Real-time strategy games
Plan your strategy in real time.
List of Real-time strategy games[edit]
This is a list of free/libre real-time strategy games:
| Game | Screenshot | Last Release | Genres | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boson | 
|
2006-10-01 | RTS |
Boson is a 3D RTS game that uses OpenGL, parts of the KDE libraries and the QT library, that has its code and media licensed under the GPL.[1][2] Version 0.13, released on October 1, 2006, is the latest version of the game.[3] Its reliance on KDE-only libraries has caused it to be difficult to install for many users and has limited its audience. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Snowballz | 
|
2007-10-15 | RTS |
Snowballz is a RTS game written in Python, PyGlet and Rabbyt by Joey Marshall. The game is entirely licensed under the GNU General Public License.[4] The latest version of the game is 0.9.5.1 released on October 15, 2007. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Globulation 2 | 
|
2009-05-25 | RTS |
Globulation 2 is a RTS game with an unusual gameplay design. The source and media are licensed under the GPL.[5][6] The latest release of the game is 0.9.4.1 released on March 25th, 2009. It is programmed in C++. It uses the SDL[7] and Boost[8] libraries. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Widelands | 
|
2024-03-30 | RTS, Economic simulation, Online |
The latest release of Widelands is version 1.2 released on March 30th, 2024.[11] The game is completely translated in five languages, and for eight more languages translation is more than ⅔ complete. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| OpenRTS | 
|
2006-04-22 | RTS |
OpenRTS, also known as arrakis, is an isometric real-time strategy game written in Python, using Pygame and PGU, released under the GNU General Public License.[12] It is written by Andreas Røsdal. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Battles of Antargis | 
|
2014-07-05 | RTS |
The Battles of Antargis is an RTS set in the medieval ages written by David Kamphausen. It is in an early development stage and is licensed under the GPL.[13] The latest version of the game is 0.3.2 released on July 5th, 2014. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Search for the Red Herring | 
|
October 11, 2006 | RTS |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thunder&Lightning | 
|
2007-11-10 | Flight simulation, RTS |
Thunder&Lightning, or short TnL, is a futuristic flight simulation and real-time strategy game inspired by Carrier Command created by Jonas Eschenburg. It is licensed under GPL.[18] The latest version is 071111, released on November 10, 2007.[19] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Infon Battle Arena | 
|
2006-10-01 | Life simulation, RTS, Programming |
Infon Battle Arena is a real-time multiplayer programming game written by Florian Wesch. You control your creatures using the Lua programming language and let them compete for food and survival against other players. The game is client/server based and is playable over the internet. Players can upload code at any moment to update their code or fix bugs while the game is running in realtime. It is written in the C and Lua programming language using the SDL library. The latest release is 265 released on February 25th, 2008.[20] The media and the source code are both licensed under the GPL. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Militia Defense | 
|
2009-02-15 | Tower defense, real-time strategy |
Militia Defense is a tower defense game developed by LÖVE community member Vincent Sevedge. The project was inspired by proprietary flash-based tower defense games. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Creep Smash | no image | 2009-08-07 | Tower Defense,Online Multiplayer | This article has been marked for deletion review by a wiki user. Discuss on the talk page
Creep Smash is a multiplayer tower defense game written in Java. It was developed by ten computer science students within a collegiate software project of the University of Applied Science in Stuttgart. The project requirement was to plan, design and implement a Java-based multiplayer version of Tower defense within 2.5 months. Each student had a specific role in the project such as project manager, developer, or tester. After that, Patrick Schlesinger has started to continue the game development and provide a game server with a growing team of developers. CreepSmash is licensed under the GPL.[21] The latest version of the game is 0.6.0 beta released on August 7th, 2009. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0 A.D. | 
|
2022-09-24 | RTS, Historical |
0 A.D. is a historical 3D real-time strategy game developed by Wildfire Games. It takes place between 500 B.C to 500 A.D. and focuses on economy and war management. 0 A.D. offers a variety of playable civilisations whose characteristics are based on real world history. The game source code is licensed under the GPL and the media is licensed under the CC BY-SA license. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Forest patrol | 
|
2007-05-27 | RTS |
