BIT ROT
A tactics deck builder where every shot builds a wall and every bite infects your memory.
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Your old machine is crawling with bugs. You are the debugger: a tiny program dropped onto the board with 4 CPU a turn and 8 slots of memory between you and a crash. Program your deck, read the bugs' next move, and wall them out, zap them, or outrun them to the exit.
Made in 72 hours for *Ludum Dare*.
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Firing builds walls. ZAP, GUN and SEAL seal the side of the tile you fire from. Walls block bugs, but they block you too, and they stay for the whole level. The map is whatever you build.
Memory is your health. Your deck lives in 8 memory slots. Every point of damage corrupts a slot, from slot 8 upward. A corrupted card costs +1 CPU. Lose all 8 and the system crashes.
Slot order is a choice. Front slots put more copies in your deck (4 / 4 / 3 / 3 / 2 / 2 / 1 / 1), back slots break first. Where you put a card matters as much as which card you take.
No luck in combat. No crits, no misses. Every bug's move and attack is shown before you end your turn: paths, attack lines and the exact damage coming. Your only randomness is the draw.
Program your own combos. SEQUENCE cards chain up to three different cards, each turned left, right or around.
Kill bugs, upgrade cards. Each kill is worth 1 point, banked when you clear the level. Spend points between levels to upgrade cards. Every upgrade is a one-way choice.
Four levels and a boss. The last level ends with the Moth, in honour of the first actual case of a bug being found (Harvard Mark II, 1947). It marks a whole row and column, and they go off on the next turn.
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Hover a bug to see its stats in the INSPECT panel.
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- Check Incoming before you end the turn. It is always exact.
- Spiders crawl around walls. Flies fly over them but cannot bite through them.
- ZAP hits through walls: wall a bug off first, then zap it.
- Put your key cards in the front slots, where they are drawn most and break last.
- Each level has one RESTART. After the tutorial, a crash wipes your run back to level 2.
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- Plays in the browser. Click the game once to turn on sound.
- Best at 1280x720 or fullscreen.
- If something breaks, a comment with what happened helps a lot.
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- Design & code: [Simon ‘Ralex’ Xia], [Daniel Zhang]
- Art: [Michael Zhang]
- Music: [Andson Luo]
- Fonts: Oxanium (SIL OFL), DejaVu Sans subset for symbols
- Made with Godot 4.7
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BIT ROT
Your old machine is crawling with bugs. You are the debugger: a tiny program dropped onto the board with 4 CPU a turn and 8 slots of memory between you and a crash. Program your deck, read the bugs' next move, and wall them out, zap them, or outrun them to the exit.
Made in 72 hours for *Ludum Dare*.
---
How it works
Firing builds walls. ZAP, GUN and SEAL seal the side of the tile you fire from. Walls block bugs, but they block you too, and they stay for the whole level. The map is whatever you build.
Memory is your health. Your deck lives in 8 memory slots. Every point of damage corrupts a slot, from slot 8 upward. A corrupted card costs +1 CPU. Lose all 8 and the system crashes.
Slot order is a choice. Front slots put more copies in your deck (4 / 4 / 3 / 3 / 2 / 2 / 1 / 1), back slots break first. Where you put a card matters as much as which card you take.
No luck in combat. No crits, no misses. Every bug's move and attack is shown before you end your turn: paths, attack lines and the exact damage coming. Your only randomness is the draw.
Program your own combos. SEQUENCE cards chain up to three different cards, each turned left, right or around.
Kill bugs, upgrade cards. Each kill is worth 1 point, banked when you clear the level. Spend points between levels to upgrade cards. Every upgrade is a one-way choice.
Four levels and a boss. The last level ends with the Moth, in honour of the first actual case of a bug being found (Harvard Mark II, 1947). It marks a whole row and column, and they go off on the next turn.
---
Controls
| Action | Mouse | Keys |
|---|---|---|
| Select a card | Click it | 1 to 5 |
| Aim | Hover a highlighted tile | Arrows / WASD |
| Play | Click the tile again | Same direction again, or Enter |
| Cancel | Right click | x |
| End turn | END TURN | N |
| Discard mode | DISCARD | X(click again to quit) |
| Skip animation | Space / Enter | |
| Restart the tutorial | F2 | |
| CRT filter on/off | F3 |
Hover a bug to see its stats in the INSPECT panel.
---
Tips
- Check Incoming before you end the turn. It is always exact.
- Spiders crawl around walls. Flies fly over them but cannot bite through them.
- ZAP hits through walls: wall a bug off first, then zap it.
- Put your key cards in the front slots, where they are drawn most and break last.
- Each level has one RESTART. After the tutorial, a crash wipes your run back to level 2.
---
Notes
- Plays in the browser. Click the game once to turn on sound.
- Best at 1280x720 or fullscreen.
- If something breaks, a comment with what happened helps a lot.
