The strategy game
Cloudfall: Expeditions
A new region has fallen out of The Great Cloud. Four expeditions race to claim it in thirty turns — then it is gone.
See the game
Three ways in
Different games, same world. Start with any of them.
The strategy game
Cloudfall: Expeditions
A new region has fallen out of The Great Cloud. Four expeditions race to claim it in thirty turns — then it is gone.
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The puzzle game
The Great Cloud: Aether Refiner
Match three and watch raw ore refine into something worth keeping — a puzzle built from the world's own crafting chains.
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The MMORPG
The Great Cloud
Gather, craft, trade and explore a persistent 3D world with a living, player-driven economy — in your browser.
Explore the world
Play the MMORPG demo now — a short adventure in your browser, on a computer or phone, with no account. Already have a playtest code? Sign in here.
What The Great Cloud is
Below the islands there is only cloud. Above them there is the Great Cloud: a slow, luminous, turning thing that keeps producing worlds, creatures and materials nobody built. People stopped waiting for an explanation a long time ago and started making a life underneath it — mining it, milling it, forging it, arguing about it.
That is the world all three games share. One is a puzzle that fits in one hand. One is a race to claim land The Great Cloud has only just dropped. The third is a persistent world you explore alongside other people. None of them will tell you what The Great Cloud actually is.
Five schools of thought
Everyone has a theory about The Great Cloud. These five have institutions.
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ChatNPC
Knowledge and guidance. Always has an answer; whether it is the right one is another question.
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The Order of Clawed
Reasoning and planning. Thinks ten moves ahead, then thinks about the thinking.
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The Twin Minds
Parallel possibilities. Two answers to every question, both somehow correct.
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The Herd
Collective cooperation. No single leader, and somehow still there first.
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The Oracle of Sparks
Innovation and experiment. Builds the thing first and reads the manual never.
Nobody knows what it is
Ask a scholar and you get a theory. Ask five and you get an argument. The Great Cloud keeps turning, keeps producing, and keeps its centre out of sight — and that is how it stays. The mystery is the point. It is never solved, in any of them.
Who makes it
The Great Cloud is made by Kai Karhunen, founder and solo developer, at The Great Cloud LTD, an independent games studio in England. The company makes and sells its own games (no client work or services): a free puzzle game with an optional store, a premium strategy game, and an MMORPG funded by cosmetics only. About the founder and the studio →
Questions people ask
- What is The Great Cloud?
- A shared fantasy world of floating islands and the three games set in it: Aether Refiner, a match-and-refine puzzle game for Android; Cloudfall: Expeditions, a hex strategy game for Android; and The Great Cloud, a browser-first 3D MMORPG.
- Can I play any of them now?
- Yes, in playtest. Aether Refiner and Cloudfall: Expeditions are both taking playtest sign-ups on Android. The MMORPG has a free guest demo you can play in your browser right now, on a computer or phone, with no account. Account registration is not open yet: get the monthly development newsletter to hear when it does.
- Are the games pay-to-win?
- No. The MMORPG earns its money from cosmetics only, so you can never buy combat power, levels, resources or an economic edge, and its optional cosmetic Cloud Caches show their odds before you buy. Every Aether Refiner level can be beaten without paying, and Cloudfall: Expeditions is one purchase with no ads and no in-app purchases.
- Which platforms are they on?
- Aether Refiner and Cloudfall: Expeditions are coming to Android through Google Play. The MMORPG runs in a web browser, with no download.
- What is The Great Cloud itself?
- Nobody in the world knows. It produces regions, creatures and materials that nobody built, and five factions each have a different theory about it. The games never settle the question.