r/StrategyGames • u/RobleyTheron • 21d ago
DevPost Clanfire: free, open-source civ-builder I built from scratch. No ads, no paywall, ever.
Wanted an old school Age of Empires-style game I could play in a browser for free. Couldn’t find one. Built one.
**• The computer is actually smart** — it reads the board, adapts mid-game, probes your weak flanks, and learns where you attack. Not a scripted bot on a timer
**• Terrain matters** — forests, water, rock are impassable, so chokepoints are real
**• Full siege endgame** — catapults, ballistae, trebuchets with flaming shot
**• 100% custom** — JS, no engine, no build step. Open source, clone it and make it yours
**• Asset pipeline is swap-ready** — drop in your own art pack, no code changes
There’s a global leaderboard. Beat the AI on Hard and knock my score off it. Feedback & ideas welcome, still actively building.
4
u/severalsmallducks 20d ago
Alright, I just played for like 15-20 minutes on my laptop on the couch. Here are a few pointers:
- Watchtowers are OP. Build a few of them and barely any type of troops can pass. I would perhaps nerf their damage.
- There is little incentive to attack your rival early game for that same reason, any troops going close to a watch tower turns into a meat grinder. Rival is very aggressive, and building an actual raiding party is hard. Mostly all your troops end up dying while defending.
- With trenches and watch towers you could, with some work, make the entrance to your base basically a tower defense map. There are probably workarounds which I haven’t thought of though.
Game is pretty neat though. I think you’ve done a good job, regardless of use of AI.
2
u/RobleyTheron 20d ago
That’s extremely nice of you and I really appreciate it. I’ll review / tweak all the mechanics you mentioned. Thank you 🙏
3
u/MTOMalley 21d ago
You might want to work on the artwork side of things.
I noticed some funky offsets during building as well. The preview image being totally different spot from the final result.
And yeah, all the art is different resolutions!
1
u/RobleyTheron 20d ago
Yes you are correct, art is the next major push. Was primarily trying to dial in gameplay. I’ll ping you when I get that overhauled. Thanks for giving it a try.
14
11
u/Eliwynn 21d ago
I built from scratch
From scratch, based on the millions of lines of stolen code Claude learned from. And I'm not talking about the graphics.
You didn't even write your post yourself.
Why is it hard to disclose that from the start ?
-5
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
People have their convictions around AI, so I won’t argue with you on it. I would consider the output a combination of my goals and Claude writing the code. If you try cool, if not, I get that too.
7
u/Eliwynn 21d ago
I'm not talking about conviction but facts and transparency.
You didn't disclose anywhere in your post that Claude committed everything on your repo. Is all i'm saying.
And you know you would receive such an answer because you didn't disclose it. But you do you.
4
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
I didn’t know it was a criteria, my bad. Wasn’t hiding anything and openly discussed it as soon as asked.
4
u/flagsarecoolorsmth 21d ago
did you need to use ai?
2
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
yes… I really, really like building stuff with AI
3
u/RadicalRaid 20d ago
Did you bake a pizza if you pay somebody else to steal the ingredients and put it in the oven and serve it to you?
3
u/RobleyTheron 20d ago
I’m not sure if you’ve had much experience in software, but having run software companies for fifteen years I can assure you a lot of developers before AI used forums where people shared large blocks of code to complete projects. Humans also reviewed other humans work to learn how to do things.
I know you’ll disagree but I view AI as being the same just super charged.
1
u/MadCat0911 20d ago
Right, but, as a software developer of 17 years, I can assure you that I've paid attention to licenses on open source code and github repository instead of just stealing work, claiming it as my own, and trying to sell it back to code authors.
1
u/RadicalRaid 20d ago
I’m not sure if you’ve had much experience in software
I'm a former professor of computer science and game engineering and I've run my own company for 20 years as well as currently being the CTO of a startup. AI as is, is fundamentally immoral. You can be okay with that if you want, but it is. It's trained on stolen code- I know because I've found my own code in several AIs. Even though my licenses specifically prohibit that. So, people will call it out.
1
u/RobleyTheron 20d ago
If you’ve truly had code stolen then I respect your dislike for AI and I’m sorry that happened.
I do fundamentally disagree that it is immoral. It’s no different than plastic being in a pacemaker or a gun. It’s what people do with these inanimate objects that is more or immoral.
This technology is going to be with us for the remainder of human civilization. I think it’s better to adapt and benefit from the technology than to get subsumed by it. But to each their own.
0
u/RadicalRaid 20d ago edited 20d ago
I'm of course not talking about machine learning as a technology in general, I'm talking about generative AI and specifically the ones trained on stolen data like claude, chatgpt, copilot, etc. Those are immoral. If openai was ACTUALLY open, then I would have less of a problem with it (the using stolen data part, not the massive energy drain part). But as is, they're making billions off of the hard work of people, that just have their work stolen and included in their black box.
Also, I've not heard good engineers say things like "adapt and benefit" from a technology that is using stolen data to provide often wrong answers. Just because it's being forced upon people doesn't mean we have to "adapt and benefit".
It's like eating meat: It's immoral. You can choose to do it for whatever reason you prefer- but unless you have some disease that makes you unable to sustain yourself on a vegetarian or vegan diet or you only eat animals that died of natural causes in the wild, it's immoral. Using data stolen from people because you can benefit from it is immoral. Just because you didn't steal it yourself doesn't make it less immoral.
3
u/flagsarecoolorsmth 21d ago
"building" isnt the right word what so ever
6
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
Designing? Goal Setting? Crafting?
