Field Notes: Building Outpost - A Text-Based Survival Game

The Beginning: Just an Idea and a Green Terminal

V1: Making Something Move

• A green-on-black terminal interface
• A few arrowed buttons to move around
• A text display that said where you were
• Zero persistence (refresh = restart)

function moveNorth() {
    currentPosition.y += 1;
    updateDisplay();
}

Adding the Map: Grid by Grid

const map = {
    dimensions: { width: 24, height: 24 },
    currentPosition: { x: 15, y: 15 }
};

• How big should the map be? If it's too big, you need an innumerable number of people for it to be fun. And even then, who is going to play my stupid game for long enough to find out?
• What types of buildings are even in a small city / town?
• How do you make each location unique?

Location, Location, Location

const locations = [
    {
        x: 15,
        y: 15,
        name: "Hospital Main Entrance",
        description: "Glass doors hang open, emergency signs still flashing weakly."
    }
    // ... and so on
];

The Great Database Effort

First Database Attempt: The Learning Experience

CREATE TABLE players (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    position_x INTEGER,
    position_y INTEGER
);

-- Track player state
CREATE TABLE player_state (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY REFERENCES players(id),
    health INTEGER,
    actions_remaining INTEGER,
    last_action_refresh TIMESTAMP
);

-- Track world state
CREATE TABLE location_state (
    x INTEGER,
    y INTEGER,
    current_items TEXT[],
    zombie_count INTEGER,
    PRIMARY KEY (x, y)
);

The "Real-Time" Challenge

• Update their position
• Check for other zombies nearby
• Load location state
• Calculate available actions

The Inventory Puzzle

Authentication: Making It Secure

The First Attempt

• Sessions: Just because someone logged in once doesn't mean they stay logged in forever
• Tokens: These little keys that prove you are who you say you are (and they expire!)
• State Management: Keeping track of whether someone is actually logged in across the whole app

The Breakthrough

export async function getPostBySlug(directory: string, slug: string): Promise<Post | null> {
  try {
    let fullPath = path.join(directory, `${slug}.mdx`)
    if (!fs.existsSync(fullPath)) {
      fullPath = path.join(directory, `${slug}.md`)
    }
    
    const fileContents = fs.readFileSync(fullPath, 'utf8')
    const { data, content } = matter(fileContents)

    return {
      slug,
      title: data.title,
      date: data.date,
      content: content.trim(),
      tags: data.tags || []
    }
  } catch {
    return null
  }
}

Final Touches: Graffiti and Atmosphere

• Player-left messages (graffiti system)
• Detailed location descriptions
• Environmental storytelling

CREATE TABLE graffiti (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT uuid_generate_v4(),
    location_x INTEGER,
    location_y INTEGER,
    message TEXT,
    player_id UUID REFERENCES players(id),
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT now()
);

Lessons Learned

Start Simple, Really Simple

• Getting basic movement working was more valuable than planning the perfect database structure – If you can have a basic UI and core functionality, plugging a database in is not as bad as you'd think

Database Design Is Never Done

• Every new feature meant revisiting and often restructuring tables
• It was useful for me to create handy SQL queries to use for testing purposes (like resetting the database)

Real-Time Is Hard

• Managing state across multiple clients takes careful planning
• My implementation is a very simple idea of "real-time", more realistically, everything happens on load / action. So this would be an area I would love to greatly improve down the road, otherwise we're going to likely run into weird inconsistency / timing issues.

Auth Is Never Simple

• Plan for all the edge cases
• Session management is crucial