Project Vanguard — a multiplayer browser game
A personal project in progress: an Ogame/Travian-style strategy game, post-apocalyptic setting, with resource economy, real-time construction, and asynchronous PvP combat.
Context
Another idea of mine: I wanted to build a multiplayer browser game end-to-end — time engine, resource economy, combat — and use it to properly try out Spring Modulith for structuring a backend by domain without jumping to microservices prematurely.
Role
Sole author — game design (mechanics, resource tree, and balance, all documented in detail) and full backend and frontend development.
Problem
A game like this needs a timestamp-based time engine (not continuous simulation) for build queues and attack travel times, a resource economy with transformations between resources, and an architecture that can grow by domain without spiraling out of control.
Solution
Spring Boot 4 backend on Java 25, structured with Spring Modulith into independent modules (settlements, users, security) with explicit boundaries between them, PostgreSQL with Flyway migrations, and integration tests with Testcontainers. Frontend built with React 19, Vite, and Tailwind v4.
Result
The game's core is working: registration/authentication, settlement management with buildings, a build queue, and resources — 96 commits in the first few days of development. Personal project, actively in development — combat and the neighbor map are the next design steps.