rustnake 1.2.1

Terminal Snake game in Rust with localization, multiple difficulties, and config migration support
rustnake-1.2.1 is not a library.

Quick Start

Latest release (fastest, Linux x86_64)

curl -fL https://github.com/MiguelRegueiro/rustnake/releases/latest/download/rustnake -o rustnake
chmod +x rustnake
./rustnake

Verified target: Linux x86_64.

Update to the newest release

curl -fL https://github.com/MiguelRegueiro/rustnake/releases/latest/download/rustnake -o rustnake
chmod +x rustnake

Check latest published tag

curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/MiguelRegueiro/rustnake/releases/latest | grep -m1 '"tag_name"'

Build from source

Prerequisite: Rust stable toolchain (rustup, cargo).

git clone https://github.com/MiguelRegueiro/rustnake.git
cd rustnake
cargo run --release

Local launcher script

./run.sh           # release mode (default)
./run.sh --dev     # debug/dev mode
./run.sh --help

Gameplay

Features

  • Nokia-style wrap movement (no wall death).
  • Four difficulties with distinct base tick rates (Easy, Medium, Hard, Extreme).
  • Power-ups that affect speed, score, and snake size.
  • Dynamic pace scaling as score increases.
  • Per-difficulty high-score tracking.
  • Localized UI (en, es, ja, pt, zh) with persistent language setting.
  • Centered playfield and HUD with live terminal resize handling.

Controls

Action Key
Move WASD or Arrow Keys
Pause P
Mute M
Back to Menu SPACE
Quit Q
  • Number keys (1-6) select visible menu options, depending on menu length.
  • ENTER or SPACE confirms menu selection.

Difficulty Tick Rates

Difficulty Horizontal Tick Vertical Tick
Easy 150ms 300ms
Medium 100ms 200ms
Hard 60ms 120ms
Extreme 35ms 70ms

Scoring and Power-Ups

  • Basic food (●): +10
  • Milestone marker (★): shown at score multiples of 50
  • Speed Boost (>): temporary faster movement
  • Slow Down (<): temporary slower movement
  • Bonus ($): instant +50
  • Grow (+): adds 2 segments
  • Shrink (-): removes up to 2 segments (minimum length preserved)

Engineering Highlights

  • Deterministic tick scheduling with direction-aware tick-rate selection.
  • Bounded 2-step input queue for responsive turns without illegal reversals.
  • Incremental redraw via dirty-position tracking to reduce unnecessary terminal writes.
  • Persistence via serde + toml for per-difficulty best scores.
  • Config migration pipeline for backward-compatible ~/.rustnake.toml upgrades.
  • Unit tests covering movement, collisions, speed effects, and score behavior.
Path Responsibility
src/core/ State, movement, collisions, scoring, power-ups
src/i18n/ Localization strings and UI text width helpers
src/input/ Keyboard and resize events
src/render/ Terminal drawing and HUD
src/layout/ Centering and terminal-size validation
src/storage/ High-score persistence
src/utils/ Shared enums, constants, and types

Proof of Quality

cargo fmt
cargo check
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features
cargo test

Config and high scores are persisted in:

  • ~/.rustnake.toml
  • Fallback: ./.rustnake.toml if HOME is unavailable

Troubleshooting

  • Terminal too small: resize until the warning clears (minimum is at least 40x25, and width can be higher for some languages).
  • Visual artifacts after resize: resize once more to force full redraw.
  • No bell sound: your terminal may have bell notifications disabled.

Changelog

License

MIT. See LICENSE.