Building Terminal Games in Rust: Why TUIs Are Making a Comeback

There's something deeply satisfying about building games that run entirely in the terminal. No graphics engines, no complex asset pipelines, no worrying about GPU compatibility—just pure logic, clever text manipulation, and the kind of focused gameplay that made roguelikes legendary. This is the story of why I'm building Warlords, a terminal-based RPG in Rust, and what I've learned about the surprising renaissance of TUI gaming.

Why Terminal Games? Why Now?

In an era of ray-traced graphics and 4K gaming, choosing to build a terminal game might seem like technological masochism. But here's the thing: constraints breed creativity. When you can't rely on flashy visuals, you're forced to focus on what actually matters—gameplay mechanics, narrative depth, and systems design.

Terminal games offer unique advantages:

  • Zero barrier to entry: If you have a terminal, you can play
  • Incredible performance: No GPU required, runs on anything
  • Perfect for remote play: SSH into any server and game away
  • Accessibility: Screen readers work seamlessly with text-based interfaces
  • Focus on mechanics: Without visual distractions, gameplay must be truly engaging

Plus, there's a certain aesthetic appeal to the chunky, retro look of terminal graphics that's impossible to replicate in traditional game engines.

Enter Warlords: A Terminal RPG Experiment

Warlords started as an experiment in translating the "Forge: Out of Chaos" tabletop RPG system into a digital, terminal-based experience. The goal was ambitious: create a full-featured RPG with turn-based combat, magic systems, procedural dungeons, and character progression—all running in your terminal.

The technical challenge immediately became clear: how do you create engaging, interactive experiences using only text and ANSI escape codes?

The Rust Advantage for TUI Development

Rust turned out to be the perfect language for this project, and here's why:

Memory Safety Without Garbage Collection

Games need predictable performance, especially when dealing with real-time input in a terminal environment. Rust's ownership system means no garbage collection pauses, which is crucial when you're managing game state updates and terminal redraws.

Excellent Crate Ecosystem

The Rust ecosystem for TUI development is surprisingly mature:

  • crossterm: Cross-platform terminal manipulation
  • tui-rs (now ratatui): High-level TUI framework
  • termion: Low-level terminal control
  • colored: Easy terminal color manipulation

Pattern Matching for Game Logic

Rust's pattern matching is perfect for game state management:

match player_action {
    Action::Move(direction) => handle_movement(direction),
    Action::Attack(target) => resolve_combat(target),
    Action::Cast(spell) => process_magic(spell),
    Action::Quit => save_and_exit(),
}

This makes complex game logic readable and maintainable in ways that other languages struggle with.

Technical Challenges and Solutions

Challenge 1: State Management

Managing game state in a terminal environment is trickier than it appears. You need to track:

  • Player position and stats
  • Enemy locations and AI states
  • Dungeon layouts and discovered areas
  • Combat sequences and turn order
  • UI state and active menus

Solution: Rust's type system shines here. Creating strongly-typed enums for game states prevents entire classes of bugs:

#[derive(Debug, Clone)]
enum GameState {
    MainMenu,
    CharacterCreation,
    Exploration { dungeon_level: u32 },
    Combat { participants: Vec<Entity> },
    Inventory,
    GameOver { reason: DeathCause },
}

Challenge 2: Real-time Input in Turn-based Games

Terminal input is typically line-buffered, but games need immediate key response. How do you handle real-time input while maintaining turn-based logic?

Solution: Using crossterm's event system to capture raw key events:

use crossterm::event::{self, Event, KeyCode};

fn handle_input() -> Result<PlayerAction, GameError> {
    if event::poll(Duration::from_millis(100))? {
        if let Event::Key(key_event) = event::read()? {
            match key_event.code {
                KeyCode::Char('w') => Ok(PlayerAction::Move(Direction::North)),
                KeyCode::Char('a') => Ok(PlayerAction::Move(Direction::West)),
                KeyCode::Char(' ') => Ok(PlayerAction::Wait),
                _ => Ok(PlayerAction::NoAction),
            }
        } else {
            Ok(PlayerAction::NoAction)
        }
    } else {
        Ok(PlayerAction::NoAction)
    }
}

Challenge 3: Procedural Content Generation

Creating interesting, varied dungeons without visual assets means relying entirely on algorithmic generation. ASCII art can only take you so far.

