Open Source Strategy Games

Anything related to other games.
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Trilarion
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Open Source Strategy Games

Post by Trilarion »

I recently searched for other open source big strategy games (complex gameplay, interesting game world, turn based or with pause function, 4X) and I was suprised at not finding too many. Why is it that there aren't more than 10-20 really good projects which are also kind of mature?

The big shots:
  • FreeCiv Web with a server written in C and a web client written in HTML 5/Javascript. The really cool thing is probably the online multiplayer mode.
  • FreeCiv A very mature project written in C. Server used by FreeCiv Web.
  • Battle for Wesnoth also very mature, written C using SDL. Port: Battle for Wesnoth Android
  • FreeCol again very mature, written in Java using Swing. Last update 2015.
  • OpenXCom very mature, written in C/C++ using SDL.
  • UFO Alien Invasion very mature, written in C++ and Lua.
  • OpenTTD extremely mature, written C/C++ and using (most probably) SDL.
  • Micropolis based on Simcity, written Java using Swing and abandoned. See also LinCity or LinCity NG orMicropolisJS or OpenCity or 3D City
  • Xconq Very old (ancient) stopped 2004. Partly a game engine.
  • TripleA very mature. Written in Java using Swing. Last update 2015.
  • MegaMak very mature. Written in Java using AWT. See also MekWars a web client to the MegaMek server part.
  • Chess There are many open source implementations of chess. Best seem to be Komodo or Stockfish.
  • Go Also for Go there are many open source implemenations. See this list for example.
  • C-Evo written in Delphi and C# (both at the same time?) and last updated 2013.
  • Star Control 2 finished some/many years ago.
  • Glest RTS and Glest Advanced Engine
  • Widelands Setller II like RTS.
  • 0AD Ages of Empire II like RTS with beautiful graphics.
Others (smaller):
If you miss some good ones, please post them.

The pattern I see:
  • There aren't many open source grand strategy games that are playable right now (~10 maybe).
  • Most of them are quite mature. There is still active development but it's going rather slow.
  • Most successful ones are quite old. There aren't many noticable newer efforts.
  • They all struggle more or less with build systems, automatic installations etc.
  • The old ones are mostly written in C/C++ and SDL or Java and Swing.
  • There is almost nothing for mobile computing (although in principle SDL should run on mobile platforms).
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Trilarion
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List of very, very small projects

Post by Trilarion »

I searched on google, sourceforge, github for turn based strategy and 4x strategy and found some projects (mostly one man projects who are still in definition phase) and just for completeness I here list those which have at least some concept or noticable amount of code. It's my personal, subjective selection. Some may be long dead or being abandoned in alpha phase.
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Trilarion
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More small games

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More small games

Post by Trilarion »

Very early planning phase with only low amount of code:
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More small games

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And more

Post by Trilarion »

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End of the lists

Post by Trilarion »

Now this were some hours I got lost in internet searches and trying out projects. Finally I found almost 200 projects started in the last 20 years and many of which died somewhere between alpha and beta status. I will keep coming back to them and I might start making similar lists for open source RPGs or Adventures (my other two favorite genres).

This is the state as of 2016. There are big chances in the next years new strategy game project will be started. If I learned anything then that the genre is not dead and people are interested in making cool stuff with it, only it isn't easy, you need a lot of skills coming together (design, programming, artwork, persistence, ...).
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Requires original files

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More small games

Post by Trilarion »

Willem
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Re: Open Source Strategy Games

Post by Willem »

Cool!

I hope you don't expect to try them all out! :)
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