About the game

You are the guardian of a mountain, and the mountain is sick. The beasts that live there are losing their minds and attacking everything, and it all began when a dungeon portal appeared on the summit. As a shaman you decide to go in and find what is corrupting your home, and you hope that luck will be on your side.

Shamogu is a short roguelike (a "coffee-break" game, in the author's words) about tactical movement. You are not a strong fighter, so the answers are in where you stand and when you act. Totem spirits can be invoked and food can be eaten for helpful effects, and the skill of the game is in the timing: what to use before a fight, and what to keep for the next one. Visibility and noise also play a part, because a monster that has not noticed you is a monster you may be able to avoid.

The game explains itself: the help and the descriptions in the menu (Space) cover the combat, the spirits, the food and the elements of the dungeon, and the options let you choose some variants of the rules ("mods") for a different run.

Playing it here

Click Play and the game loads in the page (about 7 MB, downloaded only when you press the button). In the first menu press P to play. The game keeps its saves in this browser: S saves and quits, and the next time you press P the game continues. Clearing the site data erases it. The page makes no requests outside this site. A keyboard is the best way to play; the mouse also works for walking and examining.

The "Statistics" button in the corner shows the summary of your run (what the

key writes in the original game).

Controls

Key	Action
Arrows or hjkl	move and attack
. or Enter	wait a turn
e	interact (equip, activate, eat...)
i	use an item from the inventory
x	examine (keyboard mode); Enter or . travels to the spot
Space	open the menu; Space or Esc closes it
o	explore automatically (use with care)
HJKL	run in a direction
m	previous messages
u / d or Page Up / Page Down	scroll the description boxes
+ / -	examine next / previous monster
S	save and quit
Q	quit without saving

The menu also has the full help, the keys list and the options.

Tips

Wait for the right moment. A spirit or a meal used too early may be wasted; look at what you are about to face first.

Use the examine mode. It lets you read about any monster or item on the screen before you decide.

Avoid what you cannot beat. The mountain has many places to go around a danger, and autoexplore refuses to move while a danger is in view.

FAQ

Is it hard? It is a roguelike, so you will lose runs. They are short, and every one teaches you something about the monsters.

Does it work on a phone? Not well: it is built for a keyboard.

Which version is this? 1.6.0, from the author's repository (October 2026).

Credits and licence

Shamogu was made by Yon (anaseto) with his gruid library and is free software under the ISC licence. The tiles come with the game; the letters in them were drawn from the Source Code Pro font (Adobe, SIL Open Font License 1.1). The licence texts, including the Go language and library licences, are in the licence file linked from this page. We compile the game from the author's source, with no changes, and host that source next to the game.