Terminal Descent
Terminal-based incremental Python game still under development.
Wishlist on Steam!
Make sure your terminal window size is at least 120 cols x 30 lines
CORE FEATURES
- Runs directly in the OS terminal
- Progression system - Better drills, auto-miners, and upgrades
- Increasing number of mechanics - Mining, Buying, Upgrading, Building, Smelting
- Depth progression - Descend deeper and deeper
- Automation - Idle-like
CONTROLS
- Press SPACE to Mine
- Smelt resources at optimal heat (Steel:1370°C-1530°C)
Join the Discord server: https://discord.gg/vnRnUeXGzM
Free to play! Support development if you enjoy it so I can create a Steam page!
Download
Get this game and 2 more for $1.00 USD
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Minor update to announce the Steam Page!8 days ago
- STEAM PAGE is out!!!17 days ago
- Improvements to stability20 days ago
- End game state added26 days ago
- Steel drill now mines 2x40 days ago
- Optimizations, bug/crash fixes, a new boss, and better heat management44 days ago
- Tutorial for mechanics and minor UI bug fixes51 days ago
- Resolved UI bugs and refined UI in general54 days ago
Comments
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Running into slight problems playing.
1. in the Build Menu, I had to hold shift before pressing the numbers. Numpad didn't work with Numlock on, and off.
2. Can't progress further as I can't access the drill menu. It popped up saying [R] Drill but pressing the R key does nothing.
Am I missing something?
hmmm maybe this has to do with your keyboard layout. Are you using ENG/USA-UK keyboard?
I found the issue but forgot to reply: I didn't have steel yet. the Drill menu key pops up before you can access it. Maybe make it pop up once you have at least one steel? Or add a text next to it saying "1 steel required" or something like that? Took me a while to figure out I needed steel ^^"
Thank you for reporting! It SHOULD only pop up once you have 1 steel. I'll take a look and fix it! :)
Was watching Orbital Potato's video on yt, went to download and saw its not on mac :( But 10/10 game just from watching!!
hey! I'm glad you think so. A MacOS version is not out of the table yet! I'll message you if I can make a playable version!
I love this. Needs a Linux port so we can run multiple windows in tmux for maximum insanity.
hahahha I'm glad you like! I'm working on the Linux version :)
Very cool! Well done terminal graphics! Reached the completion depth with joy)
I stumbled on some visual shift: game continues after reaching it certain finish depth, and text with completion results will be seen mixed with other UI components on the middle (shop, build, etc)
But so minor things won't stop me from reaching the top Auto-mine! (next on the list is the piece just for 100000 gold)
Hahahaha your comment made my day! I'll make sure to fix the ending message so you can keep going.
It looks super cool! I hope there will be a mac version!!! <3
Well interesting debut, I think there is potential with to have something, I'll check to see from time to time the improvement, content ect...
Thank you! :)
Hoping for a Mac version!
i'm at depth 39.. never encountered any boss.
Hey! The boss is currently just a "place holder". It can be found at depth 100
does the steel drill not work against the boss? the damage animation only seems to play with the normal drill
It does work against the boss. By damage animation you mean the sparks? If so, that's a potential bug. I'll look into it!
This is a very good looking itch page
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it :)
How do you run this? all i have is an exe that opens the terminal, errors, and then closes before i can get any info whatsoever
Hello! That't unusual. Can you try resizing the terminal to make it bigger before running it again? Are you running it on Windows? If resizing the terminal doesn't work, try opening the terminal, make it bigger, navigate to where the game is saved using the comand "cd path/to/game-folder" then command "./terminal_descent.exe". Let me know how it goes.
Yeah, that fixed it, thanks!
THIS GAME IS FANTASTIC
Thanks sooooooo much for submitting this to my game jam check out the page i made for it: https://itch.io/jam/python1/topic/5066553/thanks
hi, this game is written entirely in python, right? would you be willing to upload an uncompiled build so we can run the game manually on linux?
Hey! I'm currently working on a Linux build that should be available later this week!
Hi! The Linux version is out!
thanks ^-^ i really appreciate it.
sadly i am having difficulty getting xwayland working on my fedora machine, so the game isnt launching... because of missing xorg functions i think? i dont think thats a bug with the game necessarily, unless you intend to natively support wayland, but figured it's worth mentioning
oh, I'll try to figure out a way around this
Hey friend, how’s it going? That’s cool, man. Unfortunately, it’s pretty hard to run the
.elffile—it will only work on the machines where it was compiled. Can you create a Docker image? A Docker image will run everywhere without compatibility issues.Where is it? All there seems to be is a .exe that starts up, but doesn't seem to respond to keyboard input or anything
can you send me the source code? it crashes a lot (on windows) but it's really fun. i could refactor your code and fix the issues and send it back to you.
--- Founded bugs and other stuff (06.17.2025) ---
That's all i could find for now
Thank you so much for reporting theses bugs and detailing them. I'm already working on the first point (keys being registered all the time) and I will definitely address the other. Thanks again :)
Hey, just letting you know that the latest update fixed all the points you mentioned!
--- Found bugs and other stuff (06.19.2025) ---
That's all for now
Hello! I've tackled most of the bugs you reported. I'm still trying to reproduce the auto-mining randomly stopping, so I can pinpoint the cause. But I'm keeping an eye out!
WOW THIS IS FANTASTIC
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
Can you provide the .py version of the game so I can play on MacOS?
Hello! I'm working on a MacOS compatible version!