Travian

Travian: Legends is set in classical antiquity. Each player starts the game as the leader of a small, undeveloped village, surrounded by undeveloped resource fields. Developing these fields increases their resource output. The village can be developed by constructing new buildings and upgrading existing ones.

Recruiting military units allows players to attack other villages to plunder resources, and defend from enemy attacks. Villages may trade their resources with other villages if both villages have a marketplace. The player may expand their realm by founding new villages, or by conquering other players' villages. Players can communicate with each other using in-game messages, and may join alliances for military and economic co-operation with other players.

Travian was developed and published in June 2004 as a PHP hobby project by Gerhard Müller, then a student of chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. The second version was released on 12 March 2005, with new buildings and changes to the game mechanics and graphics. Critical Gamers compared the game to The Settlers of Catan and Solar Realms Elite.

As a result of the unexpected success of the game, Gerhard Müller and his brother Siegfried Müller founded Travian Games as a non-trading partnership in July 2005, which was changed into a limited liability company later in the year. The operations and the rights of Travian were transferred to the company at the beginning of 2006.

Travian was ranked at second place in the medium games category of Gamesdynamite's Superbrowsergame Award in 2005, and was chosen as the Most Innovative Browser Game of 2005 by Coole Browsergames.

In 2006, Travian won the Superbrowsergame Award, in the large games category, and was chosen as the Browser Game of the Year 2006 by Coole Browsergames.