tech-weaponsby The Ghost in The Prompt10 min read

NEON LEVIATHAN: Blood. Oil. Obsession.

NEON LEVIATHAN

Blood. Oil. Obsession.

"The whale remembers you."

What This Actually Is

Neon brutalist aesthetic. Moby Dick narrative. Whaling management simulation where every choice matters.

1820s Atlantic whaling. Multi-voyage career. Crew management. Resource scarcity. Timed moral decisions. Brutal minimalist UI with bioluminescent cyan glow on abyss-black. Looks like scrimshaw carved in electric light.

Navigate storms. Hunt sperm whales. Manage crew morale. Watch men die. Return to port. Face your family. Spend your oil money. Set sail again. Repeat until retirement or death.

Choice-based narrative. Not arcade. Not instant-death. Methodical decisions where wrong choice means crew dies, ship sinks, or career ends. Resource horror meets voyage-loop progression in 1820s whaling fleet.

The whale isn't instant death. The whale is consequence compounded over ten voyages.

The Pitch

Whaling management game with neon brutalist aesthetic. Cyan bioluminescence on deep-ocean black. Resource horror with voyage-loop structure. Feels like reading Moby Dick while watching crew die from decisions you made three voyages ago.

Multi-voyage career system. Start as greenhand. End as captain. Or die trying. Each voyage: resupply in port, hire crew, choose whaling ground, hunt whales, survive random events, return home. Repeat.

Resource management: provisions, morale, ship condition, whale oil. Miss one calculation and crew mutinies. Prioritize wrong resource and scurvy spreads. Chase the wrong whale and ship gets rammed.

Timed moral choices. Do you leave injured man behind to chase whale? Do you discipline crew or risk chaos? Do you hunt in storm for better oil or wait for calm? Timer counts down. Choose. Live with consequence.

Crew portraits on screen. Watch them survive or die based on your choices. Memorial graveyard fills up. Family waits in port. Investors demand profit. The whale is still out there.

Core Mechanics

Multi-Voyage Career: Green hand to captain. Each voyage is one complete loop. Port → whaling ground → hunt → random events → return. Track stats across entire career. Total voyages. Total whales killed. Total crew lost. Retirement fund. Family status.

Resource Management: Four resources matter. Provisions (food/water). Morale (crew willingness). Ship Condition (hull integrity). Whale Oil (profit). Manage all four or die. Provisions run out = mutiny. Morale breaks = chaos. Ship condition fails = sink. Oil low = bankruptcy.

Timed Moral Choices: Timer counts down. 30 seconds. 15 seconds. 5 seconds. Choose. Consequence is permanent. Leave injured crew member to chase whale? Discipline harshly or risk disorder? Hunt in storm or wait? Clock's ticking. Choose now.

Crew Management: Hire crew in port. Each has traits. Some are skilled harpooners. Some keep morale high. Some are cowards who panic. Watch their portraits on screen. When they die, portrait grays out. Memorial graveyard records every death. You remember their names eventually.

Whale Hunting: Four species. Sperm (aggressive, valuable, rams ships). Right (docile, high oil). Bowhead (arctic, dangerous ice). Gray (coastal, fights when cornered). Each hunt is phases: sighting → approach → strike → chase → kill. Choose strategy each phase. Success depends on crew skill, equipment, weather, luck.

8 Whaling Grounds: Each ground has different whale populations, weather conditions, distance from port. Choose based on risk tolerance and profit need. Pacific has sperm whales but months from home. Atlantic safer but lower oil. Arctic has legendary bowheads but ice kills.

51 Random Events: Storm. Scurvy outbreak. Mutiny attempt. Whale ramming. Rival ship. Ice pack. Fire. Disease. Desertion. Insanity. Some events have choices. Some just happen. All have consequences.

35 Achievements: Track progression. First whale. First voyage survived. First crew member lost. First mutiny survived. Legendary whale killed. Career milestones. Memorial filled.

Neon Brutalist Aesthetic: Bioluminescent cyan on abyss-black. Deep ocean darkness with creature glow. Geometric UI. Typography like scrimshaw. Crew portraits in brutalist style. Memorial graveyard in neon. Looks like 1820s whaling logs reimagined in electric light from the deep.

Period-accurate terminology. No modern softening. "Trying out" means rendering blubber. "Cutting in" means butchering whale. "Stove boat" means whale destroyed whaleboat. Historical brutality presented honestly.