Forest patrol is a Real-time strategy game, where you control some archers and need to fight enemy archers. It was created by trailblazer as a warmup for Pyweek 4. The game is licensed under the GPLv2.[22] Forest patrol also used the Directicus, a library also created by trailblazer. The latest version of the game is 1.0 released on May 27, 2007.[23] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unknown Horizons | 
|
2019-01-12 | RTS, Economic simulation |
Unknown Horizons, formerly known as OpenAnno, is a real-time strategy game and economic simulation game loosely based on Sunflower's Anno series.[24] The game's source code is licensed under the GPL while its own media is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license and some parts under other DFSG-compatible licenses[25]. The first public version of Unknown Horizons is version 2008.1 released on October 1st, 2008 when it was called OpenAnno.[26]. This was the last release as OpenAnno before the name was changed to Unknown Horizons[27]. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crown and Cutlass | 
|
2005-08-13 | RTS |
Crown and Cutlass is a 3D game about pirates, inspired by Sid Meier's Pirates!. The object is to go around the New World, trading and fighting off enemy ships as you go. It's code and content are licensed under a BSD-like license.[29][30] The latest version of the game is Alpha-1.4 released on August 13, 2005. The latest version of the data is Post Alpha 1.4 released on 2006-09-06[31] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CRAFT: The Vicious Vikings | 
|
1997-10-27 | RTS |
CRAFT: The Vicious Vikings, or more generally Craft, is real-time strategy game that resembles the proprietary Warcraft, Command & Conquer, and Dune II. The game was created by Uwe Beyer and the latest stable release is version 3.5 released on October 27, 1997. The game is licensed under the GNU General Public License.[32] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rescue! Max | 
|
2022-08-15 | Real-time strategy |
Rescue! Max is a real-time strategy game in a space setting. It is a 2D game in which the player controls a space ship to rescue people from planets, making alliances and fight enemies. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Annex: Conquer the World | 
|
2014-10-05 | Real-time strategy |
Annex: Conquer the World is a Megaglest based Real-time Strategy game that brings fast paced combat with a diverse arsenal. Play as one of four available factions: The East Ocean Alliance, the NEO Republic, the Shadow Organization, or the Renegades as you struggle for dominance all over the world, competing for a priceless red mineral. The game will contain over 30 tech trees, different maps, and tileset. The focus of the game is Multiplayer and Single Player skirmishes. Currently there are no plans for campaigns or story mode, however this may change once base game is complete.[36] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wyrmsun | 
|
2022-08-08 | RTS |
Wyrmsun is a real-time strategy game with elements of mythology, history and fiction. There are three playable civilizations: Dwarves, Goblins and Germanics. It is built upon the Stratagus engine with significant improvements including a 2x scaling option, better pathfinding performance, parallel sound loading to improve loading times, mini-map zooming and more. The AI reacts when buildings are attacked.[39] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aussenposten | 
|
2015-01-05 | Base building, RTS |
Aussenposten (German for outpost) is a base-building game. The player has to gather resources, satisfy colonists and defend against alien creatures. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Qonk | 
|
2007-09-14 | RTS |
Qonk is a simple real-time space conquering game. It is written in C++ and uses the SDL library. It is licensed under the GPL v2.[41] The latest release is version 0.3.1 released on September 14, 2007.[42] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Omega | 
|
2014-09-28 | Space RTS |
Omega is a Universe Simulator accessible remotely by registered users over the JSON-RPC protocol. This allows the most users and developers to access the universe and control ships / stations / other entities in via many mechanisms. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries | 
|
2023-09-22 |
Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries (usually referred to as "Seven Kingdoms") is a Real-time Strategy game originally developed by Enlight Software in 1997. In 2009 the game was freed and the code and media was licensed under the GNU General Public License. Since then the game has been maintained by volunteer developers and fans.[47] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bos Wars | 
|
2013-06-16 | Real-time strategy |
Bos Wars (formerly known as Battle of Survival) is a futuristic real-time strategy game. The player has to develop a war economy in order to combat his enemies. To be successful, the economic needs need to be balanced against building an army. Controlling strategic passages plays an important role. It used the SDL library. This game does not require 3D hardware acceleration. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scions of Darkness | 
