termcraft

Survive, build and explore a block world in your terminal. Bring friends over SSH.

Termcraft is a 2D sandbox survival game written in Rust. Gather wood, build a shelter, mine and smelt better tools, explore the Nether and defeat the Ender Dragon. Terminal pixel art, shaped terrain and room cutaways adapt the world to a side-on view.

Termcraft 0.2.0 — the beta release. Download the game from Releases or build from source.

Termcraft gameplay: exploration, crafting, the Nether and the Ender Dragon

Watch the full video.

Start playing

  • Installation: native Linux, Windows and macOS archives, or a source build.
  • Package managers: Homebrew, Cargo and signed APT setup; WinGet submission status.
  • Gameplay: movement, inventory, crafting, farming and portals.
  • Multiplayer setup: one computer, one network or separate networks, with connection checks.
  • Safe hosting: a rootless Linux server, restricted network access, backups and restore.
  • SSH joining: play remotely through an existing SSH account.
  • Release notes: beta highlights and current limits.

Launch Lantern Run for a focused combat, traversal and building route, or start classic survival for the open world. The route has its own save.

What is in the beta

  • Coordinated pixel art for blocks, items and creatures across all three dimensions.
  • Detail by default; saved Overview/Wide selections are respected. Use - for more world context.
  • Refined walking, sprinting, jumping, ladders, collision and swimming.
  • A recipe book, manual crafting, explicit furnace slots, storage and item dropping.
  • Generated villages, caves, strongholds and Nether fortresses; functional portals.
  • Source-height water basins, irrigation, lava/fire, drowning and animal shore escape.
  • A front-facing dragon, slim pillars and a fourteen-second defeat sequence.
  • Shared building and combat with independent inventories and saved reconnect profiles.

Before upgrading

Back up your full save directory, including hidden checkpoint data. Existing terrain remains intact; fresh village geometry and ore layouts need new chunks. Newer checkpoints cannot be opened by older executables. See save formats and recovery.

The four-platform pipeline builds and tests native archives. Automated checks do not replace manual terminal testing or full survival/co-op playthroughs. See distribution status and supported content.

Project

Media credits · GitHub

Unofficial fan project. Not affiliated with Mojang or Microsoft. For feedback, contact pagel.sebastian.1@gmail.com or open a GitHub issue.