Welcome to Fenrok Online
Hey there, welcome to the dev log!
I’m Tauan, and I’m building Fenrok Online - a terminal-based MMO that runs entirely in your command line. Yeah, an MMO in the terminal. Let me tell you why.
A bit about me
I’ve been a software engineer for over 5 years now. Worked at oil companies, AI startups, built investment software on the side. Decent career by most standards.
But honestly? I’m kind of bored with the software industry.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for what I’ve learned. But what I actually love about programming is games. Always has been. Games are why I started coding in the first place.
The problem? I’ve started dozens of game projects over the years. And I never finished a single one.
Why? Art.
I can code. I can architect systems, optimize performance, debug weird edge cases at 2am. But I cannot draw. I cannot make sprites. I cannot model. Every time I got to the “now make it look good” phase, the project died.
Then one day it clicked: what if the art was just… code?
Terminal games don’t need sprites. They don’t need textures. The “graphics” are just characters on a screen - and I can do that. When you see a @, your brain fills in the details. A G becomes a goblin. Your imagination does the work that pixels never could.
That’s when I decided to build a terminal MMO. A genre I genuinely love (roguelikes, MUDs, old-school text adventures), in a format I can actually finish.
About security (this one’s personal)
Okay, I need to rant for a second.
I’ve played a lot of MMOs. And you know what killed most of them? Cheaters and bots.
I’ve watched games I loved become unplayable because the economy was destroyed by gold farmers. I’ve seen PvP become meaningless because of aimbots and speed hacks. I’ve quit games where the “endgame” was competing against scripts, not players.
It infuriates me.
So when I started building Fenrok, security wasn’t an afterthought. It’s foundational. I’m using SpacetimeDB with a server-authoritative design:
- Every player has a cryptographic identity - no spoofing
- All game logic runs on the server - the client is just a display
- You can’t hack infinite health because the client doesn’t decide your health
- Bots are detectable because the server sees everything
- Real-time sync that scales to millions of players (I can dream, right?)
Is it cheat-proof? Nothing is. But I’ve designed this from day one to make cheating as hard as possible.
Built with Rust
The whole thing is written in Rust. Insanely fast, memory-safe, and honestly just fun to write once you get past the learning curve. The compiler yells at you a lot, but it’s always right.
What’s the plan?
Right now I’m working on combat and NPCs. The foundation is solid - you can walk around, see other players, create characters. But there’s no game yet. I need monsters to fight, loot to collect, quests to complete.
Rough roadmap:
- Combat & NPCs (Alpha) - Basic fighting, monsters, loot
- Progression (Beta) - Leveling, skills, equipment, classes
- Social stuff (v1.0) - Chat, parties, trading, guilds
Want to follow along?
This dev log is where I’ll share everything. The good, the bad, the “why is this bug happening at 3am” moments.
You can grab the latest builds from GitHub and try it yourself. Fair warning: it’s early. Really early. But if you’re the type who enjoys watching games evolve from nothing, you might find it interesting.
Building an MMO solo is probably insane. But for the first time in my coding life, I might actually finish a game project.
Let’s see where this goes.
> exit
See you in the terminal.