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Battle Drones
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About Battle Drones
A retro C&C-inspired RTS built with Claude Opus by Simon Willison. Command ground and aerial drone armies in territorial war, with experimental acoustic audio multiplayer.
Inspired by Command & Conquer and retro 90s RTS classics, Battle Drones tasks commanders with establishing robotic dominance across contested archipelago island sectors. You manage power networks, deploy crystal harvesters to gather raw materials, and construct automated drone factories.
Military production divides into two core doctrines: heavily armored ground tread-tanks designed to establish choke-points, and swift aerial strike drones capable of bypassing cliffs and water hazards. Victory requires capturing strategic communications relays, securing mineral deposits, and destroying the enemy central nexus.
Alongside challenging solo skirmishes against multi-tier AI bots, Battle Drones introduces an extraordinary local multiplayer system known as 'Acoustic Duel'. Instead of routing through remote cloud servers or local Wi-Fi, two adjacent devices synchronize their gameplay via ultrasonic audio pulses emitted through speakers and decoded via microphones in real time.
How Battle Drones was made with AI
Battle Drones is a pioneering vibe-coded real-time strategy (RTS) game created by prominent open-source technologist Simon Willison (co-creator of Django and creator of Datasette). Willison generated the game through iterative conversational programming with Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5. Built on TypeScript, Three.js, and Vite, the entire real-time engine—including A* unit pathfinding, fog-of-war shaders, sound synthesis, and an experimental acoustic audio multiplayer protocol—was authored by AI agents under Willison's guidance.
Made by Simon Willison (@simonw).
How to play
Any modern browser with WebGL and Web Audio API support. Microphone permission optional for acoustic multiplayer.
| Left Click / Tap | Select combat units or production factories |
|---|---|
| Right Click / Tap Ground | Issue movement commands or targeted attack orders |
| Drag Selection Box | Bandbox multi-select army squads |
| WASD / Arrow Keys | Pan battlefield tactical camera |
| Mouse Wheel / Pinch | Zoom tactical perspective in and out |
Quick facts
- Open-source codebase hosted on GitHub at simonw/battledrones
- Created by Simon Willison through conversational vibe coding with Claude Opus 5.5
- Groundbreaking acoustic device-to-device netcode using speaker chirps and microphones
- Engineered in TypeScript and Three.js with full mobile touch and desktop support
- Runs at fluid 60 FPS in browser with procedural sound effects generated via Web Audio
Questions about Battle Drones
How was Battle Drones created?
Prominent developer Simon Willison built Battle Drones through conversational vibe coding using Claude Opus 5.5 to author the TypeScript game loop, Three.js rendering, and Web Audio synthesizers.
How does the acoustic audio multiplayer work?
Acoustic Duel transmits gameplay state between nearby devices via high-frequency audio chirp pulses emitted by device speakers and detected by microphones, requiring no local network or remote servers.
Can I play Battle Drones on my mobile phone?
Yes. Battle Drones includes a touch-friendly interface with intuitive tap unit selection, drag move orders, and multi-touch pinch zoom.
Is Battle Drones open source?
Yes, the full game codebase is open-source and hosted on GitHub under Simon Willison's repository (simonw/battledrones).
Tips for Battle Drones
- Establish defensive ground drone perimeters around crystal harvesters early to prevent enemy scout harassment.
- Use aerial strike drones to flank over mountain ridges and strike enemy power reactors directly.
- Enable microphone access if you want to test the experimental sound-based Acoustic Duel mode with a friend in the same room.
Sources: simonw.github.io, simonwillison.net, github.com, x.com. Last checked .
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