---
Credits
- Design & code: [Simon ‘Ralex’ Xia], [Daniel Zhang]
- Art: [Michael Zhang]
- Music: [Andson Luo]
- Fonts: Oxanium (SIL OFL), DejaVu Sans subset for symbols
- Made with Godot 4.7
Comments32
Ralex_x20 Oct 2026, 00:22
@david-fiattarone
Thanks for playing and the comments!
As for the COBOL spider, maybe we should give it infinite health lol
Thanks for playing and the comments!
As for the COBOL spider, maybe we should give it infinite health lol
estelgames20 Oct 2026, 01:35
Wow, the game has endless depth. Great fit for the theme! ❤️
nathmate20 Oct 2026, 03:20
Fun game, took me a little bit to figure it out - the tutorial was good but it was a bit too info dumpy, I needed to play through it all to understand. Having "esc" as a control key is a bit confusing in web if you're playing fullscreen, I accidentally discarded a command I wanted once. I suppose it's part of the deckbuilding, but drawing no movement felt a bit bad.
Victor Gusev20 Oct 2026, 03:28
Fun game, but hard to understand at first. I like the arcade-esque style!!
nathmate20 Oct 2026, 04:01
@ralex-x I think for RNG mechanics it's best to give the player tools to mitigate them. And technically there already is that with the deckbuilding, especially with the customisable Sequence cards. You can have those just copy Move if you want to, though of course then there's opportunity cost of those not being attacking\shielding cards. Redraw also addresses the issue (though I think 3 CPU is too expensive for it).
You could also just go orthogonal with the design and have move always be available for 1 CPU, maybe buff the move card to be free? Balance is hard.
You could also just go orthogonal with the design and have move always be available for 1 CPU, maybe buff the move card to be free? Balance is hard.
Tykki1920 Oct 2026, 11:34
What a huge amount of content for so short amount of time. I had some difficulties to understand the sequences so I think I lost some good opportunities in those. Impressive package!
DaveDaveNotGood20 Oct 2026, 12:19
thats actually so good
Ioana20 Oct 2026, 12:28
It's very fun, and surprisingly sophisticated/complete! It was a good challenge, I really enjoyed this game.
Guillaume Cleenewerck20 Oct 2026, 12:42
It's fun, well polished, i had a good time. Continue like this. really good concept.
you can feel the old tech :D
you can feel the old tech :D
Erzhan20 Oct 2026, 13:20
Fun game, but hard to understand at first.
leandre0020 Oct 2026, 14:46
I locked myself in the tutorial because of walls that come from... somewhere ? Anyway great concept, needs a bit more testing I guess.
maxxxMAX20 Oct 2026, 17:45
I really loved how cohesive everything is here! All the elements—the pixel art, 8-bit sound, and computer-based mechanics—fit together perfectly and are executed to a high standard. I don’t usually play games like this, but you’ve done a fantastic job. Well done!
imod20 Oct 2026, 18:23
Nice game! Moth was pretty challenging.
CodeRaurus20 Oct 2026, 20:29
Interesting gameplay. Very information heavy and it wasn't absolutely clear on the levels what effects are in place. It would've been nice to see what each memory did again during the level, actually, to grasp the mechanics.
The music was GREAT, such a banger.
Good work!
The music was GREAT, such a banger.
Good work!
mikoolec20 Oct 2026, 21:07
Very fun, once you get the systems. I dislike the turn limit given hoe easy it is to get stuck with just 5 cards, but it's otherwise very enjoyable.
baziki21 Oct 2026, 00:05
Great game! The chiptune music was really well made. The gameplay was interesting, but definitely a little hard to grasp. I could see it working really well as a longer game that eases into the mechanics more gradually. The visuals were good too, and overall everything was really cohesive. Nice work!
hank_the_tank21 Oct 2026, 00:21
It was really fun, but pretty difficult. Really good music and art too.
Ralex_x21 Oct 2026, 00:38
@davedavenotgood thanks for playing, and hope you have fun!
Ralex_x21 Oct 2026, 00:40
@guillaume-cleenewerck Thanks! We will keep polishing it in the future!
Ralex_x21 Oct 2026, 00:42
@leandre00 Sorry about that problem. The wall comes from the direction of Zap. We will remember to give clearer instructions on each card next time!
Ralex_x21 Oct 2026, 00:48
@coderaurus Thanks for the comment! We will consider a test room or demonstration graphs when cursor hover on the cards in the future updates!
Ralex_x21 Oct 2026, 00:55
@hank-the-tank Thanks for playing and comments! The difficulty and balance is a problem we are facing, and we will try our best to fix it after the jam!
perrarancino21 Oct 2026, 16:07
turning your shots into walls is such a clever twist for a tactics deckbuilder, it makes every move feel like a tradeoff instead of just picking the biggest damage card. using memory slots as health is a really nice touch too, it fits the old machine theme perfectly. did you tune the eight slots specifically to make corruption feel scary but not hopeless? really strong design.
Excellent on the gfx and sfx, and perfect hit on old programming punch cards! To the T with the theme. I'm imagining a late game COBOL spider enemy lol.
Pieced really well together, my friend.