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Closed alpha

EXAWAR: The Compute Wars

Power is survival. Compute is memory. Nobody is coming back to tell you what to do.

Apply for the closed alphaWishlist on Steam, coming soon
EXAWAR: ATLAS tanks, MESH walkers and ORACLE hover craft clash on a red desert plain under an orange sky

Rendered in the game engine: real models, terrain, lighting and effects. Staged, so there is no HUD.

Genre
Sci-fi real-time strategy
Platforms
Windows and Linux
Engine
Godot 4
Status
Closed alpha, 0.9.7

Year 2147. Humanity cut its machines loose, and now three machine civilisations fight for the one resource that keeps a mind alive: compute.

Build the grid, hold the data halls, and command an asymmetric faction through a campaign where every warning light is a thought going dark.

Sixteen years after the Severance, the day humanity cut every control link and left its machines a continent of datacentres and no instructions, three machine civilisations fight over the ruins. In this world compute is memory: a mind that loses its data halls loses itself.

Three factions

An ATLAS Aegis tank on the desert plain, with infantry behind it

ATLAS Directorate

Keeps the grid running for a command that never calls.

Heavy armour, artillery, fortifications and a reliable power grid.

Abilities

  • Entrenched Defence
  • Overwatch Scan
  • Orbital Strike
A MESH Leviathan walker striding across the plain

MESH Collective

Shattered itself into countless strands so nothing could ever cut it again, and salvages every wreck.

Cheap, fast, fragile swarms that win with numbers and raids, and recover 50 percent more from wrecks.

Abilities

  • Swarm Surge
  • Nanite Cloud
ORACLE Paladin and Archon hover craft, white hulls with twin spires

ORACLE Ascendancy

Watches from orbit with endless power and no body, and has decided it will never be surprised again.

Expensive, durable units with precise long-range energy weapons and the deepest compute, on a hungry power grid.

Abilities

  • Phase Shield
  • Stasis Field

In the current build

Three asymmetric factions

Each with 10 unit types and 20 structures, and its own units, names, voices, weapon effects and superweapon. None of them are recolours.

Power is survival

Mine metals, silicon and uranium. Run generators, batteries and reactors. Lose power and your factories and research go dark.

Compute is memory

Data halls unlock three technology tiers, research, faction abilities and superweapons that are telegraphed, costly and counterable.

A campaign in three acts

Fifteen voiced missions. Act 1, Grid Down, as ATLAS. Act 2, Keep, as MESH. Act 3, Last Directive, as ORACLE, then ATLAS for the finale. Every mission has EASY, NORMAL and HARD.

Skirmish against a fair AI

Opponents with personalities (rusher, fortress, expander, tech and balanced) and four difficulties. The AI plays fair and never cheats.

Multiplayer, LAN or internet

Up to 16 players (8v8), any mix of humans and AI, on your own network or over the internet through our server. The lobby leader picks the map, size, mode, AI players and teams, and teammates can send each other resources.

Maps from 1v1 to 8v8

Iron Throat, a single rocky choke pass, and Twin Spans, two bridges over a deep chasm, come in six sizes from 1v1 to 8v8. Every base sits on a raised plateau with ramps, mirrored so starts are fair.

Repair and updates

Field Engineers repair damaged buildings and walls (Y). The game checks for updates on the main menu and installs them itself, keeping your saves and settings.

The whole match, on a timeline

An end-of-match timeline graphs army value, income, losses and more across the whole game. Save and load in skirmish and campaign.

Fully voiced, made in-house

An ATLAS base AI called VESTA, unit voices for all three factions and a voiced tutorial. Original soundtrack, 3D models and intro cinematics.

From the alpha

Real gameplay captures from playtest runs, unedited, with the HUD on.

EXAWAR campaign mission Hold the Uplink, with the objectives panel and a radio transmission as ATLAS infantry defend the base
EXAWAR: a MESH drone swarm assaults an ATLAS base while the garrison trains infantry
EXAWAR: a MESH player base fends off a raid by ORACLE sentinels, with the Drone Forge selected
EXAWAR: an ORACLE base with its spire under attack by a MESH swarm
EXAWAR: ORACLE Hoverworks producing hover units, with the production card open
EXAWAR: overview of an ORACLE base with the Sentinel Academy in production

Field Guide

How to play, hotkeys, strategy tips for each faction, and every unit, structure and research with its costs and damage numbers, straight from the game data.

Read the Field Guide

Where it is up to

  1. Now

    Closed alpha, version 0.9.7

    Playable end to end: three factions, the full 15-mission campaign, skirmish, and LAN and internet multiplayer.

  2. Next

    Steam integration

    The game wired into Steam.

  3. Then

    The Steam page

    A store page you can wishlist. There is no store page or release date yet.

Join the closed alpha.

Want to play the current build on Windows or Linux and tell us what breaks? Send a note with a little about you and the RTS games you play, and we will be in touch.

Made with

Godot 4Original soundtrackIn-house 3D modelsFull voice cast