Jupiter's Folly: free to play multiplayer strategy from the makers of Neptune's Pride

The creators of the terrific, slow burn backstabbing simulators Neptune's Pride and Blight of the Immortals have launched a new game. It's called Jupiter's Folly , a self styled "online strategy boardgame" that has a cluster of players fighting for the right to mine precious Crystal from bountiful planetoids. You can play for free in your browser, and pay later to unlock premium features, like more maps, new armies and the ability to create your own custom games.

Like Neptune's Pride and Blight of the Immortals, Jupiter's Folly is about using limited forces to capture linked nodes on a battlefield. You can choose to mine nodes above rich veins of crystal, or stock up forces to fend off nearby human rivals and deflect attacks from the malevolent alien race that inhabit the rock. While there can only be one winner, the best way to dominate a map is to team up with your competitors. So fragile alliances start to form, and the inevitable plotting begins.

Games of Jupiter's Folly last for weeks. You log in once a day to move your forces about, check your resources and trade ability cards with other players. While you're logged off, your orders will slowly take shape. It's a formula that will hopefully encourage the kind of back-room deals and glorious betrayals that made Neptune's Pride our web game of the year in 2010. You'll have to pay to set up games with friends, but if you're quick, and all join a game at once, chances are you might get matched up with your pals anyway.

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.

Latest in Strategy
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
Civilization 7 Great Britain - Modern Civ art (via YouTube)
As Civilization 7 struggles to keep up with Civ 5 player counts, a new patch is coming tomorrow with still more UI changes and gameplay tweaks
Battle Brothers
Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.
Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
Age of Empires 2
Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
Endless Legend 2 Kin faction reveal
It's turtle time: Endless Legend 2's first faction is the fortification-loving Kin of Sheredyn
Latest in News
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again