Orb Knight
A 3D browser roguelite: a small brass machine with a sword, a gun and a laser cuts its way out of a castle-machine.
Official site github.com, verified Nov 3, 2026. Linked from the developer's itch.io page and blog post, and named as the repository in the official Gamedev.js Jam 2026 submission.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- View demo on itch.ioitch.ioDemo · Listed as “Prototype” on itch.io; the Gamedev.js Jam 2026 build, which the README calls the live demoFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
- View demo on BrowserBrowserDemo · Hosted build with the post-deadline performance fixesFree
Runs in a desktop browser. No download.
Browser (no download) · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
- View on GitHubGitHubReleased · Source code (MIT)Free
Source code repository, not a place to play.
Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Orb Knight
A third-person 3D action roguelite that runs in the browser. You play a small orb-machine trapped inside a vast castle-machine: fight through compact mechanical rooms, collect gears, install machine modules that change your weapon, armour, reload speed, melee attack and survival options, beat the wardens and the final boss, the Gate Keeper, and break out onto the castle road. Runs are seeded, with 29 room templates across combat, challenge, treasure, shop, secret and boss rooms, nine enemy types and three bosses. Eugene Draitsev, a web developer with no shipped games before this one, built it in 13 days for the Gamedev.js Jam 2026 (theme: Machines); a friend, Arseny Yankovski, added the laser charge-up and three enemies. It placed 12th overall and 6th for Gameplay out of 482 entries. In the post-mortem the developer says Codex and Claude Code wrote a lot of the code, while the developer split the work into small reviewable changes, kept the systems separate and playtested after every change. It is free to play on itch.io or on a faster hosted build, needs a keyboard and mouse, and the source code is on GitHub under the MIT licence.
How it was built
VerifiedThe developer's post-mortem says Codex and Claude Code wrote a lot of the code. The post says the result depended on the work around them: cutting systems into changes small enough to review, keeping combat, rooms, progression and the interface separate so a bad implementation was cheap to throw away, and playing after every change. Scope, game feel and the release call stayed with the developer. How the work was split between the two tools, and how much of the code each wrote, is not stated. The itch.io AI disclosure ticks Code, Graphics and Sounds; the post says every sound effect is synthesized in code and the music tracks are separate recordings.
Named alongside Codex in the developer's post-mortem: “Codex and Claude Code wrote a lot of the code.” No further detail on what Claude Code worked on is given.
Built in SvelteKit (Svelte 5) with Threlte and Three.js for rendering, Rapier for physics and Bun for tooling, about 56,000 lines of TypeScript and Svelte by the deadline. Codex and Claude Code wrote much of the code under the developer's review, one observable behaviour per change. Room templates live in JSON checked by a Zod schema and are stitched into seeded dungeon layouts. Storybook fixtures let the developer mount one system, such as a boss or a room, with fixed state and test it without playing a full run; the post calls this the highest-leverage tool of the project. The commit history shows 104 commits from 15 to 26 April 2026 and nine more afterwards for the hosted build's performance fixes.
- Engine / framework
- Three.js via Threlte, with Rapier physics (SvelteKit)
- Languages
- TypeScript, Svelte
- Team size
- 2 peopleDeveloper ReportedEugene Draitsev (personal blog)
- Initial build time
- 13 days (Gamedev.js Jam 2026); 104 commits by the deadlineDeveloper ReportedEugene Draitsev (personal blog)
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“Scope, game feel and the release call stayed with me.”Verification notes: Tools from the developer's own post-mortem (published 12 May 2026, updated 21 Oct 2026); the itch.io page and the README do not name a tool. The blog, the GitHub account and the itch.io page (author name “dr”) link one another, and the official jam submission names the same repository. Placement from the official Gamedev.js Jam 2026 results page: 12th overall (score 3.670 from 37 ratings) and 6th for Gameplay (4.027) out of 482 entries (the developer's post says 483 ranked entries); rating ran from 26 Apr to 9 May 2026. The jam's rules allow and encourage AI use. Team size is recorded as two because the post credits a friend, Arseny Yankovski, with the laser charge-up and three enemies; the rest is the developer's own work. Release date is the jam deadline day; the post says the build was submitted ahead of the 17:00 CEST deadline on 26 Apr 2026. The blog footer reads “Stockholm 2026”, but the developer's location is not stated outright, so none is recorded. GitHub star counts could not be checked from our network. Enemy behaviour is scripted game AI; the game takes no free-text input.
Development history
First Threlte prototype, at the start of the developer's commit history for the jam.
DeveloperEugene Draitsev (personal blog)Submitted to the Gamedev.js Jam 2026 (theme: Machines) before the 17:00 CEST deadline; nine more commits follow for the hosted build.
Jam rating closes; the game places 12th overall (score 3.670 from 37 ratings) and 6th for Gameplay out of 482 entries.
Officialitch.io (Gamedev.js)The developer publishes a post-mortem on a personal blog (updated 21 Oct 2026).
DeveloperEugene Draitsev (personal blog)
Game performance
Each figure measures something different — concurrent players, owners, downloads and sales are never interchangeable and are never added together. Labels show where each number comes from.
itch.io
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Gross revenue.
Browser (official site)
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: Concurrent players (site), Monthly revenue, Gross revenue.
GitHub
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: GitHub stars.
Sales & revenue (all platforms)
Browser game — there are no downloads to count.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Prototype: your vote is kept only in this browser and is not counted anywhere.
Not currently ranked.
No player reviews yet.
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Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orb Knight by dr itch.io | Store page | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Orb Knight: a 3D browser roguelite in 13 days Eugene Draitsev (personal blog) | Devlog | May 12, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| gamedevjs-2026 — README GitHub (EugeneDraitsev) | Repository | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Orb Knight — Gamedev.js Jam 2026 submission itch.io | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Gamedev.js Jam 2026 — results itch.io (Gamedev.js) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Gamedev.js Jam 2026 — rules itch.io (Gamedev.js) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) Eugene Draitsev (dr) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
