Midnight Engine

A mobile-first offline PWA roguelite prototype inspired by the upgrade-synergy chaos of games like 20 Minutes Till Dawn.

Live App

https://mateocabanal.github.io/midnight-engine/

Dawn Run Loop

The current target is a full 20-minute Dawn Run:

1. Pick a character and weapon.
2. Move, aim, fire, reload, and trigger character active abilities.
3. Collect XP gems, level up, and draft upgrade paths/fusions/laws.
4. Survive escalating director phases: Opening Dusk, First Swarm, Elite Hunt, Bullet Hell, Night Terror, and Final Dawn.
5. Fight distinct enemy archetypes: husks, runners, brutes, spitters, chargers, elites, and boss bells.
6. Win by surviving until dawn or lose with Engine Collapsed.
7. Review the run summary and quickly restart.

Local progress is stored in localStorage: selected loadout, best survival time, best kills, highest level, victories, and discovered character/weapon pairings.

20MTD-Style Systems

• Director phases: directorPhases in src/game.ts controls spawn interval, pack size, threat, elite cadence, and enemy mix across the 20-minute run.
• Boss cadence: miniboss bells appear at 5, 10, and 15 minutes, with the final Dawn Bell entering during the last minute.
• Enemy archetypes: runners pressure movement, brutes anchor swarms, spitters add bullet-hell projectiles, chargers create dodge checks, elites drop higher-value XP, and bosses fire radial patterns.
• Draft controls: level-up cards support rarity/category tags, rerolls, banishes, and skip-for-heal/shield.
• Synergy drafting: choices are weighted by rarity, prerequisite readiness, character strengths, and previous draft exposure.
• Declarative sprites: players, enemies, bullets, summons, and pickups are data-driven through spriteCatalog and getSpriteDefinition().

Controls

Touch / Mobile

• Left stick: move.
• Right stick: aim and fire.
• Active button: trigger the selected character ability when ready.
• Landscape orientation is recommended for twin-stick play.

Keyboard / Desktop

• WASD or arrow keys: move.
• IJKL: aim and fire in a direction.
• Space or Enter: fire in the current aim direction.
• E or Shift: trigger active ability.

Scripts

npm install
npm run dev
npm run typecheck
npm test
npm run build
npm run preview
npm run e2e

• npm run dev starts the Vite dev server.
• npm run typecheck runs TypeScript without emitting files.
• npm test runs deterministic Vitest game-core coverage.
• npm run build creates the production PWA bundle.
• npm run preview serves the production build locally.
• npm run e2e runs the Playwright browser smoke test against the built preview.

Deployment

The GitHub Pages workflow deploys from main or master. CI installs with npm ci, then runs:

1. npm run typecheck
2. npm test
3. npm run build
4. npm run e2e

Only a passing build artifact is uploaded to GitHub Pages.