Runa: from terminal to 3D world

The hero facing the Runic Colossus among ruined brick walls and lava cracks, in the browser 3D world

Tripothon S1 · Demo Day

From a terminal RPG to a 3D world in the browser, built with Tripo

Runa started in the terminal

$ runa · the city of RUNA, fountain plaza

`;````````````````````;`````.----..;```````````````````
``;``````````````````````.-~`.....~-.`;``;`````````````
````````````````````````/````/\....\```````````````````
`````````;``````````;``|````(.OO.).`;|```````;`````````
````````````````````````\````/..../````````````````````
`;````````````````````````-.____.-````;``````;`````````
````;``````````;``````.----------------.````;``````````
`````````;```````````/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\```````;``````
`````````````````````\__________________/`````;````````

An ASCII RPG

Kingdoms, shops, dungeons, a world boss and PvP duels, drawn in characters.

Built on Bare and Pear

Holepunch's runtime, with peer to peer builds and updates.

Already validated

Awarded at the Aleph Hackathon: lnkd.in/p/dcNJqtAk. Played by the Salta.dev developer community and by players from the Crecimiento hackathon and northern Argentina.

The barrier

A 3D world needs artists, an engine and months.

We had an ASCII map, a working game and natural language.

The ASCII map is the blueprint

console

```,,```,````"``,......````,```
````````````"````......````````
``````,`"`[ mercado del alba ]`
```````````,`,```......```,````
"````````````````......"```````
"`````````````,``......```````,
````````````````,......````````

The same market in the browser 3D world: the sign reads dawn market, with Elian and a villager next to it

browser, three.js

Every cell becomes geometry: roads, grass, walls, roofs, water and signs. Same save, same rules; one key switches the views.

The Runic Colossus, a Tripo model, on its pedestal in the game's showcase

Tripo removed the 3D barrier

We described the world in natural language and got game-ready 3D models.

The hero

Rigged and animated to walk, run and fight

The iron helmet

Equip it and it appears on the hero

The Runic Colossus

The world boss in the volcanic ruins

The kingdom

The castle that crowns the title screen

Migrated during Tripothon: 64 hours

64 h

first Tripo model to the playable 3D world

24,300

lines of 3D world code, in 68 commits

places in 3D: city, NOX, castle, coliseum, boss ruins, meadow

143

automated tests, still all green

Day 1 Tripo models generated; the ASCII city rendered in 3D from the same art; the Tripo hero walking in it.

Day 2 The whole game in the browser: menu, running, 8 directions, walls and gates, terrain and sky, inventory, showcase, meadow combat.

Day 3 Everything merged and tested for Demo Day.

Measured with git from the first Tripo commit. Before it, the terminal game: 55 commits from the Aleph Hackathon. Tripo made every 3D model; AI agents co-wrote 59 of the 68 commits.

The hero fighting mosquitoes in the 3D meadow, with health bars and an attack prompt

Recorded demo · 3 min

Let's play

Console, the ASCII draft becoming 3D, combat, inventory, the world boss and the wallet

Play, and get rewarded on chain

LIVE

Connect your wallet

Press V and link a Stellar address. The game stores only the public address; your wallet signs, the game never sees a secret key.

COMING

USDC airdrops

World boss events and the player leaderboard airdrop USDC to your wallet, based on your activity in the game.

COMING

Fair PvP stakes

A Soroban contract settles coliseum duels with commit and reveal.

Peer to peer at the core: Bare runs the game, Pear ships it, and it plays offline when the network is down.

Sponsors fund the airdrops

Sponsors buy boards on the dungeon and boss arena walls, like pitch-side ads in a football match.

That money becomes a USDC prize pool, so airdrops never stop.

Players earn by activity: world boss events and the leaderboard pay out to their wallets.

A share keeps the peer to peer network and the web app running, and funds the roadmap.

In game today · boss arena

The hero next to the Tripothon Sao Paulo poster and a Tripothon board in the world boss arena

Tripothon is the first board: pitch-side boards around the dungeon and the world boss, seen in every fight.

Go-to-market: I'm a Stellar ambassador with ties to Avalanche, BNB LATAM and Solana Argentina, a direct line to sponsors and ecosystem grants. Later: cosmetic skins and creator worlds.

How does it pay for itself? Sponsors. Their brands go on boards around the dungeon and boss arena walls, exactly like the advertising boards around a football pitch: when the world boss falls, it falls in front of the sponsors. That money becomes a USDC prize pool, so the airdrops to players never stop, and players earn by their activity in world boss events and on the leaderboard. A share keeps the peer to peer network and the web app running, and funds the roadmap. And we have the channel to sell it: I'm a Stellar ambassador with ties to the Avalanche, BNB LATAM and Solana Argentina communities, which gives Runa a direct line to sponsors and ecosystem grants. Later: cosmetic skins, and a creator economy where players program in the console and add it to their own worlds, the way Roblox works.

Concept: animated with Higgsfield from a real Runa frame

Now imagine

This took days. Imagine weeks. Imagine months.

The forecast: an extraordinary world, kilometers full of content and adventures, like the classic RPGs we grew up with.

The next 12 months, peer to peer

The whole kingdom in 3D

Dungeons and the barbarian camp
All 12 foes as animated Tripo models
Players meet peer to peer in 3D

Kilometers

Maps kilometers wide, shared between peers in chunks
Every dungeon floor as big as the kingdom
Live world boss events

Rewards on chain

Sponsor boards fund a USDC pool
Airdrops by activity to Stellar wallets
Duels played peer to peer, settled on Stellar

A platform

Web app on the official site, iOS, Android and Steam
Cosmetic skins
Creators script worlds in the console and share them peer to peer

Peer to peer from day one: Bare runs the game, Pear ships builds and content between players, Hyperswarm connects them. No central game server.

Here is the plan for the next twelve months, and the thread through all of it is peer to peer. First quarter: the whole kingdom in 3D, the dungeons and the barbarian camp, all twelve foes as animated Tripo models, and players meeting each other peer to peer. Second quarter: kilometers, with maps kilometers wide shared between peers in chunks, every dungeon floor as big as the kingdom, and live world boss events. Third quarter: rewards on chain, with sponsor boards funding a USDC pool that airdrops to players by activity, and duels played peer to peer and settled on Stellar. Fourth quarter, the platform: Runa ships as a web app from the official site, on iOS and Android, and launches on Steam; plus cosmetic skins, and creators who script their own worlds in the console and share them peer to peer, the way Roblox works. Peer to peer from day one: Bare runs the game, Pear ships builds and content between players, and Hyperswarm connects them. There is no central game server. Every step builds on something that runs today: the rules, the ASCII blueprints, the peer to peer duels, the wallet and the scripting language players already use.

Without Tripo or AI: 5 to 10 years

The code we wrote in 64 hours

24,300 lines at 10 to 50 debugged lines per developer day is 2 to 10 developer years.

The art

A stylized 3D character takes an artist 3 to 7 days; a main character, 4 to 8 weeks. A world needs hundreds.

The benchmark

Stardew Valley, a 2D RPG, took its solo creator four and a half years.

Our estimate: the 12-month roadmap is 5 to 10 years of work for a small team without these tools.

Sources: Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month (via NDepend); Pixune on 3D character production; Eric Barone, Wikipedia. Code size measured in Runa's repository.

The south gate of the city of RUNA in 3D: stone walls, round towers with red roofs and the road to the meadow

Play it now

playruna.vercel.app

From a terminal RPG to a 3D world, in the browser. Thank you.

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