Kaetram is an open-source game engine created to aid those interested in entering the game development realm, and intended to be used as a learning tool. The codebase is simple, clean, and intuitive. The original idea is based on Little Workshop's demo game—BrowserQuest (BQ), and uses original BQ assets as well as custom-made ones. The entire codebase has been rewritten from scratch using more modern approaches.
Live Version – https://kaetram.com
Join us on Discord – https://discord.gg/MmbGAaw
BQ was intended as an experiment to showcase HTML5 capabilities, since then, technology has only served to advance. Kaetram contains a lot of ideas and features that build on top of its predecessor, a couple being:
- Multiplayer using Socket.IO.
- Enhanced rendering engine (includes dynamic lighting, overlays, animated tiles).
- Region system (client receives only necessary data and saves it).
- Questing and achievements system.
- Plugin-based combat system (for bosses/special enemies).
- Supports RESTful API.
- Discord server integration.
- Cross-server private messaging and interactions.
- Yarn v3 with workspaces for monorepo packaging.
- And much more!
You must first install Node.js to run the project, and optionally install MongoDB to store user data on the server.
You need to use a Node.js version greater than or equal to
14.19.0
, following the Long Term Support (LTS) schedule, to have the most stable experience when developing/experimenting with Kaetram. Older versions would not work with our current dependencies and package manager.
MongoDB is not a requirement for Kaetram to run, but you can store and save user data if you install it and run an online environment with all the features enabled. To do this, see Configuration, and set
OFFLINE_MODE=false
. If you do choose to install MongoDB, a user is not necessary, but you can enable authentication with theMONGODB_AUTH
setting.
You will also need to enable Yarn to manage your dependencies.
The preferred way to manage Yarn is through Corepack
Starting from Node.js 14.19.0
, Corepack is included by default with, but is currently opt-in.
To enable it, run
corepack enable
Install the dependencies by simply running
yarn
To run live development builds, use
yarn dev
To create production builds, run
yarn build
Then, to run each production build, use
yarn start
Add --host
at the end to make the game visible on your network.
Optionally, if you would want some additional configuration, There will see a file named
.env.defaults
, and it's values will be used unless overridden by a new .env
file, or by setting environmental variables.
Copy and rename .env.defaults
to .env
, and modify the contents to fit your needs.
Keep in mind, you have to rebuild the client and restart the server every time you change your configuration.
As a prerequisite to run the E2E tests you need a mongodb server. You can either change the settings (.env.locale2e
) to point to
an existing one or use our docker compose file. To install docker compose you can take a look at
https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/
To run the end to end tests you can simply go to the packages/e2e
folder and run the yarn command
The tests will make use of the .env.locale2e
configuration file
yarn run mongo:restart
yarn run test:run
Alternatively, if you want to have the test environment open interactively so you can select the test you want to run in the UI, you can use the command
yarn run mongo:restart
yarn run test:open
Lastly, if you want to run a single test during development you can start the client and server manually and directly run
yarn run cy:open
The region system sends data to the client according to the map data of the server. The collisions are checked both server-side and client-side to avoid cheating. The region system makes use of dynamic tiles, which are unlocked according to a player's progress. Furthermore, there is integrated support for instancing, where we can use a section of the map (or clone it), and reuse it for certain groups of players. The instancing is perfect for activities such as minigames, where we will want to run multiple instances in parallel.
Kaetram is built with modularity in mind, as such, the client supports multiple tileset parsing. The tilemap can easily be constructed using the Tiled Map Editor. Using our map parsing tool, you can easily export your creation to both the client and the server.
Once finished modifying your map in packages/tools/map/data/
, you can
parse the map data by executing yarn exportmap
inside the packages/tools/
directory.
Example command:
yarn exportmap ./data/map.json
To build the current game map, you can run
yarn map
There is also support for a hub server. This can help connect servers across one another, allowing players to interact with their friends across them in a variety of ways (private messaging and guilds). Furthermore, the hub serves as a gateway for determining what server to place players in. If a server is full, it simply returns another server that has room for the player.
To enable using the hub server, see Configuration, and set these values to true
.
API_ENABLED=true
HUB_ENABLED=true
Here we have The Roadmap Project Board. This is the main board of the Kaetram-Open project. A kind of Kanban tasks board for tracking and presenting the progress to the community. Here we plan, prioritize and track our work.
See also the open issues for a list of proposed features (and known issues).
- Finalize the new map.
- Polish mob attributes.
- Have a consistent storyline that goes with the game.
- Implement special abilities and weapon perks.
- Improve anti-cheating detections.
- Add PvP
- Add minigames (PvP, Capture the Flag, Hold the Base)
- Improve client/server synchronization for all players
- Add player trading abilities
- Transition to a more suitable WebGL framework
- Add friends list
- Improve the enchanting system
- Make bosses more responsive
- All trees in the world must be cuttable
- Write documentation outlining the entirety of the source code.
- Improvements and optimizations to the lighting system.
- Add (continue) to NPC talking—spacebar when talking
Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/kaetram
Open Collective – https://opencollective.com/kaetram
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For all inquiries about purchasing a different license or commission work, please contact @Keros on Discord.
This project is distributed under the
Mozilla Public License Version 2.0. See
LICENSE
for more information.