openfrontio/OpenFrontIO: Online browser-based RTS game

OpenFront.io is an online real-time strategy game focused on territorial control and alliance building. Players compete to expand their territory, build structures, and form strategic alliances in various maps based on real-world geography.

This is a fork/rewrite of WarFront.io. Credit to https://github.com/WarFrontIO.

!CI

See the LICENSE for complete requirements.

For asset licensing, see LICENSE-ASSETS. For license history, see LICENSING.md.

🌟 Features

• Real-time Strategy Gameplay: Expand your territory and engage in strategic battles
• Alliance System: Form alliances with other players for mutual defense
• Multiple Maps: Play across various geographical regions including Europe, Asia, Africa, and more
• Resource Management: Balance your expansion with defensive capabilities
• Cross-platform: Play in any modern web browser

📋 Prerequisites

• Node.js v24.15.0 or newer in the Node 24 release line
• npm v12.1.0 or newer in the npm 12 release line
• A modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.)

npm install --global --ignore-scripts [email protected]

🚀 Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/openfrontio/OpenFrontIO.git
   cd OpenFrontIO

1. Install dependencies

npm run inst

Do NOT use npm install nor npm i for project dependencies. Use npm run inst; it runs the safer npm ci --ignore-scripts to install exactly the versions in package-lock.json without running lifecycle scripts.

The repository also rejects dependency releases less than seven days old and dependencies sourced from Git, remote URLs, local tarballs, or directories. Wait until a new release passes the seven-day window before updating it; security exceptions require explicit maintainer review.

🎮 Running the Game

Development Mode

Run both the client and server in development mode with live reloading:

npm run dev

This will:

• Start the webpack dev server for the client
• Launch the game server with development settings
• Open the game in your default browser (to disable this behavior, set SKIP_BROWSER_OPEN=true in your environment)

Client Only

To run just the client with hot reloading:

npm run start:client

Server Only

To run just the server with development settings:

npm run start:server-dev

Connecting to staging or production backends

Sometimes it's useful to connect to production servers when replaying a game, testing user profiles, purchases, or login flow.

To replay a production game, make sure you're on the same commit that the game you want to replay was executed on, you can find the gitCommit value via https://api.openfront.io/game/[gameId].

Unfinished games cannot be replayed on localhost.

To connect to staging api servers:

npm run dev:staging

To connect to production api servers:

npm run dev:prod

🛠️ Development Tools

• Format code:

npm run format

• Lint code with Oxlint:

npm run lint

• Lint and fix code with Oxlint:

npm run lint:fix

• Testing

npm test

🏗️ Project Structure

• /src/client - Frontend game client
• /src/server - Backend game server
• /packages/engine - Deterministic game simulation (@openfront/engine)
• /packages/engine-api - The engine's contract: types, schemas, game updates and the worker protocol (@openfront/engine-api)
• /packages/engine-lib - Engine code also used outside the engine: map grid, rules, helpers (@openfront/engine-lib)
• /packages/shared - Code shared by client and server: wire schemas, env, asset URLs (@openfront/shared)
• /packages/zbin - Compact binary wire format for zod schemas (self-contained, zod-only)
• /resources - Static assets (images, maps, etc.)

🤝 Contributing

Contributions and translations are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for the workflow, the approved-issue process, project governance, and translation info.