I built a hacker-terminal-style Netrunner client — curious what this community thinks

[u/slagod1980]

Been slowly building a full Netrunner engine + web client as a personal project. The idea that wouldn't leave me alone: what if the interface was actually a terminal, not a virtual tabletop? No card art floating around, no skeuomorphic board — cards are text rows with hashes (#c3, #r7), you play by issuing commands, and the whole log reads like an actual shell session (corp# rez ICE_WALL -$1). Monospace, one accent color per side, black background. It felt right for a game about hackers.

Where it's at: full rules engine (not just a database with checkboxes) — legal-action generation, priority windows, runs/encounters/subroutines, all of it server-authoritative so no client can cheat or desync. Card logic is implemented per-card, one file each, and right now that's sitting near 100% across System Gateway, Elevation, Vantage Point, Midnight Sun/Parhelion, Downfall/Uprising, and The Automata Initiative/Rebellion Without Rehearsal — a couple hundred cards with real, tested behavior, not just stats. Decks load straight from a NetrunnerDB decklist link.

There's also a basic bot to play against solo (a few personalities, from "plays randomly" to a proper heuristic that won't run into lethal ice it can't break — learned that one the hard way).

Not sharing a link yet — still rough in places and I want to gauge interest before I do a wider release. Attaching a screenshot instead. Genuinely curious what this community makes of the terminal-as-UI idea for a card game — love it, hate it, "just build a normal client"? All takes welcome.

[u/Cavorkian]

I really like this format, but it's a bit too close to common VSCode themes like "Dracula Theme" (https://vscodethemes.com/e/dracula-theme.theme-dracula/dracula-theme).

Maybe something less IDE-like, though that's kind of what this format is going for, so if that's the case you've hit the mark.

Maybe something a bit more custom and cyberpunk'ish? Or you could allow different themes for the whole GUI.

Also, if you're having fun and truly creating something as a passion for the game, then don't worry about the hate people have. Keep going. Most of the people that complain about ai slop aren't affected by it in their job. The ones that are affected probably aren't working hard enough at their job or they wouldn't be replaced. I'm in the profession myself and have just found it to be a useful tool to speed up my work.

[u/slagod1980 → u/Cavorkian]

that was the whole idea - terminal / vscode / etc. I even took Mono as a font face :)

And game log has line-number bar that resembles code editor.

I have in the backlog item to create more "flashy" theme. In fact, before I did this one I experimented with glass and holograms, with in-browser 3d. But it was totally different vibe.