''0 A.D.'' is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to p ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

under development by

Wildfire Games Wildfire Games is an independent free software video game developer, originally founded as a modding team in 2001. The logo is the Chinese character " 火" (fire). Wildfire Games is currently developing 0 A.D., a real-time strategy game. In addi ...

. It is a historical war and economy game focusing on the years between 500 BC and 1 BC, with the years between 1 AD and 500 AD planned to be developed in the future. The game is

cross-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software ...

, playable on

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...

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Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

, and

OpenBSD OpenBSD is a security-focused, free and open-source, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by forking NetBSD 1.0. According to the website, the OpenBSD project e ...

. It is composed entirely of

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, n ...

and free media, using the GNU GPLv2 (or later) license for the

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software ...

source code, and the CC BY-SA license for the game art and music.

Gameplay

''0 A.D.'' features the traditional

gameplay components of building a base, developing an economy, training an army, engaging in combat, and researching new technologies. The game includes multiple units and buildings specific to each

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). ...

as well as both land and naval units. During the game, the player advances from "village phase", to "town phase", to "city phase". The phases represent the sizes of settlements in history, and every phase unlocks new units, buildings, and technologies. Multiplayer functionality is implemented using

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...

networking, without a central server.

Development

''0 A.D.'' originally began in 2001 as a comprehensive total conversion mod concept for '' Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings''. The development team later decided that making the project as a mod was too limiting to their creative freedom, and elected to move their art and ideas to an in-house engine, making it a standalone game. The historical accuracy of the game elements has been the highest development priority. Unit and building names are shown in the original language of the civilization they belong to, and they are also translated into the language in which the user is playing the game. There is also a strong focus on attempting to provide a high visual accuracy of unit armor, weapons, and buildings. On 10 July 2009, Wildfire Games released the source code for ''0 A.D.'' under the GNU GPLv2 (or later) license, and made the artwork available under the CC BY-SA license. There were around ten to fifteen people working on ''0 A.D.'' around 23 March 2010; but since development started, over 100 people have contributed to the project. On 5 September 2013, an Indiegogo

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by cro ...

campaign was started with a goal. They raised a total of to be used to hire a programmer. The majority of the project's finances are managed by the Software in the Public Interest organisation. There is no official release date set for the finished version of the game. The composers of the music in the game are Omri Lahav, Jeff Willet, Mike Skalandunas, and Shlomi Nogay. A 26-track soundtrack was released on 8 June 2018.

Reception

In 2012, ''0 A.D.'' received second place in the IndieDB Player's Choice Upcoming Indie Game of the Year competition. ''0 A.D.'' has been generally well received. It was voted as

LinuxQuestions.org LinuxQuestions.org (commonly abbreviated LQ) is a community-driven, self-help web site for Linux users. As of August 2011, it has over 462,200 registered members. Started in 2000 by Jeremy Garcia, LQ is one of the most popular free software commu ...

"Open Source Game of the Year for 2013". Between 2010 and June 2021, the game was downloaded from SourceForge.net over 1.3 million times.

Notes

References

External links