Ghetto Warzones — shipping a blockchain multiplayer FPS to app stores

Role: Integration & release engineer (63 commits) · Client: 3BUX LLC (Warzones / Ghetto Pigeons) Stack: Unity 2022.3.x LTS · MFPS 2.0 (base framework) · Photon PUN2 v2.40 · Firebase Auth + Realtime DB · Algorand NFT verification · Node/Express backend (api.ghettopigeon.com) Repo: gitlab.com/goonerlabs/ghettowarzonesgame (Git LFS, ~4.5 GB) · Timeline: Apr 2026 → present

Honest scope: the game is built on MFPS 2.0, a commercial Unity FPS framework — I did not author an FPS engine from scratch. My work is the layer that turns that base into a shipped, on-chain, networked product: blockchain + auth + backend integration, multiplayer wiring, and the entire build-and-publish pipeline.

The problem

Warzones already had a production backend (see the Warzones backend case study) — but a backend isn't a game. The platform needed an actual playable client: a multiplayer FPS that authenticates real users, verifies their on-chain NFT ownership, talks to the live backend, and ships to the Google Play Store and PC. That's a different discipline from API work — it's Unity, real-time netcode, mobile build constraints, app-store compliance, and binary asset management. Taking it on is what makes me a full-vertical developer on this product rather than "just the backend guy."

Architecture

The client's custom scripts bridge three external systems — Firebase for auth/session, Algorand for NFT verification, and the production backend I wrote — so a player's on-chain assets and progression are consistent between the game and the platform. Multiplayer runs over Photon PUN2 (rooms, matchmaking, relay).

The hardest part: actually shipping it

Anyone can run a Unity project in the editor. The real work — and the bulk of my 63 commits — was getting it out the door and keeping it shippable:

• Mobile build pipeline. Produced signed Android .aab bundles for Google Play (managing the signing keystore as a guarded artifact) and a Windows Standalone PC build distributed via ghettopigeon.com.
• Size optimization. App-bundle size is a real Play-Store constraint; I cut the build down (~261 MB → ~195 MB across versions) through texture/asset optimization, with a build report to verify what shrank.
• Security patching under a deadline. Shipped patched build variants to remediate a Unity Android vulnerability (CVE-2025-59489) ahead of a hard Google Play security deadline — the difference between the app staying live or being pulled.
• Reproducibility. Wrote 17 build/setup guides (getting-started, Unity upgrade + publish, Photon setup, auth-UI wiring, version control) and an 11-file codebase map, plus a PC build-and-deploy runbook — so the build is a documented process, not tribal knowledge.
• Large-binary version control. Managed a ~4.5 GB Git LFS repo so heavy Unity assets stay versioned without wrecking the history.

Results

• A blockchain-integrated multiplayer FPS taken from base framework to published Android .aab + PC builds.
• On-chain NFT verification, Firebase auth, and live-backend integration wired into the client.
• Survived a Play-Store security deadline via patched builds; size-optimized for distribution.
• The playable front of a full vertical I own end-to-end on this product: smart contracts → backend (925-commit API) → game client → app-store release.

What this demonstrates

The thing a backend portfolio usually can't show: a shipped, visual, playable product. It proves range — Unity + real-time multiplayer netcode + mobile release engineering + security compliance — on top of the on-chain backend depth, and the ownership to carry one product across every layer from contract to app store.