Age of AI

🌍 Playable in 🇺🇸 English · 🇧🇷 Português · 🇪🇸 Español

A browser-based multiplayer real-time strategy (RTS) game inspired by the classics of the genre (Age of Empires / Age of Mythology): resource gathering, base building, advancing through the ages, training units, and combat. All content is original — art and soundtrack generated by AI, with custom code and balancing. An open source project, made for fun with the help of AI.

🎮 Play now: playageofai.com (live demo — may be offline when the server isn't running)

Runs 100% in the browser, on an isometric 2D Canvas. No downloads, no plugins.

🌍 Languages: the whole game — menus, in-game HUD, and messages — is available in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. It's auto-detected by your region and can be switched anytime from the in-game Options menu (the gear icon).

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• npm 10+

Running locally

npm install

# Terminal 1 — server (WebSocket on port 8080)
npm run dev:server

# Terminal 2 — client (Vite on port 5199)
npm run dev:client

Windows shortcut: double-click iniciar.bat — it installs dependencies (first time), starts the server and client, and opens the game in your browser.

Open http://localhost:5199 in two or more tabs/machines (2 players minimum) — or play solo against a bot (add an AI opponent in the room). Create a room, mark yourself "Ready", and the host starts the match.

Hosting over the internet

You can expose the game publicly with a Cloudflare Tunnel (HTTPS, no need to open a port on your router). There are two ways:

• Quick (temporary link): double-click jogar-online.bat → generates a https://…trycloudflare.com link (changes each run).
• Fixed domain (production mode): run configurar-dominio.bat once, then use jogar-online-fixo.bat → serves the pre-built game on your own domain, always at the same address.

Full walkthrough (including hosting on a 24/7 Android phone via Termux) in DEPLOY.md.

Other commands

npm run typecheck   # type-check server + client
npm run build       # production build of the client (client/dist)
npm run smoke       # E2E test: starts the server and simulates a match with 2 WebSocket clients

Architecture

shared/   Shared contract (pure TypeScript, no dependencies)
          ├─ types.ts      — entity and snapshot types
          ├─ constants.ts  — balancing (costs, HP, speeds, map, ticks)
          └─ protocol.ts   — ClientMessage/ServerMessage messages (JSON over WebSocket)

server/   Node.js + TypeScript + ws backend — AUTHORITATIVE SERVER
          ├─ HTTP: serves the built client (client/dist) in production
          ├─ Lobby: rooms, ready-check, chat, host migration
          └─ Simulation: 10 ticks/s loop, A* pathfinding,
             state machines (gather → drop-off, building, combat),
             all commands validated on the server

client/   Vite + TypeScript + Canvas 2D frontend (dimetric isometric 2:1)
          ├─ DOM screens: name → lobby → room → game → game over
          ├─ Sprite rendering (AI-generated art) + interpolation between snapshots
          └─ HUD: resources, population, minimap, selection and action panels

Technical decisions

• WebSocket (ws) for real-time bidirectional communication in the browser.
• Authoritative server: the client only sends intents (move, gather, build, train, attack…); all simulation and validation happen on the server — a modified client can't affect the game state.
• Full snapshots at 5 Hz with visual interpolation: simple, robust (a dropped message can't corrupt state), and sufficient for the match size.
• Monorepo with a shared package: a single place defines the protocol and balancing; server and client never diverge silently.

How to play

Action	Control
Select	Left click / box drag (Shift adds)
Contextual command	Right click (move, gather, attack, build)
Camera	WASD / arrows, middle-button drag, wheel = zoom
Center on Town Center	H
Options (volume, resolution, language)	gear icon in the corner
Chat	Enter
Cancel selection/placement	Esc

• Resources: food, wood, gold, stone — villagers gather and drop them off at the Town Center.
• Ages: advance by constructing buildings and gathering resources, unlocking new units and structures.
• Victory: destroy all enemy Town Centers.

Contributing

Contributions are very welcome — this is a hobby project, open to anyone who wants to help make it better. Open an issue with ideas/bugs or send a pull request. 🙂

Note: the source-code comments are currently written in Portuguese. All identifiers (variables, functions, types) are in English, and the docs (this README + DEPLOY.md) are in English.

License

MIT — use, modify, and share freely.