Survival and craftingClaude CodePlain HTML/canvas
Computer
A seed ship buried inside a mountain, the AI that wakes up inside it, and the drones that dig it out into the light.
Not enough plays yet to compare build 20 with build 19: it needs 10 sessions on each (build 20 has 0, build 19 has 0).
Version 91: belts and placed buildings, with Chapter One rebuilt around the first production chain
be00306 V91 Belts and placed buildings: belts to and from the Ark, placed smelters and crates, Chapter One rebuilt around the first production chain; drawing, panels, L to lay a belt, test/belts.js, dist (Kraig, Oct 15 2026)545a9c5 Build: dist with belts (build be00306)3892d55 Build: dist v91 (belts) after mergeA playtest recorder in the build
a5bb921 Chapter Three: miners with no node in reach run a long line back to the Ark, as before (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)afc52b8 Playtest recorder: each run's objective times, orders, refusals, idle stretches, deaths, resources, errors and notes (C) into the play page's database, or this browser only (Kraig, Oct 14 2026: "Yeah, this all sounds good")4d2c64f Build: dist with the playtest recorder (build afc52b8)8413609 Merge the playtest recorderMore playtest fixes, then Chapter Three, Roots: pods, the network and the Ark's Network tab
802a4db Drone panel: only the Relay and Auto-dig toggles, laid out without overlap (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)77f65e7 Lasers (Ark, towers, drones) auto-target hives in reach when no enemy is (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)6dd930d Oxygen plant and algae vats rest when full instead of flickering on and off (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)fa8577f Ark job queue (upgrades and repairs run in order); group panel shows each drone's hull and battery; panel tabs wrap (Kraig's playtest notes, Oct 14 2026)7c881b6 Messages stay long enough to read (length-based, hover holds, click dismisses); chapter-opening lines type slower and hold (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)e11f895 Modules show their inputs and outputs along their stems (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)2a28e3b Top bar pins a few stores (objective's needs, then metals); 'All stores' opens a tidy grouped list (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)62cc7f2 Merge branch 'worktree-agent-a699b3ceec0fa5da8'050c573 Playtest: drones keep spacing (loose formation, never into rock); tougher swarm past Chapter One; All stores shows on hover, click pins (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)0e6a948 Chapter Three, Roots: the pods, the network drawn, the Ark's Network tab, and the flow from Chapter Two5d8b116 Merge Chapter Three (Roots) with tonight's playtest fixes; swarm eased a step (the tougher one could kill the Ark from a fresh Chapter Two)Playtest fixes: auto-dig from the Ark outward, bodies that fade, cinematic chapter ends and a camera that never shows the edge
e12f0a0 Auto-dig clears outward from the Ark first (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)28bb24c Killed enemies leave bodies that fade over 90 s (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)13e9d00 Chapter ends: cinematic title only, no stats or buttons; play flows into the next chapter (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)f4dc3e8 Camera never shows the land's edge (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)d0883ad Chapter Two top bar keeps every resource, wrapping to two compact rows (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)7f07b91 Playtest: 'Dig to it' button for the ice cave; auto-dig radiates from where it was switched on (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)6e58231 The Ark always clears rock to fit, pods and all (Kraig's playtest note, Oct 14 2026)2cf034b Merge branch 'worktree-agent-a4276f86d8904d044'Chapter Two: sun and mind, water and the first sleepers, the swarm and the lander
8fb516d Chapter Two, stage 1: sun and mind (the surface's day and night, the AI core, compute, ARK 1), the way in, and the chapter's sim6c0d6ae Chapter Two, stage 2: water and the first sleepersc27fb7c Chapter Two, stage 4: the swarm and the lander, and the chapter cardThe Lantern look: a dark cave lit only by plants and lamps, a readable screen, seed-pod machines, music that follows the cycle, menus and save slots
79a4f6b Lantern Phase 3: readable HUD (Kraig: "The design changes sound fantastic. Let's do them", Oct 14 2026)56de13f Design Phase 1, dark cave, bright machines: the Lantern cave, rock with body, the wake into play, drones, rings9687166 Merge branch 'worktree-agent-ae4ea7e56a4d1d398'b681b7f Music: the flora's cycle, caves and sky, the grid, cues and the HollowARK theme (Kraig: "Yes", Oct 14 2026)f9e894f Merge branch 'worktree-agent-adad8b1f0aec799f8'b579787 Chapter One pacing: power cells after smelting, a cramped start pocket, ~20 min at 1x (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)fa192de Merge branch 'worktree-agent-ae6c330ab972d2a71'1d44f42 Design Phase 2, the pod family: half-size seed pods, the Ark as the seed, roots for power linesc361a29 Menus and settings overhaul: living cave title, pause menu, settings, rebindable controls, three save slots (Kraig: "Yes")a342ce6 Merge branch 'worktree-agent-ac88b4b788f52c15e'd3d0f7f Merge branch 'worktree-agent-adac2d36e6338b35e'4170530 Phase 4: alive caves, daylight shaft, Lantern surface, chapter time-lapse, blueprint title, export fallbackFirst contact: lurkers in the copper cave, the Ark's turret and scouts on the ridge
