The Simpsons: Springfield Mayhem — Prototype

A fan-made roguelike prototype: every run is a randomly generated "episode" that starts as an ordinary Simpsons errand and spirals into chaos.

This is a vertical-slice prototype, not the full game vision. It proves out the core loop end to end — hub, episode generation, procedural branching route, real-time combat, the donut health/currency decision, item pickups with synergies, a mid-run story twist, and a boss fight — with an architecture meant to make adding more of everything (characters, locations, items, enemies, episode modifiers, bosses) a data change, not a rewrite.

Run it

No build step, no dependencies to install — it's plain HTML/CSS/JS (ES modules).

npm start

Then open http://localhost:8080 in a browser. (Or just serve the folder with any static file server, e.g. python3 -m http.server 8080.)

Controls

• WASD / Arrow keys — move
• Mouse — aim
• Click or Space — attack

What's implemented

• Hub: 742 Evergreen Terrace, character select (Homer playable; Bart, Lisa, Marge, Maggie shown as locked, ready to unlock later), a trophy shelf that grows across runs.
• Episode generation: a random title, an objective ("Get to Moe's Tavern"), and an episode modifier. Only "Alien Invasion" is fully wired up right now; five more modifiers are registered in src/data/episodes.js with implemented: false as a template for adding them.
• Procedural route: src/systems/episodeManager.js defines the stage skeleton (fixed stages + branch points where the player picks between two locations), matching the example route in the design doc.
• The story twist: arriving Downtown triggers a "BREAKING NEWS" event — Kang & Kodos invade, alien enemies start spawning, location dialogue swaps to its "alien" flavor text, and the run ends in a boss fight against them.
• Combat: melee arc attacks and a ranged bowling-ball weapon, contact and projectile damage, status effects (poison/burn), knockback.
• Donut economy: every donut is a real-time choice — eat it now for HP, or bank it as currency to spend at Apu's Kwik-E-Mart shop.
• Items & synergies: Duff Beer, Buzz Cola, Squishee, Krusty Burger, Radioactive Rod, Homer's Bowling Ball, Flaming Moe, Blinky, Malibu Stacy — and three discoverable combos (src/systems/synergy.js): Duff Beer + Flaming Moe → Drunken Inferno, Bowling Ball + Radioactive Rod → Nuclear Bowling Ball, Buzz Cola + Squishee → Sugar Rush Overdrive.
• A relationship stub: don't wreck Moe's jukebox and he'll toss you a free heal before the boss fight; trash it and he remembers.
• A boss: Kang & Kodos, two phases, three attack patterns (charge, spread blast, summon).
• End screen & season tracking: victory/defeat, town destruction %, enemies defeated, people pissed off, arrests, donuts eaten, a star rating, and a persistent (localStorage) Season/Episode counter with a season finale every 22 episodes.

Architecture — adding new content

Everything content-related lives in src/data/*.js as plain objects, so new content is additive:

• Character: add an entry to src/data/characters.js, set unlocked: true. It shows up in the hub automatically.
• Location: add an entry to src/data/locations.js, then reference its id from ROUTE_TEMPLATE in src/systems/episodeManager.js (as a fixed stage or a branch option).
• Enemy: add an entry to src/data/enemies.js with a scenario tag ('any' or an episode modifier id) — the spawner picks it up automatically.
• Item: add an entry to src/data/items.js (consumable / passive / weapon categories) — it enters the pickup pool automatically. Add tags and an entry in src/systems/synergy.js for combos with existing items.
• Episode modifier: add an entry to src/data/episodes.js, flip implemented: true once you've added its enemy/boss spawn tables, and it joins the random pool.
• Boss: add an entry to src/data/bosses.js with HP-threshold phases and reference it as an episode's bossId.

Known limits of this prototype

• Only Homer and the Alien Invasion episode are fully playable; the rest are data-table stubs.
• No art assets — entities render as colored circles with emoji, which keeps iteration fast but isn't the final "interactive cartoon" look.
• No audio.
• Single arena per location rather than a walkable overworld between rooms.