Bushudo: The Way of the Radical is a single-player island-survival game designed for the iPad. Though dehydration, starvation, and denizen attacks can lead to your character’s premature and permanent death, each game creates a new island to enjoy. And unlike most role-playing games, Bushudo eliminates levels and the corresponding grind to gain experience points. Bugs are likely prevalent in this version; email me if you find one, and I’ll be grateful.

Controls

• Tap to move; you’ll attack other creatures if you bump into them.
• Additional commands are on the right. Look (見) is the most important initially and can be used on other commands.
• Advance the message log by clicking on it.
• Combat feedback lets you know (1) which thing you hit (a creature or item), and (2) the damage done, if any.
• The Move... (運), Use... (用) and Inventory... (手) commands act like tabs, changing the actions available below them.
• Note that your field of view changes as you move.
• There’s no way to turn off music or sound effects currently. Or save.

Known Issues

• Sleeping currently takes a long while.

About

Bushudo was developed as part of my masters work under Kurt Squire to support players with learning the meaning of the radicals as used in written Japanese. That, and I’m not aware of existing Roguelikes using kanji to represent the whole game world. If things go well, I’ll push towards implementing the 2,136 Joyo kanji in its next incarnation.

Bushudo is being developed for the iPad, which may explain some of the controls.

Change Log (including spoilers)

2012 January 1 Dev 3.2 (osx • win)

• The I/ITSEC build; see the press release.
• Reduced sleep time further.
• Drinking fresh water should properly reduce thirst.

2011 November 21 Dev 3.1 (osx • win)

• Fixed bug where creatures wouldn’t eat or drink.
• Reduced sleep time (though it’s still long).

2011 November 8 Dev 3 (osx • win)

• Added smooth scrolling to movement.
• Removed a bug where terrain flashed on the first frame.
• Disabled rotation bars from appearing on iOS.
• Changed selection sounds.
• The island is now more island-like.
• Weather changes now hide the time, not the biome.
• Redid the user interface panel.
• Added anti-aliasing.
• Sleeping now substantially increases hunger and thirst.
• Increased spawn rates.
• Fixed a bug with deleted creatures that halted the game.
• Can now restart game after dying or winning.
• Slowed healing rate substantially.
• Can now give objects to most creatures.
• Added salty and non-salty properties.
• Disturbed sleep should now indicate why.
• Added finishing off.
• Most objects can now be attacked and finished off.
• Increased spawn rate as days increase.
• Increased hunger and thirst rates.
• The player’s kanji changes when in selection mode.
• Lengthened 赤とんぼ slightly.
• Replaced shoreline with sand.

2011 Sept 27 Dev 2 (osx • win)

• 2011 SGS Challenge release.
• Player now hungers & thirsts.
• Creatures thirst.
• Creatures now re-search for homes when their current one is destroyed.
• Added eating and drinking.
• Nightfall results in black radicals.
• Added sleeping and fatigue.
• Attacking nothing results in feedback.
• Attacks can now be blocked by terrain.
• Can now strike terrain.
• Extra action critical now works.
• Added initial character creation.

2011 Sept 18 Dev 1 (osx)

• 2011 AARP release.

Credits

Hanazono font by Koichi Kamichi & GlyphWiki.
Kenyan Coffee Regular font by Ray Larabie.
Yukinisuzume Shamisen samples and Schism Tracker were used for music.
The Japanese songs 赤とんぼ and 荒城の月 comprise the soundtrack.
CFXR was used for sound effects.

Special thanks to Yoonsin Oh, Tim Cartwright, and Ted Lauterbach for their critical feedback. Additional thanks to Michael Beall, Luke Kane, and Nathan Patterson.