chemaclass/phel-doom

DOOM-lite showcase written in Phel Lang. Terminal raycaster, pure functional state, ANSI render.

v0.3.0 2026-05-24 18:03 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.4
• phel-lang/phel-lang: dev-main
• symfony/console: ^7.3

Requires (Dev)

• symfony/var-dumper: ^7.3

MIT

• functional
• lisp
• game
• phel
• doom
• raycaster

README

DOOM-lite raycaster in your terminal. Pure Phel (Lisp on PHP). 256-color ANSI, procedural levels, FPS combat, ~5ms frame.

Full feature list: docs/features.md.

Quick start

Requires PHP >= 8.4, Composer, 256-color terminal.

git clone [e-mail]:Chemaclass/phel-doom.git
cd phel-doom
make install
make play

composer install / composer play also work.

Controls

Key	Action
w / s / ↑↓	Move forward / back
a / d	Strafe left / right
← / →	Turn left / right
SHIFT / x	Sprint (1.6× speed, drains stamina)
e	About-face (snap 180°)
space	Fire
r	Reload (draws from reserve)
1 / 2 / 3	Switch weapon (pistol / shotgun / chaingun)
m / n	Toggle minimap / sound
p	Pause
h	Info menu (stats, weapons table, controls) — also pauses
ESC	Close help / pause
F3	Debug overlay (fps, pos, perf)
q	Quit

Walk into a door to advance. Walk over pickups:

• ♥ heart — +1 life
• ◆ armor — absorbs one hit (cap 3)
• ammo box — +N to a weapon's reserve. Kill-loot tags a random non-pistol weapon you own (pistol always has a refill path via floor boxes)
• berserk — 20s of ×2 damage
• invuln — 10s damage immunity
• backpack — doubles every weapon's reserve cap
• ⚿ keycard — unlocks matching exit on L4 (blue) / L5 (red)

Compass top-centre tints one cardinal letter (E/S/W/N) toward your next target — orange = exit door, blue / red = keycard you still need. Built so you can play in 3D without checking the 2D map.

Weapons (DPS-balanced niches, find on map):

Weapon	Dmg	Cd	Mag	DPS	Tier
pistol	1	0.12s	10	8	L1 start (auto-fire)
shotgun	3	0.6s	4	5	L2 pickup (single-action)
chaingun	1	0.05s	30	20	L3 pickup (auto-fire)

Hold space to spray with the pistol/chaingun. Shotgun needs a fresh pull per shell.

CLI:

• --difficulty=easy|normal|hard|nightmare (-d) — scales enemy speed, HP, count
• --god (-g) or make play-dev — no damage, GOD badge in HUD

Terminal quirks (kitty keyboard, tmux): see docs/input.md.

Docs

Per-subsystem write-ups in docs/:

• features — what the game does
• architecture — module layout + dependency rules
• game-loop — per-frame state transition
• raycaster + rendering — pixels on screen
• monsters + combat — AI, damage, knockback
• level-system + map — progression + procgen
• input + audio + scores
• wad-parser — DOOM .wad reader
• performance — hot-loop optimisations
• contributing — dev workflow + Phel quirks

License

MIT