Shamanic Mountain Guardian (Shamogu)

Shamogu is a coffee-break roguelike game with a focus on tactical movement and careful timing of totemic spirit invocation and comestible consumption. Visibility and noise stealth mechanics also play an important role. See the Features section below for a more comprehensive description, or jump into Play section to install the game.

“All life in your mountain is being corrupted. Beasts are losing their mind and becoming aggressive. These disturbing events started to happen after a dungeon portal suddenly appeared at the top of the mountain. As the guardian, you decide to explore that dungeon in order to find and destroy the source of corruption… You hope luck will be on your side!”

Play

• Play last release in the browser: here or on itch.io.
• Codeberg repository to install from development sources (terminal, SDL2, or wasm).
• Changelog: release and current development notes.

Features (v1.5.0 2026-03-30)

• Short runs (around half an hour).
• 9 levels deep dungeon, 3 distinct map generators, 29 monsters including various guardians and wandering uniques, 5 primary spirits and 7 secondary ones, 4 magic menhirs, 5 runic traps, and 7 comestibles.
• Optional advanced content through expansion and challenge mods, including 2 new primary spirits and 7 secondary ones.
• Both graphical tiles (web or SDL) and terminal ASCII versions. Animations. Simple controls. Mouse-friendly compact 80x24 layout. Automatic recording for later replay!
• Find totems to choose and upgrade spirits with both passive and active abilities.
• Comestibles all have more than a single effect!
• Fun interactions between the various status effects.
• Varied attack patterns depending on chosen primary spirit.
• Many monsters with ranged attack patterns.
• Visibility and noise stealth mechanics. Monster footsteps can be heard.
• Flammable dense foliage.
• Limited healing through comestibles and magic portals.
• Ergonomic targeting based on the player’s current direction.

If you’re curious about the game’s design and influences, you can read the “Shamogu: design ramblings” article. There is also a game manual that replicates most of the in-game help and includes bonus detailed lists of the various comestibles, menhirs, runes, spirits and monsters.

Credits

Various ideas, in particular stealth-related ones, were inspired from my previous games Boohu and Harmonist. While most of Shamogu’s flavor is simple and, unlike Harmonist’s, not based on any specific material, explosive nadres and gawalt monkeys are original species from Hareka’s world, where several libre fantasy books’ adventures from the kaosfantasy project take place.

Many gameplay balance and new content ideas were suggested by Marshall on codeberg’s issues, where you’ll find lots of interesting discussions. See also the design ramblings article to learn about various other influences.

Basic Survival Tips

The game manual provides various tips. The most important ones are:

• Recall that Shamogu is a turn-based game and take your time!
• Break line of sight to escape from monsters. Use foliage and rubble.
• Always check your inventory in perilous situations.
• Beware the various ranged attack patterns!

Shamogu’s source code is under the permissive ISC license. Other material is licensed under cc-by or ISC, as you wish. The website does not make use of any cookies.