Cataclysm: Bright Nights

Cataclysm: Bright Nights is a roguelike with sci-fi elements set in a post-apocalyptic world.

While some have described it as a "zombie game", there is far more to Cataclysm than that. Struggle to survive in a harsh, persistent, procedurally generated world. Scavenge the remnants of a dead civilization for food, equipment, or, if you are lucky, a vehicle with a full tank of gas to get you the hell out of there.

Fight to defeat or escape from a wide variety of powerful monstrosities, from zombies to giant insects to killer robots and things far stranger and deadlier, and against the others like yourself, who want what you have.

Find a way to stop the Cataclysm ... or become one of its strongest monsters.

Cataclysm: Bright Nights is a fork of Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. see the differences from its ancestor..

Downloads

Executables

Linux Instructions

While many of the dependencies that the game depends on are likely installed by default, some likely aren't installed by default on your distro.

Here are the commands for some of the most popular distro families:

• Ubuntu / Debian: sudo apt install libsdl2-image-2.0.0 libsdl2-ttf-2.0.0 libsdl2-mixer-2.0.0 libfreetype6 zip libsqlite3-0
• Fedora: sudo dnf install SDL2 SDL2_image SDL2_ttf SDL2_mixer freetype zip sqlite
• Arch: sudo pacman -S sdl2 sdl2_image sdl2_ttf sdl2_mixer zip sqlite

Launchers

The primary supported launcher is Catapult, which can handle both BN and DDA (it defaults to DDA, so be sure to change it in the top menu!)

Source Code

Building

• with cmake
• with makefile: supports Linux, macOS, and BSD.
• with MSYS2
• with vcpkg
• which compilers we support

Please read the official docs for details.

Contributing

Cataclysm: Bright Nights developed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license. The code and content of the game is free to use, modify, and redistribute for any purpose whatsoever. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ for details. Some code distributed with the project is not part of the project and is released under different software licenses, the files covered by different software licenses have their own license notices.

Please check the official docs for details.

Documentation

Gameplay and developing documentation is available in the doc directory in markdown format. You can also

• visit the official docs site
• build and serve the documentation locally

Community

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a tutorial?

Yes, you can find the tutorial in the Special menu at the main menu (be aware that due to many code changes the tutorial may not function). You can also access documentation in-game via the ? key.

How can I change the key bindings?

Press the ? key, followed by the 1 key to see the full list of key commands. Press the + key to add a key binding, select which action with the corresponding letter key a-w, and then the key you wish to assign to that action.

How can I start a new world?

World on the main menu will generate a fresh world for you. Select Create World.

Where should I put 3rd-party mods?

Where you put the third party mods depends on whether you installed manually or with Catapult. No matter which you do, 3rd party mods do not go in data/mods. That folder should be reserved for in-repo mods only, especially given Catapult will automatically delete the contents of that folder!

For a manual installation, you should create a mods folder in the root BN folder to store your mods. Thus, instead of putting them in cataclysm-bn/data/mods, you'd put them in cataclysm-bn/mods (Case should not matter)

For Catapult, you would put them in bn/userdata/mods (creating the folder if it's not already there) inside your catapult installation. For example, it might look like Catapult/bn/userdata/mods.

For Linux users using the XDG directories (but NOT the flatpak): The user mods directory should be in ~/.local/share/cataclysm-bn/mods (~/.local/share/cataclysm-bn is the user directory in general)

For flatpak users, the user mods folder is ~/.var/app/org.cataclysmbn.CataclysmBN/data/cataclysm-bn/mods (the user directory in general is ~/.var/app/org.cataclysmbn.CataclysmBN/data/cataclysm-bn/)

How do I update the game manually?

Assuming you've managed your mods appropriately, the correct update process is to delete the old data folder (alongside the gfx folder if you want to be extra safe) and then overwrite the contents of the old BN folder with the new BN download. Deleting the old data folder is specifically necessary due to the fact that simply overwriting the old folder will not account for updates which delete files, as may happen with the obsoletion folder for example.

Don't delete your saves folder, memorial, graveyard, etc.!

Alternatively, you can always use the Catapult launcher and let it handle updating. It has a good track record of correctly updating the vanilla game.

I've found a bug. What should I do?

Bug report can be submitted via debug menu.

Run Submit a bug report on github inside the game to submit an issue.

1. open Options (ESC) -> Debug Menu (a)	2. open Info (i)
3. Submit a bug report on github (U)	4. An link to issue is generated

It will open a bug report on browser with Version and configuration filled in.

I would like to make a suggestion. What should I do?

• For simple ideas: please visit our Discussions page. It could be a new feature, a port request, a mod idea, or anything else.
• Please submit an issue on our GitHub page using feature request form.