# OpenReliant: reimplementing the StarLancer engine

> OpenReliant reimplements the engine of StarLancer, the 2000 space-combat game by Warthog and Digital Anvil. It is written in Zig on SDL3 and draws with Vulkan, or Metal on macOS. The README says the beta can play the whole campaign, and that saves from the original game carry over.

- Type: Case study
- Targets: Game
- Category: Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed: 2026-11-07
- Added to the catalog: 2026-11-09
- Original resource: <https://github.com/OpenReliant/openreliant>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/OpenReliant/openreliant/blob/b22fc9ad5f3db4838e9224b9962411aefedbcb72/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/openreliant/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/openreliant/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/openreliant/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- The player supplies a retail copy of StarLancer. Building needs Zig 0.17.
- Source code is MPL-2.0. Documentation under docs/ is CC BY-SA 4.0.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/OpenReliant/openreliant/blob/b22fc9ad5f3db4838e9224b9962411aefedbcb72/README.md>

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## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.