Swaggerfall
A first-person open-world fantasy RPG drawn in ASCII in your terminal, with an infinite procedural world and turn-based fights driven by quick-time events.
Links go to the official store or developer page. Last verified Nov 7, 2026.
Steam content note: some character models wear skimpy clothing such as short skirts or corsets, and there is a flirting mechanic (with consent) and family-friendly descriptions of hookups. Steam lists generated age ratings of 16 in Germany and 14 in Brazil. (Steam)
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Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- View on itch.ioitch.ioEarly access · Open Alpha since 1 Sep 2026 (itch.io status: Prototype); save compatibility is not guaranteed$5.00
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Desktop · Browser (no download) · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
- Coming soon · SteamSteamComing soon · Steam lists the release as 2027Paid
Download through the Steam app. A free Steam account is required.
Desktop · Steam
About Swaggerfall
Swaggerfall is a first-person open-world fantasy RPG that plays in the terminal: everything is drawn with text characters and background colours. The world is generated on the fly and is infinite, though the story takes place in a 20 by 20 km area, with highlands and lowlands, mountain ranges, forest, desert and snow biomes, and cities, towns and villages. Every action earns experience, from sprinting, climbing and mining to smelting, cooking and eating; fighting an enemy race teaches you about it and opens new interactions, such as telling it to leave you alone. Combat is turn-based with quick-time events for hits, parries and dodges, movement has parkour touches such as coyote time and forgiving ledge grabs, and rumours of what you do spread through the world. Contracts come from an innkeeper. It is controlled with a handful of keys or an Xbox or PlayStation gamepad. The developer, holonaut64, credits procedural generation in the style of Daggerfall and says the game draws on modern games for its interface and combat. The developer says most weeks use up a full Claude Code Max 20 subscription, spent on generating the game's low-level Rust code, porting it to other platforms and the browser, tooling, and regular refactoring of the 200,000-line codebase; character models start in meshy.ai and many texts are AI generated for now, to be replaced with human writing. In open alpha on itch.io since 1 Sep 2026: the web build is free, and paying at least $5 unlocks the Windows and Linux terminal builds and a Steam key; a Steam release is planned for 2027.
Screenshots and art
Swaggerfall key art · Steam store artwork
How it was built
Partially verifiedIn the “AI Usage & A Bit of History” section of the itch.io page the developer writes: “Most weeks I use up my full quota in a Claude Code Max 20 subscription - that is around 10-20 million output tokens per week. What are they spent on: generating the low level Rust code for the game, porting the game to different OSes and platforms (e.g. browser), adding accessibility options like gamepad support and customizable keybinds, building tooling around the game, building integration pipelines for sounds and graphics, performance improvements, and refactoring the 200k line codebase on a regular basis.” The developer stresses their own decade of game development and programming experience, and says keeping the game stable and maintainable “is not something that happens when you vibe code for more than a week”.
- DeveloperSteam AI disclosure: “The game engine is written with substantial AI assistance.” It adds that some dialogues and quest texts are AI generated and are being replaced by human-written text, with each piece labelled by author, and that the 3D character models are currently AI generated. — Steam
Written in Rust with the Ratatui terminal library, which renders the same interface to Windows and Linux terminals and to a WebAssembly web build; the developer says the project mainly uses Rust and Python and that the codebase is about 200,000 lines. Work began on 11 Aug 2026, full time during a vacation and then alongside a day job. More detailed 3D character models start in meshy.ai and are decimated, with even lower-poly versions made at run time for distant enemies; houses, trees and ores are generated from formulas. Many NPC and quest texts are AI generated for now; the developer is replacing them with writing by the developer, friends and professional writers through a quest-scripting system, and each quest text shows whether a human or a bot wrote it. The texts are stored in the game; the web build contains no calls to AI services.
- Engine / framework
- Ratatui (Rust)
- Languages
- Rust, Python
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“Most weeks I use up my full quota in a Claude Code Max 20 subscription - that is around 10-20 million output tokens per week.”Verification notes: AI use, development start (11 Aug 2026), features, controls, pricing and the alpha's contents from the itch.io page, re-read on 7 Nov 2026; the open alpha's start from the devlog “Swaggerfall alpha release (0.1.10)” (dated 31 Aug 2026 in the post, published 1 Sep 2026, 15:36 UTC). The developer says Claude Code generates the game's low-level Rust code and refactors the codebase; no share is given, so none is recorded, and the Steam disclosure's wording is “substantial AI assistance”. The itch.io AI disclosure ticks AI Assisted, Code, Graphics and Text. Steam (app 5271240, store page and API on 7 Nov 2026): developer and publisher holonaut, release “2027”, Windows and Linux, English, full controller support, no price yet. Developer: holonaut64 on itch.io and holonaut on Steam; the developer writes in the first person but gives no name or location, and mentions friends and professional writers helping with text, so team size is left blank. The page last updated 1 Nov 2026 (version 0.2.5); the developer expects 2 to 3 more months to a beta and possibly Steam Early Access, and about a year to a full release. The web build's WebAssembly file (about 20 MB) contains no web addresses for AI services. Daggerfall, Skyrim, Expedition 33 and SanctuaryRPG are named by the developer as inspiration only; no third-party names or assets were seen, so no IP notice is attached. The game was not played.
Development history
The developer starts work on the game.
Developeritch.ioOpen alpha on itch.io (version 0.1.10): free web build, paid terminal builds.
Observeditch.io devlog (holonaut64)Version 0.2.5, the latest update as of 7 Nov 2026.
Observeditch.io
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
The embedded web build is free to play. Paying $5 or more unlocks the Windows and Linux terminal builds, all future builds and a Steam key. Windows Terminal is recommended on Windows and the kitty terminal on Linux.
Not publicly available: Downloads, Gross revenue.
Steam
No price on the Steam store API on 7 Nov 2026. Windows and Linux.
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: All-time peak concurrent players, Concurrent players, Steam reviews, Positive Steam reviews, Estimated owners, Copies sold, Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swaggerfall by holonaut64 itch.io | Store page | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Swaggerfall alpha release (0.1.10) itch.io devlog (holonaut64) | Devlog | Sep 1, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Swaggerfall on Steam Steam | Store page | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
