For the past month, I have been really getting back into "work", which for me has been job hunting, going to two "AI Agent" hacks here in SF, and building a game.

The hacks were a blast. I submitted to both and was a finalist but not a winner in the first. Which was crazy, having to get in front of a few hundred other people solo and present your agent, where most were on teams. Met some great people, worked in amazing spaces, and learned a lot.

I've built a game. This month it should be available on the Apple App Store. In macOS and iOS formats.

What Is This Game

This is a passion project I have been wanting to do for a long time, and have in many different forms.

On my own personal site, I link to a project that is still available to play for free, called Dunil's Hold. On that page, you can play a complete coffee break roguelike in 3D. Let's call this v1 of Dunil's Hold.

It has a few issues, but hey, it's free. It's not very complex, rocks are OP, and it was about the time I added throwing potions that I realized it. Keeping code and art in sync seemed like bookkeeping I didn't find "fun". You can literally see it in-game. The throw action modal is wonky. I stopped development at that exact point. And not just the art, I was messing with shader graphics. I wanted to push it, lightning effects, all manner of spells and effects flying. Learning how shaders work and writing shader code unlocked new things in my mind. I graduated with a degree in creating digital art, image/video/sound. It wasn’t the how. It's just another layer I did not want to deal with, and most importantly, it limits my vision. Bear with me.

I left the game up. I still find it fun, and it is completely winnable. A roguelike player will beat it easily, but it pushed me to go further.

I started working with and using AI agents around this time. I was using Claude and OpenAI, both free versions, to build out parts of Dunil’s Hold. Even the free ones are useful if you're working modularly, and I am just an unemployed engineer who couldn't justify the cost.

I learned as I read and explored more into LLM's that Apple has an MLX framework that allows you to run models on its hardware, and within no time, I’m running my own. Initially chat-bots, but now I have my own mini-Claude Code. I’ve torn it down and rebuilt it numerous ways, and as mentioned in other posts, if you know web dev, this is very similar.

Then came Claude Code. Well, now I do pay Anthropic, and thanks to Google and OpenAI both giving out free trials for a month, I was able to really push it in November.

The next version is text-based. For several reasons, listed in no real order:

I love reading. I love getting lost in a book.

I love text-based games. As a child, I would boot up my computer to play Pirate Adventure. I never beat it. But I still loved it. I still play Interactive Fiction and think it is an interesting genre.

I personally enjoy the book over the movie.

I loved MUDs back in the 1990s. MUD, MUSH, MUCK, MOO. I’ve compiled and messed around with most all engines a bit. I am not a C coder, but the engines always interested me and what was possible. Especially since it’s a text-based game, in C.

I am a solo developer with a clear vision of what I want. I hope others like it.

I loved playing RPGs with friends, old school dice on the table.

And with that, I’m looking to release a text-based game, aimed at an old-school paper-based RPG feel, told through text with an input for the player to enter their commands. It uses an on-device LLM. I am using a model I chose after running 3 different models through a series of tests. It is multiple systems working together. You can play the entire game without the LLM. I will provide a more detailed post once this is in the store, and hopefully start posting more here. I have been pretty heads down on this and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

It's turn-based, the world is simulated. It borrows concepts from here and there, MUDs, Inform, roguelikes, and combines them in a way I have been thinking of conceptually for years in a setting that has always fascinated me as well. If you and other players like it, this is only the beginning. I built this game for me, and for you, and want to push this even further, new ways open in the depths for you to explore.

I'm off to start December proper, hope you have a great one.