nervk

nervk_v2 & The Stalker that shows up randomly

.nervk armor

Tiny native-Linux FPS experiment in the spirit of .kkrieger: one C file, no asset files, no engine, procedural everything.

This branch is now built around nervk2.c as the base, with the useful missing pieces from nervk_armory(5).c folded back in rather than replacing the newer systems.

What it is

.nervk armory is a compact endless corridor shooter:

• procedural levels carved from a deterministic seed
• procedural wall, floor, ceiling and glow textures
• normal-mapped GL 2.1 lighting and fog
• synthesized weapon and monster audio
• generated creature silhouettes
• generated weapon models
• HUD, pickups, particles, projectiles and floor transitions
• no external assets

The funny part: the current tiny build has been measured at about 28.2 KB, while still having enough moving parts to feel like a real little horror shooter rather than just a size stunt.

Current feature set

Weapons

Weapon switching is on 1, 2, 3, plus mouse wheel.

• 1 pistol
  • accurate hitscan
  • uses bullet ammo
  • fast, reliable fallback weapon
• 2 shotgun
  • nine-pellet spread
  • uses shell ammo
  • heavy kick
  • improved generated model with twin barrels, receiver, pump, stock and double muzzle flash
• 3 rocket launcher
  • physical glowing rocket projectile
  • smoke trail
  • radius damage
  • self-damage if you fire like a hero in a cupboard

The weapon sounds are intentionally back near the older armory-style synth sounds after the over-beefed pass made them worse.

Pickups

Four pickup classes:

• red health
• amber/yellow bullets
• orange/brass shells
• cyan rockets

The pickup and HUD colour language follows the newer nervk2.c look, with shells added into the existing palette instead of recolouring the whole thing.

Creature roster

The roster now keeps the newer nervk2.c enemies and the useful armory creatures as distinct kinds, so nothing gets silently overwritten.

• CRAWLER
  • basic fast melee pressure
• SKITTER
  • small, fast panic enemy
• BRUTE
  • large heavy tank / exit guardian
• BRUISER
  • renamed armory heavy variant, kept separate from BRUTE
• SPITTER
  • newer projectile spitter
  • ranged acid/gob pressure
• ARMORY_SPITTER
  • renamed green armory spitter/gland creature
  • does not fire a projectile
  • closes to bile/light range, rears up, lights the ground/player green, then applies direct damage
  • nasty when it has you boxed into a corner

That last one is important: the green armory spitter is not just another ranged shooter. It is a close-range controller / corner-punisher. The windup gives you a readable “move now” moment, but if you are trapped it becomes a proper bastard.

Tilesets and floors

There are now three procedural tileset families:

• WORKS
  • original brick walls
  • grimy floor slabs
  • bolted metal ceilings
• HIVE
  • chitin plates
  • membrane floors
  • ribbed organic ceilings
• VESSEL
  • armory pressure-vessel look
  • wet black ribbed walls
  • gridded floor plates
  • oily duct ceilings

Normal floors use one coherent tileset family.

Every fourth floor is a MIXED floor. On those floors the wall, floor and ceiling each choose a deterministic random tileset independently, so you can get combinations like brick walls, hive floor and vessel ceiling without adding asset bulk.

Endless descent

Touching the green exit:

• derives the next deterministic seed
• increments the floor counter
• carries resources forward with small bonuses
• changes the floor identity / tileset cycle
• keeps the pressure climbing through spawn weighting

Controls

WASD          move
Mouse         look
LMB           fire
1             pistol
2             shotgun
3             rocket launcher
Mouse wheel   cycle weapon
ESC           quit

Build

Build the normal stripped ELF:

bash build_nervk_armory_tiny.sh

Run it:

./nervk_armory.xzrun

Override the deterministic seed:

./nervk_armory.xzrun --seed 12345

Tiny build notes

The project still follows the original 96 KB discipline: system libraries such as SDL2, OpenGL and libc are not counted, just like .kkrieger leaned on the platform graphics stack.

The current tiny build has been measured at roughly:

runner: 26 KB

That is after adding:

• three weapons
• four pickup types
• six creature kinds
• three procedural tileset families
• mixed-material floors
• projectiles
• particles
• synthesized audio
• HUD and generated weapon models

So the headroom is still absurdly good. There is room for this to become more of a real game without betraying the original “tiny procedural bastard” idea.

Verification

The latest merge was syntax/type checked with strict C flags against local SDL/OpenGL stubs:

gcc -std=c99 -Wall -Wextra -Werror -fsyntax-only nervk_armory.c

A full native SDL2/OpenGL link needs SDL2 development headers and GL libraries installed on the target Linux system.

Design notes

The project started as a size experiment: how small can a native Linux FPS be if everything is generated in code?

The answer is that the constraint accidentally creates a proper design language. Because there are no asset files to lean on, every feature has to be a compact system:

• textures are algorithms
• levels are seeded rules
• enemies are behaviour archetypes
• audio is small synth events
• weapon feel is timing, kick, light and hit logic
• atmosphere is material, fog and dynamic light

The result is not just “small Doom clone”. It is a tiny procedural horror shoebox where each extra kilobyte has to earn its keep.

Still no asset files. The weapons, pickups, creature silhouettes, bile-light attack, projectile trail, explosion, audio voices, floor materials and HUD are all generated in code.

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Download nervk and run this then just launch

chmod +x ./nervk

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chmod +x ./nervk_v2 

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Seed sharing now works like:

./nervk_v2 --seed 12345