Solution: Focus on mechanical variety rather than visual complexity. Generate dungeons based on gameplay patterns:

struct DungeonGenerator {
    width: usize,
    height: usize,
    room_count: usize,
    difficulty: u32,
}

impl DungeonGenerator {
    fn generate(&self) -> Dungeon {
        // Start with cellular automata for natural cave-like structures
        let mut map = self.generate_base_layout();
        
        // Add rooms using maze algorithms
        map = self.carve_rooms(map);
        
        // Place encounters based on distance from start
        map = self.populate_encounters(map);
        
        map
    }
}

The Aesthetic Challenge: Making ASCII Beautiful

One of the most underestimated aspects of terminal game development is creating visual appeal using only text characters. Modern terminals support:

  • 256-color palettes
  • True color (24-bit) in many cases
  • Unicode box-drawing characters
  • Various text styling options

The trick is using these capabilities tastefully. Here's what I learned:

Color Psychology in Terminal Games

Colors carry meaning in terminal interfaces. Users expect:

  • Red for health/danger
  • Blue for magic/mana
  • Green for success/healing
  • Yellow for warnings/attention

Respecting these conventions makes your game immediately more intuitive.

Box Drawing Characters Are Your Friend

Unicode provides an extensive set of box-drawing characters:

┌─────────┐
│ Player  │
│ HP: ███ │
│ MP: ▓▓░ │
└─────────┘

These can create surprisingly sophisticated UI elements that feel modern despite being pure text.

Performance Considerations

Terminal games have unique performance characteristics:

Redraw Optimization

Unlike graphics engines that manage dirty rectangles automatically, terminal games need manual optimization. Redrawing the entire screen every frame is expensive:

// Bad: Redraws everything
fn render_slow(game_state: &GameState) {
    clear_screen();
    draw_map(&game_state.dungeon);
    draw_ui(&game_state.player);
    draw_messages(&game_state.log);
}

// Good: Only updates what changed
fn render_fast(game_state: &GameState, previous_state: &GameState) {
    if game_state.player.position != previous_state.player.position {
        redraw_map_section(&game_state.dungeon, game_state.player.position);
    }
    
    if game_state.player.health != previous_state.player.health {
        update_health_display(&game_state.player);
    }
}

Memory Usage

Rust's zero-cost abstractions mean you can write expressive code without runtime overhead. This is particularly important in terminal games where you might be tracking hundreds of entities in memory.

The Future of Terminal Gaming

Building Warlords has convinced me that terminal games aren't just nostalgia—they're a legitimate platform for innovative game design. The constraints force you to focus on what makes games actually fun: interesting decisions, compelling mechanics, and engaging systems.

Modern improvements make terminal gaming more viable than ever:

  • Better Unicode support across platforms
  • True color terminals becoming standard
  • Improved font rendering with programming ligatures
  • Cross-platform terminal libraries like crossterm

Getting Started: Your First Terminal Game

If you're inspired to try terminal game development, start simple:

  1. Choose your stack: Rust + crossterm/ratatui is excellent, but Python + rich or Go + termbox work too
  2. Start with a simple game: Tic-tac-toe, snake, or a basic roguelike
  3. Focus on input handling: Get comfortable with raw terminal input
  4. Master terminal capabilities: Learn colors, positioning, and Unicode characters
  5. Plan your rendering: Think about what needs to update when

Conclusion

Terminal games represent a fascinating intersection of constraints and creativity. They prove that engaging gameplay doesn't require cutting-edge graphics—just thoughtful design and solid engineering.

Warlords is still in early development, but it's already taught me more about game design, systems programming, and user interface principles than any graphics-based project I've worked on. There's something pure about terminal development that strips away the noise and forces you to focus on what really matters.

Whether you're a seasoned game developer looking for a new challenge or a systems programmer curious about interactive applications, I highly recommend exploring the world of terminal game development. The barrier to entry is low, the constraints are liberating, and the results can be surprisingly engaging.

Plus, your games will run on literally any computer with a terminal—and in our cloud-first world, that's becoming more valuable every day.

Want to explore Warlords yourself? Check out the GitHub repository and follow along as we build a complete RPG system in the terminal.