All content tagged with #survivors on Hooton Heroicshttps://hootonheroics.com/https://hootonheroics.com/projects/splithoppers/devlog/splithoppers-from-jam-to-roguelike/https://hootonheroics.com/projects/splithoppers/devlog/splithoppers-from-jam-to-roguelike/How SplitHoppers grew from a 48-hour Jampley jam entry into a full survivors-style roguelike with builds, characters, biomes, and a campaign mode.Sat, 02 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT## Where It Started SplitHoppers began as our 48-hour entry to the Jampley Game Jam 2025 - a short build around a single hook: defeat an enemy and it splits, spawning smaller, faster copies. The jam version proved the loop was sticky, and we've been quietly turning it into a full game ever since. Current build is v0.16.2. ## The Split Mechanic, Properly Every enemy carries a split timer. Hit them fast enough and they go down clean; let them linger and they fracture into 2-10 successors. That single rule does most of the heavy lifting: it ties damage to *positioning* (because the split point is wherever the enemy is when it pops), turns AoE weapons into double-edged tools, and means slow attrition is a losing strategy. Around that, we've built four broad build archetypes: - **Containment** - corral splits with walls and slows - **Predator** - finish targets before the timer ever fires - **Culling** - embrace the splits, farm the smaller variants - **Swarm Surge** - lean into burst damage and clear waves all at once ## Characters There are six playable hoppers, each with three unlockable passives: - **Hyrax** - balanced kit with a shockwave special - **Rat** - glass cannon with a plague dash - **Fish** - tank with a pressure aura - **Beetle** - burrow strikes for setup plays - **Goose** - rage-based, the more it honks the harder it hits - **Gecko Bros** - deploy turrets and kite ## Arsenal & Enemies Twelve weapons with level-up progression and a mutation system that re-rolls behaviour at higher tiers, plus four boss-exclusive variants you can only earn in the campaign. Eleven enemy types so far - Bombers detonate on death, Leapers teleport, Frogs pull with a tongue, Tanks split heavily - each shapes which builds work in a given run. ## Biomes & Closures Five biomes (Meadow, Desert, Swamp, Volcanic, Frozen) each with their own weather and hazards, paired with a random *closure* every run: closing storms, rising floods, laser walls, grid collapse. The closure forces you to play a different shape of map late, even if the biome is familiar. ## Campaign & Side Modes The campaign threads three Fracture Points and bosses through a longer run. Outside that there's a turn-based Hopper Collection mode (capture mechanics, type effectiveness), Daily Challenges with seeded runs, and 12 achievements. ## What's Next The roadmap from here is more characters, more weapon mutations, and a deeper meta-progression layer between runs. We'll cover the closure system in detail in a future devlog - it's one of the most fun things to design for and has more depth than the random-event framing suggests. You can play the latest build on [itch.io](https://maxwellpark.itch.io/splithoppers).