Netsouls

Netsouls is a roguelike dungeon-crawler with a Soulslike heartbeat… and a potato for a hero.

You are Sir Atarms, the noble (and suspiciously starchy) defender of the Drawer Realm. Armed with whatever pointy stick, rusty cleaver, or bent shield you can find, you descend into the depths where fallen echoes whisper and enemies do not politely take turns.

There are no hunger timers here — only stamina, timing, and your own persistence. Death is part of the loop; every run teaches you more about your foes, your gear, and why on earth a potato is swinging an axe in the first place.

Built entirely in Python with ASCII graphics, Netsouls is fast to run, quick to restart, and endlessly replayable. It’s the kind of game that will make you say “one more run” until the sun comes up… or until you get mashed.

Pattern‑driven combat in pure terminal. Directional attacks, rotating shields, stamina delay — tight and readable.

• Core loop running with live HUD and enemy death flow.
• Entity‑based engine (player, enemies, shields/weapons/armor, items... all decoupled)
• Combat mediator, stamina regen delay
• Compressed HP bars for clean HUD
• Real time HUD displaying user and nearby enemies.
• Real time weapon/armor/shield switch with real time stats update.
• Player armor defenses taken into consideration during enemy attacks
• Echo (currency) drop coupled to the player. No Bloodborne type enemies picking up your precious Echoes.
• Enemy/Player combat handled via mediator
• Devlog entries available and The Making of Netsouls will land soon.

$ python --version   # 3.10+
# if on Windows and it's your first time install curses
$ python -m pip install windows-curses  
$ python main.py

How to Play

Keyboard‑only. Souls‑flavored timing. ASCII swagger.
(In‑game help: press ?.)

Movement

• i Up
• k Down
• j Left
• l Right

You can’t move into occupied tiles.

Combat

• e Attack Up
• d Attack Down
• s Attack Left
• f Attack Right

Shields

• Space then e/d/s/f — raise/lower shield in that direction

Press Space first to arm the shield, then a direction.

Gear Switching

• r Switch weapon
• w Switch shield
• g Switch armor

You can switch gear mid‑fight.

Death & Respawn

• Esc Respawn (only when dead)

Tips

• Stamina matters — attacks/defenses can delay regen.
• Positioning beats face‑tanking. Watch enemy arcs.
• Read the HUD; enemy cues are there for a reason.

Bindings: i/k/j/l · e/d/s/f · Space+dir · r/w/g · Esc

• [WIP]: windows curses validation
• [WIP]: items gating by stats
• [WIP]: shield defense rotation logic (light/medium/heavy)
• [Planned]: double buffer to stop flickering on Linux
• [Planned]: add health flask and upgrade concept (names to be determined)
• [Planned]: enemies blink/color before attack
• [Planned]: reduce nearby enemies HUD filter - too many enemies go out of screen
• [Planned]: add dash
• [Planned]: add rooms
• [Planned]: add npcs
• [Planned]: add items