I Built a Retro Survival RPG in Vanilla JavaScript

Name: I Built a Retro Survival RPG in Vanilla JavaScript
Availability: InStock
Author: jasonkester

by jasonkester·May 5, 2026·1 point·2 comments

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AI Analysis

●●SolidCozyRabbit Hole

Valheim survival mechanics crammed into Ultima-style tile-based UI actually runs in vanilla JavaScript.

Strengths

•Procedurally generated open world with towns, dungeons, and NPC conversations fully implemented.
•Complete Bronze Age progression system with crafting, mining, and base building mechanics.
•Sanctuary zones prevent combat in cities, enabling peaceful exploration and social interactions.

Weaknesses

•Vanilla JS limits performance for large-scale battles or complex physics simulations.
•Browser-based approach may struggle with save persistence across sessions without backend.

Post Description

I'm working on the Survival Crafting RPG that you would have played on your Apple II back in the '80s. You can think of it as Valheim's gameplay crammed into the tile-based UI of the old Ultima games.

It has a procedurally-generated open world with towns and NPCs to talk to, all the resource gathering, mining, crafting stuff you'd expect in a modern survival game, and some good old fashioned dungeon crawling to boot.

I've been working on it off and on for the last several months. It's complete up through the Bronze Age (in Valheim terms). Let me know what you think!

https://stravaeger.com