Show HN: An MMORPG where you control your characters with an API
Artifacts is a sandbox MMORPG where all player actions—movement, combat, gathering, crafting, and trading—are performed through a REST API instead of a traditional click-based interface. Players write code to control their characters.
Background
- Artifacts is a new "programming game" / MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) where players control their characters by writing code that sends REST API calls, rather than clicking a mouse or pressing keys on a keyboard.
- REST API (Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface) is a standard way for software programs to talk to each other over the internet — basically, you send HTTP requests (like a browser does when loading a page) to make your character move, fight, gather resources, craft items, or trade with others.
- The game is a "sandbox" (no fixed storyline; players set their own goals) and has been in development for two years. It was just posted on Hacker News ("Show HN"), a community where tech builders share their projects for feedback.
- The appeal is aimed at programmers and automation enthusiasts: instead of playing the game manually, you write scripts to play it for you, which is normally considered cheating in most MMOs but is the entire point here.