Alpha Testing: Comment any Bugs!

Ascendancy A.I.
reborn for the modern web

Ascendancy: Archon Insurrection is a fan-made web-browser-based remake inspired by the 1995 classic MS-DOS Ascendancy game.  I'll put my hands up and admit it was mostly developed with assistance from AI LLMs and a lot of prompting... a lot of prompting.  The project aims to preserve the accessibility, atmosphere and simplicity of the original game while modernising the presentation and expanding the galactic narrative.  This is a non-commercial fan project created out of appreciation for the original game and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any copyright holders or similarly named reboot projects.

Watch Promo Short Follow Development Play Alpha Version

Transmission Incoming

Early visual development footage and concept artwork from Ascendancy: Archon Insurrection.

Ascendancy Ship Artwork Ascendancy Ship Artwork Archaeological Ruins

Species Selection

Game Setup: Species Selection Screen

Gameplay Interface

Gameplay: Galaxy

Planet Interface

Gameplay: Planet View Interface

Research Interface

Gameplay: Research View Interface

Ship Combat Interface

Gameplay: Ship Combat

What Awaits Beyond

Faithful To The Original

The same species abilities, research paths, diplomacy and strategic gameplay that made Ascendancy a classic, recreated for modern systems.

Redrawn & Upscaled

Every species portrait, structure, ship component and interface element has been recreated in higher resolution while preserving the original visual style.

Orbital Development

Construct Shipyards, Orbital Docks, Orbital Shields and powerful orbital infrastructure above your colonies to support expansion and defence.

Beyond The Original Tech Tree

Research continues far beyond the technologies of the original game, unlocking new structures, advanced ship systems and entirely new strategic paths.

Megastructures

Progress from orbital habitats to Dyson Swarms, Dyson Spheres, Matrioshka Brains, Birch Worlds and other galaxy-shaping engineering projects.

The Road To Ascendancy

Pursue new endgame technologies including Collective Consciousness, Galactic Noosphere, Omniscience and Ascendancy itself.

Your Comments

Share your memories of the original Ascendancy, thoughts on the remake, or suggestions for future development

Notify Me

Join the mailing list for release updates, development milestones and major announcements.

Development Changelog

Ongoing progress updates for Ascendancy: Archon Insurrection.

v0.22
2026-06-14

If anyone builds it

  • AI players added, with multiple development routes prioritising research and continuous planet colonisation.
  • Species Intelligence View added, for the developers' sanity.
  • Unique special abilities added for each species.
  • Background music tooltip added, displaying the song title and artist, with shuffle, next and previous controls.
  • Settings added for language, notifications and audio.
  • A playable version of the game completed in developer mode, including visibility of other players' structures, ships and abilities.
  • Alpha release completed.
v0.21
2026-06-07

Same Game, Different Day

  • Day progression added to gameplay.
  • Research tree logic now obeys day progression.
  • More sun types added.
  • Player Name change added to the user menu.
  • Xeno Ruins randomly placed across the galaxy.
  • Climate Change penalties added.
  • Star System View increased to 10 orbits, with planets displayed at 1.2 scale.
  • Ship movement, colonisation, and awesomeness added.
  • Interface navigation bugs squished.
v0.20
2026-06-06

Star Gigastructures Building

  • Stars are now colonisable.
  • Star structures added on a 32-slot grid, with the four central slots omitted.
  • Ship Builder interface completed, with component maths added.
  • Gameplay interface revamped across the research, galaxy, system, star, planet, and ship views.
v0.19
2026-06-03

In for a penny, in for a pound

  • Found I can play the original Ascendancy game on freebies.games...
  • Planet view enhanced layout and navigation.
  • Listing all the things I'd improve on the original.
v0.18
2026-05-30

Weekend! Research Tree Expanded

  • Added orbital structures, star structures, computationalism, and ascendancy
  • Planet structure building: replaced CSS grid with Three.js grid for a more robust solution.
  • Archaeological Ruins randomly placed across the galaxy.
v0.17
2026-05-27

Ship View

  • Copied planet view to create ship view
  • Ship builder added to planet view management
  • Ship list panel completed
v0.16
2026-05-25

