github.com/Whales/Cataclysm ↗

About Whales/Cataclysm

Cataclysm is a post-apocalyptic roguelike game set in the New England countryside after a catastrophic plague of monsters and zombies. The player explores and survives in this dangerous world while dealing with various threats and environmental challenges. The game was in active early alpha development with daily releases and is written in C++, requiring only ncurses libraries to compile on Linux.

What sets Cataclysm apart from traditional roguelikes is its unbounded 3D world rather than a linear vertical dungeon structure, making exploration a central gameplay element. The game world is completely persistent between characters, meaning if a player dies and creates a new character, they inhabit the same world as before. This allows players to loot the bodies of previous characters and retrace their steps, with any changes made to the world persisting across playthroughs. Players can optionally reset to a fresh world by deleting save files.

The game features a steep learning curve with extensive built-in documentation accessible through the help command. A tutorial guides new players through key mechanics, and the developer actively incorporated community feedback and feature requests, often implementing them within days. The codebase was designed to allow non-programmers to make changes to game content like items and monsters through a separate editing system.