Unknown Horizons is a free and open-source 2D real-time strategy simulation with an emphasis on economy and city building. Starting from a small settlement, you grow it into a strong and wealthy colony: collect taxes, keep your inhabitants supplied with valuable goods, and increase your power through a well-balanced economy, strategic trade and diplomacy.

Key Features

• City building & economy simulation — expand a small settlement into a thriving colony on a randomly generated island world.
• Real-time strategy — plan growth, allocate resources and react to events as they unfold.
• Production & supply chains — produce, store and distribute goods to satisfy the needs of your inhabitants.
• Taxation & inhabitants — collect taxes and keep citizens supplied so the settlement keeps growing.
• Trade & diplomacy — build power through a balanced economy and strategic interaction with others.
• Written in Python on the FIFE engine — heavily scriptable and easy to mod or extend.
• Free software — the game code is licensed under the GNU GPL v2, with most content (artwork, music, sounds) under CC BY-SA.

Why Use Unknown Horizons?

It is a long-running, genuinely open project (in development since 2008) that combines the depth of a trading and economy simulation with classic isometric city building. Because both the engine code and most of the assets carry free licences, it is a solid fit for players who want a DRM-free, community-driven alternative to commercial city builders — and for developers who want a readable Python codebase to learn from.

Use Cases

• A free, offline city-building and economy simulation for Linux, Windows and macOS.
• An open codebase to study, translate or mod for Python and game-development learners.
• Multiplayer sessions over a network (multiplayer is provided through the FIFE engine).

Platforms

Linux · Windows · macOS (the latest 2019.1 build has no macOS package; the last compiled macOS build is 2014.1)

Licence

GPL-2.0 for the game code; most content is licensed CC BY-SA. Source: GPL (repository).

Website

unknown-horizons.org

Similar

• Widelands — a free, open-source Settlers-style real-time city-building and economy game, a natural alternative if you enjoy Unknown Horizons.