Vim Quest

Vim Quest is a browser-based puzzle adventure inspired by Vim Adventures and old-school Zelda structure. You play as a blinking cursor and learn Vim motions by moving through short text-driven rooms.

Current State

• 3 playable levels
• Canvas-based browser game with keyboard-only controls
• Normal, insert, visual, and command-style interactions
• Direct level jump commands for testing and demos

Play Locally

You can open index.html directly, but a local server is more reliable for development.

Install dependencies

corepack enable
corepack pnpm install

Run the Phaser app

corepack pnpm dev

Build for production

corepack pnpm build

Play Online

Live at: https://vim-quest.pages.dev/

Deploy

The site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. To deploy updates:

pnpm deploy

Or manually:

pnpm build
wrangler pages deploy dist

Note

The old single-file prototype has been replaced by the Phaser rewrite. Current development now happens in src/, and the app should be run through Vite.

Controls

Movement

• h move left
• j move down
• k move up
• l move right
• w jump to the next word start on the current line
• b jump to the previous word start on the current line
• 0 jump to the start of the current line
• $ jump to the end of the current line

Actions

• x remove a nearby obstacle
• i enter insert mode
• Esc leave insert, visual, or command mode

Level 2 Editing

• dd delete the current line
• yy yank the current line
• p paste below the current line
• u undo the last change

Level 3 Commands

• /word then Enter search forward
• ?word then Enter search backward
• fx then Enter find a character forward on the current line
• Fx then Enter find a character backward on the current line
• v enter visual mode
• :s/old/new then Enter substitute on the current line

Level Jump Commands

• /1 then Enter go to Level 1
• /2 then Enter go to Level 2
• /3 then Enter go to Level 3

Project Files

• index.html Vite entry HTML
• src/ Phaser scenes, game systems, and content
• docs/spec.md product and architecture roadmap
• docs/tasks.md execution board

Roadmap

• Improve puzzle clarity and level scripting
• Make command behavior closer to real Vim
• Add a title screen and better in-game onboarding
• Add tests for room logic and command parsing

Planning Docs

• docs/spec.md product spec and phased roadmap
• docs/tasks.md lightweight execution board