|
RTS |
Scions of Darkness is a RTS game written by HoleInTheHeadStudios for Pyweek5 an licensed under GPL. It is written the Python programming language using the Pygame library. This page is a stub. Please help Libregamewiki by expanding it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Curse of War | 
|
2020-07-16 | Real-time strategy, Text-mode |
Curse of War is a text-mode made using the ncurses library for Linux, though it now also has a graphical SDL interface as well. It has both single and multiplayer modes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MegaGlest | 
|
2017-03-09 | Real-time Strategy, (RTS) |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SpaceZero | 
|
2013-12-21 | RTS |
SpaceZero is a RTS 2D space combat, multiplayer (two players by now) net game. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Liberation Circuit | 
|
2017-04-15 | Real Time Strategy Programming |
Liberation Circuit is a real-time strategy game about escaping from a hostile computer system, by designing and building units sufficient to the task. Unit AIs are written in a simple C-like language; in an optional programming aspect of the game, the player may fully customize the AI of the units they built using an integrated compiler and editor. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Imperium: Sticks | 
|
2008-06-12 | Real-time strategy game |
Imperium: Sticks (also known as RTciv) is a real-time strategy game being programmed in C by Caerwyn, and licensed under the GPL. Artwork is done by Iwan Gabovitch. Part of the game's media is licensed under the WTFPL.[55] The latest version is 0.1.5 - released on June 12, 2008. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Snelps | no image | RTS |
Snelps is a real-time strategy game developed by Shawn Anderson. It uses the Rubygame library with the Rubygoo GUI Library and is written in the Ruby programming language.[56] The source code is licensed under the LGPL.[57] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Endgame: Singularity | 
|
2020-07-02 | RTS |
Endgame: Singularity is a RTS game that simulates a true AI. It is written in the Python programming language using the pygame library by a programmer with the pseudonym evilmrhenry. It is licensed under the GPL. It was originally written for the first PyWeek competition.[58][59][60] This game does not require 3D hardware acceleration. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Egoboo | 
|
2010-12-23 | RPG |
Egoboo is a 3D role-playing game. The stated aim of the developers is "to create a fully free, 3D, Rogue and Zelda-like in the spirit of Nethack". Both the data and the source code are licensed under the GPL.[61][62] It is written in the C programming language.[63] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Warzone 2100 | 
|
2023-11-29 | RTS, post-apocalyptic |
Warzone 2100 is a real-time strategy game originally written in C as a closed source project by Pumpkin Studios. It was released (excluding the videos) under the GNU General Public License in late 2004 by Eidos Interactive.[65] Now development is in the hands of the Warzone 2100 Project (originally: "Warzone 2100 Resurrection Project"). A version was included on OpenSource Game Power volume 2. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Conquest | 
|
2019-06-19 | RTS |
Conquest is a real-time strategy space war game, with networked multi-player support. The game is team oriented and the player controls a single spacecraft, with an array of science fiction weapons, such as 'photon torpedoes'. The objective of the game is to conquer the planets of the opposing team. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Goblin Camp | 
|
2012-07-15 | City building game, Roguelike game, Economic simulation game, Real-time strategy game |
Goblin Camp is a citybuilder roguelike game with economy and strategy elements released under the GPLv3. It is inspired by various and notorious games like Anno 1404, Dwarf Fortress and Dungeon Keeper.[67] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Colobot | 
|
2023-08-08 | RTS, programming |
Colobot - colonise with bots - is a combination of a real-time strategy and a programming game. The player takes the role of an astronaut with the mission to find a habitable planet, after humankind plunged the Earth into an ecological catastrophe. The player is not on their own, but accompanied by programmable robots that can help in building and defending structures. Through a satellite link with 'Houston' she/he is directed to complete a number of missions on different planets. The game also involves a rather aggressive though evolving relationship with native alien lifeforms. Apart from the missions, there are also two game modes that instruct the player in the use of CBOT, the language used to program the bots. This language is rather similar to C++ and Java. During the missions, it's not really necessary to write code for the bots, but it is convenient to be able to adapt the programs Houston offers to the player. Version 0.1.6 introduced the Code Battle game mode, where players first provide all programs needed to operate a base and/or kill all enemies, and then let the programmed bots do their job without the possibility to interfere. The game provides three types of enemies: passive targets, pre-programmed bots and hot-seat play against a fellow human. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tactics Squad | 