Stages 3 and 4: the famine, then daylight. The Ark bores out through the seal and Chapter One is complete
a857869 Stage 3, the famine: Chapter One flag, flora-only power, three drones, the new tutorial order5e35347 Stage 4, Daylight: the Ark bores out through the seal, the sky, the star fix, Chapter One completeStages 1 and 2, as HollowARK: ARK wakes in the dark with its own voice, and rock gets a hardness, a seal, concrete and storage
ec6204d The name with ARK capitalised; ARK in biolight teal on the wordmark (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)f2f5d6e Stage 1, the wake: new opening, ARK's voice, the shoot in the logod2e880b Stage 2, the rock: one rock with a hardness %, the seal, Rock and Concrete, the mixer, a storage cap and the Storage module37a0230 Merge Stage 2, the rock: hardness, the seal, rock and concrete, storage (ARK voices the concrete step)Fog, power and the fleet: tighter fog, power that climbs from red to green, upgrades for every drone at once, a Surveyor and cryo shells
64c7a8a Tight fog, only the walls round open caves show (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)0f31e28 The grid stays yellow until the power cells are repaired (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)431bbc4 Power starts red, power cells bring yellow, the first light collector brings green; new tutorial step (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)8bdb650 Crew line for the move step matches drones widening the way17a7cfd Modules never overlap; objectives point to more ore when you run out; auto-dig toggle; heavier power drain, most in the flora's rest (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)84a7744 Global drone upgrades at the Ark's AI core replace per-drone modules (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)3e687de Merge global drone upgrades from the AI core7de8478 Surveyor module, a slow sweep that charts hidden caves, ore and gardens through the fog (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)c2014af Merge the Surveyor module20fdcaf Cryo shells, cave-only UI and scoring, wrapping cost buttons, a faster opening (Kraig, Oct 14 2026: "yes" to phases 1 and 2)8e3daff Caves never touch each other, so every map's first dig works (seed 99 fix)Light underground: glowing alien plants on a bloom cycle power the base, and the Ark bores its way through rock
d5c3edc Two-finger click on open ground moves drones there (was a locked relay order) (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)2cc1e7a Modules ride on the Ark as pods when packed; slower Ark; drones dig the lane ahead so the Ark bores through rock (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)49c51ef Fix: escape the apostrophe in the march line (bundle syntax error)2f6a03d Biolight flora lights the caves and powers the base on its bloom cycle (Kraig, Oct 14 2026: "what if we had alien biolight from plants all over the cave... we could keep solar and battery mechanics"; plan: "yes")c044576 The Ark no longer erases rock; drones mine its lane wherever its way is too narrow (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)2f02dec Merge biolight flora (bloom cycle, light collectors, gardens) with today's travel, mining and rock workBuilding the base: physical digging, the Fabricator as a module, miners lined up on the ore's edge, smelters that grow
8b168e5 Carved-stone cave walls and physical digging (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)57b2244 The fabricator unfolds as a module on its own arm and builds the drones (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)5334da8 Miners set up on the ore patch's edge nearest the Ark, side by side, lasering out across it (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)8dabc7e The Fabricator looks like an assembly platform, not a furnace; drones take shape on its bed (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)0df51e7 Objective button wraps inside the box when its cost is long (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)21d9af2 Objective button aligns left when it wraps (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)19f795e Smelters start as a bare furnace; each level brings out three more side modules (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)4d4e938 Sharp rock, and lines and drones keep off it (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)39cf348 Merge branch 'worktree-agent-a0e4d1a7dea0da9ff'f77e364 Smelters work straight from storage; the arm's ore and bars are only for show (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)A new name, Hollowark, and roomier ore caves
Into the mountain: the run starts buried in rock, drones dig, and power comes from a geothermal vent
f9392b7 Buried start (bare bones): mountain of rock cells, digging, hidden pockets, geothermal power, tunnel routing, tutorial inside the rock through the breakthrough (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)68e542d Readable text underground (dark panels in the cave, stronger labels) (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)f7a20fc One smooth mining line along the tunnel for power and ore, shorter when a straighter way is dug; sound back on by default, N toggles (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)626de72 Miners laser the patch's rocks from one spot, patches visibly run out; build queue restored at bottom left; readable dark buttons on hover (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)9fc8b75 Miner parks mid-patch and sweeps its laser round the rocks (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)7b00522 Game stays in the caves (bedrock rim, tutorial ends moving the Ark to another cave); one line per patch for any number of miners; grid colour on every power line; objective action buttons; crew lines in objectives; dig chambers; idle in place; laser bug fix (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)The power saga: ten versions to land on one power number in the corner and a base that slows when the battery is low
