Skip to main content

Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Jagex begins 8Realms closed beta

Free kingdom-building browser game.

RuneScape maker Jagex has today begun the closed beta for new strategy game 8Realms.

Take part by singing up at the 8Realms website.

8Realms is a settlement-building game that ploughs through ancient, classical, feudal, renaissance, imperial, industrial, modern and future eras of history. The beta offers all but the future era.

The idea is to gather stuff to build stuff to train stuff and then expand. The hook comes from all the other real people building their settlements online at the same time. This will create a "highly political" atmosphere of careful negotiations and fraught alliances. Apparently both hardcore and casual fans will be pleasured.

8Realms, clean and colourful, runs in a browser and works on netbooks, PCs, iPad and other tablets. It's Jagex's first game coded only in HTML, which means sparse use of Javascript, no Flash and no plug-ins.

It'll likely be free-to-play when launched.

8Realms.

Read this next