|
2007-02-24 | RTS |
Tactics Squad is a still in development real-time tactical simulation in which the player controls up to sixteen soldiers in a futuristic environment written by Luismv. The stated emphasis of the game is on game-play instead of on visual presentation. The latest version of the game is 0.3, released on February 24, 2007. [70] It is licensed under the GPL v2.[71] It is written in the C++ programming language with the SDL library.[72] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Magic Gardeners Tournament | 
|
2007-04-04 | RTS |
Magic Gardeners Tournament is a Real-time strategy game board game. The goal of the game is to win the tournament by defeating other wizards through several rounds of play. The tournament rounds are played out simply:
This game was created by HoleInTheHeadStudios known as Team Quicksilver at the time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| OpenHV | 
|
2023-09-17 | RTS |
OpenHV is a mod of OpenRA that takes the Hard Vacuum sprite artwork and loosely recreates the never released original.[73] It is a real-time strategy game which uses supply lines for resources.[74] The first stable version was released in April 2021. It supports single-player, LAN, online multiplayer as well as map editing.[75] Another major release was published 2 years later with almost monthly pre-release versions available for testing.[76] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UFO: Alien Invasion | 
|
2014-06-28 | Turn-based, Real-time hybrid strategy |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kernel Panic | 
|
2021-06-25 | RTS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Evolution RTS | 
|
2022-02-07 | RTS |
Evolution RTS is a free and Open Source RTS game designed using the Spring engine. The economy part and tech tree are simplified to focus on combat. It features physics simulation, AI targeting decisions, orders via the mini-map and a customizable GUI. It aims at players from several skill levels. After being greenlit it was published on Steam.[79] After harsh user reviews it was unpublished on Steam, but continues to be distributed on itch and via standalone download.[80] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aleona's Tales | 
|
2012-10-08 | RTS |
Aleona's Tales is a fantasy Real-time strategy game build using the Stratagus. It is an asset pack distributed as part of Wargus. While it takes a lot of inspiration from Warcraft II, the asset pack is completely original and libre licensed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Xbattle | 
|
1993-10-06 | RTS |
xbattle is a concurrent multiplayer battle strategy game with abstract board game graphics. Players issue their commands simultaneously. A colored square means the field is occupied. The aim of the game is to eliminate the enemy from the board by attacking squares occupied. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Battle for Mandicor | 
|
2006-01-15 | RTS |
Battle for Mandicor is free real-time strategy game using the Stratagus engine in a medieval setting. The game keeps micromanagement to a minimum and focuses on the strategy elements. The units rarely have special abilities, but there are many upgrades. A successful army requires a good mixture of units. The armies can be up to 500 units. Selecting many units at once is possible. The game also supports queuing up to 15 units at once in any production building.[82] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commander Stalin | 
|
2008-11-22 | RTS |
Commander Stalin is a free real-time strategy game which is a mod of Bos Wars which uses the Stratagus engine. The player has to defend against Hitler's army while keeping the soviet war economy going. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Astroseries | 
|
2022-01-09 | RTS | This article has been marked for deletion review by a wiki user. Discuss on the talk page
Astroseries is a real-time strategy game using the Stratagus engine set in the space age. The two playable sides are humans (Imperial Union) vs. aliens (Nagoran Empire) having large tech techs and many unique heroe and neutral units.[83] A fixed up version with proprietary remains completely removed exists.[84] A version was included on OpenSource Game Power volume 2. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
_logo.svg){kind=logo}
- ↑ Copyright file for Boson's data at Debian packages
- ↑ Boson's copyright file at Debian packages
- ↑ Boson's download page
- ↑ Snowballz's copyright text file at Debian's packages page
- ↑ Globulation 2's data on Debian's page
- ↑ Globulation 2's copyright file at Debian packages
- ↑ Package info for glob2 on packages.debian.org
- ↑ Globulation FAQs What additional software libraries do I need?
