In this session, we’ll explore Kubernetes controllers, CRDs, and admission webhooks using K8s Dungeon Crawl: a modified roguelike game where in-game monsters are represented by live Kubernetes resources running in the cluster.

As gameplay unfolds, the Kubernetes control plane becomes part of the game itself. Monsters are represented as Kubernetes Deployments, dungeon entities are modeled as CRDs, and admission webhooks dynamically mutate and validate cluster behavior as gameplay progresses.

Using KubeBuilder, we’ll walk through how controllers and webhooks interact with the Kubernetes API while demonstrating reconciliation loops, admission control, CRDs, declarative state management, runtime policy enforcement, and event-driven Kubernetes behavior.

The session demonstrates controllers reconciling game and cluster state, mutating and validating admission webhooks, GitOps deployment using Helm and Argo CD, and observability with Prometheus and Grafana.

Rather than treating Kubernetes concepts as abstract control-plane mechanics, this session turns them into visible gameplay interactions that make Kubernetes behavior easier to understand and reason about.