Survivors-like multiplayer browser game template for Net Forge, the open-source multiplayer browser game engine built for AI coding agents.

This is a template for a survivors-like (survivor-like) game that runs in the browser: EMBERWATCH, a complete multiplayer game you can start in one command and change in one file. Also searched as survivor-like, horde survival or bullet heaven: weapons fire by themselves, enemies drop XP gems, and every level offers three upgrade cards.

What you get

• 1 to 4 players in one co-op room, with downed state and revive by standing close.
• A spawn director whose alive cap rises from 20 enemies at the start to 2,000 by minute nine, with elites, two mini-bosses and a final boss.
• Eight weapon kinds (nova, aura, bolt, orbit, cone, chain, meteor, boomerang) with 5 to 8 levels each and evolutions, plus up to 8 passives.
• An authoritative room at 30 Hz with your own keeper predicted in the browser.
• Authoritative multiplayer. A room host owns the game state; every browser tab is a player. Locally, npm run play runs that host on your computer.
• Shared client/server simulation. The same ECS and Rapier physics code steps the world on the server and predicts your own player in the browser, with delta snapshots.
• three.js renderer with WebGPU, and a WebGL2 fallback.
• Bots and a headless playtest. npm run test plays the game with bots and reports what happened.
• TypeScript, MIT licensed. The library models, sprites and sounds the game uses are CC0.
• Ready for coding agents. AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, Cursor rules, Copilot instructions and the Net Forge MCP server in .mcp.json, .cursor/mcp.json and .vscode/mcp.json.

Measured with npm run test (2 bots, 1 minute of game time, Node 22, Apple M2 Pro):

Playtest report	Value
Ticks simulated at 30 Hz	1,800
Enemies killed	247
Most enemies alive at once	93
Highest level reached	6
Server cost per tick (mean)	under 0.25 ms
Softlock	none

Every number above is play money and a local run. Longer runs: npm run test -- --minutes 4 --bots 4.

Start in one command

npx create-netforge my-game --template survivor --yes
cd my-game
npm run play

Or press Use this template on GitHub, clone your new repository, and run:

npm install && npm run play

npm run play builds the game, starts a local room and opens http://127.0.0.1:4663. Open the same link in another tab for a second player. WASD or arrows to move, Space to dash, 1 2 3 to pick an upgrade card. On touch, drag on the left half of the screen.

You need Node.js 20 or newer. Use npm run play -- --no-open to print the link instead, --port 4700 if the port is taken, and --host 0.0.0.0 to let phones on your network join. Local play uses play money: no wallet, no chain and no hosted servers.

Change the rules

The whole game is src/game.ts: declarations against the typed API in @netforge/engine (the only import it may make). The template package @netforge/template-survivor provides the renderer, netcode, physics, controls, HUD and bots.

npm run test        # compile src/game.ts and play it with bots; fails on a broken rule or a softlock
npm run typecheck   # the TypeScript check of src/game.ts
npm run play        # play the change (stop and start it again after each edit)

The template guide walks through the usual changes:

• Add an enemy
• Add a weapon and its evolution
• Tune the difficulty
• Check the change with bots

llms.txt holds the rules the build enforces and recipes for common changes. Or ask your coding agent in plain words; AGENTS.md tells it where the rules live and how to test them.

Links

• Template guide: https://forge.netnet.capital/docs/templates/survivor-like
• Net Forge engine: https://github.com/netnetdev/net-forge
• Docs: https://forge.netnet.capital/docs
• npm: create-netforge, @netforge/template-survivor, @netforge/engine

Pinned to Net Forge 0.2.0. Not affiliated with other projects named NetForge. Local play runs the game's own code on your computer with your permissions; play only games whose code you trust.

License

MIT (LICENSE). The library assets are CC0 1.0.