9267cbd Battery readout with damaged capacity, power in and out, time to full or emptyebb83d2 Grid level from battery and power balance slows everything on the Ark5acb371 No ore lost on lines (long lines and weak grid are slower instead), round radar, leaner panelsd46d7ec Simple one-row power readout, visible from the start62102d1 Grid level follows the battery smoothly; line % shows line and grid together0b726a5 1 2 3 set game speed; drone jobs on H M R G Ta6b70ab Grid full while charging, slows with hard drains and as the battery empties, stops at zero3c2b57b Drawn material icons beside the numbers, names on hover58cb943 Grid % shown on the Ark; line % is the line's own factor (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)bd9c2a6 Power as one top-right number in three battery steps; no line length penalty or line %; first wave the Ark always wins; gentler night raids; sun-driven shadows; ore and bars share colours; hover labels; no bottom bar (Kraig, Oct 14 2026)Smelters you can watch, see-through panels, a clear end to the tutorial, and air and water for the crew
f5dfead Buildings are Ark modules on arms, smelter repaired with ore, no refining without it, ore wording22add71 Slow counted opening, power cells and AI core repairs, Tide waits for the AI coreabf01b8 Ore travels the mining line as real units and counts only on arrival9990e3b Smelter melts 2 ore into 1 bar in visible batches; slower, rebalanced opening600a8f3 Power cells repaired right after the second drone2c91e3c See-through glass panels day and night94f944a Dedicated iron and copper smelters, one of each module, grow instead of adding moreadbc6cc The guided start ends with the first move and a handover to the player0728b6b Life support after the tutorial: air and water, water still, oxygen plant, crew healthTeach without telling: a crash-damaged Ark you repair step by step, mining lines and a crash intro
6dfdc28 Damaged Ark start, repairs and objectives unlock options step by step, HUD reveals itself6865445 Mining lines instead of hauling, slower start, timed repairs and upgrades, material icons, generative score, morning start4299ae2 Crash intro, one dot per unit of ore on mining linesa5cbb37 Power is yellow, music leans on a gliding synth drone with rare bellsNights and raids: 8-minute days, raids out of the dark, a build queue, and objectives that point to their target
621858a Build queue strip with cancel, build progress ring and ghost drone, collapsed boxes really collapse0ef506b Night raids out of the dark at every nightfallc75483b 8-minute days with golden sunrise and sunset1260259 Balance for 8-minute days (bigger Ark battery, softer Behemoth and raids)095daf6 Hovering an objective highlights its target on the map and scope, with an edge arrow when off screenFirst playtest: camera keys, drone shortcuts, drones that grow into buildings, and a tidier screen
72c14cf WASD pans the camera; defend moves to G, hunt to T2637afc 1-5 give drone jobs, Tab cycles speed4de4cb7 Drones grow into buildings in place, build drones from the Ark, Fabricator, AI datacenters and drone limit193793a Collapsible objectives and crew boxes, scope built into the cornerVersion 1, built overnight and called Driftline: a crash-landed Ark and its drones, holding out against the Tide
d62f52c Driftline v1: first playable build of Kraig's drone survival gameeedbe32 Tutorial fixes, cargo routes through any parked drone, deadly Tide, perf cap, visualsMeasured by the ShipGames recorder in every build: anonymous, no names or cookies. A session counts once the player presses something; bots and rapid repeat plays are left out.
Chapter Two and Three followed the same night with a round of playtest fixes and a recorder. After Kraig's first full playthrough he paused the chapters to find what makes the game fun: belts and placed buildings came first, in version 91.
Glowing alien plants replaced the sun underground. Chapter One was built in four playable stages, ending when the Ark bores out through the seal into daylight, followed by the first fight and a full design upgrade: a dark cave lit only by plants and lamps, a readable screen, music that follows the plants' cycle, menus and save slots.
The first playtest notes came in fast: controls, nights and raids, a slower opening that teaches without telling, and ten versions in forty minutes on how power should feel. Then Kraig's biggest change: the run starts buried inside a mountain. Driftline no longer fit, so the game became Hollowark.
Forty-five minutes of design talk before any code: an alien world, drones, the look, the enemy and the story. Then Kraig went to bed and Claude wrote the first version in about an hour: a crash-landed Ark, its drones, and the Tide coming in.
From the game's own git history: 229 commits, 20 builds. Self-reported. Not verified: GitHub has no record of these commits being pushed. Checked Nov 4, 2026 by tools/verify.mjs (gh CLI).