Roma2443 is a multiplayer RTS by Vermicelle, where the goal is simple to state and hard to master: build units and destroy the enemy HQ. Press Space or click your HQ to open the build menu and train a soldier. From there, it's classic real-time strategy, compressed into matches under 10 minutes with room for heavy micromanagement at a high skill level.
The developer built the client with Phaser and paired it with a Node.js server. The choice of engine was deliberate: light, simple to work with, and it let them write the frontend and backend in the same language.
"I chose Phaser because it was really light and simple of utilisation and allowing me to work in the same language front and back."
Client-Side Prediction, Server-Side Truth
The netcode follows a familiar and solid pattern for real-time multiplayer: the client only sends commands, with local prediction to keep movement feeling responsive, while the server calculates the actual game state. That keeps the game fair and prevents client-side manipulation, while prediction hides the network round-trip from the player.
Coming to Steam via Tauri and the Steamworks SDK
Vermicelle plans to release on Steam wrapped in a Tauri application, which lets the game link directly to a player's Steam account. The flow, as the developer described it in response to community questions: Tauri retrieves the user's Steam account locally via the Steamworks SDK, injects a method into the WebView so the Phaser game can call it, and the client then sends that Steam data to the Node.js server, which verifies it against the Steam API before showing the player's username in-game.
An asset pack called Tiny Sword provides the base art, but the fog of war texture was custom-built by the developer.
Try Roma2443
Free to play on the European server. No ads, no subscription.