Rawbugs

A Linux-native robot programming sandbox inspired by Brad Heide's 1992 Robugs. Wire logic gates into miniature fighting machines, build arenas, and watch emergent battles, foraging, and reproduction. No fixed score—just design, simulate, and save your own circuits.

Developer

Vido

Shimpinomori.NET Games

Released

21 Jul 2026

This year

Design circuits. Build worlds. Watch what happens.

Rawbugs is a freeware homage to Robugs (1992) by Brad Heide — an Atari ST classic where tiny robots fight for survival using hand-wired logic, not scripts. You place gates, radars, thrusters, and guns on a grid, connect them together, save your design, drop robots into an arena you sculpted, and press play. Populations rise, starve, shoot, and reproduce. There is no campaign and no score — the game is the experiment.

What you can do

Circuit Editor — design robot brains from logic components; in-game help on every part
Arena Editor — paint walls and food, place teams, lone wolves, and racial species; tune death modes and optional exhaust damage
Live simulation — pause, track a single robot, restart, or edit a circuit while the arena still runs
Stock library — dozens of classic 1992 robots and playfields plus new Rawbugs examples (Bio3, Truce, Exhaust, Gangsta, and more)

Custom saves — your own .RB and .PF files; sync across PC and Steam Deck via Steam Cloud

Linux and Steam Deck

Rawbugs is built for Linux and SteamOS (native, no Proton). Keyboard and mouse (or trackpad on the Steam Deck). Fullscreen from the in-game menu or launch options. Player manual inside the game (Credits → Player Manual) if needed.