A complete Zelda-like action-adventure that runs in your browser. No installs, no dependencies — pure HTML5 Canvas + Web Audio, all art and music generated from code.

You are Rua, a fox swordsman. The Gloom Knight has stolen the Verdant Crown, and Embervale's forests are withering. Find the Elder, take up the blade, brave the Hollow Ruins, and bring the crown home.

About this project: Embervale is inspired by the classic The Legend of Zelda games (screen-by-screen overworld, sword-and-heart combat, item-gated dungeon design). It was built entirely by an AI model — Claude Fable 5, by Anthropic — as an experiment to test how far AI models can go in designing and shipping a complete game: original pixel art, original chiptune compositions, world design, enemy AI, and a finishable quest, all written as code in a single session. No game assets were used; every sprite, tile, and song is generated from text.

Option A — just open the file:

1. Open the folder where you cloned or downloaded this repository.
2. Double-click index.html. It opens in your default browser and the game starts at the title screen.

Option B — local server (recommended, avoids any browser file restrictions):

1. Open a terminal (PowerShell on Windows, Terminal on macOS/Linux).
2. Go to the folder where you cloned this repository:

   cd path\to\Embervale
   

3. Start a server:

   python -m http.server 8321
   

4. Open your browser and go to: http://localhost:8321

Rua's Meadow — where the journey begins	Brookhollow village
The Elder's blade	The village shop
A bomb reveals the crypt	Dark halls of the Hollow Ruins
The Royal Slime guards the Fern Bow	The Gloom Knight
Glimmer Shore's healing fairy	The crown returns

• Visit the Elder in the cave west of Brookhollow village — he'll give you a sword.
• Bushes hide gems. Gems buy bombs, arrows, and a heart vessel at the shop.
• The Hollow Ruins lie north of the crossroads: 12 rooms of skeletons, ghosts, shutter-gate ambushes, dark halls (find the Lantern), small keys, the Fern Bow (guarded by the Royal Slime), the Gloom Key, and the Gloom Knight himself — his shield blocks swords, but arrows pierce the gloom.
• Secrets: bombable cracked rock hides treasure caves, a fairy spring heals you, and a full-health sword fires beams.

The game saves automatically (browser localStorage), including where you are — Continue drops you back on the screen you left. Dying costs nothing but pride — your gear stays with you, and enemies drop hearts more generously while you're on your last one.

• js/sprites.js — every sprite is text-encoded pixel art with auto-outlining; the tile atlas is drawn procedurally; a 5×7 bitmap font for dialog and UI (with automatic word-wrap) plus a compact 3×5 font for tight HUD labels.
• js/audio.js — a chiptune tracker (square/triangle/noise channels) playing seven original compositions, plus ~30 synthesized sound effects.
• js/world.js — 20 hand-authored overworld screens, a 12-room dungeon, 6 interiors, NPCs and dialog (validated at boot).
• js/entities.js — player, 7 enemy types, a miniboss and a 2-phase boss, projectiles, particles.
• js/game.js — fixed-timestep loop, screen-scroll transitions, dynamic lighting, HUD with minimap, shop, save system.

tools/shot_server.py is a development helper (captures gameplay screenshots) and is not needed to play.