Purge
Clear each cycle before the arena fills with corrupted daemons.
Real capture · 4.0 development build · click to play (14 s, no audio)
KERNEL PANIC
A fast arena shooter built on an Android phone. Survive escalating cycles, stack patches, and outlast the ROOT process.
The loop
Stay alive. Make the build stranger.
KERNEL PANIC is small, direct and replayable. The arena escalates, the patch stack changes the run, and every fifth cycle asks you to survive a ROOT process.
Collect
Pick up memory motes, build Overclock and turn pressure into momentum.
Patch
Shape each run with kernel patches, programs and different rulesets.
Run modes
Same arena. Different rules.
Classic, Weekly and One-HP keep the core loop recognizable while changing how much certainty and forgiveness you get.
Classic
The full escalating endless run.
Weekly
One seed for everyone, with two traits and its own roster rolled from the week.
One-HP
One integrity point. Recovery and death-save options stay out of the pool.
Story
Mount the infection.
Story is a separate set of fixed stages rather than another endless modifier. Each act changes the operating-system fiction, arena treatment and threats.
UNIX
/boot → /var/log → /net → /mem → /quarantine → /kernel
Windows
C:\98 → C:\XP → Win11
macOS
/System → /Applications → /Library/Updates → kernel_task
TempleOS
TempleOS::BOOT → TempleOS::GOD
Current status
Released is not the same as in development.
The public build and the current working tree are tracked separately so the site does not promise files that do not exist yet.
v4.1
Online Weekly verification, ranked history, the release manifest and updater migration. The offline game does not depend on any of them.
In developmentv4.0.0
Offline 4.0: controller and Console interfaces, a touch-native phone layout, a BSD act, more Programs, local replays, and large-text and colour-assist options. This is what the Download page points to.
Currentv3.2.0
The phone gets its own interface, colour assist that was measured, and adjustments you can make mid-run.
Supersededv3.1.0
The macOS act, three rule-changing processes, the weekly and the leaderboard.
Supersededv3.0.0
Run setup, two languages, the Windows act and the diagnostic terminal.
Supersededv2.5.0
The tactical interface pass and the UNIX and TempleOS acts.
SupersededDevelopment
AI is part of how this game is built.
The project uses AI agents extensively for implementation, debugging, reviews, testing, UI/UX audits, planning and documentation. The process is documented directly instead of being hidden behind vague “tooling” language.
How AI is usedCommunity
Feedback has already changed the game.
People close to the project and playtesters have already pushed real changes. The site documents the cases that are actually supported by project history instead of inventing testimonials.
How feedback worksCaptures
The game, not a mockup.
The still images are real captures from the v3.2.0 build. The gameplay video above is a real capture from a 4.0 development build. None of it is concept art.
Public build
Download v4.0.0.
Android arm64 and Linux x86_64; the Windows x86_64 build is experimental. No account, no ads, local saves.
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