Nightide
A free browser auto-battler where both sides play by the same rules: draft buildings, run a three-resource economy and bring down the other side's lighthouse. The developer says it was built throughout in collaboration with Claude Code.
Official site defiabell.itch.io, verified Nov 3, 2026. Linked in the developer's V2EX post and in the README of the developer's defiabell/nightide repository.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- Play free — itch.ioitch.ioReleasedFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
- Play free — official siteBrowserReleased · Direct link to the same build on GitHub PagesFree
Runs in a desktop or mobile browser. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Nightide
Nightide (夜潮) is a symmetric auto-war strategy game that runs in the browser. You and the opponent use the same rules, cards and map; units fight on their own while you handle the strategy layer: drafting a new building from three choices at each level-up, managing gold, wood and ore, switching formations and spending lamplight on abilities. You win by destroying the other side's lighthouse. Periodic night tides bring waves of wild monsters onto the map, which punishes players who put too much into their economy. According to the README of the game's build repository (updated 16 Aug 2026), you pick one of three factions (Classic, led by a clockmaker; Beasts, led by a thorn witch; and Undead) while the enemy faction is random each match; the modes are a classic battle, a fog-of-war battle and a defender mode against ever-growing nests, plus a daily challenge on a shared seed raced for time. On normal difficulty the bot gets no stat bonuses but remembers what beat you last time; the README says the hard-difficulty AI gets double the economy. After a win you can make a share card with a QR code or share a replay link. A match takes 3 to 8 minutes; the developer says it plays best on desktop and works on phones in landscape. The developer, defiabell, says on V2EX that the game was developed throughout in collaboration with Claude Code, with the design documents and implementation following a spec-driven development (SDD) process. Free on itch.io and GitHub Pages, in Chinese and English.
How it was built
Partially verifiedIn a V2EX post (Chinese) the developer says they built the game by pairing with Claude (和 Claude 结对开发) and that it was developed throughout in collaboration with Claude Code (全程 Claude Code 协作开发), with the design documents and the implementation all going through a spec-driven development (SDD) process. The post does not say how much of the code Claude Code wrote. Tech stack per the post: TypeScript, Phaser and a deterministic lockstep simulation, which the replays and the speedrun leaderboard depend on.
Spec-driven development with Claude Code, per the developer: design documents first, then implementation. The game runs on a deterministic lockstep simulation, so matches can be replayed frame by frame and daily-challenge times compared. After a player in the V2EX thread complained that wild monsters spawned unfairly on the player's side, the developer replied that random monster spawns had been replaced by randomly placed beast nests whose beasts gather nearby and can be lured toward the enemy. The public GitHub repository holds only build output; its README says the source code is not in it, and its licence is All Rights Reserved.
- Engine / framework
- Phaser
- Languages
- TypeScript
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Initial build time
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“技术栈：TypeScript + Phaser + 确定性 lockstep sim （回放/速通榜依赖它），全程 Claude Code 协作开发，设计文档和实现全走 SDD 流程。”Verification notes: AI use, the tech stack and the SDD process come from the developer's V2EX post (26 Jul 2026, China time), which links both the itch.io page and the GitHub Pages build; the README of the defiabell/nightide repository links the same two. The itch.io page itself does not mention AI. Factions, modes and difficulty details come from the repository README (last changed 16 Aug 2026); the itch.io text still describes an earlier set-up (four enemy archetypes chosen by a witch who holds grudges). The repository holds build output only (87 commits, the earliest on 20 Jul 2026 labelled Nightide V4), so earlier versions and the first release date are unknown, and itch.io shows no release date. The language switch (中文 / English) was found in the game's code; the game was not played. The opponent is scripted game logic; no calls to AI services were found in the game's code. Team size is not stated.
Development history
Earliest commit in the GitHub Pages repository: a deploy labelled Nightide V4.
ObservedGitHubThe developer posts the game on V2EX and asks for feedback.
DeveloperV2EX (defiabell)Replying to feedback, the developer says random wild-monster spawns have been replaced by randomly placed beast nests.
DeveloperV2EX (defiabell)README updated: three selectable factions with a random enemy faction, three modes plus the daily challenge, a stronger hard difficulty and replay sharing.
ObservedGitHub
Game performance
Each figure measures something different — concurrent players, owners, downloads and sales are never interchangeable and are never added together. Labels show where each number comes from.
itch.io
Free to play in the browser; itch.io suggests an optional $1.00 payment.
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Gross revenue.
Browser (official site)
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: Concurrent players (site), Monthly revenue, Gross revenue.
Sales & revenue (all platforms)
Browser game — there are no downloads to count.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 用 AI 结对做了一个网页游戏《夜潮》：对称自动战争＋轮抽构筑，单局 3 分钟，无需下载 V2EX (defiabell) · Chinese (Simplified) | Social post | Jul 26, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Nightide by defiabell itch.io | Store page | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| defiabell/nightide — 夜潮 Nightide (README, build output) GitHub · Chinese (Simplified) | Repository | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) defiabell | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
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