Wownerogue
A provably-fair roguelike, synced to the blockchain.
Wownerogue is a multiplayer dungeon-crawler that runs entirely in your browser. Every round is provably fair and synced to Monero or Wownero block times: you have until the next block to escape the dungeon, avoid the monster, and grab the treasure. Random block timing means your deadline is never the same twice.
Two Worlds
play.wowne.ro →
The Wownero mainnet instance: free to play, with paid entry for the Hall of Champions. No crypto payouts, all the tension. The friendly place to learn the game.
monerogue.app →
The Monero stagenet instance, where escaping pays out stagenet XMR from a house wallet. Stagenet coins have no real value, so it is a safe sandbox for the full payout loop.
How a Run Works
1. Queue
Join the queue. Your run starts when the next block lands.
2. Escape
Move with WASD or arrow keys. Reach the exit before the next block, or the monster, ends your run.
3. Grab the bag
Collecting the treasure bag is optional but pays a higher multiplier on escape.
4. Verify
After the run, the seed is revealed. Check it against the pre-game commitment on the verification page.
Features
Provably Fair
Each round commits to a SHA-256 hash before you play and reveals the seed after. That seed deterministically generates the entire dungeon, so you can verify nothing was changed once the round began.
Synced to Block Time
Rounds start and end on new Monero or Wownero blocks. Because block timing is random, your escape deadline is genuinely unpredictable: that is the whole game.
Live Spectating
Watch any in-progress run in real time from the lobby, with a global feed announcing escapes as they happen.
Two Leaderboards
Free runs feed the Pleb board; paid runs feed the Hall of Champions. Rankings are time-windowed (day, week, all-time).
On-Chain Payouts
On the payout instance, escaping pays out real funds from a house wallet over wallet-RPC, batched and verified against the chain.
Open Source
The full server and client are MIT-licensed and public. Read exactly how the fairness, payments, and payouts work.
How “Provably Fair” Works
Before your run begins, the server publishes a SHA-256 hash, the commitment, of a secret random seed. You can record it. When the run ends, the server reveals the seed itself. Anyone can hash the revealed seed and confirm it matches the commitment they were shown earlier, which proves the seed was fixed before you started moving.
That same seed deterministically generates the dungeon layout, the treasure and exit positions, and the monster’s behaviour. Feed the seed back in and you regenerate the exact dungeon you played. There is no way to re-roll a bad board after the fact, and no hidden house edge in the level itself. The verification page does this check for you.
Under the Hood
- Real-time: Node.js and Socket.io drive game state, chat, and spectating.
- Fairness: SHA-256 commit-reveal with a seeded RNG for deterministic dungeons.
- Payments: Monero and Wownero wallet-RPC for entry payments and batched payouts.
- Storage: PostgreSQL with atomic, idempotent money handling in integer units.
- Open source: MIT-licensed. The whole thing is on GitHub.
FAQ
What is a provably-fair game?
A game whose outcome can be cryptographically verified after the fact. Before your run, the server publishes a SHA-256 commitment of a secret seed; afterward it reveals the seed. You hash the seed and confirm it matches the commitment, which proves the dungeon was fixed before you started and not rigged against you.
Is Wownerogue free to play?
Yes. play.wowne.ro is free to play, with optional paid entry for the Hall of Champions leaderboard. The monerogue.app instance runs on Monero stagenet, where coins have no real value.
Do I need a wallet or a download?
No download: it runs in your browser. You only need a Monero or Wownero address if you want to receive a payout on the payout instance.
How does the block-timing deadline work?
Each round ends on a new Monero or Wownero block. Block times are random (roughly two minutes on average), so your deadline to escape is never the same twice. That randomness is the core of the game.
Is Wownerogue open source?
Yes, it is MIT-licensed. The full server and client are public on GitHub at github.com/Such-Software/wownerogue.
Want the build notes? Read the launch write-up for how the fairness, block-timing, and payout logic came together.