A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Buy Now$3.99 USD or more

Ruin everything.
You are a banker. You want to extract as much wealth from the world as possible--or, at least, more than everyone else. You will manipulate the global economy in order to siphon money into your secret Swiss bank account. Whoever has the most Swiss money in 12 turns wins the game.

Play solo against the AI or multiplayer against people who will imminently cease to be your friends.

Buy votes.
Unlike most strategy games, you will never have access to armies and never directly control territory. Instead, you will spread your influence throughout the globe by purchasing votes in parliament, or selling your votes to incite a military coup. You always share power with your rivals, waiting for the moment when you can backstab them.

Make free trade agreements.
Re-route industrial wealth throughout the world, from Mines to Factories via exploitative trade agreements. Remember: your goal is to make a profit, NOT to improve the world.

Manipulate the IMF.
Control the International Monetary Fund to force policy decisions without a regional parliament's approval. Basically, screw over your opponents without them being able to do a thing about it.

The map is upside-down
Because why not.


Buy Now$3.99 USD or more


Linux 62 MB
Mac 52 MB
Windows 44 MB


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At first it was hanging. When I sent ^C, I got:

ALSA lib confmisc.c:674:(snd_determine_driver) could not open control for card 0
ALSA lib conf.c:3328:(snd_config_hooks_call) function snd_config_hook_load_for_all_cards returned error: Invalid argument

and it would start without sound.

To get this to work with sound I had to edit ./Neocolonialism to contain the line:

export SDL_AUDIODRIVER='dsp'

Are you using Linux? If so, what distro/version?

Linux temperance 4.9.0-12-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.210-1 (2020-01-20) x86_64 GNU/Linux

I'm mostly just posting so other people can make it work.

(1 edit)

I've been getting this:
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:254:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pulse.so

Adding that line got rid of the message but still no sound. The game works fine, but clicking on music or sound in options would CTD with:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "__main__.py", line 128, in <module>
  File "__main__neocol__.py", line 1203, in <module>
  File "__main__neocol__.py", line 431, in run
  File "startui.py", line 313, in listenClick
  File "optionsui.py", line 187, in listenClick
  File "sound.py", line 120, in toggle_music
pygame.error: mixer system not initialized

5.5.10-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed, 18 Mar 2020 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Any plans to support 64 bit so MacOS Catalina will run it?  I really like the concept, but not sure if I would jump through the hoops I have to in order to run it.

Does the game not work at all on Catalina? 

In general, I can't fix MacOS problems because I don't have a Mac anymore (and won't be able to borrow one until....... the pandemic is over)

I'll see if I can get it running.  If nothing else it'll probably run in WINE.  If so I'll add some instructions for other users.


Myself and a few others have tried to play on macs but the display doesn't match where the mouse is, if that makes sense, and even then it won't go past the first couple screens. Would love to play if this is fixed!


This is a known problem with Retina displays... unfortunately I don't think I can fix it. The game still works just fine on Windows and Linux. Sorry about that!

(1 edit) (+14)(-2)

The map is not "upside down." It's South up.

(1 edit) (+2)

It's upside down for everyone who is used to the North up Mercator map, which is practically everyone.

It also seems like it's not Mercator? I would like to see different projections in map games more often, pretty neat stuff

It's a Galls-Peter projection


I tried to play the game on my Fedora 31 pc, but no luck. This is what I get from the terminal:

$ ./neocol 
bash: ./neocol: No such file or directory

I’m currently in the data directory

Rights seem to be ok:

$ ls -la
-rwx--x--x.  1 me me 5449058 12 nov  2016 neocol*

You guys know how to solve this?

This might mean that a library is missing. Perhaps running "ldd ./neocol" will give you some information, and it might be as simple as installing another package.

A very bold and original idea!