openage
A free engine clone of the Genie Engine used by Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.
What is openage?
openage is a free and open-source engine clone of the proprietary Genie Engine, which powered classic real-time strategy games like Age of Empires I, II, and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. It aims to recreate the authentic look and feel of these games while enabling modern improvements, extensive modding, and community-driven development. The project requires original game assets to play but converts them into open, moddable formats.
Fans and modders of classic real-time strategy games like Age of Empires who want an open-source, modernized engine with enhanced modding capabilities and cross-platform support. It also appeals to developers interested in contributing to open-source game engine recreation projects.
Developers choose openage for its commitment to an authentic recreation without artificial limitations, its highly moddable content format using the custom nyan notation, and its integrated Python API for scripting and automation. Unlike the original engines, it offers a fully open development process and plans for modern multiplayer infrastructure.
Overview
Clone of the Age of Empires II engine 🚀
Use Cases
Best For
- Creating mods for Age of Empires or Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds using the custom nyan content configuration format.
- Developing AI scripts or automation for classic RTS games via the integrated Python console and API.
- Contributing to open-source game engine recreation projects with a focus on community collaboration.
- Playing classic RTS games on modern operating systems (Linux, Windows, macOS) with potential engine improvements.
- Experimenting with game asset conversion from proprietary formats to open, moddable formats.
- Learning about game engine development through an active, documented open-source project with beginner-friendly issues.
Not Ideal For
- Players wanting a polished, complete game experience out-of-the-box
- Developers requiring immediate, stable multiplayer networking or compatibility with original Age of Empires mods
- Casual users unwilling to compile from source or manage complex dependencies
- Projects dependent on existing Age of Empires save files without conversion tools
Pros & Cons
Pros
Aims to replicate the look and feel of Age of Empires while removing artificial limitations like unit selection caps, as stated in the Goals section.
Uses the custom nyan notation for content configuration, enabling easy modding and community-driven development, similar to other open-source engine projects.
Features an in-game Python console and API for AI scripting and automation, comparable to Blender, allowing for machine learning integration.
Builds and runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS, with CI testing across these platforms, ensuring broad accessibility.
Cons
The README explicitly warns that gameplay is 'basically non-functional' and the project is in active redevelopment, making it unreliable for actual play.
Often requires building from source with dependencies like C++20, Python3, and Qt6, and lacks easy installation packages for macOS and some Linux distros.
Deliberately avoids network and binary compatibility with the original games, limiting use cases for those wanting to interact with existing installations.
Frequently Asked Questions
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