FLARE
HOMECOMING
Season One: Australian Wildlands
A persistent-world hex strategy game. Crash-land on rediscovered Earth, rebuild civilization, and fight for territory — free, in your browser, no download.
Rebuild. Explore. Conquer.
The year is 2187. Humanity returns to an Earth that no longer remembers it. Your drop pod has landed in the Australian Wildlands — everything else is up to you.
Turn-Based Hex Tactics
Every fight plays out on a tactical hex grid. Positioning, terrain, and turn order matter — bring the right drones and outplay the enemy, not just outnumber them.
Territorial PvP & Alliances
Claim territory on a persistent shared world map. Found alliances, reinforce allies, intercept enemy marches, and fight coordinated wars for control.
Base & Tech Progression
Build your settlement from a crash site into a fortress. A deep tech tree unlocks new units, buildings, and strategic options across the season.
The Evolved Wildlands
Earth changed while humanity was away. Scout mutated fauna, capture specimens, run recon operations, and tame companions that fight at your side.
How We Got Here
A World Left Behind
Nearly two centuries after the final flares, Earth is a rumour. The Sun's wrath shattered civilisation. Satellites fell. The skies burned. Billions died. Those who could leave fled to the Moon and to Mars. But before the last ships lifted, humanity's brightest minds seeded the planet with DARWIN-8: an evolution catalyst meant to thicken the atmosphere and push whatever life remained to adapt. Then they closed the door and waited.
Expedition FLARE-01
The Moon Council kept the elites in domed cities of research and control. The United Mars Confederation took in everyone the Moon shut out and built industry from dust. Rivals for generations, never true allies, until both worlds began to run out. Their fragile cooperation produced one ship, one AI core, and six specialists. Not to colonise. To explore, to learn, to survive, and to find out whether Earth can live again.
The Fall, and the Wildlands
Earth was ringed with debris. Shattered satellites, dead stations, the wreckage of expeditions that never reported home. There was no safe path. FLARE-01 broke apart on the way down and burned into the eastern coast of Australia. Three specialists stable, three in emergency cryostasis, one damaged AI core with a new directive: survive, adapt, complete the mission. Beyond the salvaged perimeter, DARWIN-8 has clearly worked. New ecosystems. New species. New rules. Learn them, or Earth will break you.
The Prologue
The story of Expedition FLARE-01, told in five pages.
Meet the Specialists
Commander Vex
The Ironclad
"Lost three soldiers in the first 48 hours. Had rewritten the entire tactical doctrine by day three."
Dr. Nova
The Architect
"Runs on four hours of sleep and a thermos she refuses to let anyone smell."
Forge
The Machinist
"Can fix anything except people. Says it often enough that the crew has started to worry."
Dr. Zara
The Xenobiologist
"Names every new species before establishing whether it is dangerous. It usually is."
Marlowe
The Broker
"Has never lost a negotiation and will not say what he traded for the coat."
Twelve more in the roster.
Some are still classified.
More Heroes
Coming Soon
Built in the Open
FLARE is in active development and shaped by the people playing it. The Discord is where dev logs land first, playtests are organized, and alliances recruit.
Join the Community
Red Horizon Interactive
Made by one person who wouldn't let it go.
I spent nearly a decade in the games industry, on teams behind games I still love. I always wanted to build my own. AI gets a lot of criticism, and some of it is fair. But AI is the reason this game exists at all. It let one person build the thing that used to need a studio. It isn't perfect. Neither am I. But it's mine, I'm proud of it, and it's real.
Read the full story