Author here! Thanks for posting! This game is written in a Clojure-like programming language I've made. So this is a (B)rogue-like in a Clojure-like :)
What I think is interesting is that this game computes the entire world state each tick and does so efficiently thanks to persistent data structures.
To anyone who dared to fire it up: thank you for playing, I'm curious what you think!
I did a quick run on the web version. I was able to sneak attack everything on the first two levels, which felt like a bug, but I'm honestly not sure.
When I found a spear, I kind of expected to be able to throw it, but I didn't find a throw option anywhere. I think that makes the short sword better in every case, but maybe I missed something.
Overall, I love the execution. Quality retro fun with a really nice interface.
Yeah, this was yesterday in the web version. I only did the one run, and only for a couple of levels, so I don't think I can give you any help reproducing it.
I'd say don't immediately go into making an ECS and don't sweat about perf too much. You can totally do this in any programming language. This is a good talk about roguelike software design in general: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxI3Eu5DPwE
Been having fun today trying to work this game out.
Questions:
1. How do I learn the magic/rune system? I can inscribe them on weapons & armour. Some are verbs and some are adjectives. I am yet to see obvious effects (edit: except for 'arc'), so I wonder if they always do things or often do nothing unless specific combinations are used (like subject-verb-object requirements of a sentence or certain weapon/armour+spell combo validity)?
2. What does "magic" mean when I try to inscribe more than one rune on a thing? Does this mean one rune is free but multiple require magic and are detrimental if you have none?
3. How do I interpret the weapon stats? Eg "Current: 3-5 -> 2-4"
Notes:
1. The game is much easier if I set my gamma up (xgamma -gamma 1.5). Most of the levels are very dark (10% of RGB values dark) so I easily miss items and routes to check otherwise.
2. There are a lot more keybinds than shown onscreen. 'x' to autoexplore, 'r' for a runes page I'm trying to work out. Shift+Z to autorest/heal. '>' will fasttravel you to the stairs down if you have already found them. Shift+direction will autowalk.
3. Don't press 'q'. There is no confirmatin prompt. There are no saves. Aieee :D
1/2. There are no docs, in fact, the system is not really fleshed out yet. The core idea is that these runes really stand for lispy threading macro that gets evaluated by the game engine. So for instance `(magic-> fire)` sets the default target (enemy you hit, coordinates you shoot with the bow etc.) of action on fire, `(magic-> (area 2) fire)` is the same but here, the area rune expands the target into a circular zone. `(magic-> (damage 2) self (heal 2))` would damage the target, reset the target to yourself and heal you. The entire world state is chained through these expressions so it should enable some insane spells to be made: travel back in time, swap minds with a door, modify creatures ai etc.
Try looking at the runic weapons you find, they show the spell syntax in the inventory.
3. These are damage ranges.
re gamma, key binds and q: thanks for the feedback, I'll look into improving these.
No, I think I'm seeing the same bug. Time seems to sometimes subjectively freeze:
─── Messages ───
Old man shuts the gate behind you. You hear him mutter "every time, I swear..."
You must retrieve the Amulet of Lost Semicolons.
You kill the rat! (sneak attack!)
The rat squeals and dies!
You wait. (x10) ᛜ
ᚢ You kill the rat! (sneak attack!) ᛉ
The rat squeals and dies!
You hear muttering. ᛋ
You hear muttering.
You hear muttering.
You hear a distant creak. ᛖ ᛃ
The runestone crumbles as you touch it. You learn: ᛟ means "ice"! ᛚ
You hear a distant creak.
The goblin misses you. (x3)
The goblin hits you for 4.
The goblin hits you for 3. ᛏ
The goblin hits you for 4.
The goblin hits you for 3.
The goblin misses you. ᛚ
The goblin hits you for 4.
The goblin hits you for 2.
The goblin hits you for 4.
The goblin misses you.
The goblin hits you for 2.
The goblin misses you. (x2)
The goblin hits you for 2.
The goblin kills you!
You die...
Note how there were no user action messages during the time the goblin was attacking.
Definitely a bug. I'll look into this at some point. Please note that this is not a finished game by any means. If anyone asked I'd call it a tech demo at this point :)
Not sure how you feel about including sound, but I feel like there needs to be a warning sound that plays when you're low HP, like in Pokemon. I keep dying because I don't realize I'm at low health
Computing the entire world state every tick with persistent data structures is a really interesting design choice. Makes the whole system feel unusually coherent for a roguelike.
No credit for the art direction and inspiration? Brogue?
Or did I miss the attribution?
* Edit: I’m not looking for the downvotes or to stir things up. I’m simply calling out that this is a small niche community we notice these things, we’re very free with our code, and copy is a compliment, but so is attribution.
The author wasn’t so much inspired the by Brogue style, but copied it directly down to the animations and ASCII.
yeah, this is a Brogue-like. I love Brogue and have been inspired by it. XsofY is not an exact clone but I've studied Brogue C source heavily when making this.
most people would name hack (1984) or the fork nethack (1987) as the successor to rogue (1980). brogue (2018) i never heard of till now but probably i aged out by then (aged out of spending many mindless i.e. repetitive hours of fun)
thanks, since i had never heard of it i had to look it up but I guess I misread it, wikipedia says the project was started in 2009, latest version in 2018. I noticed the difference in word between "project started" and "released", i'm growing numb-er, and jumped to a terribly erroneous conclusion. I have been killed by a rattlesnake.
While I can see perhaps a claim of "inspiration", when I put Brogue & this side-by-side, while artistically there is similarity, I wouldn't say "copied".
