Alive

ASCII-based 2D adventure game. Using React and Three.js (with react-three-fiber).

Only the 256 characters in code page 437 from the "DOS Font" are used (available here: https://laemeur.sdf.org/fonts/), along with original 16 terminal colors. To create all sprites, characters are stacked over each other (with the only exception of health bars and stack counters, they are underscores _ transformed to the appropriate length and dots, respectively).

Demo

Play it here: https://ab-und-zu.github.io/alive

Spawn area with intro quest

Game modes

• Adventure: Single player
• City: Trade with other players, enter worlds, build house
• Casual: Multi player with global level advance
• Free for all: battle royale with global level advance (winner keeps items, special item for first death)
• Groups: PvE raids epic dungeons
• Tribes: PvP protect the chief and fortify village

Classes

• (base: 10/5)
• Scout: medium max hp + 1 power (can't join tribe, doesn't require account)
• Knight (helmet): high max hp + 1 armor
• Mage (curls): high max mp + 1 magic
• Hunter (mohawk): medium max hp and mp + 1 haste

Creatures

• Player
• Ghost
• Prism: linear, high damage
• Eye: sleeping, simple approaching, low hp
• Orb: aligning with player, casting beam, fleeing
• Cube: slow walking, casting short wave after intervals
• Blade: charging until hit when in line
• Fly: pass through terrain, explode as attack
• Beam tower: casting beam when aligning
• Wave tower: casting wave in intervals or when getting close
• Fake (chest, pot, tree, cactus, palm, ore): enrage when adjacent, drop stack
• Blob: fleeing, teleporting, only hittable with ranged attacks
• Number: Duplicating
• Question mark: mimicking
• Shark: swimming

Villagers

• Baker: Trade berries and flowers
• Guard: At entry of town, dungeon or boss room
• Smith: Sell swords, bows and armors
• Rogue: Melee and bow spells
• Mage: Casting spells
• Elder: Gives gold key to finish level
• Scout: Blob quest
• Druid: consumables
• Cook: trade berries and flowers
• Chief: Max stats
• Nomad: Intro quest, sell key
• Miner/Logger/Fisher: sell pickaxe

Structures

Hills 1 town

• 1. Chief: sign "Find key", door locked iron key, quest for gold key, dungeon entry
• 2. Elder: hp and mp potion lvl 1, quest for iron key
• 3. Scout: haste, torch, map quest
• 4. Smith: sword and armor, gather quest
• 5. Trader: wood and iron, gather quest
• 6. Druid: flower and berry, gather quest
• 7a. Mage: bubble spell and charge, kill quest orb
• 7b. Hunter: bow and arrows, kill quest eye
• 7c. Knight: slash and charge, kill quest triangle
• 8. Quest: simple quest
• 9. Quest: hard quest
• Guard: at entrances, entry fee
• Guy: Walking around, quest
• Girl: Walking around, quest

Hills 1 world

• Nomad: house with chest with silver key, gather quest (1x gold) or steal and fight
• Scout: camp fire, bomb, map (5x power, 15x coin)
• Miner: path, mine entry, iron and pickaxe
• Logger: path, camp fire, wood and axe
• Fisher: path, docks, rod and bait

Quests

• Kill quest: 5x prism/5x orb/5x eye, 1x gold prism/1x gold orb/1x gold eye
• Gather quest: 5x apples/plums/coconut/banana/gem/crystal/fish/algae

Bosses

• Alphabet (different elements)
• Infinite waves arena (revive, loot as much as you can)
• Chief (drops an elemental key to the void)
• Nomad
• Thief (invisible, unequip and steal, catch and dodge traps)
• Labyrinth (burning down)
• Question mark (mimick)
• (large creature multiple tiles)
• Pushing puzzle
• Lever puzzle

Ability progression

• Sword
• Lvl 1 mana spell
• Active ability
• Lvl 1 elemental spell
• Passive
• Lvl 2 elemental spell

Units

• Chest (drops items and consumables)
• Pot (drops stats)
• Door (locks, toggles building view)
• Portal (teleports to next level or dungeon)
• Cactus (does damage, drops spikes)

Tribes

• Joining a tribe grants extra stats and makes the other hostile and lootable
• Provides utility tool
• Own tribe unlocks quest for elemental armor (immunity)
• Each tribe has a chief that drops an elemental key, either through quest or killing

No tribe (neutral)

