Protocol Kardashev
A world prototype about resource management, exponential growth, and leaning into broken game mechanics on purpose. The whole thing sits on the idea of the Kardashev scale, which ranks civilisations by how much energy they can harness.
What it's about
The fantasy is starting small and climbing: scrape for scraps, then jump into systems that snowball if you push them hard enough. A lot of the fun is finding the edges of the rules and deciding how far you're willing to exploit them.
There's a bit of story so the world doesn't feel empty, but it's not a story-driven game. The narrative is mostly there for immersion. The systems are what you're meant to play with.
Stack
I built it in C with Flecs for ECS, plus GLFW, OpenGL, Box2D, and some custom shaders. The point of that stack was practice: data-oriented design, thinking about memory layout, and writing game systems without a heavy engine sitting between me and the metal.
- Flecs for the entity-component setup
- GLFW + OpenGL for windowing, input, and rendering
- Box2D for physics
Status
I paused it when adding features under Flecs started costing more than the prototype was worth. It's not thrown away. There's a solid base if I come back with a tighter scope and a clearer path for iterating.