About
Tribal Trouble is a 2004 real-time strategy game by independent studio Oddlabs pitting native tropical-island tribes against invading Vikings; it was well received critically and won several awards. Tribal Trouble Resurrected is a community-driven, actively developed fork of Tribal Trouble's 2014 open-sourced code, built with Java SDK 26 and Gradle, that aims to bring the game back online, remaster its graphics, and add new features with the blessing of the original Oddlabs developers. It's distributed free on Steam (with optional Steam integration such as achievements and rich presence) as well as via unsigned builds for Linux, Windows, and Mac, and includes a Discord community and a dedicated game server (with a MySQL-backed matchmaker and router) for online multiplayer.
How it differs from the original
Compared to the original, this revival supports up to 12 players online (double the original's count) on a new, larger fourth map size, adds single-player practice against three AI difficulty levels, a spectator mode, a web replay viewer, and accessibility options like UI magnification, high-contrast and colorblind-correction filters, and editable team colors; an upcoming 1.0 release also plans to add archipelago maps and boats, letting tribes leave the single island the original confined them to.
Getting started
The easiest way to play is via Steam, though builds are also available from the project's website or GitHub releases; unsigned Windows/Mac/Linux builds require clicking through an OS security warning before they'll launch. Players who already played on Steam before can migrate their existing save progress, and bug reports can be reproduced using the game's own per-run event logs.
History
The game was originally released by Oddlabs in 2004 and open-sourced under GPL2 in 2014; this fork builds on an earlier restoration effort by another contributor before adding online multiplayer, remastered graphics, and new features.
Media
Additional notes
- Roadmap
- An archipelago mode with sailable boats, letting tribes expand beyond a single island, is planned for the upcoming 1.0 release rather than available now.