From a Unity prototype to PHPolygon

Code Rescue started in February 2026 as a prototype in Unity: an island, a few terminals, the first tasks. The idea was clear early on – learn to code by repairing a broken city. The tool was a less good fit.

Why start over?

A game about programming should itself be built so that every part can be read and understood. In Unity, a lot lived in scene files and editor settings that cannot be meaningfully compared or reviewed.

So in April we started over with PHPolygon – a game engine written entirely in PHP. Rendering is handled by a native extension that uses Direct3D, Vulkan, Metal or OpenGL depending on the system. Everything else is code: scenes, characters, materials, tasks, even the music.

What that gives us

• Every change to the world is a traceable change in the code.
• Tests check not only the logic but also how menus and interfaces look.
• Whatever we build for Code Rescue that other games need too moves into the engine – it gets better with every project.

Since then, the small island has grown into a whole city. More on that in the next entries.