Case study
Aetherbound
A free browser idle roguelite: craft gear, break the economy, die in the dungeon, repeat.
What it is
Aetherbound is an idle roguelite you play in a browser tab. Aether trickles in from the Wilds while you are away, and the Abyss is a crawl you play yourself. You bind a founder, forge gear at the Smithy, descend, then ascend or take True Death and name who walks next.
It is free to play and live at aetherbound.app, with no account required. Android and iOS apps are coming soon, with the same save.
In the game
How it is built
The game logic lives in separate systems behind a facade the UI talks to:
- Economy for resources and upgrades
- Combat for turn-based fights, dungeon generation, and enemy AI
- Progression for Renown, Ascension, and feature unlocks
- Equipment for inventory, slots, and stats
That split keeps balance work out of the UI and makes the systems testable on their own.
Stack
JavaScript, Vite, and Vitest, with Firebase for hosting and data. Native Android and iOS builds go through Capacitor. Playwright end-to-end runs and synthetic bot telemetry feed balance tuning.
Play Aetherbound →