Ironbound · open source RTS · Godot 4.7
You never place a house. The city builds itself.
Ironbound is a real-time strategy game where you are not the general. You are the one keeping a frontier city alive. Run the mines. Keep the trucks rolling. Lay the rail. Keep the power on. The army is what the city earns.
Free. No account. No installer. Unzip and play.
Open source. MIT licensed. Fork it and build your own game.
The fantasy
Feed the city, and it feeds your war
There is no house to place and no district to plan. Every delivery that reaches your command center feeds citizens, and a fed, powered city grows on its own, builds workshops and earns science.
Science is what moves you up: Industrial at 150, Electric at 450. Each tier opens heavier units, so the army you can field depends on how well you keep the city fed.
- Timber
- Iron
- Copper
- Oil
The loop
Dig. Deliver. Grow. Deal. Hold the line.
Dig
Constructors put lumber mills, mines and oil derricks next to deposits. Deposits run dry, so you keep expanding.
Deliver
Haulers drive goods home. Goods only count when they arrive. Raiders hunt the trucks.
Grow
Citizens eat what you deliver. The city builds itself from Frontier to Industrial to Electric.
Deal
Swap surplus with rival factions by caravan. Trade grows the city faster than digging alone.
Hold the line
New tiers unlock tanks, artillery, gunships and drones. Guard your routes. Break your rivals.
Your first minute
Claim your ground before the timer runs out
Every match opens on the map. Pick your start zone, then watch builders raise your command center. From there the city keeps building on its own, for as long as you keep it supplied.
Seven desert maps, from a duel on Twin Basins to four-player Four Oases, plus island maps where amphibious units cross the water.
Screenshots from the current test build
Muzzle flashes, tracers and rocket trails
Click any shot to see it full size.
What is in the build
Six systems. All shipped. All playable today.
Each crate below runs in the build you can download right now. The changelog says when each part landed.
Run an economy CRATE 01
- Dig timber, iron, copper and oil from deposits that run dry
- Put haulers on supply lines; a job board means a truck always finds work
- Wire a power grid with plants and pylons, and live through blackouts
- Pave dirt tracks into roads, and run trains that lay their own rail
- Buffer goods in storage yards and on conveyors; recycle surplus trucks for 75% back
- Set constructors to auto-expand and they grow the economy on their own
Grow a city and trade CRATE 02
- Watch the city climb three tiers on nothing but deliveries
- Haggle with trade offers that tell you whether the price is fair; sign agreements or impose embargoes
- Ship goods by caravan, and guard them: caravans can be raided
- Declare war, sign non-aggression pacts or form alliances
- Count on civil defense and militia when the city is attacked
Command an army CRATE 03
- Field tanks, heavy tanks, artillery, raiders, scout buggies, missile trucks, helicopters, gunships and drones
- Keep your drones flying: they must land at airports to refuel
- Drag a battle line, then fight, patrol, guard, retreat, set fire stances and queue it all with Shift
- Move big groups that steer around each other instead of jamming
- Hear every unit type answer in its own voice over the sound of the fight
Face rival AIs CRATE 04
- Play against rival AIs that hold defence zones and raid your supply lines
- Pick your colour, your start zone and each AI's difficulty
- Choose Guided or Raw rules: tutorial, helper AI and auto-build on or off
- Race a 45-minute match clock to the best score, under a unit cap and city size caps
Fight across a desert world CRATE 05
- Fight over oases, forests and canyons on maps with fair start zones
- Cross water to islands with amphibious units
- Play through rain, sandstorms and drifting cloud shadows
- Paint your own maps in the in-game editor
- Listen to an ambient soundscape made from scratch
Learn it, then mod it CRATE 06
- Learn the game with a step-by-step tutorial, hints and an F1 manual
- Hand the economy to an opt-in helper AI that never attacks
- Send a crash or freeze report only when you choose to
- Mod units, maps and resources: they are plain JSON files
- Test whole matches from scripts with the play harness
The story
Vibe coded with Claude. Yours to fork.
Ironbound is a hobby project by one developer, Destin Jones, built with Claude as the building partner, on top of Open RTS by Lampe Games and the Godot Engine. Thanks to everyone whose open source work made it possible.
Anyone is welcome to download it, fork it and build anything from it: your own RTS, a mod, a totally different game. The MIT licence lets you use, change and share it freely.
Straight talk
Early development. You are joining a build.
Ironbound is playable and changing every day. Expect rough edges. In exchange, you get to watch it move: every change is in the changelog, and anything that breaks can go straight to the issue tracker.
The builds are not code-signed, so your system will warn you the first time you run one. Each release lists SHA-256 checksums so you can check the file. Why unsigned?
Next on the roadmap: two factions with two ways to win. The Foundry League builds heavy, tracked and fortified. The Sandline Syndicate trades and raids on wheels. Meet the factions.
Free for everyone
Free. No account. Unzip and play.
Download Ironbound
Latest releaseThe first public build is not out yet. The buttons open the releases page on GitHub, where it will appear.
Free, no account, no installer: unzip and play. Run from source · All releases
The city builds itself. You just have to keep it alive.