Reviving an Old Prototype: The Story of Cosmic Crusaders

Reviving an Old Prototype: The Story of Cosmic Crusaders

A behind-the-scenes look at how Daydream Studio rescued an abandoned, 3-year-old prototype and transformed it into a polished, wave-based arcade space shooter.

June 14, 2026 • Our Games • by Jai Vyas

Cosmic Crusaders

Cosmic Crusaders is out now for free, and you can download it and try it out for yourself at https://daydreamgamedev.itch.io/cosmic-crusaders.

This project is a fast-paced, retro arcade space shooter where you upgrade your ship to survive scaling waves of enemies inside a dynamic boundary.

How It Started

Cosmic Crusaders was originally meant for practicing parallax backgrounds in the GameMaker engine and was never meant to be built into a playable game. Its development started in August 2023 with around 5 days of development. The game consisted of a large playable space with the background consisting of 3 layers of stars that move at different speeds to create that parallax effect.

global.draw_star_layer(sStarsFar, 0.01, ship_x, ship_y);
global.draw_star_layer(sStarsMedium, 0.05, ship_x, ship_y);
global.draw_star_layer(sStarsClose, 0.1, ship_x, ship_y);

Then, the player and an enemy were added, and it sat in a folder on a hard drive for three years.

An old prototype screenshot of Cosmic Crusaders showcasing the starry background, player and enemy characters, and a prompt stating "SPACE to Boost".

Daydream Studio

In April 2026, Daydream Studio began reviewing past prototypes the members have worked on, searching for a simple project to polish and release. We ultimately selected Cosmic Crusaders to be that project. However, the game was far too barebones for an immediate release and completely lacked a core game loop. Because of this, we decided to keep developing the project until it reached a fully playable, releasable state.

Development

To turn this simple roaming sandbox into a fun, fast-paced experience with an actual game loop, the route that made the most sense was to shift to a wave-based format. We introduced a boundary zone and an upgrade shop where players could upgrade their ship between rounds. Once the core game loop was solid, we focused on adding depth: a main menu, multiple difficulties with a local save/load system, dedicated settings menus (video, gameplay, and audio), and sound effects paired with dynamic combat music to set the mood. To fully flesh things out, we even added a sandbox mode where players can completely customize the game; tweaking base stats, modifying upgrades, and spawning enemies or asteroids at will. Features like these are exactly what elevated the project into a truly releasable title.

A screenshot of Cosmic Crusaders during gameplay. The player is currently facing Wave 2 on Normal mode, with three enemies surrounding them to their right. A screenshot of Cosmic Crusaders during its wave transition screen. It states that Wave 2 is complete, and gives the player an opportunity to pick from three upgrade options: Damage Up (+10), Fire Rate (+Speed), and Max HP Up (+50).

The Final Stretch

As we got closer to the due date, the team focused on fixing bugs, exporting the game for Windows and Mac platforms, designing the itch.io page, and executing a marketing push that included teaser posts and a release trailer.

Stay Tuned!

We are really excited about releasing this as our first published game, and hope you stick around to hear more about our future in making games you’ve been daydreaming about.