Civilization in the Dark Forest

Scifilization

Found a city in 4000 BC. Six thousand years later, point a telescope at the sky — and find out what has been listening.

Scifilization is a free, open-source remake of Sid Meier's Civilization (1991). The turn-based game you remember is all here: cities and settlers, the tech tree, wonders, diplomats and caravans. It runs with no original game files at all, on new art in a single amber-phosphor style.

Then it keeps going. Somewhere past the space age the world starts listening, and the game becomes a story about who hears you — chosen by what kind of civilization you turned out to be.

The SignalHow the endgame begins, and the thirty years you get to prepare. The VisitorsFive different answers to the same broadcast. You will not know which until it is too late to change. What's NewMachines that wake, wonders that turn, storms, materials, culture that takes cities without an army. CivilopediaEvery page of the in-game reference book. InstallDownload it for the Mac, or build it on Linux.

The world

Play on the real Earth at epic scale (320 × 200 tiles) or on a generated world. Twenty-four nations compete for it: the Arabs, Aztecs, Babylonians, Chinese, Egyptians, English, Ethiopians, Franks, Greeks, Guarani, Haida, Haudenosaunee, Indians, Japanese, Khmer, Lakota, Malians, Maori, Mongols, Ottomans, Persians, Romans, Russians and Zulus.

The rivals are tougher than they were in 1991. They raise strike groups, fly their armies in by airship, reconquer what they lost, sue for peace when a war has stalled, and form blocs against whoever is running away with the game.