About
Break Protocol is a roguelike brick-breaker that transforms the classic Breakout formula into a fast, strategic and chaotic action experience.
Originally born from a one-week Game Jam prototype, the project has evolved into a full commercial indie game developed in C++ with SFML. What started as a simple arcade challenge is now a deeper roguelike built around cards, synergies, enemies, bosses, corruption and run-based progression.
You control a robotic unit sent into corrupted facilities. Each room is a short real-time combat encounter where you must bounce balls, eliminate infected creatures, avoid enemy attacks and survive long enough to push deeper into the complex.
After each battle, you shape your run through cards, upgrades, events and shops. But the further you go, the more corruption rises. At key thresholds, anomalies appear and force you to make difficult choices: accept a penalty, compensate it at a cost, or delay the danger and risk making it worse later.
🎮 Playable Old Demo: Itch.io – Breach
🔧 Steam Page (Go Wishlist) : STEAM
Project Info
Role: Solo Developer
Studio: Third District
Engine / Library: C++ & SFML
Genre: Roguelike brick-breaker, real-time action, cards and synergies
Platform: PC – Steam
Players: Solo
Status: In Development
Release Window: Early 2027
Model: Free demo planned before release, then paid full version
Languages: French / English, with more languages planned in the future
🎮 Introduction
Break Protocol blends the immediate readability of a brick-breaker with the depth of a roguelike.
Each run is built around short, intense rooms where the player controls a paddle-like robot, launches and redirects balls, dodges projectiles, defeats enemies and prepares for the next encounter.
Between rooms, the player can access shops, events and upgrades to build powerful combinations. Cards can be passive, active or cursed, and each one modifies the rules of the run in a different way.
The core tension comes from corruption. As the run progresses, corruption increases and triggers anomalies that can heavily impact the player’s strategy. This creates a constant risk-reward loop: push further for stronger rewards, or play safe before the system turns against you.
🧠 Gameplay Systems
Core Loop
- Choose a mission and a path through the facility
- Enter short real-time combat rooms
- Bounce balls, dodge attacks and eliminate enemies
- Collect rewards, cards and upgrades
- Manage corruption and anomalies
- Defeat bosses to reach deeper sectors
- Unlock new content through progression
Card System
Cards are the heart of the build system. They can add effects, change rules, trigger chain reactions or introduce constraints in exchange for greater power.
Cards are divided into several types:
Passive Cards: permanent effects that improve or alter the run
Active Cards: cooldown-based abilities triggered by the player
Cursed Cards: risky effects that increase power while adding constraints or danger
Examples of possible effects include:
- Spawning additional balls
- Modifying ball behavior
- Triggering explosions
- Destroying enemies or tiles
- Improving robot abilities
- Creating powerful synergies between effects
The system is designed to be scalable, allowing new cards and mechanics to be added quickly without rebuilding the core architecture.
Enemies and Bosses
Unlike a traditional brick-breaker, the goal is not only to destroy bricks. Each room contains active enemies that attack, move, shoot, charge or modify the battlefield.
Bosses mark the end of major progression floors and introduce more demanding patterns, forcing the player to combine reflexes, build strategy and survival management.
Corruption and Anomalies
Corruption is one of the main systems of Break Protocol.
As the player progresses, corruption increases. When it reaches certain thresholds, an anomaly is triggered. The player then has to choose how to react:
- Accept the anomaly and suffer its effect
- Compensate the anomaly at the cost of faster corruption
- Delay the problem and risk a stronger penalty later
This system turns difficulty into a strategic decision. Every run asks the same question: how far can you push before the protocol breaks?
Batteries and Health System
Health is represented through batteries. Losing a battery is not just a simple damage penalty. It can trigger additional effects, reactions or consequences depending on the player’s build.
This makes health a strategic resource rather than just a survival bar.
Roguelike Progression
Break Protocol is built around replayability, route choices and build variety.
Planned and current progression systems include:
- Unlockable cards
- New robots with unique identities and loadouts
- Shops and events between rooms
- Boss-based floor progression
- Meta-progression resources
- New content unlocked through milestones and exploration
The objective is to keep runs short, readable and intense, while allowing each attempt to feel different.
🎨 Visual & Technical Design
Art Direction
Break Protocol uses a dark techno-organic visual identity. The world begins with industrial, geometric environments and gradually shifts toward more corrupted, organic and unsettling forms.
The visual atmosphere mixes robotics, infected systems, hostile machines and strange biological corruption.
Visual Feedback
The game focuses on strong moment-to-moment feedback:
- Ball impact effects
- Enemy destruction feedback
- Explosions and particles
- Screen shake
- Clear UI feedback for cards, shops and anomalies
- Fast, readable combat rooms
The goal is to make every hit feel satisfying and every combo visually rewarding.
🧩 Technical Highlights
- Developed in C++ with SFML
- Clean OOP architecture built around modular gameplay systems
- Scalable CardManager for active, passive and cursed cardsEventBus architecture to handle cards, power-ups, combat reactions and system interactions
- QuadTree optimization for collision and room management
- Modular entities such as Ball, Enemy, Robot, Card, Room, Shop and Anomaly systems
- Designed for smooth real-time gameplay and stable 60+ FPS performance
- Built to support rapid iteration, new cards, new enemies and new room mechanics
📚 What I Learned
Break Protocol helped me improve both my technical and design skills, especially in the context of a long-term solo project.
I learned how to:
- Turn a small Game Jam prototype into a scalable commercial project
- Design modular C++ systems for rapid feature implementation
- Build a flexible card and synergy system
- Structure real-time gameplay around events and interactions
- Optimize collision and entity handling with QuadTrees
- Balance arcade readability with roguelike depth
- Design risk-reward mechanics through corruption and anomalies
- Collect feedback, iterate quickly and polish the player experience
- Manage a solo development pipeline from prototype to Steam-ready production
I am especially proud of how the project evolved from a simple Breakout reinterpretation into a full roguelike system where each new card, enemy or anomaly can create new gameplay situations.
🚀 Future Plans
- Release a free Steam demo before launch
- Expand the card pool to 100+ cards
- Add more robots with unique loadouts and identities
- Add more enemies, bosses and corrupted sectors
- Improve anomaly variety and corruption balancing
- Add more events, shops and upgrade choices
- Continue polishing visual effects, UI and game feel
- Prepare the full Steam release planned for early 2027
Break Protocol is no longer only a faster and harder Breakout prototype. It has become a full roguelike action game built around synergy, risk, corruption and controlled chaos.