AFK: Army For Keyboard — An Idle RPG That Lives in Your Taskbar

AFK: Army For Keyboard is a desktop game prototype we are building as an in-house R&D project at Lumethis. Your hero army fights automatically in a thin, frameless strip that sits just above the real Windows taskbar; the empty areas of the strip are click-through, so you can keep using your desktop normally while the game runs. You manage the gear, the skill tree, the runes and the "Cube" crafting station to shape your strategy.

This project is currently in active development. The core systems are working; the next major step on the roadmap is PvP and content expansion.

Highlights:

• No framework, our own engine: an original game engine written from scratch in plain vanilla JavaScript (ES modules); combat, UI and effects are all generated in code
• 6 hero classes — each with its own base stats and an 8-tier skill tree (passive + active abilities)
• Deep progression: 3 acts × 10 stages × 4 difficulties (120 stages), 20 gear types and 10 rarity grades, an 8-operation "Cube" crafting system, a rune tree, pets and achievements
• Layered combat model: critical hits, elemental damage, a multi-step damage-mitigation pipeline (dodge → block → resist → armor → reduction → absorption) and 6 status effects
• Idle economy: offline rewards that accumulate for up to 8 hours, automatic saving (localStorage) and save export/import
• Windows desktop aesthetic: packaged as a portable, install-free .exe (Electron); hide/show and quit from the system tray

The battle on the taskbar is drawn in real time with pixel sprites generated in code (canvas). Technically, this project is a showcase of our team's breadth in game and desktop-application engineering, performant real-time rendering and complex systems design.

Curious, or imagining a similar desktop/game project? Get in touch with us.

Note: This is a non-commercial, fan-made prototype; the game engine and all game systems were written from scratch in original code.