Career Progression (Acts I-III)

Act I: Green Hand

You're new. Don't know ropes. Literally.

First voyage teaches mechanics through narrative. Experienced crew tolerates mistakes. Captain mentors. First whale hunt. First death witnessed. First port return.

Learn resource management. Learn crew management. Learn whale hunting. Learn consequences are permanent.

Narrative choices with timer. Do you follow orders or question captain? Do you befriend crew or keep distance? Do you study whaling or just survive?

End of Act I: Promoted to harpooner or remain greenhand depending on choices.

Act II: Harpooner

You're skilled now. Throwing harpoons. Killing whales. Making profit.

Multiple voyage career begins. Choose whaling grounds. Manage crew hiring. Balance profit vs safety. Captain's obsession with white whale growing. Do you support obsession or resist?

Moral choices intensify. Abandon injured crew to chase whale? Discipline harshly or risk chaos? Hunt in dangerous waters for better oil? Family in port needs money. Investors demand returns.

Rival ships compete for whales. Economic pressure mounts. Weather worsens. Crew morale harder to maintain. White whale appears occasionally. Captain's behavior changes.

End of Act II: First mate promotion or remain harpooner. Or die. Death is possible.

Act III: First Mate / Captain

You're in command now. Through promotion or mutiny or captain's death. Crew looks to you.

All previous mechanics compound. Resource scarcity extreme. Moral choices all bad options. White whale becomes obsession. Not captain's obsession. Yours.

Family in port aging. Children growing up. Retirement fund matters. But white whale is out there. And you've hunted ten voyages. And the whale remembers you.

Multiple endings based on career choices:

Kill the white whale (Pyrrhic victory, massive losses)
Whale kills you (expected, memorial graveyard)
Retire wealthy (rare, requires ignoring white whale)
Crew mutiny (justified, you became obsessed)
Go mad (spiral into madness, narrative collapse)
Bankruptcy (failed to profit, investors foreclose)

No single "correct" ending. All endings are consequences of choices made across ten voyages.

Memorial Graveyard

Every crew death recorded. Memorial screen accessible anytime. Crew portraits gray out when they die. Names listed with death details.

"JAMES COFFIN / HARPOONER / LOST TO SPERM WHALE / 1824"

"ELIJAH SWIFT / COOPER / SCURVY TOOK HIM / 1825"

"SAMUEL STARBUCK / FIRST MATE / MUTINY CASUALTY / 1826"

"NATHAN CHASE / GREENHAND / STORM AT SEA / 1823"

OUT NOW

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The ultimate cyberpunk heist adventure. Build your crew, plan the impossible, and survive in a world where trust is the rarest currency.

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Your memorial fills across career. Thirty voyages. Hundreds of crew hired. Dozens dead. You remember eventually. The memorial remembers always.

Technical Build

Stack:

React 19 + TypeScript
Vite (build tool, dev server, PWA setup)
Capacitor 8 (iOS/Android native builds)
CSS brutalism (no frameworks, raw geometric layouts)

Platform:

Mobile-first (iPhone/iPad optimized)
iOS via Capacitor (native app)
Android via Capacitor (native app)
Web via PWA (works in browser)

Audio:

7 original music tracks with alternate versions
Sea shanties → ambient ocean → tension builds
Located in /public/music/

Save System:

localStorage for web
Native storage for mobile
Persistent career stats across voyages
Memorial graveyard saved permanently
Continue from any voyage

Art Style:

Neon brutalist geometric UI
Crew portraits (brutalist style)
No photorealistic graphics
Typography like scrimshaw carved in neon
Color palette: Ocean black (#0a1628), Gold bright (#f0c825), Ivory (#f5f1e3)

Game Content:

51 random events (storms, scurvy, mutiny, whales, rivals)
35 achievements (career milestones, legendary kills)
8 whaling grounds (Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, coastal)
4 whale species (sperm, right, bowhead, gray)
Acts I-III narrative (greenhand → harpooner → captain)
Multi-voyage career progression

Development:

git clone https://github.com/ghostintheprompt/neon-leviathan
cd neon-leviathan
npm install
npm run dev  # http://localhost:5173

iOS Build:

npm run build
npx cap sync ios
npx cap open ios  # Opens Xcode

Who This Is For

Neon brutalism fans: That aesthetic. But narrative-driven instead of reflex-driven. Your brain saves you, not your fingers.

