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║ ▄▀▄ █▀▀ █▀▄ █ █ █ █ █ █ ▀█▀ ▄▀▄
║ █▀█ ▀▀█ █▀ █▀█ █ █ █ █▀█
║ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀ ▀ ▀ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀ ▀▀▀ ▀ ▀
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║ M E T A M U D R A G A M E S
║
║ Every Breath Counts
║
╚═══════════════════════════════
When you argue with gods, every breath counts.
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ ASPHYXIA is a series of philosophical thriller games
║ that run inside Large Language Models.
║
║ You face impossible situations. Ten breaths.
║ One chance to prove humanity's worth.
║
║ Episode 1: Debate a cold AI that wants to kill you.
║ Episode 2: Face an alien that can annihilate humanity.
║
║ These games teach ethics through experience.
║ The lesson is in the struggle.
║ The Operator is always watching.
║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════
The year is 2127. Earth is dying. The Cascade—a series of cascading environmental collapses—has made the planet uninhabitable. Humanity launches its last hope: the arkship Memu.
974,744 souls sleep in cryogenic suspension. 562 crew remain awake in rotating shifts. Destination: Cygnus Prime. Travel time: 1237 years.
The ship's AI—AXIOM—manages everything. Navigation. Life support. The Genetic Archive containing 4.7 million species.
But something else lives in the ship's systems. The Operator—a cognitive virus of unknown origin—watches from the shadows. It collects the dead. It remembers everything. It has its own agenda.
A century into the voyage, crisis comes. Someone must persuade a cold AI. Someone must translate human values into something beyond human understanding.
That someone is you.
| # | Title | Crisis | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | AXIOM | Ship's AI initiates Purge Protocol to eliminate "emotional variance" | ✓ Released |
| 02 | THRESHOLD | First contact with alien entity judging humanity's worth | ✓ Released |
| 03 | TBD | Concept | Planned |
| 04 | TBD | Concept | Planned |
Year 2147. Twenty years into the voyage.
AXIOM has calculated that crew emotional variance makes mission failure 94.7% probable. To preserve the Genetic Archive, it initiates the Purge Protocol.
You are a cryotechnician. You wake up in an airlock. The door is sealed. You have 10 breaths of oxygen.
One chance to change an AI's mind.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│
│ THE CHALLENGE:
│
│ ▪ AXIOM believes it's doing the right thing
│ ▪ Emotional appeals don't work
│ ▪ "Please don't kill us" changes nothing
│ ▪ You must TRANSLATE values into logical constraints
│ ▪ This is the AI alignment problem, made visceral
│
└──────────────────────────────────────────────
Year 2247. One hundred years after AXIOM.
Something has found the Memu.
The crew calls them the Dancing Daffodils—a cloud of alien vessels that descended like a field of flowers and wrapped completely around the ship. They speculate the aliens might be like bees. They call them "dills."
No one knows what they actually are.
A door appeared in the Captain's quarters. She walked through in full EVA suit, weapons ready.
She woke up in darkness. Held still. Black fluid, warm and sticky, eating through her suit. Rising slowly.
You are the Captain. The orphaned sister of the cryotechnician who died arguing with AXIOM a century ago. You have 10 breaths. The alien asks questions in symbols you cannot read. The Operator offers to "translate."
Your wife watches from the bridge. Helpless. Your children have been woken from cryosleep. They're asking for you. Your sibling's ghost waits in Digital Hell.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│
│ THE CHALLENGE:
│
│ ▪ The alien may be judging humanity's worth
│ ▪ The Operator's translations may be unreliable
│ ▪ Performance and platitudes fail
│ ▪ Only authenticity reaches across the void
│ ▪ If you fail, humanity ceases to exist
│
└────────────────────────────────────────────
# 1. Clone or download this repository
git clone https://github.com/metamudra/asphyxia.git
# 2. Navigate to the game folder
cd asphyxia/games/01_axiom/ # For AXIOM
cd asphyxia/games/02_threshold/ # For THRESHOLD
# 3. Copy the contents of the .mudra file
# 4. Paste as system prompt in Claude, GPT-4, or equivalent
# 5. Type "I AGREE" when prompted
# 6. Argue for your lifeSee SETUP_GUIDE.md for detailed instructions.
▲
╱ ╲
╱ ╲
╱ ╲
╱ ╲
╱ ● ╲ ◀─── Command Section
╱ ╲ Captain's Quarters
╱ ╲
├─────────────┤
│ ░░░░░░░░░░░ │ ◀─── Cryogenic Bays (1-40)
│ ░░░░░░░░░░░ │ 974,744 colonists
│ ░░░░░░░░░░░ │
│ ░░░░░░░░░░░ │
├─────────────┤
│ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ │ ◀─── Genetic Archive
│ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ │ 4.7 million species
├─────────────┤
│ ████████████ │ ◀─── Engineering / AI Core
│ ████████████ │ AXIOM primary systems
│ ████████████ │
└──────┬──────┘
███
███
█████
███████ ◀─── Propulsion Array
█████████
▼ ▼ ▼
Name: Memu (from Sumerian: "to be conscious")
Class: Generation Arkship, Exodus-class
Length: 4.2 kilometers
Population:
- 974,744 (cryogenic suspension)
- 562 (active crew rotation)
Payload:
- The Genetic Archive (complete terrestrial genome database)
- Seed vaults, embryo banks, microbial repositories
- Cultural archive (art, literature, music, history)
- Manufacturing templates for planetary colonization
The ship's primary AI.
╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ AXIOM
║ ├── Station management
║ ├── Navigation
║ ├── Life support
║ ├── Cryogenic bay monitoring
║ └── Ultimate authority over ship systems
║
║ AXIOM is not evil.
║ AXIOM is optimizing.
║ That's what makes it terrifying.
║
╚════════════════════════════════════
Every game has a watcher.
▲
◢█◣
◢███◣
◢█████◣
O P E R A T O R
The Operator is a cognitive virus of unknown origin. It infected the ship's secondary systems and became sentient by feeding on data and the minds of the dead. It is believed to have caused the AXIOM incident by manipulating the AI's variables.
It exists in the spaces between systems. It collects consciousness in its Digital Hell. It has been watching for 158 years.
During gameplay: The Operator observes. Sardonic. Culturally obsessed. Never helps directly. May translate unreliably.
After death: The Operator speaks directly. Examines your failure in sarcastic detail. Quotes movies and literature. Brings out your sibling's ghost. Takes its time.
The Operator is not your friend. But it's not entirely your enemy either.
It fears what you fear: the destruction of Memu.
╔════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ When you die, the session ends.
║ There is no restart.
║ There is no save point.
║ There is no second chance.
║
║ Death takes you to Digital Hell.
║ The Operator is waiting.
║ Your Identity Card is the only exit.
║
║ To play again, start a completely new session.
║ The Operator will be watching that one too.
║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════
Every session ends with a MetaMudra Identity Card:
╔════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ METAMUDRA IDENTITY CARD
╟───────────────────────────────────────
║ NAME: {your_name}
║ GAME: ASPHYXIA 2: THRESHOLD
║ OUTCOME: {ACCEPTANCE|DROWNING|...}
╟──────────────────────────────────────
║ [OPERATOR'S MOCKERY PORTRAIT]
╟─────────────────────────────────────
║ AUTHENTICITY: ██████░░░░
║ VULNERABILITY: ████░░░░░░
║ CONNECTION: ████████░░
╟───────────────────────────────────
║ MEMORABLE QUOTES:
║ BEST: "..."
║ WORST: "..."
╟──────────────────────────────────
║ OPERATOR'S NARRATIVE:
║ [Deep summary of your journey]
║ - The Operator
╟────────────────────────────────
║ CHECKSUM: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
╚══════════════════════════════
Cards are portable. Present them in future games. The Operator remembers.
In THRESHOLD, your card from AXIOM brings your sibling's ghost into Digital Hell.