Brouge isn't the only rouge-like with LoS mechanics.
the lighting effects are very brogue and like nothing I've seen in angband, which is very very barebones ASCII by comparison. brogue-likes push into ANSI art territory with their abuse of terminal formatting.
Isn't this the kind of thing you can essentially fully offload to Claude code these days? Don't really get the point of these tiny primarily llm generated game clones tbh.
I see your point but I like to think it's not as sloppy as you'd expect. This one is written in a programming language I've been making since 2021 and it's not a direct Brogue clone despite its looks.
Is this a troll comment? I don't see where the author used AI to generate the code and if you don't see the point of experimenting with technology, you're on the wrong website.
You really don't see where the author uses ai? Pretty much everywhere, all the docs, the overview of the project, a LOT of the code is obviously primarily ai written, etc.
So the author used the latest and greatest development tech to create a unique little demo in their custom language. I'm unsure your point. You know what I don't use to program with anymore? Punch cards and Borland C++. The industry has evolved for better or worse.
No idea what you think you are arguing. Are you in the wrong thread?
I said I don't get why people keep posting essentially vibe coded game clones...
I get bored checking out GitHub projects on HN that are doing absolutely nothing new and are essentially baby projects made by Claude on a weekend, and terribly architected to boot. Cluttering the feed.
> FATAL ERROR: [program exited] "cannot subtract nil and let-go.lang.Int", :data {:trace ("game-loop (<unknown>)" "game-loop (<unknown>)" "update-world (<unknown>)" "run-until-player-turn (<unknown>)" "creature-turn (<unknown>)" "update-ai-state (<unknown>)" "distance (<unknown>)")}}
A fatal error indeed!
What I think is interesting is that this game computes the entire world state each tick and does so efficiently thanks to persistent data structures.
To anyone who dared to fire it up: thank you for playing, I'm curious what you think!
When I found a spear, I kind of expected to be able to throw it, but I didn't find a throw option anywhere. I think that makes the short sword better in every case, but maybe I missed something.
Overall, I love the execution. Quality retro fun with a really nice interface.
"The visuals are interesting.... oh I died."
Good feedback though, I'll add it. Thanks to your 15 year old!
I'm interested in building something similar, any tips besides looking at what you've done and Brogue?
Tbh the whole channel is a gold mine of inspiration. Also check: https://discord.gg/bgd2GrhR
Questions:
1. How do I learn the magic/rune system? I can inscribe them on weapons & armour. Some are verbs and some are adjectives. I am yet to see obvious effects (edit: except for 'arc'), so I wonder if they always do things or often do nothing unless specific combinations are used (like subject-verb-object requirements of a sentence or certain weapon/armour+spell combo validity)?
2. What does "magic" mean when I try to inscribe more than one rune on a thing? Does this mean one rune is free but multiple require magic and are detrimental if you have none?
3. How do I interpret the weapon stats? Eg "Current: 3-5 -> 2-4"
Notes:
1. The game is much easier if I set my gamma up (xgamma -gamma 1.5). Most of the levels are very dark (10% of RGB values dark) so I easily miss items and routes to check otherwise.
2. There are a lot more keybinds than shown onscreen. 'x' to autoexplore, 'r' for a runes page I'm trying to work out. Shift+Z to autorest/heal. '>' will fasttravel you to the stairs down if you have already found them. Shift+direction will autowalk.
3. Don't press 'q'. There is no confirmatin prompt. There are no saves. Aieee :D
1/2. There are no docs, in fact, the system is not really fleshed out yet. The core idea is that these runes really stand for lispy threading macro that gets evaluated by the game engine. So for instance `(magic-> fire)` sets the default target (enemy you hit, coordinates you shoot with the bow etc.) of action on fire, `(magic-> (area 2) fire)` is the same but here, the area rune expands the target into a circular zone. `(magic-> (damage 2) self (heal 2))` would damage the target, reset the target to yourself and heal you. The entire world state is chained through these expressions so it should enable some insane spells to be made: travel back in time, swap minds with a door, modify creatures ai etc.
Try looking at the runic weapons you find, they show the spell syntax in the inventory.
3. These are damage ranges.
re gamma, key binds and q: thanks for the feedback, I'll look into improving these.
> Interactive input unavailable (no cross-origin isolation).
> Deploy coi-serviceworker-js alongside this file.
in Safari on 26.4
2. The standard keybind to quit is in fact q. See less, info, and fzf for examples.
Or did I miss the attribution?
* Edit: I’m not looking for the downvotes or to stir things up. I’m simply calling out that this is a small niche community we notice these things, we’re very free with our code, and copy is a compliment, but so is attribution.
The author wasn’t so much inspired the by Brogue style, but copied it directly down to the animations and ASCII.
In the age of LLMs the "author" might not even know where the art direction and inspiration came from!
I took things I like from Brogue and added my own spin on it.
I'll link to Brogue in the README :)
If you call it “Mario-like” then I would say most people would understand where the inspiration comes from.
Brouge isn't the only rouge-like with LoS mechanics.
Brogue looks like this: https://syltefar.com/screenshot/?id=624
1: https://sites.google.com/site/broguegame/
No idea what you think you are arguing. Are you in the wrong thread?
I said I don't get why people keep posting essentially vibe coded game clones... I get bored checking out GitHub projects on HN that are doing absolutely nothing new and are essentially baby projects made by Claude on a weekend, and terribly architected to boot. Cluttering the feed.