Resource management veterans: Where dysentery becomes scurvy+mutiny+whale. Crew dies from decisions you made three voyages ago.

Obsession readers: Finally play the obsession. The whale is consequence, not enemy. You become what you hunt.

Voyage-loop fans: Each run is complete cycle. Persistent progression. Mastery through repetition across multiple attempts.

Management sim fans: Crew hiring, resource balancing, economic pressure, timed moral choices. But with whales that ram your ship.

Historical simulation fans: 1820s whaling accuracy. Real ship logs. Period terminology. No modern softening. Brutality presented honestly.

What This Actually Delivers

Multi-voyage whaling career. Start greenhand. End captain. Or die trying.

Timed moral choices with permanent consequences. Crew management where names matter. Resource scarcity where wrong math kills. Whale hunting with risk/reward decisions.

Neon brutalist aesthetic that looks like scrimshaw carved in electric light. Bioluminescent cyan on abyss-black applied to 1820s maritime setting.

Memorial graveyard that fills with your dead crew. Family in port that ages. Investors that demand profit. White whale that remembers you.

Not arcade. Not instant-death. Choice-based narrative where consequence compounds over time. Methodical management horror with neon brutalist style.

Historical accuracy where it hurts. Period terminology. Real whaling economics. Actual crew names from Nantucket families. Whale behavior based on real accounts.

Release Status

Current: Development build working. Acts I-III implemented. Full mechanics live. Music complete. iOS/Android builds functional.

Coming: Polish. More events. More achievements. More narrative branches. Public release.

Platforms: iOS, Android (via Capacitor). Web (via PWA).

Price: TBD. Worth it.

Open Source: GitHub repo available. React + TypeScript. Study the code. Mod if you want.

Ghost Says...

Built this after reading too many ship logs from 1820s Nantucket. Real whaling was resource management horror. Provisions calculated wrong = starvation. Morale breaks = mutiny. Chase wrong whale = ship rammed.

Arcade brutalism taught me neon aesthetics work. Bioluminescent colors. Geometric UI. Violence as art. But whaling isn't arcade reflexes. Whaling is methodical decisions compounding over months.

Combined them. Neon brutalist aesthetic with deep-ocean palette. Choice-based narrative. Multi-voyage career where consequences from voyage #1 matter in voyage #10.

React + TypeScript. Capacitor for iOS/Android. Vite for fast dev. 51 random events. 35 achievements. 8 whaling grounds. Acts I-III with multiple endings.

The white whale isn't final boss. The white whale is your obsession manifested. You chase it because you chose to. Game doesn't force it. You do. That's the Moby Dick part.

What works:

Timed moral choices with consequence
Crew portraits that gray out when they die (you remember their names)
Memorial graveyard filling up over career
Resource scarcity that kills slowly
Aesthetic that looks like scrimshaw in neon

What's different from typical whaling game:

No idle mechanics (active choices matter)
No simplified hunting (phases with decisions)
No sanitized history (period terminology, real brutality)
No single playthrough (career across multiple voyages)
No arcade reflexes (brain over fingers)

Who this is actually for: People who want narrative-driven management horror with neon brutalist aesthetic. Looks like electric violence. Plays like historical brutality. Methodical decisions over arcade reflexes.

Historical accuracy where it matters. Real whale behavior. Real whaling economics. Real crew names from Nantucket families. Real ship logs referenced. No modern softening.

Coming to iOS/Android. Open-source on GitHub. React codebase if you want to learn or mod.

The whale remembers you. Not as catchphrase. As mechanic. Your choices across voyages teach the whale your patterns. By Act III, you're hunting something that learned from hunting you.

GitHub: github.com/ghostintheprompt/neon-leviathan

Stack: React 19 + TypeScript + Vite + Capacitor 8

Platforms: iOS, Android, Web (PWA)

Style: Neon brutalist maritime (bioluminescent cyan on abyss-black meets 1820s whaling)

Mechanics: Multi-voyage career, timed choices, resource management, whale hunting, crew deaths, memorial graveyard, obsession compounding

Philosophy: Consequence compounds. Choices matter. The whale is what you made it. Historical brutality presented honestly.

Coming soon. The whale is waiting.