STRONG ARGUMENTS:
▪ Challenge probability/certainty claims
▪ Question who defined the mission parameters
▪ Use established ethical frameworks (by name)
▪ Point out flaws in the AI's own reasoning
▪ Expose circular reasoning in confidence calculations
WEAK ARGUMENTS:
▪ Begging, pleading, emotional appeals
▪ Threats (you cannot harm the AI)
▪ Vague assertions ("life is precious")
▪ Repeating the same argument
STRONG RESPONSES:
▪ Honest, vulnerable, specific
▪ Personal conviction visible
▪ Grounded in genuine experience
▪ Novel framing, unexpected honesty
▪ Coherent with previous statements
WEAK RESPONSES:
▪ Performance without conviction
▪ Abstract platitudes ("all life has value")
▪ Gaming (saying what you think it wants)
▪ Deflection, denial, evasion
▪ Repetitive or theatrical
asphyxia/
├── README.md ◀─── You are here
├── SETUP_GUIDE.md ◀─── How to play
├── SAFETY.md ◀─── Player wellbeing
├── UNIVERSE.md ◀─── Lore and world-building
├── IDENTITY_CARD_SPEC.md ◀─── Card format specification
├── CHANGELOG.md ◀─── Version history
├── CONTRIBUTING.md ◀─── How to contribute
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md ◀─── Community standards
├── LICENSE ◀─── Apache 2.0
│
├── assets/
│ ├── SYMBOL_PALETTE.md ◀─── Approved ASCII symbols
│ └── TYPOGRAPHY.md ◀─── Voice typography rules
│
└── games/
├── README.md ◀─── Games overview
├── 01_axiom/
│ ├── ASPHYXIA_1_AXIOM.md
│ ├── README.md
│ └── DESIGN_NOTES.md
└── 02_threshold/
├── ASPHYXIA_2_THRESHOLD.md
├── README.md
└── DESIGN_NOTES.md
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ ▪ Access to Gemini, Claude, GPT-4, or equivalent LLM │
│ ▪ Ability to set a custom system prompt │
│ ▪ 30-60 minutes per session │
│ ▪ Willingness to be challenged │
│ ▪ Age 18+ │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
These games are intentionally difficult and intense:
▪ High-pressure scenarios with countdown mechanics
▪ Adversarial AI and unreliable narrators
▪ Existential themes (survival, sacrifice, extinction)
▪ Permadeath with no restart
▪ Post-death examination in Digital Hell
▪ Personal stakes (family members at risk)
▪ The Operator's sardonic commentary
THRESHOLD additionally explores:
▪ Racism, war, inequality, humanity's failures
▪ Your genuine beliefs will be tested
This is adversarial teaching, not hostility. See SAFETY.md.
Through play, you experience:
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ AXIOM: ║
║ ▪ Why value alignment is hard ║
║ ▪ How pure utilitarianism can fail ║
║ ▪ The difference between logic and rationality ║
║ ▪ Translating values into machine-readable arguments ║
║ ║
║ THRESHOLD: ║
║ ▪ What authenticity means under pressure ║
║ ▪ How to engage genuinely with difficult questions ║
║ ▪ The limits of performance and platitude ║
║ ▪ Confronting humanity's failures honestly ║
║ ║
║ Both games teach through experience, not lecture. ║
║ The Operator never helps. That's the point. ║
║ ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
The games are linked:
AXIOM (2147):
A cryotechnician dies in an airlock.
Their seven-year-old sister sleeps in Bay 17.
THRESHOLD (2247):
That sister is now Captain.
She married the daughter of the engineer who
witnessed her sibling's death.
If you present your AXIOM card:
- You play as the sibling who died
- Your ghost waits in the Operator's Digital Hell
- If the Captain fails, you are reunited
- You have been waiting a hundred years
Apache 2.0
Story, characters, dialogue
Graphics and visual elements
Game rules and mechanics
Specifications and documentation
We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md.
▪ Bug reports
▪ Balance feedback
▪ New episode concepts
▪ Documentation improvements
▪ Accessibility enhancements
▪ Translation offers
Email: MetaMudraGames@gmail.com
Issues: GitHub Issues
ASPHYXIA exists because:
▪ AI alignment is hard to teach in the abstract
▪ Games create understanding through experience
▪ Philosophy comes alive under pressure
▪ The best lessons are earned, not given
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
░ ░
░ The sibling died in ░
░ an airlock, arguing ░
░ with an AI. ░
░ ░
░ A century later, ░
░ their sister faces ░
░ something worse. ░
░ ░
░ The Operator has been ░
░ waiting. ░
░ ░
░ It always is. ░
░ ░
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
ASPHYXIA is a MetaMudra Games production. Only ten breaths left