• Hair: white
• House: wood beams, stone walls, red roof
• World: Hills

Fire

• Hair: red
• Stat: Max HP + 10
• Tool: Pickaxe
• Entry: wooden gate guard
• Town: oasis, houses, cacti, water streams
• House: grass beams, green dotted walls
• Soil: brown for berries
• Utility: burn trees
• Chief: full burn towers
• World: Desert
• Dungeon: Volcano

Water

• Hair: blue
• Stat: Max MP + 10
• Tool: Boat
• Entry: fisherman with boat
• Town: ice islands, igloo, bridges
• House: teal beams, ice walls
• Soil: aqua for flowers
• Utility: freeze water
• Chief: full freeze towers
• World: Ocean
• Dungeon: Glacier

Earth

• Hair: green
• Stat: Max inventory + 4
• Tool: Axe
• Entry: cave guard
• Town: caves, sand, fires
• House: cave walls, rock doors
• Soil: yellow for cacti
• Utility: heal HP
• Chief: full heal towers
• World: Jungle
• Dungeon: Cave

Actions

• Door unlock (key)
• Quest accept (!)
• Shop buy ($)
• Player spawn (ghost)
• Boat swim (boat)
• Wood chop (axe)
• Rock mine (pickaxe)
• Bow shoot (arrow)
• Bomb throw (bomb)
• Spell cast (mana)

Elements

• Wood: from sticks

• Iron: from ores

• Gold: from mining or elites

• Diamond: high damage / high defense

• Fire: burns on impact / burn immunity

• Water: freezes on impact / freeze immunity

• Earth: heal or lifesteal / x2 life collection

• Ruby: turn world pink on move or impact, speed up in pink area / +1 stats while in pink

• Aether: turn entities grayscale on move or impact, added damage / spike attacker

• Void: delete any sprites on impact / create black hole on hit

• Rainbow: random elemental effect with coloring on move or impact / spawn elemental blocks on movement

Tiers

T1: common (maroon)

• Wood (Sword, Armor) - collecting

T2: uncommon (lime)

• Iron (Sword, Armor) - mining
• Accessory (iron) - crafting / drops

T3: rare (yellow)

• Gold (Sword, Armor) - trading
• Accessory lvl 1 (fire, water, earth, gold) - crafting / elites

T4: epic (aqua)

• Diamond (Sword, Armor) - mining / crafting
• Fire (Sword, Armor) - farming / crafting
• Water (Sword, Armor) - farming / crafting
• Earth (Sword, Armor) - farming / crafting
• Accessory lvl 2 (fire, water, earth, gold) - crafting / bosses

T5: legendary (fuchsia)

• Ruby (Sword, Armor) - mining / crafting
• Aether (Sword, Armor) - drops from dungeon bosses and chiefs
• Void (Sword, Armor) - shards from crafting, fighting, quests
• Rainbow (Sword, Armor) - farming / crafting

Items

• Heart
• Mana
• Experience
• Coin
• Wood
• Ore
• Berry
• Flower

Equipment

• Sword: high damage
• Armor: reduce damage, burn/freeze immunity or life multiplier

Equipment activation

• Slash + Charge: spin sword around + on hit, drop on receiving melee hit once per unit (5 xp + 1 berry, 5 gold)
• Block + Charge: block next spell or reflect melee + shield on hit, drop on mana consume (5 xp + 1 flower, 5 gold)
• Bow + Arrow: shoot arrow + on hit reduced damage + scale with movement speed, drops on miss or decay (5 xp + 5 gold, 1 wood + 5 ore)
• Bomb: explode + pushable, drop on entity kill (5 xp + 1 iron)

Elemental spells

• Wave: circular (10 gold + 10 xp)
• Wave lvl 1: elemental (wave + 1 essence)
• Wave lvl 2: added range + return (wave lvl 1 + 5 essence)
• Beam: fast projectile + pass terrain + pierce enemies + leave trail
• Beam lvl 1: elemental
• Beam lvl 2: range + trail duration + split T shape at end
• Trap: single high damage
• Trap lvl 1: elemental
• Trap lvl 2: 4x size + wave damage + cooldown

Equipment spells

• Cloak lvl 1: invisible but stunned on taking damage
• Cloak lvl 2: speed boost + walk through terrain
• Shield lvl 1: invincible (10 xp)
• Shield lvl 2: more duration + attack radius + on-hit proc + speed boost (25 xp)

