CivHaven

An open-source, turn-based 4X strategy game for iOS/iPadOS — explore a procedurally generated hex world, found cities, research technology, and conquer AI rivals. Built in pure SwiftUI (Canvas renderer, no game-engine dependencies) so it compiles headlessly and ships as an unsigned .ipa via GitHub Actions.

Independent project inspired by the 4X genre. Not affiliated with or derived from Sid Meier's Civilization. No third-party assets or code.

What's in this build

• Procedural hex map — elevation + latitude biomes: ocean, coast, grassland, plains, desert, tundra, snow, hills, mountains; forests/jungles; bonus resources. Deterministic seeds → reproducible maps.
• Units — settlers, warriors, workers, archers (ranged), spearmen, horsemen — each with movement, HP, and combat strength. Dijkstra pathfinding over terrain movement cost.
• Cities — found on settleable land, work surrounding tiles for food/production/gold, grow population, and build a queue of units + structures (granary, walls, library, barracks).
• Tech tree — 8 interlinked technologies that unlock units and buildings.
• Combat — strength-vs-strength with HP, terrain/fortify bonuses, ranged attacks, and city assault + capture.
• Fog of war — tiles are revealed as your units explore.
• AI opponents — settle, expand, build, and march on the nearest enemy.
• Win condition — last civilization standing.

Play

Main menu → pick a map size, number of opponents, and an optional seed → New Game.

• Tap a unit to select it; tap a highlighted tile to move (movement range is shaded).
• Walking into an enemy attacks it; into an enemy city assaults it.
• Settler → Found City. Combat unit → Fortify for a defensive bonus.
• Open a city to set production; open Tech to choose research.
• End Turn to let cities grow, research advance, and the AI act.

Build it yourself

Requires macOS + Xcode 15/16 and XcodeGen.

brew install xcodegen
xcodegen generate            # creates CivHaven.xcodeproj from project.yml
open CivHaven.xcodeproj       # run on a simulator or device from Xcode

Unsigned IPA (command line)

xcodegen generate
xcodebuild -project CivHaven.xcodeproj -scheme CivHaven \
  -configuration Release -sdk iphoneos -derivedDataPath build \
  CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO clean build
mkdir -p Payload && cp -R build/Build/Products/Release-iphoneos/CivHaven.app Payload/
zip -qr CivHaven.ipa Payload

CI / Releases

.github/workflows/build-ipa.yml builds an unsigned IPA on every push to main, on every v* tag, and on manual dispatch.

• Push a tag (git tag v1.0.0 && git push --tags) to build and attach the IPA to a GitHub Release automatically.
• Manual runs upload the IPA as a workflow artifact (and to a Release if you pass a tag).

The IPA is not code-signed — install it with LiveContainer, AltStore, SideStore, or your own signing setup.

Project layout

Sources/CivHaven/
  CivHavenApp.swift        app entry + main menu
  Models/                  HexCoord, Terrain, Tile, Unit, City, Player, Tech
  Engine/                  GameMap (procgen), Pathfinder, GameState, AIController
  Views/                   HexMapView, HUDView, CityView, TechTreeView, GameView
Resources/                 Info.plist, Assets.xcassets, icon.svg
project.yml                XcodeGen project definition

License

MIT — see LICENSE.