We’ve finally crossed the line. The industry has been threatening us with it for years, and now it’s sitting right here on our hard drives. Codex Mortis isn’t just using an algorithm for a few lazy voice lines or background posters. The whole damn thing is machine-generated. Code, art, music, text. Every single byte. It’s fascinating in a morbid, train-wreck kind of way.
Core Mechanics
- Pre-Mission Setup: Players spend the majority of their time in menus combining skills from five magic schools (Necromancy, Summoning, Blood, Soul, Curses) before a run starts.
- Auto-Battler Combat: Once a level begins, combat is largely automated based on the equipped builds and synergies (e.g., Blood + Necromancy causing explosions).
- Procedural Runs: Players progress through procedurally generated versions of eight specific biomes, including the Sand Tomb and North Pole.
- Local Co-Op: Features a mode to command heroes or play alongside another player locally.
Alexa, make me a game
What do you do in Codex Mortis? Glad you asked.
You sit in a menu.
You staple together a loadout from five magic schools. Maybe you mix Blood Magic with Necromancy to get burning blood explosions. Maybe you throw in some Curses to make the enemies run away before they die. Then you hit start. And you just watch.
Despite the “bullet hell” tag, this is fundamentally an auto-battler. You’re not aiming. You’re barely dodging. You are watching a math equation resolve itself on screen while hundreds of AI-drawn skeletons run headfirst into your procedurally generated meat grinder. Hey, the progression loop functions, technically. It does hit those lizard-brain dopamine receptors when you upgrade your cooldowns and the damage numbers go up. But there is absolutely zero skill expression. Just menu clicks, theory-crafting, and screen wipes across the eight Early Access levels. It’s a spreadsheet with particle effects.
What does a game coded entirely by a chatbot actually play like?
Exactly how you’d fear.
Sure, it’s an Early Access PC release. We expect some jank. But there’s no dedicated human QA team behind the wheel hunting down these memory leaks. The current community consensus on the forums is a mix of morbid curiosity and intense frustration over broken local co-op syncing. You are paying real money to beta test a robot’s homework.
Are you actually willing to pay real money for an Early Access game where a human couldn’t even be bothered to write the code? If so, well, we hope you get something out of it. We didn’t.
ID Card
- Developer/Publisher: GROLAF
- Engine: CRUNCHFEST
- Platforms: PC (Early Access)
- Release Date: Currently in Early Access
- Genre: Auto-Battler / Survival Bullet Hell
Dev & Play Media 
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