A cel-shaded, isometric action-RPG that runs entirely in your browser — an unofficial, non-commercial fan game inspired by Dungeon Crawler Carl.
The surface is no longer heated. Eighteen floors down or freeze to death up here — hell of a menu. You woke up in your boxers holding a very angry cat, the city folded flat in a single frame, and the Borant Corporation has kindly reminded you that everything from this point forward is content.
Grab the cat. Get to the stairs. Try to make it entertaining.
▶ bharatsankar.com/DCC — playable in your browser, nothing to install.
No build step, no dependencies — it's a static site.
# clone, then from the repo root:
python3 -m http.server 8300
# ...or: ./serve.shOpen http://localhost:8300 and click BEGIN THE BROADCAST.
Prefer to skip the cold open during testing? Add
?sandbox=1to drop straight into the dungeon.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Move Carl |
| Shift (hold) | Run |
| W / E / R / T | Abilities |
| H | Inventory |
| Enter | Advance the broadcast |
| Esc | Skip the cutscene |
Princess Donut follows on her own four feet. Try to keep her impressed.
- Engine: PlayCanvas (WebGL), hand-rolled cel-shading, isometric camera
- Feel: Hades-style motion-comic cold open → in-engine ARPG, the System narrating your every mistake
- Scope: Episode 1 — Book 1, the first descent (a vertical slice)
Want to build something like this? GUIDE.md names the seven patterns that made a browser ARPG buildable by a tiny team — stable-id authoring, the audio conductor, scripted set pieces, headless verification — and points at the exact files where each one lives. No tutorials, no hand-holding: working code you can read, and the reasons it's shaped this way.
This game stands on a lot of generous shoulders — CC0 kits, CC-BY audio, and original art. Full attributions in CREDITS.md.
Bharat — design, direction, art, code, and far too many iterations on a cat's walk cycle. 🔗 linkedin.com/in/mpbharat
Built with a little help from a few AI collaborators who each thought they were named after Harry Potter characters.
The Crawl is an unofficial, non-commercial fan project made out of love for Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl. All rights to the world, characters, and story of Dungeon Crawler Carl belong to Matt Dinniman. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the author or publisher. If you haven't read the books — go read the books. They're better than this. See LICENSE.