# Warzone 2100: the GPL-licensed RTS that survived its own publisher

> Warzone 2100 is a free, open source 3D real-time strategy game with a story campaign, online multiplayer and a 400-plus node tech tree. It is aimed at players who want a full RTS without a store, and at developers who want a C++ codebase with a long history.

**Warzone2100/warzone2100** — Command the forces of The Project in a battle to rebuild the world after mankind has been nearly destroyed by nuclear missiles. A 100% free and open source real-time strategy game for Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD+

- Repository: https://github.com/Warzone2100/warzone2100
- Website: https://wz2100.net
- Stars: 3,971 · Forks: 614
- Language: C++
- License: GPL-2.0
- Published: 2026-09-23 · Updated: 2026-09-23 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/warzone2100-warzone2100

## What Warzone 2100 actually is, and who it is for

Warzone 2100 is a 3D real-time strategy game. The README describes it as free, open source, with a story-driven single-player campaign, online multi-player and offline skirmish. You command the forces of The Project after nuclear missiles have nearly destroyed mankind, and you rebuild as you fight. That framing matters for who should care: this is not a sandbox skirmish engine with a campaign bolted on, it is a campaign game with skirmish and multiplayer modes around it.

The original release came from Pumpkin Studios in 1999. Eidos and Pumpkin released the source under the GNU GPL in 2004, and the remaining music and video files followed later. Everything since then has been community work under the name Warzone 2100 Project. The repository's COPYING file carries GPL-2.0, and there is a separate COPYING.NONGPL alongside it, which tells you the asset licensing is not a single uniform block.

The audience splits in two. Players get a remastered campaign with persistent bases and away missions, online play for up to 10 players, free-for-all or team, local skirmish against AI bots, and a tech tree with over 400 technologies. Developers and packagers get a C++ project built with CMake, with data, lib, src, tests and 3rdparty directories at the top level, plus CI workflows for Windows, macOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, WebAssembly and FreeBSD. The presence of a WebAssembly build workflow is unusual for a game of this age and suggests the porting work is taken seriously rather than treated as a demo.

## How the unit design system and tech tree shape play

The mechanic that separates Warzone 2100 from most RTS games of its era is the design system. Instead of unlocking fixed units, you research components and assemble units from them, so the same chassis can carry different weapons, propulsion and support systems. The README calls this a flexible design system that enables a wide variety of possible tactics, and pairs it with a tech tree of over 400 technologies.

That combination has a real cost. A large research tree with modular units means the interesting decisions happen before the shooting starts, in the design screen and the research queue. Players who want to react moment to moment with a small roster of well-understood units will find the front-loaded complexity heavy. Players who enjoy planning a build order across hundreds of nodes get something closer to a wargame than to a classic RTS.

The campaign reinforces this. Bases are persistent and expand, and there are away missions, which means losses and research carry forward rather than resetting each map. The repository also lists cheats among its topics, so there is a supported way to bypass difficulty if the campaign curve does not suit you.

Rendering is not locked to one API. The README states support for multiple graphics backends: OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan. That is a portability decision as much as a performance one, and it is the reason the same codebase can target desktop, BSD and WebAssembly.

## Installing Warzone 2100 and playing a first skirmish

The README does not give a package manager command for the stable release. It says plainly: visit https://wz2100.net for the latest stable release for Windows, macOS and Linux. If you are on one of those platforms and want the stable build, that page is the starting point, not a distribution repository.

If you are on Linux and want to build from source, the README points to the How to Build section and the repository ships a dependency script for that purpose:

```bash
./get-dependencies_linux.sh
```

That script installs the build dependencies on Linux. After it finishes, you configure and build with CMake from the repository root, which is the build system the top-level CMakeLists.txt implies. The README does not reproduce the full CMake invocation, so read the How to Build section before running it.

One step that catches people out on Ubuntu: the in-game videos are not always included. The README gives this command, assuming the standard install location, to pull the standard-quality English sequences:

```bash
mkdir ~/.local/share/warzone2100
wget https://github.com/Warzone2100/wz-sequences/releases/download/v3/standard-quality-en-sequences.wz -O ~/.local/share/warzone2100/sequences.wz
```

The file must be named sequences.wz. If you install a versioned directory instead, the README's Ubuntu instructions show the video going to ~/.local/share/warzone2100-<version>/sequences.wz, so match the path to your install. Videos are also mirrored on SourceForge, and the README notes you rename whatever you download to sequences.wz and place it in your Warzone 2100 directory.

For Ubuntu development builds, the README walks through GitHub Actions artifacts: open the latest successful Ubuntu build, download the artifact matching your release, extract the .deb, then install it locally.

```bash
cd ~/Desktop
sudo apt install ./warzone2100_ubuntu<version>_amd64.deb
```

Replace the version placeholder with the artifact you actually downloaded. A free GitHub account is required to download artifacts, which is a real friction point if you wanted a one-command install.

