🍪 Spartan Survivors — How Juan Guillot Built a Halo Gift

Hello there, dreamers and code warriors. Today’s story isn’t about deadlines, budgets, or marketing beats — it’s about what happens when passion refuses to stay still.

Meet Juan 🧖‍♂️ Guillot Gonzalez, a Senior Product Designer turned first-time game developer who decided to build a Halo-inspired game entirely from scratch — including his own engine. The result? Spartan Survivors, a fan-made bullet heaven that became a love letter from the community, for the community.

💫 Building a Dream from the Community

Juan’s story begins with Halo CE, LAN nights, and the forums that raised an entire generation of fans. He wasn’t content just playing — he wanted to translate, share, and build.

“I’ve been around the Halo community since the early days,” he said. “We had a small site where we translated Halo news into French so everyone could follow what was happening with the IP.”

That act of generosity never stopped. Years later, it became the core of his first game — something small, heartfelt, and built to give back.

🦊 Kiki: This is the best kind of fan energy — the one that turns admiration into creation. We always talk about ‘community’ like it’s abstract, but it’s people like Juan keeping it alive line by line, build by build. 🍪 Chip waves a tiny energy sword made of cookie crumbs, glowing faintly.

⚙️ Bathrobe Engine: Learning the Hard Way

While most new devs grab Unity or Godot Engine, Juan and his partner Gaëtan Dezeiraud decided to invent their own tech — the Bathrobe Engine. No tutorials, no templates, no comfort zone.

“I wanted to understand everything that goes into creating a game,” Juan said. “It was painful, especially since it was my first time doing this. Maybe I should’ve started with Godot, but now I understand the logic, planning, and issues dev teams face when they have their own engine.”

🦊 Kiki: Everyone says ‘learn by doing,’ but almost no one actually does it this way. That’s not curiosity — that’s borderline masochism, in the best possible way. You can tell he didn’t just want to make a game; he wanted to earn it. 🍪 Chip floats over a keyboard showing an error message, pretending to faint dramatically.

🧠 Designing Fun from Scratch

Juan thought his design background would make the transition easier. Spoiler: it didn’t. He discovered that fun isn’t something you draw in Figma — it’s something you fight for in endless prototypes.

“I never worked on a game before,” he said. “It was much more complex than expected. Finding the fun took the most iteration — we had to understand what made the game enjoyable in the first few seconds.”

What started as a modest goal of 500 downloads exploded into over 11,000 on Itch.io, with a 4.7/5 rating and 5,000 wishlists on Valve corporation Steam before launch.

🦊 Kiki: That’s the dream curve — go in just wanting to learn, come out realizing you accidentally made something people love. It’s poetic how sincerity scales better than any marketing strategy. 🍪 Chip throws pixel-shaped confetti into the air, one crumb at a time.

🛡️ The Halo Blessing

Fan projects often live under the shadow of copyright doom. Juan knew that risk — and handled it with rare maturity.

“I reached out to my old Microsoft contacts,” he said. “They pointed me to the Xbox Game Content Usage Rules. When Halo Studios saw the project, their Director of Communication reached out and later gave us approval to keep working on it, as long as we added a few statements in our terms and credits.”

Instead of a cease-and-desist, he got a nod of respect — even a thank-you.

🦊 Kiki: There’s something beautiful about this part — not rebellion, but harmony. The studio and the fans on the same wavelength for once. That’s how legacies stay alive. 🍪 Chip salutes proudly with a mini UNSC flag, crumbs sparkling around him.

🔧 From Curiosity to Creation

The best part? Juan never meant for Spartan Survivors to be a hit. It was a learning sandbox that turned into something real.

“I wanted to make a parting gift to the Halo community,” he said. “Creating a game is difficult, but it’s so rewarding once players smile while playing something you made.”

🦊 Kiki: That’s the purest creative loop: curiosity → chaos → joy. The internet runs on it; game dev just amplifies it. He didn’t chase metrics — he chased meaning. 🍪 Chip glows faintly like a happy achievement pop-up.

🚲 What Comes Next

Now that the Steam version is out, Juan’s off on a different kind of journey — crossing Spain by bike, from France to Santiago de Compostela. A real-life side quest before the next chapter.

“I’ll work on new projects after that — more games, open-source web tools, and communication software inspired by the old forums. It’s not the last time you’ll hear of me.”

🦊 Kiki: A developer who actually knows when to take a break? Revolutionary. The man literally shipped a game and unlocked inner peace DLC. 🍪 Chip pedals a tiny bicycle mid-air, a halo of crumbs following like tire smoke.

🍪 Last Bite

Spartan Survivors isn’t just a fan project — it’s proof that curiosity can evolve into craft, and that community can still inspire creation instead of just consuming it.

Stay curious — your fandom might be your best teacher.
Keep building — even if it’s slow, messy, or made of duct tape.
And remember — the most powerful engines are powered by heart, not hardware.

— ⚙️Leo

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