Rusted Asteroids

A multiplayer TUI (Terminal User Interface) Asteroids game written in Rust. Battle asteroids and other players in a shared arena with power-ups, combos, and progressive waves.

Features

• Multiplayer - Play with friends in a shared game room
• Power-ups - Collect Shield, Rapid Fire, Triple Shot, and Speed Boost
• Combo System - Chain kills for score multipliers (up to 10x)
• Wave System - Progressive difficulty with increasing asteroid counts
• Kill Streaks - Earn bonus points for consecutive player kills
• PvP Combat - Shoot other players for points
• In-game Chat - Communicate with other players

Installation

From Releases

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page:

Platform	File
Linux x86_64	rusted-asteroids-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Linux ARM64	rusted-asteroids-linux-aarch64.tar.gz
macOS Intel	rusted-asteroids-macos-x86_64.tar.gz
macOS Apple Silicon	rusted-asteroids-macos-aarch64.tar.gz
Windows	rusted-asteroids-windows-x86_64.zip

From Source

Requires Rust 1.70 or later.

git clone https://github.com/0xGingi/rusted-asteroids.git
cd rusted-asteroids
cargo build --release

Binaries will be in target/release/.

Quick Start

Join the Public Server

./client

You'll be prompted to enter your name, then connected to the public server.

Host Your Own Server

# Start server (default port 4000)
./server

# In another terminal, connect locally
./client --addr=127.0.0.1:4000

Usage

Client

# Connect to default server with name prompt
./client

# Specify name directly
./client --name=YourName

# Connect to specific server
./client --addr=192.168.1.100:4000 --name=YourName

# Using environment variable
ASTEROIDS_ADDR=192.168.1.100:4000 ./client

Server

# Start on default port (4000)
./server

# Specify address and port
./server --addr=0.0.0.0:4000

# Specify port only
./server --port=4000

# Using environment variable
ASTEROIDS_ADDR=0.0.0.0:4000 ./server

Controls

Key	Action
W / Up Arrow	Move up
S / Down Arrow	Move down
A / Left Arrow	Move left
D / Right Arrow	Move right
W+A, W+D, etc.	Move diagonally (8-way)
Space	Fire
C	Enter chat mode
Esc	Exit chat mode
Enter	Send chat message
Q	Quit game

Gameplay

Scoring

Action	Points
Destroy small asteroid	100 x combo
Destroy medium asteroid	50 x combo
Destroy large asteroid	20 x combo
Kill another player	200
Kill streak bonus (every 3 kills)	+100
Death penalty	-15% of score

Power-ups

Power-ups spawn when asteroids are destroyed (30% chance) and last 8 seconds when collected.

Power-up	Symbol	Color	Effect
Shield	S	Cyan	Invincibility
Rapid Fire	R	Red	60% faster firing
Triple Shot	T	Magenta	Fire 3 bullets at once
Speed Boost	B	Blue	50% faster movement

Combo System

Kill asteroids quickly to build your combo multiplier:

• Kills within 3 seconds increase your combo (max 10x)
• Your score is multiplied by your current combo
• Combo resets after 3 seconds of no kills or on death

Wave System

• Game starts at Wave 1 with 50 asteroids
• When all asteroids are destroyed, a 3-second countdown begins
• Each new wave adds 5 more asteroids (max 100)
• Difficulty increases as waves progress

Respawning

• When you die, there's a 1.5-second respawn delay
• You spawn in a safe location away from asteroids
• 2.5 seconds of spawn invincibility (player blinks)
• Screen border flashes red on death

HUD Elements

The scoreboard shows:

• Current wave and asteroids remaining
• Your score and combo multiplier
• Active power-up effects (S R T B I)
• Kill streak count
• Respawn timer (when dead)
• Leaderboard (top 5 players)

Development

# Run server in development
cargo run -p server

# Run client in development
cargo run -p client -- --name=Dev --addr=127.0.0.1:4000

# Run tests
cargo test

# Build release binaries
cargo build --release

Architecture

rusted-asteroids/
├── shared/     # Common types and protocol (PlayerState, ServerMsg, etc.)
├── server/     # Game server (tick loop, collision, game logic)
├── client/     # TUI client (ratatui, input handling, rendering)
└── .github/    # CI/CD workflows

The game uses a simple TCP protocol with JSON-encoded messages. The server runs at 20 ticks per second and broadcasts game state to all connected clients.