Once the game runs, the fastest way to see whether the design system suits you is a local skirmish against AI bots rather than the campaign. Skirmish is the mode the README describes as endless replayability, and it lets you experiment with unit designs without campaign consequences.

## Where Warzone 2100 gets in your way

The video handling is the clearest rough edge. The README devotes a note to it in the installation section, a separate Videos section, and a second note in the Ubuntu instructions. When a project repeats the same instruction three times, that is usually a sign users keep missing it. Expect a game without cutscenes until you fetch sequences.wz yourself, and expect the destination path to differ between a packaged install and a versioned one.

Development builds are explicitly framed as work in progress. The README says they are a snapshot of the current state of development from the latest successfully built commit, and that they should be considered a work-in-progress. If you want stability, take the stable release from wz2100.net; if you take a CI artifact, you are signing up to test.

The platform list is a limitation too. The project describes itself as being for Windows, macOS, Linux and BSD, and the CI matrix covers those plus WebAssembly. Android is not in that list. People searching for a mobile version will not find one documented here.

Finally, the licence is not uniform across the whole download. COPYING covers the GPL-2.0 code, and COPYING.NONGPL exists as a separate file, which is where the non-GPL assets live. If you plan to redistribute a build, that split is the thing to read before you assume everything is under one licence.

## Warzone 2100 against Earth 2150 and other 3D RTS of its era

The obvious comparison is Earth 2150, another 3D RTS from roughly the same period with a modular unit construction system. The difference in approach is ownership. Earth 2150 remains a commercial product; Warzone 2100 had its source released under the GPL in 2004 and has been carried forward by a community project ever since. If your reason for looking at either game is that you want to read, modify or port the engine, only one of them is open.

Against modern open source RTS projects, the distinction is scope. Many open source strategy games are multiplayer-first with thin or absent single-player content. Warzone 2100 ships a remastered campaign with persistent bases and away missions as its headline feature, and treats multiplayer and skirmish as additional modes. If you want a single-player RTS you can finish, that ordering matters.

The trade-off is tooling and ecosystem. A community-maintained engine built on a 1999 design will not have the modding pipeline or the active content marketplace that newer projects do. The repository does carry data, tools and lib directories, and the topics list includes mods and maps, so modification is possible, but the README itself does not document a modding workflow. Anyone choosing Warzone 2100 for its extensibility should check the wiki and the tools directory before assuming the path is smooth.

## Maintenance, licence and the cost of upgrading

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-22. The most recent release listed is 4.7.0 from 2026-04-07, preceded by 4.7.0-beta2 and 4.7.0-beta1 earlier that month. That is a normal beta-then-release sequence, and it means the project is still cutting releases rather than only merging to master.

Upgrade cost depends on how you installed it. A stable build from wz2100.net is replaced by downloading the next stable build. A development build from a CI artifact is replaced by downloading a newer artifact, and you should expect the artifact name to change with the platform version, for example warzone2100_ubuntu22.04_amd64_deb against warzone2100_ubuntu24.04_amd64_deb. A source build means re-running CMake against the new tree and rebuilding; the dependency script may need to run again if the build requirements changed.

On licensing, the code is GPL-2.0 per COPYING. The presence of COPYING.NONGPL means some bundled assets are under different terms. That is a packaging question rather than a legal one, and it is the file to read if you intend to redistribute a build or bundle it into a distribution. Nothing in the README states a policy on commercial redistribution, so treat the licence files as the authority and not the project description.

## Conclusion

Adopt Warzone 2100 if you want a complete RTS with a single-player campaign, skirmish AI and cross-platform multiplayer, and you are willing to fetch the video sequences separately. Do not adopt it if you expect a maintained package from a store or a game that runs unchanged on Android. Before committing, verify that the release you download from wz2100.net matches your platform, and check whether the video file is bundled or must be pulled from the wz-sequences repository.

## FAQ

### Is Warzone 2100 still active?

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-22. The most recent release listed is 4.7.0 from 2026-04-07.

### When did Warzone 2100 come out?

It was originally developed by Pumpkin Studios and released in 1999. The source was released under the GNU GPL in 2004, with the remaining music and video files following later.

### Is Warzone 2100 free?

Yes. The README describes it as 100% free and open source, and the repository carries GPL-2.0 under COPYING.

### What is Warzone 2100?

It is a free, open source 3D real-time strategy game with a story-driven single-player campaign, online multiplayer and offline skirmish. You command the forces of The Project after nuclear missiles have nearly destroyed mankind.

### How do I install Warzone 2100 maps?

The README does not document a map installation procedure. It only points to wz2100.net for releases and describes the video file placement for sequences.wz.

## Sources

- [License: GPL-2.0](https://github.com/Warzone2100/warzone2100/blob/master/LICENSE)
- [Project website](https://wz2100.net)
- [README](https://github.com/Warzone2100/warzone2100/blob/master/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/Warzone2100/warzone2100/releases)
- [Warzone2100/warzone2100 on GitHub](https://github.com/Warzone2100/warzone2100)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/warzone2100-warzone2100