Nightshade Examples

Example applications built with the Nightshade game engine.

Gallery

View the gallery here

Quickstart

# run a specific example
just run alpha_blending

# interactive pickers
just pick            # pick from examples/
just pick-wasm       # pick from examples/, serve in browser
just pick-native     # pick from examples-native/
just pick-terminal   # pick from examples-terminal/, run in terminal
just pick-tui        # pick from examples-terminal/, run in a window
just pick-wasm-tui   # pick from examples-terminal/, serve in browser

# run by name
just run alpha_blending              # windowed example
just run bouncing_balls              # terminal game (in terminal)
just run-tui bouncing_balls          # terminal game (in a window)
just run-wasm alpha_blending         # windowed example (in browser)
just run-tui-wasm bouncing_balls     # terminal game (in browser)
just run-openxr prefabs              # VR (OpenXR)

Run just with no arguments to list all commands

Prerequisites

• just
• trunk (for web builds)

Install WASM tooling:

just init-wasm

Project Structure

Examples are organized into three directories:

Directory	Description	Run with
examples/	Windowed examples using the full rendering engine. Run natively, in browser (WASM), or in VR (OpenXR).	just run <name>
examples-native/	Native-only examples that cannot be compiled to WASM (Steam SDK, raw terminal, etc).	just run <name>
examples-terminal/	Terminal UI games built with the TUI framework. Run directly in a terminal, in a window via SDF text rendering, or in a browser.	just run <name>, just run-tui <name>, just run-tui-wasm <name>

Examples

Windowed (examples/)

Category	Examples
Rendering	alpha_blending, bloom, custom_multipass, custom_pass, decals, depth_of_field, hiz, lights, psx, render_layers, shadows, skybox, spotlight_shadows, sprites, ssao, textures, water
Games	block_breaker, block_breaker_scripts, chess, doom, farming, hex_war, jigsaw, platformer, pong, roguelike, space_shooter, survivors, tower_defense
TUI (windowed)	tui_breakout, tui_frogger, tui_roguelike, text_adventure, shell, speedreader
3D Scenes	asteroid_belt, demo_scene, horror, immersive_sim, level, maps, prefabs, winter
Physics	physics, physics_benchmark, navmesh
UI	hud_text, menu, ui, sdf_text, gizmo, picking
Procedural	cyberdust, fireworks, sdf_sculpt, terrain, voxels, lattice, city
Audio	audio
Benchmarks	bunnymark, physics_benchmark
Advanced	morph, multi_world, dance

Native-only (examples-native/)

Example	Description
benchmark	Performance benchmark
multiplayer_pong	Multiplayer pong (requires Steam SDK)
steam	Steam integration (requires Steam SDK)
terminal_breakout	Breakout running directly in the terminal

Terminal (examples-terminal/)

These are TUI games that run in your terminal, in a window (via just run-tui), or in a browser (via just run-tui-wasm).

Category	Examples
Arcade	asteroids, breakout, flappy_bird, frogger, pacman, space_invaders, bouncing_balls
Puzzle	match3, minesweeper, puzzle_2048, solitaire, terminal_chess, terminal_sokoban, wordle
Action	bomberman, bullet_hell, terminal_platformer, terminal_doom
Strategy	colony, deck_builder, hex_strategy, terminal_tower_defense
RPG	terminal_roguelike, terminal_text_adventure, wasteland
Simulation	falling_sand, game_of_life, lemonade, pathfinding_demo
Classic	snake, tetris, terminal_pong, typing_game, rhythm

Platform Guides

Native (Windows/macOS/Linux)

Build and run natively:

just run alpha_blending  # run a windowed example
just run bouncing_balls  # run a terminal example
just build               # release build all examples

Terminal (TUI in a window)

Run terminal games in a native window with SDF text rendering:

just run-tui bouncing_balls
just run-tui snake

WebAssembly (WASM)

Build for web browsers with WebGPU support:

just run-wasm alpha_blending             # serve windowed example in browser
just run-tui-wasm bouncing_balls    # serve terminal example in browser
just build-wasm alpha_blending           # build only
just build-wasm-tui bouncing_balls  # build only

All chromium-based browsers like Brave, Vivaldi, Chrome, etc support WebGPU. Firefox also supports WebGPU starting with version 141.

VR (OpenXR)

Run examples in VR with OpenXR support:

just run-openxr prefabs

Notes

• steam and multiplayer_pong require the Steam SDK
• plugins is a standalone workspace demonstrating the WASI plugin system

License

These examples are free, open source and permissively licensed under either:

• MIT License (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)

at your option.