SCADA of Mystery
It's 3:47 AM and the plant has gone silent. A free roguelike in your browser: explore seven zones as the on-call engineer. No sign-up.
SCADA of Mystery is a free, turn-based roguelike set inside a copper concentrator plant that has stopped answering the phone. You are the on-call control systems engineer. Walk in, find out what has taken over the plant's optimisation routine, and get through seven zones with only your wits and your toolkit. It is drawn entirely in ASCII, in industrial amber on black.
How to play
- Move: arrow keys or
WASD. Every step is a turn, and enemies move when you do. Press.to wait a turn. - Act:
Einteracts with whatever is next to you, such as doors and terminals.Gpicks up an item or reads a log fragment.Uuses the selected item, and1to8select an inventory slot. - Panels:
Iinventory,Lthe logs you have collected,Bthe bestiary,?help with the map legend,Esccloses whatever is open. - Touch controls appear on narrow screens, but the game is built for a keyboard and a larger display.
The status bar tracks three things. Stamina is your health, and when it reaches zero the run ends. Signal powers your tools, such as the multimeter and laptop, and recharges near safe zones, marked _ on the map. The Corruption Index is the plant's awareness of you. It climbs every turn and never reaches zero, so it works as a clock. Reading a trend log brings it down by 3.
The plant
The seven zones are the Gate & Yard, Crusher Building, Flotation Circuit, Central Control Room, MCC Room, Historian Server Room and Electrical Substation. Watch for hazards (!) and wet floors (~), take the stairs (>), and read the log fragments (¶) to piece together what happened to the people on shift. The things that live in the plant, from the Runaway PID and Zombie HMI to the Loop Guardian, are written up in the bestiary as you meet them.
It is inspired by ADOM and Brogue, and by what SCADA systems are really like to work on.
Tips
- Rest on safe zones to recover stamina and signal before pushing on.
- Pick up a P&ID scroll if you find one. It reveals the layout of the zone you are in.
- Check your inventory often. Items such as the ATEX torch and the termination resistor change what a zone lets you do.
- Do not dawdle. The Corruption Index only goes one way, so plan a route.
Questions
Is it free? Yes, with no sign-up.
Does it save my run? Yes. The game saves in your browser on this device, and the title screen offers to continue.