Back through the yew hedge
Ruddock's rainy-day shelf

Eight browser games for when
the rain stops work in the maze

When a summer shower drums on the potting-shed roof, Ruddock hangs the shears on their nail and opens one of eight free browser games that keep growing while he is out pruning. On the shelf sit two star-spanning empires, a modern war over a map of the world, a Norse clan feud, a football club, an animal park, a cheerful hospital and a market full of factories, and each one runs in an ordinary browser tab.

8games on the shelf
4with an official app as well
Freeto sign up, all eight
Zoo 2: Animal Park key art
Ruddock's own patch

Zoo 2: Animal Park

Animal park management · Farm, town & zoo

Ruddock tends hedges; here you tend a whole animal park. You breed and house the animals, keep the visitors fed and watered, and open new enclosures one by one as the grounds grow. Daily care tasks, decorating and a steady drip of unlocks give it the patient rhythm of a garden clipped a little every morning.

Good for
Players who like returning each day to a place that slowly fills in.
Length of a usual visit
A few minutes of feeding and care, longer when building
Where you open it
Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Cost
Free to play; optional in-game purchases.
Your first session
  1. Finish the opening care tasks before laying out a second enclosure.
  2. Put food and drink for visitors beside the busiest paths.
  3. Grow one enclosure at a time so the daily upkeep stays light.
Step into Zoo 2: Animal Park for freeOpens zoo2animalpark.upjers.com/en in a new tab

Seven more seed packets on the potting-shed shelf

Astro Empires key artStars, starships & galaxies

Astro Empires

Star-spanning strategy on a single map everyone shares

Bases on planets and moons scattered across a single map that every player shares. You grow the empire world by world, build fleets to guard it and, sooner or later, sign up with a guild for coordinated wars against rival players.

  • Several short check-ins through the day
  • Desktop browser
Who it suits & your first few turns

Good for: Players who want a vast shared map to stake out a corner of.

Your first session
  1. Develop your home base well before claiming a second world.
  2. Raise defences early, because bare bases draw raiders.
  3. Find a busy guild before the first large war breaks out.
Step into Astro Empires for freeOpens astroempires.com
Hyperiums Reborn key artStars, starships & galaxies

Hyperiums Reborn

Space empire strategy in long rounds

A rebuilt edition of a space strategy veteran first launched in 2001. You grow planets, weigh their economy against their defence and work the politics between alliances, and because each round lasts for months, patience counts for as much as fleets.

  • A daily visit, plus talks with allies
  • Desktop browser
Who it suits & your first few turns

Good for: Players who prefer negotiation and long plans to quick skirmishes.

Your first session
  1. Balance trade and defence on your first planets instead of maxing one.
  2. Talk to nearby alliances before you pick a side.
  3. Plan for the whole round, not just the opening weeks.
Step into Hyperiums Reborn for freeOpens reborn.hyperiums.com
Conflict of Nations key artCampaigns & conquest

Conflict of Nations

Present-day strategy on a world scale

A present-day war played out in real time across a map of the world. You raise forces from a modern arsenal, form coalitions with other players and plan several moves ahead, because orders keep unfolding long after the tab is shut.

  • Check-ins spread across the day
  • Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Who it suits & your first few turns

Good for: Patient planners who enjoy thinking in whole campaigns.

Your first session
  1. Secure your home provinces before reaching for a neighbour.
  2. Look for coalition partners in the first days of a match.
  3. Queue long orders before stepping away from the map.
Step into Conflict of Nations for freeOpens conflictnations.com
Vikings: War of Clans key artCampaigns & conquest

Vikings: War of Clans

Clan strategy in the old Norse lands

Raise a Norse stronghold, train your Jarl up a branching skill tree and march warbands out to strip map tiles or raid rival players. Above it all the clans wrestle for the Place of Power, and whoever holds it lends a bonus to the entire kingdom.

  • Short visits to start marches and upgrades
  • Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Who it suits & your first few turns

Good for: Players who would like a sworn clan and a feud that runs for months.

Your first session
  1. Keep the stronghold upgrading before training large armies.
  2. Spend early Jarl skill points on one clear path.
  3. Join an active clan so raids on you meet a reply.
Step into Vikings: War of Clans for freeOpens plarium.com/en/game/vikings-war-of-clans
Hattrick key artClubs & fixtures

Hattrick

Managing a football club of your own

A football club nurtured from one season into the next. Each week you choose a single skill to drill across the squad, transfers go through one market where every manager bids, and each match follows your tactics and the orders you give individual players.

  • A few minutes most days, longer before matches
  • Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Who it suits & your first few turns

Good for: Football followers who like planning seasons ahead.

Your first session
  1. Choose one training focus and stay with it for weeks.
  2. Look at age and form before placing any bid.
  3. Get your match orders in long before kick-off.
Step into Hattrick for freeOpens hattrick.org/en
Kapi Hospital key artEnterprise & empire-building

Kapi Hospital

A cheerful hospital to run

Patients turn up with all manner of complaints, and your job is to treat them, hire staff, buy the right equipment and add new wards. Research keeps adding cures to the list while the waiting room swells, and the building spreads room by room like a well-kept border.

  • Short rounds of treating patients
  • Desktop browser
Who it suits & your first few turns

Good for: Players who like a cheerful management game with no battles in it.

