Samsara

A browser-based life-simulation game exploring Buddhist moral philosophy across five Southeast Asian countries — Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. Players navigate karmic choices across a full lifetime, with country-specific events, NPC relationships, and rebirth outcomes.

Built with React + Vite. No backend, no database, no API keys required.

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Play It

Live: buddhalife.vercel.app

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Run Locally

Prerequisites: Node.js 18+

git clone https://github.com/ozemans/buddhalife.git
cd buddhalife
npm install
npm run dev

Then open http://localhost:5173.

That's it — no environment variables, no accounts, no setup beyond Node.

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Deploy to Vercel

Option A: One-click via Vercel dashboard

1. Go to vercel.com/new
2. Import this GitHub repository
3. Vercel auto-detects Vite — accept the defaults
4. Click Deploy

No environment variables needed.

Option B: Vercel CLI

npm i -g vercel
vercel

Follow the prompts. Framework will be detected as Vite automatically.

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Project Structure

src/
├── App.jsx                  # Screen orchestration
├── engine/                  # Game logic
│   ├── gameState.js         # State reducer + localStorage save/load
│   ├── lifeProgression.js   # Aging, life stages, death checks
│   ├── karmaEngine.js       # Merit/demerit tracking
│   ├── consequences.js      # Choice → stat changes
│   ├── eventSelector.js     # Weighted event selection
│   ├── festivalEngine.js    # Regional festival events
│   ├── npcEngine.js         # NPC generation and aging
│   └── audioEngine.js       # Web Audio API (bell, chime sounds)
├── components/
│   ├── screens/             # TitleScreen, GameScreen, EndScreen, Encyclopedia
│   ├── game/                # StatsPanel, KarmaVisualizer, Timeline, EventCard
│   └── ui/                  # Button, Modal, Tooltip, SoundToggle
└── content/
    ├── events/              # Per-country event JSON (200+ events total)
    ├── characters/          # Background archetypes per country
    ├── festivals.json       # Regional festivals
    └── glossary.json        # Buddhist terms (~150+ definitions)

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Tech Stack

Framework	React 19
Build	Vite 7
Styling	Tailwind CSS 4
State	React hooks + custom reducer
Persistence	Browser localStorage
Audio	Web Audio API
Hosting	Vercel

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Academic Context

Created as a final-semester research project examining how everyday Buddhist practices vary across Southeast Asia. Game content is grounded in peer-reviewed ethnographies (Eberhardt, Chambers, Gustafsson, Nguyen, Edwards, and others). See BuddhaLife_Research_Consolidation.pdf for full citations.