Kothba

King of the Hill Battle Arena

Work in progress. Early playable build. More features and modes are on the way.

This is an online free-to-play game, no account required. Hop in and get on the leaderboard. Hold the green center when rivals are online, fight players and monsters.

Points

+100 player kill
+1 goblin kill · +2 golem kill
+1/sec alone in the green zone when 2+ players are online (none if contested or you're the only player on the server)

Controls

WASD move (click the game after you join)
Shift sprint (uses stamina)
1 sword, 2 bow
Left-click or hold Space to attack (Space helps on laptop trackpads while moving). PvP is on.
Walk over pickups to collect them (loot despawns after 10 seconds)

Loot

Red orbs restore health
Golems always drop one health orb
Goblins sometimes drop health or arrows (10–30 per drop)

Colors

Blue: players

Green circle: score zone

Green: goblins · Brown: golems

Red orb: health

Yellow: arrows

You start with no arrows — loot them from goblins. Leaderboard ranks by points only.

Tech stack

Core technologies behind Kothba — browser MMO, server-authoritative.

Client

PixiJS v8 — WebGL2 rendering, VFX, entity sprites
client_sim WASM — prediction, interpolation, pose projection, wire codec
JavaScript + esbuild bundle
HTML/CSS HUD overlays (leaderboard, combat log, loadout, stamina)
Client-side prediction + server reconciliation; display inertia for smooth motion

Server

Rust — Axum HTTP + WebSocket
Tokio async runtime
60 Hz authoritative game loop
Area-of-interest snapshots + delta compression

Simulation & wire

Shared Rust crate — Bevy ECS simulation (server-side)
Deterministic fixed-point math (lockstep-safe)
Binary protocol over WebSocket

Data & build

PostgreSQL + SQLx (persistence)
RON data files (monsters, items, zones)
Cargo workspace + esbuild + wasm-bindgen (client_sim)

What's new in v0.0.7

Fighting smarter — block with your buckler, read monster tells, swap loadouts, and run a bow with a quiver instead of bottomless bag ammo.

Shield guard

Hold RMB with buckler equipped to block frontal melee.
Blocked hits drain stamina, not HP — gray flash and stamina shake, not the red hurt flash.
Guard and sprint share stamina. When exhausted, guard drops so you can recover and fight again.

Monster tells

Goblins telegraph a scratch before they hit.
Golems show a ground slam ring before impact — slower and easier to dodge.
Combat log names attacks: scratch, slam, sword, bow.

Loadouts & inventory

1 = sword + buckler · 2 = bow + quiver. Short equip time; Esc cancels.
Bottom bar shows four hand slots (main + off per loadout). Two-handed weapons will fill both slots when added.
Drag-and-drop bag grid, equipment panel, load arrows via the Ammo slot (I).

Bow & quiver

Bow is one-handed — quiver required in off-hand to shoot.
Pick up arrows in your bag; drag to the equipment Ammo slot to load (20 capacity).
Drag loaded ammo back to your bag to unload. Count shows on the quiver in your loadout bar.

What we're working on next

Update 7 sets up deeper combat and inventory. Our priorities right now:

Ranged feel — arrows that should hit moving targets at range, landing where monsters actually are.
More combat — abilities, two-handed weapons (hammer-style), block/guard polish.
Inventory & economy — bigger bags, meaningful loot, crafting, and market on this grid.
Polish — quiver/loadout edge cases, item art, client/server sync.

Thank you for testing — report anything that still feels off. Live updates continue until v1.0.0.

Disconnected

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Kothba

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Client build 1783038185