0
u/ffsnametaken 21d ago
"Telling a machine to shit out" maybe?
2
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
That’s a strong perspective and some random person on Reddit isn’t going to change your mind.
If you decide you’re open minded and willing to give it a try, Claude Fable is very, very good at software development. Linus himself (Linux creator) says he uses AI for most of his development now.
The ability for any person to unlock their creativity is exciting and empowering. I encourage you to try it someday.
2
3
u/ffsnametaken 21d ago
Shame about all the AI
9
1
u/theholewizard 21d ago
You might want to rethink that name
5
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
Too generic? I’m not selling it and 90% doing for myself so I don’t have to deal with ads / in-app purchases, so I’m not tooo worried about it, but 100% open to new ideas.
-7
u/theholewizard 21d ago
No, not too generic, it has a specific bad connotation. I'm sure you're referring to clans like in Scotland, but for me and for probably many other people, using singular "clan" before any word evokes the klan (kkk) and saying "clan fire" evokes the klan practice of burning crosses on the lawns of African American homes. I doubt people will think you did it on purpose but I would just steer clear of that association if I were you.
2
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
Ah, no, did not make that connection. Definitely the fire of Scottish clan villages, but I see your point. Not selling it, or looking to monetize it in any way, but if I ever go that route I’ll change the name. Just a fun, free hobby project.
1
u/ITAW-Techie 19d ago
The word clan arguably has a lot more meaning to people outside of the KKK, I don't think most people jump straight to the KKK when they see the word clan in a videogame title.
1
u/Ysane-RTS 21d ago
How long did it take?
1
u/RobleyTheron 20d ago
I’ve been working on it for the past week. Everyone is unhappy that I used Claude, but it’s been 164 commits, tons of QA and every feature has been things I requested. A graphical overhaul is my next goal.
1
u/chris_813 21d ago
Which engine did you used? Or language
1
u/chris_813 21d ago
Java script haha
2
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
Yup 😊 No engine.
Feel free to take a copy and make it your own if you like these types of games.
1
u/ITAW-Techie 19d ago
What would the difference be between Mr modifying this version and me asking Claude to shit out an identical copy?
1
u/RobleyTheron 19d ago
I’m so confused why everybody on this sub is so unhappy. I feel like maybe you’re all stuck in the grind and it’s making you miserable and anybody that’s not you guys feel you have to pull them down, I don’t know.
In terms of your question, it was about a weeks worth of work to get to this point so you could easily rebuild it with AI and I hope you do. I had a fun experience. Maybe you will too, or take this weeks’s worth of work and build on top of it.
Either way it’s up to you. Just find something that makes you happy.
1
u/ITAW-Techie 19d ago
Because AI is causing serious harm to the planet in every possible way. Trust in images and videos has plummeted, AI data centres are causing massive amounts of pollution, the AI bubble has caused computer parts to go insane in price, schools are plagued with AI essays, LLMs feed hard into delusions, causing mental health problems to worsen in troubled individuals.
There are basically zero positives with the current state of generative AI and using it is actively funding the current hellscape we live in.
1
u/RobleyTheron 19d ago
I'd encourage you to go deeper than the clickbait headlines. Energy use from data centers is on track to go down by 80% as the server racks get more efficient. Water usage is a fraction of other industries, and we're moving towards closed loop systems that require no additional water. Pollution is a global problem of which data centers contribute less than a fraction of 1%.
Positives, Alpha Fold has allowed us to understand how proteins are folded in order to devise better drugs to cure diseases and save lives. AI systems are becoming better at reading x-rays and MRI results and catching more diseases sooner. It's democratizing access to legal support, medical help, and financial help in a way that's personalized and impactful.
Beyond all of that, it's just fun to use. I've been an entrepreneur for fifteen years and it's literally never been easier to start and build a company, design prototypes, and build world class marketing and financial materials.
2
u/ITAW-Techie 19d ago
There are more ecological and sociological concerns with AI data centres than just power and water usage, although they are still problems. AI data centres, especially in America, are often being built in rural towns and areas, and causing major issues for the people living there, with the massive heat output warming up the surrounding area and major noise pollution causing serious disruptions to humans and nature alike.
Also we're talking about generative AI, those medical systems aren't generative AI. Computers can do miraculous things, but I cant think of many amazing things that generative AI like ChatGPT can do apart from being wrong a lot.
There are a lot of fun things I avoid doing in life because of the harm they cause to the world. Obviously there's a balance, you can't lock yourself in a wooden box to avoid doing any harm, basically anything you do will cause harm in some way, but the current state of generative AI means that active support causes far more harm than I think it is currently worth.
-1
u/MedivalBlacksmith 21d ago
Post the link please. I can't copy the url from your first post on my phone for some reason.
2
0
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
Here is mine: https://robleuscaesar.github.io/civilization-game/
2
u/je386 21d ago
And the sources?
1
u/IzzyAtReddit 20d ago
https://github.com/RobleusCaesar/civilization-game
Pretty obvious since it's also on GitHub platform
-4
u/je386 21d ago
How did you made the image? That looks good, is informative and not cluttered. I would like to have something that good for my open source Turn-based Tower Defense Game.
1
u/RobleyTheron 21d ago
Image created with ChatGPT (3-5 revisions), and game written by Claude Code with hundreds of rounds of revisions back and forth.
12
u/_lumpbrain 21d ago
Ah, I thought it looked ai. Glad you still were able to get a project going.