Accessories

• Amulet lvl 1: +5 max hp

• Amulet lvl 2: +10 max hp

• Fire amulet lvl 1: +1 hp reg

• Fire amulet lvl 2: +2 hp reg

• Water amulet lvl 1: +1 mp reg

• Water amulet lvl 2: +2 mp reg

• Earth amulet lvl 1: +1 haste

• Earth amulet lvl 2: +2 haste

• Golden amulet lvl 1: unusable active + increased item drop chance

• Golden amulet lvl 2: guaranteed T5 drop on bosses

• Ring lvl 1: +5 max mp

• Ring lvl 2: +10 max mp

• Fire ring lvl 1: +1 dmg

• Fire ring lvl 2: +2 dmg

• Water ring lvl 1: +1 magic

• Water ring lvl 2: +2 magic

• Earth ring lvl 1: +1 defense

• Earth ring lvl 2: +2 defense

• Golden ring lvl 1: unusable passive + double coin drops

• Golden ring lvl 2: double mine, chop and fish drops

Tools

• Haste: increase move and attack speed
• Magnet: automatically collect items
• Torch: increase vision radius
• Compass: point to target
• Gold compass: point to blob
• Map: minimap on pause
• Axe: chop trees
• Pickaxe: mine minerals
• Revive: prevent death (99 gold)
• Boat: swim on water
• Key: open doors

Automatic consumables

• Extra life (max 1)
• Max HP
• Max MP
• HP flask
• MP flask
• (max 3 flasks total)

Passive

• Charm: circle around hero
• Elemental charm lvl 1: on hit effect
• Elemental charm lvl 2: trigger small wave spell on hit
• Pet: attack close enemies, heal by using hp, revive with mana
• Elemental pet lvl 1: on hit effect + attack
• Elemental pet lvl 2: armor effects + defense
• Leveling up by killing mobs/completing quests

Conditions

• Burning (damage)
• Frozen (stunned)
• Swimming (slowed)
• Diving (oxygen)

Biomes

• Intro (walk, collect, attack, talk, use)
• Boss room
• Village
• Water town
• Forest (trees)
• Rocks
• Lakes (islands)
• Desert (cacti)
• Volcano (lava)
• Ocean (deep water)
• Underwater world (oxygen breathe)
• Ice

Weather

• Day and night (fog)
• Mist
• Snowing
• Raining

Portals

• Maroon: "Hills" world

• Grey: "City" world

• Red: "Desert" world (mist) - desert (neutral), volcano (red tribe), oasis

• Blue: "Ocean" world (snowing) - islands (neutral), glacier (blue tribe), ocean

• Green: "Jungle" world (raining) - forest (neutral), jungle (green tribe), rivers

• Fuchsia: "Volcano" dungeon - lava, islands and stone bridges

• Aqua: "Glacier" dungeon - water, islands and wood bridges

• Yellow: "Cave" dungeon - caves, forests and doors

• White: aether world - WFC generation

• Glitch: void world - disappearing

• Rainbow: rainbow world - all elements

Terrain

• Air (empty)
• Path
• Rock
• Sand
• Ice (slippery?)
• Water (splash waves, dripping)
• Soil (plant)
• Fence
• Tree
• Cactus (spikes)
• Flower
• Bush
• Fence and door

Gathering

• Axe: hedge (empty), tree (1 stick), oak, (1 wood)
• Pickaxe: rock (1 ore), mines only on higher elevations (1 iron, gold, diamond)

Farming

• Colored soils
• Consume 1 resource, grow up to 3 or full stack
• Bucket water, 10 water stacks

Fishing

• Fishing rod
• Reaction time (trigger)
• Drop behind player
• Stick or ore (unlucky)
• Drop nothing if too slow
• Bubble as fishing spots
• Appears after X time of visibility
• Each attempt uses one worm
• Normal fish or algae (hp or mp)
• Golden fish sell for 10 coin, pull on string (end fishing spot)
• After too many retries, shark appears and eats fish

Crafting

• 10 stick + 3 coin = 1 wood

• 10 ore + 3 coin = 1 iron

• 10 single berry + 1 coin = 1 berry

• 10 single flower + 1 coin = 1 flower

• 5 wood + 5 coin = 1 iron

• 10 iron + 5 coin = 1 gold

• 10 gold + 10 coin = 1 diamond

• 10 diamond + 20 coin = 1 ruby gem

• 10 flower + 25 gold = 1 fire essence

• 10 berry + 25 gold = 1 water essence

• 10 spike + 25 gold = 1 earth essence

• 1 gold + 1 essence = 1 rainbow shard

• 10 rainbow shards + 10 gold = 1 rainbow gem

• 10 void shards + 10 gold = 1 void gem

• 99 coin = 1 gold

Material enchanting

• 1 stick = wood sword (on collect)

