---
hackathon: Build Small (2026)
title: Dreadzone
emoji: 💬
colorFrom: yellow
colorTo: red
sdk: gradio
sdk_version: 6.5.1
app_file: app.py
pinned: false
suggested_hardware: t4-small
license: artistic-2.0
short_description: Backrooms-inspired local GGUF experience
team:
  - grimjim
tags:
  - track:wood
  - sponsor:openai
  - sponsor:nvidia
  - achievement:offgrid
  - achievement:llama
social_media_post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jim-lai-038249_i-participated-in-the-build-small-hackathon-share-7472113354073853952-LA39/
---
An entry for the Build Small Hackathon (2026)
The track taken: Thousand Token Wood

Dreadzone is a Backrooms-inspired interactive fiction prototype that runs a
local GGUF model with `llama-cpp-python` and Gradio ChatInterface.

The app downloads
[`unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-4B-GGUF`](https://huggingface.co/unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-4B-GGUF)
automatically on first launch and streams responses from
`NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-4B-Q5_K_M.gguf`.

No hosted inference API, OAuth token, secrets, or external inference services are
used. The default dependency pin uses the CUDA 12.4 `llama-cpp-python` wheel for
GPU Spaces.

The Python app owns the lightweight game state: coordinates, turn count, sanity,
zone profile, and encounter rolls. The model receives hidden state each turn and
narrates the result without exposing coordinates or mechanics. There are a few
surprises to keep players on their toes.

## Runtime settings

The defaults are intentionally conservative while enabling GPU offload:

- `N_CTX=2048`
- `N_BATCH=128`
- `MAX_HISTORY_TURNS=6`
- `GAME_SEED=dreadzone`
- `N_THREADS` defaults to one fewer than the detected CPU count
- `N_GPU_LAYERS=-1` offloads all possible layers to GPU
- `ENABLE_THINKING=false` renders the model chat template with thinking disabled

You can override the model or runtime settings with Space variables:

- `MODEL_REPO`
- `MODEL_FILE`
- `MODEL_DIR`
- `GAME_SEED`
- `N_CTX`
- `N_BATCH`
- `N_THREADS`
- `N_GPU_LAYERS`
- `ENABLE_THINKING`
- `MAX_HISTORY_TURNS`

## Author

grimjim@huggingface

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