I’ve been brainstorming and playing with versions of this concept for a few years in different versions - a tabletop game and a card game. I did some prototyping of creating a new game in the style of the old Ultima games, and realize that could maybe be a form for this concept.
So here it is a whole RPG: an overworld, towns, dungeons, a cast of people to talk to, a turn-based battle system and a season calendar, all in one HTML file. There are no sprite sheets. Every tile, person and creature is drawn in code at load time. Like the drum machine, it was built with Claude. This one was heavily inspired by Ultima IV-V.
Pick a company, name your handler, and walk out into the Charter Plains. Click the game first so it gets your keyboard.
The premise
You’re a licensed chimera handler working for one of five biotech outfits, from Helix & Sons Biotechnic (“Measure twice, splice once”) to The Cauldron Collective (“A fed chimera is a loyal chimera”). Each company gives you a different starter and a perk. The companies you turn down become your rivals in every bracket.
The job is to win the four regional cups (Mosswold, Brinefen, Cindermaw and Frostspire) in any order, then take the Championship at the Crown Coliseum in the last week of the year.
What’s in it
- Five elements in a loop — Ember, Bloom, Tide, Aether and Rime. Each one beats two others, so no team covers everything.
- Snare or hatch — snare wild chimeras in the grass, or hatch eggs from nests. Your first three are your battle team; the rest wait on the bench.
- A crew of three — recruit a geneticist who splices parts on and off, an enchanter who binds biome energy into a creature or changes its element, and a cook who turns forage into meals that make a chimera permanently stronger.
- Grid battles — fights happen on a small tactical grid. Move, pick one of four moves, aim, guard, snare or flee. There’s an auto button when you’d rather watch.
- Time passes — days, nights and a calendar. Camp to rest and train, or sleep at an inn, which also saves your game.
- Side business — townsfolk have odd jobs, from finding a gloomcap to bringing someone three kinds of kelp. Talk to people and click the highlighted words to ask about things.
- A live backend — press F2 to open the editor. Every part of the game’s data (species, moves, towns, people, quests) is there as JSON you can edit while the game runs.
Controls
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| Arrows / WASD | Walk. Walk into people to talk, and into wells, bushes, nests, chests and signs to use them. |
| E or Space | Use or talk to whatever you’re facing. L looks at it. |
| C | Camp: team, crew, training, splicing, research, cooking, resting. |
| W / J / Q | Wall of Awards, journal, save. |
| H or ? | How to play. |
| In battle | Arrows to move, 1–4 for a move, Enter to aim, G guard, S snare, F flee, Shift+A auto. |
On a phone or tablet, a d-pad and action buttons appear over the map.
Saving
Your season saves in this browser’s local storage, so you can close the tab and come back to it later. It won’t follow you to another device, and clearing your site data wipes it.
If you get the crown, let me know which team did it.