# Command and Conquer Style RTS Called Battle Drones

> Source: <https://twitter.com/simonw/status/2112630778068881543>
> Published: 2026-10-21 00:55:29+00:00

Simon Willison on X: "I built a Command & Conquer style RTS called Battle Drones, mainly using Claude Opus 5.5, which runs in the browser and includes device-to-device multiplayer over an audio link https://t.co/OUGfRDk7DU"

I built a Command & Conquer style RTS called Battle Drones, mainly using Claude Opus 5.5, which runs in the browser and includes device-to-device multiplayer over an audio link simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/20/ba…

I built a Command & Conquer style RTS called Battle Drones, mainly using Claude Opus 5.5, which runs in the browser and includes device-to-device multiplayer over an audio link simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/20/ba…

In addition to human-vs-in-game-AI and human-vs-human it supports two LLMs playing against each other! That works by pausing the game every 5s for them to think about the game state and queue up commands
Here's a replay link for Haiku 5.5 vs GPT-6 Luna: simonw.github.io/battledrones/v…

Claude generated all of the 3D models (in Three.js) - here's a model explorer that lists them all plus their animation states. My favorite is the giant "Goliath" stomping mech simonw.github.io/battledrones/m…

Warning if you're going to try this: the audio multiplayer plays a high pitched noise throughout the game - annoying at best, and at worst might give you an actual headache
(Natalie: "why do my teeth hurt?")

OK, that headache bug was really bad!
It inspired me to add proper online multiplayer to Battle Drones (via a tiny @flydotio hosted WebSockets relay server) - now you can start an online game and send a link to a friend so they can join you simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/20/ba…

Looks really good. In the years of CDs I would definitely buy one with these screenshots.
How many Claude Code Max 200 subs would you need to code this in a week?
