A game of learning your homelab into a cyberpunk mystery adventure

From the author on r/selfhosted: Ever set up a bunch of services, then completely forget how your network is configured a month later? I got tired of boring documentation - cause I didn't do it, and I built Network Chronicles - a "game" that turns exploring your infrastructure into solving the mystery of a missing sysadmin. The rest of this I summarized with the bot from my game:

The game hooks into your shell and turns normal Linux commands into game actions:

    Run ip route → "You've discovered the network gateway! +25 XP"

    Check log files → Find cryptic messages from the missing admin

    Run nmap on your network → Unlock a new area in the mystery

As you explore, the game builds documentation of your setup while advancing the story. Everything is represented with retro terminal UI - no graphics, just ASCII art and styled text.

What it looks like in practice:

    You get mysterious messages from "The Architect" (the missing admin)

    Your shell prompt shows your level and current quest

    Running normal commands sometimes triggers discoveries

    An in-game journal records everything you learn

    Challenge scripts create puzzles that teach Linux skills

The core idea: What if documenting your homelab felt like playing Hacknet or Uplink instead of writing a technical manual?

The real magic: It actually integrates with your REAL infrastructure. If you have services on specific ports, the game will incorporate them into the story and challenges.

This is a personal project I've been working on - not publicly available yet, mostly due to hardware constraints on running multiple models simultaneously; but I'd love to know: Would something like this motivate you to better understand and document your setup? What features would make it valuable to you?

EDIT/UPDATE: How do I stress that this is way way under-developed and in development and not advisable for you to install just yet? I guess the best way is to provide a link. https://github.com/Fimeg/NetworkChronicles

This is CONCEPT. Its what I always wanted my tech to do. It's hardly feature complete - at best alpha 0.0.4 To gain a FULL understanding of what this might be - see the premise file: https://github.com/Fimeg/NetworkChronicles/blob/main/premise...

A game shouldn't be published without a screenshot, especially something I need to build/run on my machine.

I love this idea... please keep this going!

Missing screenshots: https://github.com/Fimeg/NetworkChronicles/tree/main/docs/pi...

For anyone wanting to avoid this mystery, putting the game aside, I highly recommend NixOS. It has its quirks, but the declarative configuration basically forces you to document each system, circumventing many of the issues satirised (?) with this game.

It still gets complicated if you have many interconnected devices to manage of course, but at least it limits the obscurity of the most complex devices in your network.

I'm open to alternatives though, if anyone has some to share.