''0 A.D.'' is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

under development by Wildfire Games. 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 Within 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 platform, computing platforms. Some ...

, playable on

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, and

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. It is composed entirely of

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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 which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

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 (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

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, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

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 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 Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...

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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

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organization. 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 "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