovery logic is shared, parameterised per game type.
- The UI shell — balance bar, bet controls, history panel — is a single React component layer rendered above the PixiJS canvas.
Each game mode implements a GameController interface with onServerEvent, onBetPlaced, and onRoundEnd methods. Swapping game modes is a matter of mounting a different controller class.
Crash Game
The crash multiplier uses a live WebSocket feed from the server. The graph line is drawn with PIXI.Graphics each frame, plotting server-confirmed multiplier values. A custom GSAP ticker handles the smooth interpolation between server ticks to keep the animation fluid at 60fps regardless of server update rate.
The rocket/character animation is a Spine skeletal animation that reacts to multiplier milestones — subtle idle, tense lean at 2x, full shake at 5x+.
Mines Game
The Mines grid is a 5×5 interactive board. Each cell is a PIXI.Container wrapping an idle tile, a hover state, a reveal animation, and a mine explosion sequence. The game waits for server confirmation before playing the reveal animation, preventing client-side prediction exploits.
Result
Both titles launched on schedule. The shared engine cut maintenance work significantly — a single hotfix or audio update propagates to both games at once.
Doodle concept visual