Your first session
  1. Treat each waiting patient before adding new rooms.
  2. Put research into treatments your wards see most.
  3. Hire staff in step with the wards you open.
Step into Kapi Hospital for freeOpens us.kapihospital.com
Kapilands key artEnterprise & empire-building

Kapilands

Production and trade economy

An economy game of production chains, factories and a market the players run themselves. You buy raw materials, turn them into finished goods and set your prices against rival firms, so a head for figures matters far more than an eye for scenery.

  • Sittings spent on chains and prices
  • Desktop browser
Who it suits & your first few turns

Good for: Players who enjoy a ledger more than a light show.

Your first session
  1. Begin with one short production chain you fully understand.
  2. Check what rivals charge before setting your prices.
  3. Reinvest profits into the chain before branching out.
Step into Kapilands for freeOpens kapilands.com

The whole shelf on one potting-shed label

Game on Ruddock’s listWhat kind it isHow fast the turns comeThe company you keepLength of a usual visitWhere you open it
Zoo 2: Animal ParkAnimal park managementUnhurried, tended over many visitsA shared online park worldA few minutes of feeding and care, longer when buildingDesktop browser; mobile app also available
Astro EmpiresStar-spanning strategy on a single map everyone sharesReal time, measured in hoursGuilds waging coordinated warsSeveral short check-ins through the dayDesktop browser
Hyperiums RebornSpace empire strategy in long roundsSlow, with rounds lasting monthsAlliances bargaining and feudingA daily visit, plus talks with alliesDesktop browser
Conflict of NationsPresent-day strategy on a world scaleReal time across a world mapPlayers banding together in coalitionsCheck-ins spread across the dayDesktop browser; mobile app also available
Vikings: War of ClansClan strategy in the old Norse landsReal time with marching armiesClans contesting the Place of PowerShort visits to start marches and upgradesDesktop browser; mobile app also available
HattrickManaging a football club of your ownWeekly training and regular fixturesLeagues of other managers, all humanA few minutes most days, longer before matchesDesktop browser; mobile app also available
Kapi HospitalA cheerful hospital to runRelaxedA shared online game worldShort rounds of treating patientsDesktop browser
KapilandsProduction and trade economySteady, figures firstA market of other players' firmsSittings spent on chains and pricesDesktop browser

What the eight cost: nothing to start, with optional purchases inside each game.

01

Nothing to pay at the shed door

Signing up for any of the eight is free, and months of play are open without spending; the fleets, the wards, the club and the enclosures all come complete.

Each studio keeps a shop of hurry-ups and trimmings off to one side. Plenty of long-standing players leave it shut for good, and families sharing a single laptop can usually set a spending ceiling from the settings page.

02

Planting the first seed

Tap a game's button and the studio's own website pops up in a fresh tab. Register there using your email, and before long a base, a club, a park or a firm stands waiting with your name on it.

Each game has a guided opening for beginners. Stay with it to the last step: it lays out the menus and the money side of things the way Ruddock plants a border, one bed after another.

03

Quick pecks and long afternoons

All eight carry on with the tab closed: fleets fly, patients queue, warbands march and goods stack up in the warehouse. A peek over the morning tea and another once supper is cleared keeps everything trimmed.

Spend the quick pecks gathering, lining up builds and trading a message with allies or league rivals. Keep a properly wet afternoon for the weighty calls, like a new enclosure, a coalition treaty or a second production chain.

04

Keeping your gate key safe

Your login belongs to whichever studio runs that game, so type it on that studio's genuine web address and nowhere else. Ruddock keeps a different password for every gate he locks, and so should you, and if a game can text or app-check you at login, let that second lock guard the hinge as well.

Nobody genuinely working on these games will ask for your password. Any stranger who promises extra premium currency in exchange for those details is angling to take the whole account away; Ruddock's advice is to ignore them and report them.

How each of the eight earned its place by the seed trays

  • Every game on the shelf starts in an everyday desktop or laptop browser, with no lengthy download before the first move.
  • There is no entry fee anywhere on the shelf, and a thrifty player can get well past the seedling stage in any of them with the shop left shut.
  • Empires, wards, clubs and enclosures carry on growing while the tab sleeps, so a glance between two showers still moves things on.
  • Each studio has tended its game for years, and the regulars you meet are well rooted and glad of new arrivals.

No. All eight open in a computer browser, and Conflict of Nations, Zoo 2: Animal Park, Vikings: War of Clans and Hattrick also offer an official mobile app.

No. Every one of them lets you register for nothing and play the whole game without paying; whether you ever buy an extra in-game is up to you alone.

No, and neither did Yew Walk Maze. Independent studios built and run every game on the shelf, and each button here sends you to the official website of the one responsible.

No. Every studio keeps its own register of players, so you sign up eight times over, each time for free.

Conflict of Nations, Zoo 2: Animal Park, Vikings: War of Clans and Hattrick have official apps beside the browser version. Astro Empires, Hyperiums Reborn, Kapi Hospital and Kapilands are browser-only titles, so they feel most at home on a laptop or desktop.

Kapi Hospital or Zoo 2: Animal Park, where a few minutes of care moves things along. Hyperiums Reborn, Astro Empires and Kapilands reward longer sittings.

Yes. Astro Empires has guilds, Hyperiums Reborn and Conflict of Nations have alliances and coalitions, Vikings: War of Clans has clans, Hattrick has leagues, and the Kapilands market is run by other players.