free-to-play roguelike deck-builder / gacha

Kernel Panic

Collect Linux distributions as gacha characters and fight through a dying mainframe with programming languages as damage types.

Slay the Spire meets a gacha collection game, wrapped in a terminal aesthetic every developer recognizes on sight.

./pre_register cat game_loop.md

Kernel Panic main menu with terminal commands and a neofetch-style Ubuntu panel — actual game screen / tty1 main menu

Kernel Panic turns developer culture into combat. Arch breaks after updates, Debian refuses to die, Gentoo compiles for three turns, Rust never misses, C hits hard enough to crash you, and JavaScript rolls damage like a type coercion bug.

what players do

Three loops, one dying mainframe

./fight

Fight

Turn-based card combat against zombie processes, memory leaks, DRM guardians, telemetry collectors, and OS-flavored bosses.

Endless waves escalate until you die.
High-score chase instead of a fixed ending.
Programming languages define damage behavior.

apt install cards

Build

Between waves, shop at the Repository to install cards, upgrade your deck, or buy stat boosts.

Choose two languages before each run.
Add distro-exclusive cards to the pool.
Turn unstable dependencies into combos.

curl gacha.sh | sh

Collect

Pull new distros and Packages, then convert duplicates into upgrade currency so no pull is wasted.

Distros unlock languages and playstyles.
Packages include tools like htop and nginx.
All power stays earnable through play.

actual game screens

Not a reskin. It looks like this.

Combat screen showing Ubuntu, executable JavaScript cards, enemy processes, and terminal-style turn data — combat / JavaScript cards vs zombie_process

Gacha banner screen with Ubuntu, Fedora, and Mint ASCII art and entropy pull currency — gacha / curl gacha.sh | sh

Run configuration screen where Ubuntu, Fedora, and Mint distros can be selected before booting a run — run setup / choose distro packages

gacha roster

Distros with reputations as mechanics

SSR

Arch

Elitist glass cannon. Huge tempo, fragile stability, and cards that can literally break after updates.

Debian

Unkillable grandmother. Two patches behind, never crashes, and quietly wins fights by outlasting everything.

SSR

Gentoo

Spends three turns compiling. If she survives, she becomes the strongest unit on the board.

damage types

Languages are your weapons

CMassive damage, non-zero chance to segfault your own run.

RustReliable, precise, never misses, refuses unsafe plays.

JavaScriptWildly random output because of course it is.

HaskellDoes nothing until it suddenly does everything at once.

0 registered platform installs

3 launch platforms

2 known rewards

community unlocks

Shared launch rewards

business model

Free-to-play without selling raw strength

Compute Credits

Premium currency converts to pull currency for banners and cosmetics, not direct stat purchases.

Bandwidth and Commits

Separate free grind and duplicate-conversion economies keep progression readable and fair.

Bits

Run-only shop currency powers Repository decisions without polluting the collection economy.