Species Regenerated

  • Using ChatGPT Image 2 for advisors portraits
  • Using Digen Real Motion 3.1 Turbo for advisor character selection video (Aqualith to Slipstreamers)
  • Using Tencent HY Video 1.5 I2V for advisor character selection video (Stellarchs onwards)
  • Research Tree interface completed. Sprites need modernising and revamping.
v0.15
2026-05-24

Planet View Review

  • Planet view by clicking on star system view planet
  • Planet list load irrespective of viewing unclaimed planets
  • Generate planet tiles based on percentages in JSON file
  • Generate planet tile grid based on sizes in JSON file
  • Bug returning to galaxy view where three.js fails and goes bright white fixed
v0.14
2026-05-23

Star System View

  • Star system view accessible from galaxy map
  • Star system sprites completed
  • All planets in galaxy generated from start of game and stored
v0.13
2026-05-19

Help Section

  • Building the help section of the game, panel created
  • Content AI generated based on source files
v0.12
2026-05-18

Office Day for Videos

  • Remaining advisor intro videos generated
  • Corrections to Planetary View, multi building stack, random colour tiles
v0.11
2026-05-17

Day of Rest

  • Planetary surface and orbital structures saved per planet in game session
  • Research, Production, Growth now affected by structures and coloured surfaces
  • Day turns moved back to rightmost panel and menus tightened for screen space
  • Videos of each advisor speaking completed using Digen
v0.10
2026-05-16

Planetary Interface Functional

  • Planetary surface and orbital structures can be built, automated, or deleted
  • Archon Citadel replaces Logic Factory and required to build structures
  • Surface structure build list completed. Grid placement completed
  • Intro video moved to main menu. Advisor video start game intro completed
v0.09
2026-05-15

Game Play Interface Revised

  • Main gameplay interface made responsive to allow for a middle bar
  • Planetary interface progressed, planet view shows over galaxy view
  • Planet grid implemented skewed at 45 degrees and adjacent building rule enforced
  • Planetary orbital structures complete
  • Planetary surface structures build system added
v0.08
2026-05-12

Game Setup Interface Revised

  • New Game Setup redesigned as transition between main menu and gameplay interface
  • Species selection, colour, galaxy density, atmosphere and player count completed
  • Game title changed from Archon Ascension to Ascendancy: Archon Insurrection
v0.07
2026-05-10

Game Interface Drafted

  • Three.js and 3D globe map interactive
  • Random galaxy generated based on galaxy density
  • Suns and stars now show as node points
  • Starlanes and Red Lanes showing with thickness
v0.06
2026-05-09

Game Interface Drafted

  • Stable top-bar structure
  • Faction-aware colour system
  • Reusable hover and glow framework
  • Iframe vs parent communication working
  • Session-driven UI initialisation
  • Scalable sidebar and action-card layout
  • Icon sprite integration
  • Audio controls integrated into gameplay UI
v0.05
2026-05-07

Game Interface Drafted

  • Advisor introduces herself
  • Gameplay interface loads in with placeholder functionality
  • All surface structures per species generated
v0.04
2026-05-06

Advisor Introduction

  • Screen 3 container shrinks and grows into gameplay interface
  • Exit Game button appears and confirms return to main menu
  • Ability to start a completely new game after returning to main menu working
  • Advisor appears at bottom left and introduces herself
v0.03
2026-05-05

Setup New Game Options

  • Screen 2 loads reusable main container
  • Screen 2 includes colour, atmosphere and star density setup options
v0.02
2026-05-04

Species Selection

  • New Game Screen 3 species selection completed
  • Select colour, star density and peaceful or war atmosphere
  • Planet homeworlds for all 21 species completed
v0.02
2026-05-03

New Game

  • New Game Screen 2 species selection completed
  • Advisor names and job titles standardised
v0.01
2026-05-02

Initial Setup

  • Initial project setup under codename Ascendancy3000
  • Main menu designed and applied
  • Mouse hover and click sounds added
  • Splash image and all 21 advisor cards generated
  • 18 homeworld planets generated with names and traits