Orbit

A procedurally generated space RPG in the spirit of Privateer, in top-down 2D. Built with Phaser 4 as plain ES6 modules — no build step, no package managers required to run.

Run it

Any static file server works (Python, Node, Caddy, nginx, …):

cd orbit
python3 -m http.server 8080
# → http://localhost:8080

Must be served over http(s) — opening index.html via file:// won't work, because the game uses ES modules and fetches its JSON config.

Current state — v0.2: a seedable galaxy

• Main menu with New Game and a Galaxy Seed panel: the seed is displayed, editable (click it and type), and rerollable — and the menu shows what that seed builds (the galaxy's name, system count, archetype count) before you commit. Same seed ⇒ same galaxy.
• Procedural galaxy: 40,000 star systems in a seeded disk + core + spiral arms (data/galaxy.json), typed into six themed archetypes (data/systems.json) with per-type distribution weights and radial bands — the first "how does the galaxy lay itself out" rules.
• Two-level generation: the whole galaxy roster is generated at New Game (~70 ms); each system's planets/moons/belts/settlements are generated lazily on arrival, deterministically (seed + system id), so lazy and eager give identical results.
• A lived-in galaxy: the galaxy was settled long before you arrive. Systems host colonies on habitable worlds, mining stations over resource worlds, cloud bases riding gas giants, stations adrift in open space, and beacons — or report charted · unclaimed when nobody's there. Rates are per-archetype (data/systems.json) and thin out from the settled core to the wilder rim (data/galaxy.json). Each settlement has a name, population, and an owner seam reserved for the factions/pirates to come. The current system's dossier (name, identity, what's there) shows top-left in the game scene.
• Names with a point of view (data/naming.json): planets draw from a deep curated bank — colonial "New Denver" worlds beside alien "Klaxoria" worlds — and stations from a bank of official designations ("Deep Space SC-145") and smuggler hangouts ("Hell's Hideout"). Names are dealt out randomly per system without repeats until the bank is exhausted (a seeded shuffle, so the first N draws are N distinct names). Stars and the galaxy itself are still synthesised from syllable pools, so you never run out of those. Within a system a planet never shares a name with another planet and a station never with another station.
• Game screen with a top-down ship (real spritesheet art — frame 0 of assets/images/ships-player.png, see data/ship.json): click anywhere to fly there in the current system's open space (system boundaries/jumps come next). Discovered worlds get a screen-edge arrow + a name tag showing the world's name (e.g. HOME WORLD · ESHKAELURA); clicking the name tag autopilots the ship there (it arrives on the keep-out rim, facing the world)
• The home planet — the player's world — in the system you start in: a 1024 px disc rendered 1:1 from the assets/images/planets.png spritesheet, with a proper name drawn from the planet name bank (the first name off the starting system's deck, so it never clashes with one of the other worlds). Which Terran face it shows (frames 0–2) is a seed-deterministic pick, so the same galaxy always yields the same home world. The ship spawns ~150 px (edge-to-edge) off its rim in a seed-derived direction, may fly in as close as 50 px from the rim, and can never cross it — a planet is solid (tuning in data/planets.json)
• The tether — your range. You start with a level-1 tether anchored on the home world: a circular zone, 5120 px from the planet's center (data/tether.json). The ship cannot leave it — anywhere in the union of its tethers' zones is open space (where zones overlap there is no line and no wall), and the rim is a hard barrier rendered as a thick, glitchy, marching dotted line (neon core + RGB fringe + ambient glitch bursts, contact shudder where the ship bumps it). Click-to-fly and autopilot targets are clamped to the union boundary, so a world outside your range is where the ship parks — on the line — until a tether grows. Upgrades and extra anchors (planets/stations) plug into TetherField.add/setLevel (tuning in data/tether.json)
• Camera gently trails the ship; the parallax starfield streams past while it flies and the view slowly recenters (≈1.5 s) once the ship comes to rest
• Config-driven setup: every tunable value lives in data/*.json

