Can I play Petalwar now?
Yes. Petalwar is in beta: download it for Windows or macOS from this page, and the game's title screen offers a newer version when there is one. It may still have bugs, so please report them to us on mssgs.
Which platforms is it on?
Windows and macOS now, and Linux to follow. Petalwar is built in Unreal Engine 5 for the desktop, with a mouse or a trackpad; on a Mac it runs on Apple silicon.
What is a Heartbloom?
The heart of every base: a great crystal flower on the centre pad, with five petals standing thirty metres out. While any petal stands, the Heartbloom cannot be harmed. A match is lost only when a Heartbloom falls, and in a team match or a free-for-all a fallen side can still come back: three petal shards carried home by its engineers regrow it.
Can I play alone?
Yes. The campaign takes you through eight levels, and a skirmish pits you against the built-in AI, which waits for your first order before it starts. Every opponent is drawn with its own personality, raider, turtle, boomer or balanced, and its own good and bad spells.
Is there a campaign?
Yes, since 0.5.20: eight levels played in order, each opening more of the game. The first is the economy and tier-1 tanks against a slow opponent on Hearthland Basin; then come defences, tech 2, the air, the water and tech 3, and at the end two and three opponents at once. Each level has three objectives and up to three blooms to earn, and winning one opens the next. Campaign matches are not rated on the highscores.
Is there a tutorial?
Yes. Your first start opens a short voiced tutorial on Hearthland Basin: a narrator shows you how to look around the valley, zoom, select your engineers and send them with a right-click, and each step waits until you have done it. Skip it whenever you like, and play it again from the title screen's Tutorial row. The guide's tutorial page shows every step.
Why was Petalwar made?
Because there was no Supreme Commander for the Mac, and because real-time strategy deserves more players than the few of us who have played it for years. Petalwar keeps the big-picture command of Supreme Commander, makes the first hour gentler, and lets friends command one base together, so a new player can learn one job at a time next to someone who already knows the way. The About page tells the whole story.
Is there multiplayer?
Yes. Play Together connects commanders online or on your local network: one player hosts a match and shares its invite code, the others join and each picks a faction. Maps seat from two, as Hearthland Basin does, to eight on Petal Crown (the guide’s Maps and Skirmish AI chapter gives every map’s seats), and the AI can take any open seat.
Can friends command one base together?
Yes. In a match of more commanders, two to four people can share one start (split command): one runs the economy and the engineers, another leads the army at the front, a third takes the air or the sea. You share the base and its Heartbloom, and every one of you earns the match's result and experience in full, on the Teams or Co-op highscores. It is the easiest way to bring a friend into their first strategy game.
Will it feel familiar to Supreme Commander players?
It should: Petalwar started because there was no Supreme Commander or Forged Alliance for the Mac. Box select, right-click orders, attack-move on Q, Shift-queued orders, engineers that assist, control groups on Ctrl+1 to 9, adjacency bonuses and a strategic zoom with icons, around a simpler objective: guard your Heartbloom's five petals. Every key can be rebound in Options.
Does Petalwar run natively on a Mac?
Yes. Petalwar is built in Unreal Engine 5 to run natively on Mac, Windows and Linux, with no emulation or compatibility layer. The Mac build is for Apple silicon, beside the Windows build, and the Linux build follows.
