Wagonfire is a free pioneer-trail survival game you play right in your browser, on desktop or phone. It's inspired by the classic 90s wagon-trail games, but it's an original game with its own writing, art, and sound.

It's 1848. Outfit your wagon in Independence, Missouri, and try to bring your party 1,900 miles to Oregon's Willamette Valley before winter closes the mountains.

What's on the trail

Outfitting store: spend a limited budget on oxen, food, clothing, ammunition, spare parts, and medicine
3 professions: Shopkeeper, Blacksmith, or Schoolteacher, each with its own budget, perk, and score bonus
Pace and rations: push hard or keep your party healthy
Weather by month and region: rain on the plains, snow and blizzards in the mountains if you're late
11 illnesses and injuries, plus about 18 random events with original writing
20 real landmarks along the route
River crossings: ford, caulk and float, take the ferry, trade for a guide, or wait for the water to drop. Then choose between the Barlow Road and a raft at The Dalles
Hunting and foraging mini-games (click or tap)
Trading at forts
Score screen at the end of every run
Daily challenge: the same seed for everyone each day, with a leaderboard on your device
Wagon skins
Autosave, so you can close the tab and pick up later

All art and sound are generated in code. No download, no account.

Made by Paul Heere, solo. Feedback and bug reports are very welcome in the comments. Please mention your browser or phone.

Also playable at https://wagonfire.pages.dev (saves don't carry over between the two sites).

More information

Published	5 days ago
Status	Released
Platforms	HTML5
Author	wagonfire
Genre	Survival, Simulation
Tags	2D, Historical, Management, Pixel Art, resource-management, Retro, Singleplayer, Western
AI Disclosure	AI Assisted, Code, Text

Comments

Bbeol Arcade5 days ago

I took the ferry at the deep Kansas crossing, then forded the shallower Big Blue safely. The depth warning made those choices easy to read. My foraging trip found only 5 lb, so food still dropped after the day passed—a useful reminder that every stop costs time. A net food change in the result popup would make that even clearer.

wagonfire4 days ago

Thanks so much for playing and for taking the time to write this, Bbeol Arcade! I'm really glad the river crossing depth warnings are easy to read. Your net food idea was a great call, and it's now live: after hunting or foraging, the result popup shows what you brought in, what the party ate that day, and the net change.