• 5 iron + 1 wood sword = iron sword

• 5 gold + 1 iron sword = gold sword

• 5 diamond + 1 gold sword = diamond sword

• 10 wood + 20 xp = wood shield

• 10 iron + 1 wood shield = iron shield

• 10 gold + 1 iron shield = gold shield

• 10 diamond + 1 gold shield = diamond shield

• 20 max hp + 10 xp = pet

• 10 max mp + 20 xp = charm

• 10 iron + 25 coin = iron amulet

• 5 iron + 50 coin = iron ring

Elemental enchanting

• 10 fire essence + 1 gold equipment/accessory = fire equipment/accessory

• 10 water essence + 1 gold equipment/accessory = water equipment/accessory

• 10 earth essence + 1 gold equipment/accessory = earth equipment/accessory

• 10 ruby gem + 1 diamond equipment = ruby equipment

• 10 void gem + 1 diamond equipment = void equipment

• 10 aether gem + 1 elemental equipment = aether equipment

• 10 rainbow gem + 1 elemental equipment = rainbow equipment

• T4 sword + passive = elemental passive lvl 1

• same T4 shield + pet = elemental pet lvl 2

• same T4 wave + charm = elemental charm lvl 2

• 10 ruby gem + 1 diamond pet lvl 2 = ruby pet lvl 2

• 10 void gem + 1 diamond pet lvl 2 = void pet lvl 2

• 10 aether gem + 1 elemental pet lvl 2 = aether pet lvl 2

• 10 rainbow gem + 1 elemental pet lvl 2 = rainbow pet lvl 2

• 10 gold + 1 iron amulet = gold amulet

• 5 gold + 1 iron ring = gold ring

• 10 diamonds + amulet lvl 1 = amulet lvl 2

• 5 diamonds + ring lvl 1 = ring lvl 2

Consumables

• hp flask 1 stack

  • 1 berry stack + 3 stick
  • 3 apple + 3 stick
  • 3 coconut + 3 stick
  • 3 gem + 3 stick
  • 3 fish + 3 stick

• hp flask 2 stack

  • 3 berry stack + 1 wood
  • 10 apple + 1 wood
  • 10 coconut + 1 wood
  • 10 gem + 1 wood
  • 10 fish + 1 wood

• mp flask 1 stack

  • 1 flower stack + 3 stick
  • 3 plum + 3 stick
  • 3 banana + 3 stick
  • 3 crystal + 3 stick
  • 3 algae + 3 stick

• mp flask 2 stack

  • 3 flower stack + 1 wood
  • 10 plum + 1 wood
  • 10 banana + 1 wood
  • 10 crystal + 1 wood
  • 10 algae + 1 wood

• 5 berry + 5 flower = worm stack

• 1 iron + 5 wood = arrow stack

• 5 iron + 1 wood = bomb stack

• 1 bomb stack + 1 essence = elemental bomb

Ideas

• Banana = Mana Banana
• Durability on equipment, repair with smith or get own hammer
• Own home with chest, multiple characters
• Multiplayer
• Lava / Quicksand
• Passive that generates hp or mp that can be collected
• Crit chance
• Slowing / silencing / disarming
• Max stack size as stat
• Cute cube
• Spray: 3 arrow wave + on-hit proc from bow, collect multiple (25 xp)
• Smash: melee damage multiplier next attack, regenerate on dealing damage (10 xp)
• Elemental bomb
• Spell reflect

Respawn sequence

• Drop system: decay, drop and dispose on hero
• Fate system: vision on new halo
• Fate system: perish on new tombstone
• Controls: wait for halo spawn action
• Trigger system: spawn on halo
• Fate system: vision on new hero

Tech debt

• only rerenders on reference frame changes, but does not listen to displayable entities
• Attacking should have a bump movement
• Colors should be available without star import
• Pressed button could be implemented in ECS system rather than React state
• Sprite "none" should be obsolete
• Opacity overlaps individual sprites, should be animated color to black
• Dialog does not need to flip if out of range
• Units moving in front of AI in the right time will disupt pathfinding due to discarded path items
• Trading action displays maximum of 2 items
• Tiny shadow on lootable items extends a bit further than on terrains due to loot height
• Mobs walking around the death animation might not receive fog hidden
• Inventory only renders correctly with multiples of 2
• Sprite stacks don't seem to work properly
• Walking against a wall or pushing a box with faster speed than the box causes a delay for next action even no interaction happened
• Fire doesn't need to be a sequence
• For large trees, matrix iteration requires to go column by column