Caves of Chaos

Overview

Caves of Chaos is a Java roguelike RPG where you explore a dark cave and fight increasingly difficult enemies, collect loot, avoid traps and prepare for the final boss encounter. The objective is to survive the caves and defeat the Medusa of Chaos in order to collect the Shard of Judgement. You can play either as a Wizard or Duelist, each with unique items and strategies. You need to manage your health, cooldowns, and inventory as you progress through the caves.

Core Features

  • Procedurally generated cave levels for every run
  • Real-time combat with class-specific abilities and cooldowns
  • Item collection and inventory management
  • Class-specific weapons and abilities
  • Persistent-health final boss level
  • Modular and extensible architecture

Gameplay Details

Class Choice: Start as either a Wizard (ranged spellcaster) or a Duelist (melee fighter with balanced combat abilities). The spells are designed to be more powerful but have longer cooldowns and require enough mana, while the duelist's abilities are more consistent and have shorter cooldowns. Each attack is luck based, with damage calculated using a random factor to add unpredictability to combat.

Procedural Caves: Each level is generated with cellular automata, creating a fresh cave layout in every run and improving replayability. The player can move between levels without problems, and the game state is preserved across transitions, allowing for strategic retreats and exploration.

Fog of War: Only tiles within the player's line of sight are visible, adding tension and encouraging cautious exploration. Enemies can be hidden in the fog, so players must be prepared for surprise encounters. Traps are indistinguisable from possible loot, adding an extra layer of danger to exploration.

Enemy AI: Enemies move randomly when the player is out of sight, but will actively pursue the player when detected, creating dynamic and engaging combat encounters.

Boss Progression: The Medusa of Chaos keeps persistent health across transitions, so each encounter contributes to the final victory. The boss is designed to be a challenging endgame encounter that requires careful resource management and strategic use of abilities to defeat.

Skills & Technologies

Java 24+
Swing GUI
Cellular Automata
Real-time Combat
OOP Design
XML Configuration
Java Swing UI
Batch Automation

How to Play

Requirement: Java 24 or higher.

Quick Play (Windows): Compile and run with defaults (Wizard, Player1).

run.bat

Quick Play with custom class/name:


								run.bat wizard Gandalf
								run.bat duelist Conan

Build distributable JAR:


								build-jar.bat
								java -jar dist/CavesOfChaos.jar wizard PlayerName

Example JAR runs:


							java -jar dist/CavesOfChaos.jar wizard Gandalf
							java -jar dist/CavesOfChaos.jar duelist Conan