Project layout

orbit/
├── index.html              # boots the game
├── data/                   # ← ALL tunable config (edit these freely)
│   ├── manifest.json       #   which config files exist
│   ├── game.json           #   dimensions, colors, starfield, …
│   ├── menu.json           #   menu text, colors, button layout, seed panel
│   ├── theme.json          #   shared UI theme: fonts, palette, CRT/glitch tuning
│   ├── ship.json           #   ship feel: thrust, drag, maxSpeed, …
│   ├── planets.json        #   home world + system layout + solid-disc rules
│   ├── tether.json         #   the tether (your range): level radii, barrier line, glitch, contact
│   ├── galaxy.json         #   galaxy scale & shape (count, radius, spiral…)
│   ├── systems.json        #   system archetypes: theme, attributes, distribution
│   ├── settlements.json    #   the lived-in layer: settlement kinds & populations
│   ├── research.json       #   RESEARCH: time-based, one at a time, gates builds/research
│   ├── builds.json         #   BUILDING: credits + minerals, ship/planet/station upgrades
│   ├── actionbar.json      #   the command deck: 6 slots (Research, Build, Ship, ·, ·, Menu)
│   └── naming.json         #   names: star/galaxy syllable pools + the curated PLANET & STATION name banks
├── assets/images/          # art: planets.png (1024×1024 frames), ships-player.png (256×256 frames)
├── assets/fonts/           # UI typefaces: Ethnocentric (headers), Centauri (body)
├── lib/                    # vendored third-party libs (Phaser 4.2.1)
├── js/
│   ├── main.js             # entry point: load config → boot Phaser
│   ├── config/             # Config singleton, ConfigLoader, game config
│   ├── scenes/             # MenuScene, GameScene (thin, orchestration)
│   ├── entities/           # Ship (own behavior), Planet (home world, solid)
│   ├── galaxy/             # Galaxy (seeded world model), SystemGenerator, SystemReport
│   ├── tether/             # Tether (pure range math) + TetherField (constraint + barrier line)
│   ├── ui/                 # MenuButton, GlitchText, CyberShape, ActionBar, DiscoveryCompass (reusable)
│   ├── visuals/            # Starfield, CyberOverlay (CRT/glitch, shared)
│   ├── utils/              # small pure helpers (Color, Rng, NameGenerator)
│   └── vendor/             # shim to the vendored Phaser
└── docs/PROJECT_NOTES.md   # ← project conventions: read this

Conventions (short version)

• Config in JSON. If a value might change, it goes in data/, not code. Add a file = one line in data/manifest.json.
• One class per file, ES modules, scenes stay thin, entities own their behavior. Details in docs/PROJECT_NOTES.md.
• Phaser is imported only via js/vendor/phaser.js (one-file version swap).

The player's loop: research + building

Beyond flying, Orbit is built around two progression verbs — both are data layers now, with the rules and panels to come next:

• Research (data/research.json) — time-based. A project takes a fixed duration; the player researches one thing at a time (maxConcurrent: 1). Research is the gate: it unlocks builds and further research. projects is an empty map for now; the _template entry documents the shape each project must have.
• Building (data/builds.json) — cost-based, paid in credits and minerals (resources). A build improves the ship, a planet, or a space station (category). builds is an empty map; the _template entry documents the shape (including repeatable, for things like extra mining rigs).
• The command deck (data/actionbar.json, rendered by js/ui/ActionBar.js) — the cyberpunk bar across the bottom of the screen. Six evenly spaced slots: Research, Build, Ship, ·, ·, Menu. The slots fire onAction and are otherwise inert; two slots are reserved. Dressed with the menu's CRT language — scanlines over the strip and the GlitchText RGB pull-apart on labels and the panel outline during bursts. All layout, palette, and motion (boot flicker, rail comet, glitch bursts, RGB split, scanlines) live in the config.

_-prefixed keys (_comment, _template, …) are documentation, not runtime data — loaders and tests ignore them.

Dev tools

node dev/ship-behavior.test.mjs   # runs the real Ship.update() loop in Node
node dev/starfield.test.mjs       # runs the real Starfield.create() in Node
node dev/galaxy.test.mjs          # galaxy determinism, distribution, lazy vs eager
node dev/discovery.test.mjs       # discovery rules + compass geometry + chip hit test
node dev/tether.test.mjs          # tether range math: union, clamp, visible arcs (no line in overlaps)
node dev/research-builds.test.mjs # data contract: research/builds/actionbar shapes + manifest
node dev/decode.test.mjs          # the shared decode scramble (menu seed + system dossier)
node dev/system-hud.test.mjs      # real GameScene dossier: layout + staggered decode to final report

dev/test-game.html boots straight into the GameScene (no menu click), handy for manual testing of the flight feel.

Phaser

Phaser 4.2.1 is vendored at lib/phaser.min.js (UMD build, MIT license — see lib/PHASER_LICENSE.md). No internet or npm needed at runtime.