openage

About

Age of Empires (1997) and Age of Empires II (1999) are Ensemble Studios real-time strategy games published by Microsoft; along with Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (2001), they run on the Genie Engine. openage is a volunteer-built free engine clone of the Genie Engine, written in C++20 and Python, that uses the original games' assets without shipping them. The project states that gameplay is currently basically non-functional while its internal game simulation is being rebuilt.

How it differs from the original

It converts original assets into its own moddable formats, uses the nyan content format, and adds an integrated Python console and API with Python AI scripting. It drops artificial limits such as the 30-unit selection cap and is deliberately not network- or binary-compatible with the original games.

Getting started

You need one of the original games (AoE1 or AoE2) or their Definitive Edition releases. The project recommends building from source (Docker is also supported); a Windows installer is on the releases page and some Linux distributions package it. A conversion script turns the original assets into openage formats.

Known issues & limitations

• gameplay: Gameplay is currently non-functional; internal game simulation is being reimplemented with simplicity and extensibility in mind.

Media

Status & roadmap

• A one-way script to convert original maps, savegames and missions to openage is planned.