PokéSurvivor started as a small fan project: a wave-survival game you can open in a browser, pick a partner, and play alone or with up to three friends. This post is a short look at what the game is, the design choices behind it, and what we learned while shipping a co-op browser game.

What it is

PokéSurvivor is a free browser survival game. You choose a partner, dodge growing hordes while your active move attacks automatically, collect experience, and shape your build at every level-up. Runs are short enough to finish in one sitting but different enough that you want to start another.

  • 966 playable creatures across nine regions
  • Solo runs and online co-op for up to four players
  • Auto-attacking moves with manual movement and upgrade choices
  • Pixel-art maps, bosses, legendary rifts and missions
  • Runs on desktop and mobile browsers with no download
  • Spanish, English and Traditional Chinese interface

Why browser-first

The biggest constraint was distribution. A browser game removes the install step, the store review, and the "which platform do you have?" question. The trade-off is that you have to be very careful about load size, input handling, and save states.

A few practical decisions that helped:

  1. Keep the first playable screen small and load the rest in the background.
  2. Treat mobile landscape as a first-class layout, not an afterthought.
  3. Save progress in the cloud so a refresh does not wipe a run.
  4. Make co-op sessions joinable by link, then fall back to a relay server when direct connections fail.

Co-op and scope

Online co-op for up to four players was the feature that changed the schedule the most. Each reward has to be delivered exactly once, each player needs a clear view of their own build, and a disconnect cannot silently eat the run. We ended up building the lobby and the in-run state machine as separate pieces, which made it much easier to test.

Try it

You can play poke survivor for free in your browser. Core gameplay is free; there are optional purchases. It is a fan-made project and is not affiliated with Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK or The Pokémon Company.

If you try it, I would love to hear which partner and build you like best, and what you would change about the co-op flow.