Simon Willison releases Battle Drones, an audio‑multiplayer RTS built with Claude
Simon Willison released Battle Drones, a browser‑based real‑time strategy game created with Claude. After 12 major iterations and 321 commits, the game runs as static HTML/JavaScript, works offline, and supports both mobile and desktop. It includes 9 buildings, 7 ground vehicles, 6 aerial vehicles, 3 infantry units, six maps across five biomes, a random map generator, fog of war, and adaptive…
Key points
- Battle Drones runs as static HTML/JS and supports audio‑based multiplayer between nearby devices.
- After 1,200 AI‑vs‑AI test matches, undecided games after 25 min fell from 14 % to 0.9 % and comeback win share rose from 24 % to 46 %.
- Developed over 12 iterations and 321 commits, adding 9 buildings, 7 ground vehicles, 6 aerial vehicles, 3 infantry units and six maps across five biomes.
The newest version adds audio‑based multiplayer that lets two phones within microphone range exchange game state, using a radio‑probe tool built by Claude Opus 5.5. Claude also ran 1,200 AI‑vs‑AI test matches, cutting games still undecided after 25 minutes from 14 % to 0.9 % and raising comeback win share from 24 % to 46 %. The author notes that Claude Code “Ultracode” burns tokens heavily but can solve complex tasks from a single prompt.
The project demonstrates that LLMs can generate 3D assets with Three.js, compose in‑game music, and design new maps such as the Archipelago, while requiring minimal human design input. Willison hopes the audio‑multiplayer pattern will be adopted by other developers.
Model pages: Claude Opus 5.5 → · Claude Haiku 5.5 → · GPT-6 Astra →
Battle Drones - a vibe coded RTS with audio-based multiplayer
Simon Willison · 20 October 2026
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