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.
Credits
In gratitude to Robugs (1992) — Brad Heide.
Rawbugs is an independent recreation by Shimpinomori; not affiliated with the original author.
Free to install. Have fun designing worlds.