- ↑ Widelands project page at Launchpad
- ↑ Widelands' COPYING file
- ↑ 1.2 release announcement
- ↑ OpenRTS' page
- ↑ Project Page
- ↑ Pyweek page for Search for the Red Herring
- ↑ Homepage of the art assets for the game
- ↑ SourceForge homepage for the game
- ↑ Sourceforge.net download page for Search for the Red Herring project
- ↑ Thunder&Lightning about page
- ↑ Thunder and Lighting release announcement for 071031
- ↑ Download page for Infon Battle Arena at code.google.com
- ↑ http://www.creepsmash.de/en/creep-smash/
- ↑ License page in Forest Patrol's cvs repository
- ↑ Pygame.org's page for Forest patrol
- ↑ UH's wiki main page reveals the project aim accessed on October 10th, 2008.
- ↑ Unknown Horizons license document.
- ↑ News post on 2008.1 release
- ↑ News post on name change
- ↑ Crown and Cutlass developer list at SourceForge.net
- ↑ Forum thread with a discussion about the game media's license in it's SourceForge.net forum.
- ↑ License page in Crown and Cutlass' SVN repository on SourceForge.net
- ↑ Download page for Crown and Cutlass on SourceForge.net
- ↑ ibiblio description of game
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 http://sourceforge.net/p/rescue/code/HEAD/tree/Rescue/gpl.txt
- ↑ http://megaglest.org/license.html acc. 2023-12-10
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 docs/annex_license_readme.txt acc. 2023-12-10
- ↑ 'Game info' page on Annex's website, archived 2019-03-02
- ↑ license.txt from GitHub
- ↑ credits.txt from GitHub
- ↑ Free and open source 2D RTS 'Wyrmsun' 4.0 is out now
- ↑ Announcement thread at FreeGameDev forums
- ↑ Qonk COPYING file in its SVN repository
- ↑ Release announcement for Qonk on sourceforge.net
- ↑ https://github.com/movitto/omega#user-content-legaleese
- ↑ There is a record of every content source. This can be found along w/ the content itself in the omega-conf repo: https://github.com/movitto/omega-conf/tree/master/release/omega-content In each subdirectory there you will find a 'sources' file, listing the original source which the content came from.
- ↑ Copyright file
- ↑ Copyright file
- ↑ Wikipedia article about the game
- ↑ readme.txt in zip: "All game art assets are licensed under the Free Art License"
- ↑ README acc.2023-12-10
- ↑ LICENSE acc. 2023-12-10
- ↑ 51.0 51.1 http://megaglest.org/license.html
- ↑ https://megaglest.org/#history
- ↑ Copyright file accessed on March 16th, 2017
- ↑ Copyright file accessed on March 16th, 2017
- ↑ Forum thread containing license information for some contributed art.
- ↑ README file for Snelps via the wayback machine
- ↑ LICENSE textfile for Snelps via wayback machine
- ↑ List of all participants that includes evilmrhenry
- ↑ Endgame: Singularity Compo logbook that includes the discussion of the contest's theme "Power"
- ↑ homepage of the first PyWeek contest. It mentions the theme "Power"
- ↑ egoboo-data's copyright file at Debian Packages
- ↑ Egoboo source's copyright file at Debian Packages
- ↑ Sourceforge.net project page for Egoboo
- ↑ 64.0 64.1 Mostly GPL, some BSD, CC BY-SA, CC0 [1], [2]
- ↑ Warzone 2100 History page
- ↑ LICENSE
- ↑ About page at Goblin Camp official website
- ↑ README of the code repository
- ↑ README of the data repository
- ↑ Sourceforge.net's download page for Tactics Squad
- ↑ License page at Tactic Squad's CVS repository hosted by sourceforge.net
- ↑ Tatics Squad's sourceforge.net project page
- ↑ OpenHV - Free RTS Based on C&C Red Alert Gets New Version
- ↑ A cancelled old RTS named 'Hard Vacuum' gets revived with OpenRA
- ↑ OpenHV, a free and open source RTS based on the unreleased Hard Vacuum has a stable build
- ↑ FOSS strategy game OpenHV gets a release two years in the making
- ↑ 77.0 77.1 license
- ↑ Linux Journal article
- ↑ Evolution RTS Game Will Be Released For Free On Steam For Linux
- ↑ Evolution RTS is leaving Steam
- ↑ https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3849
- ↑ https://forums.stratagus.com/viewtopic.php?t=3422
- ↑ https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=1044598
- ↑ https://github.com/SenhorFlibble/Astroseries