I tried Idle Spiral, and it feels like a pretty basic, like, formula incremental. Where you have a formula and you can increase the values of constants in it to produce more whatever per second.
The twist is that you produce radius as a currency, and it draws out your r over time as a, well, spiral. I didn’t get far enough to see if it does anything interesting gameplay-wise.
Ah, talking about unusual currencies, I remember playing Ordinal Markup, probably the most arcane incremental, as far as numbers go. You increase the ordinal of numbers, but it quickly grows into a heavily dense exploration of mathematics with very Normal™ guides such as
Pre-ψ(Ω): ω represents 10, no matter the Base. For example, ωω will always give you 1010 (1.000e10) base OP
Post-ψ(Ω): It is very easy to calculate OP values of Ordinals past ψ(Ω). The OP value at that point is equal to the Ordinal itself, so you will gain gOrdinal(10) OP. For example, an Ordinal of ψ(Ω) simply equals gψ(Ω) (10) OP.
Absolutely valid, these games are heavy into triggering the reward sensors of the brain.
I tried it out… yeah, it’s definitely a keeper for now. Seems like a pretty finely-tuned mechanics soup, you’re always close to the next significant-feeling threshold. Will report back in a week or so lmao.
Back to mobile idles: how could I forget Cats & Soup! The ads are entirely when you decide you want a boost of some sort, you don’t have to watch any. It’s also not like. Fully idle? You make less than the full amount of money for each bowl if you don’t tap and sell it while you’re in game, because it goes tepid or something and gets put on clearance. But you could also look at it as you make extra money when you do tap instead and just leave it open. It can go for 4 (or maybe 8?) hours in the background unopened unless you buy an upgrade with real money to make it go for 24h without being opened.
I tend to be pretty indifferent to most idle games. Numbers going up just for the sake of going up doesn’t do much for me.
That said, I’ve really enjoyed Spaceplan and Universal Paperclips, and on the less narrative side, Pachinkremental. One thing these all have in common is they all have a clearly defined end point, which I think I need?
Oh yeah, the pachinko one is great. Swept my entire friend group one time. Having a bespoke physical simulation element to it makes it very satisfying.
Succubox, which I linked in the OP, is a good example of Idle Game with a narrative and an ending, and somewhat similar to Paperclips, though the premise is much sillier.
Your post reminded me of Skynet Simulator which leans more into a puzzle type of idling, though its quite short and engrossing.
I’ve seen you, and others, posting enough about this to pique my interest so it might as well be my one purchase from the Steam Sale.
And I finished Tutetown.
So far the one thing I wasn’t fond of was how obscure the choice with the Nurse was, I want to be ruthless for my first playthrough since I’m curious how the game is going to punch back, but I want that to happen on purpose. As I saw the choices I just thought’d it be “Oh this is how, I’ve been selling coffee” and maybe she would chastise me, not a single choice and now she’s addicted/a customer.
So, I’ve hit sector 22 or so and unlocked tier 2 core modules in Unnamed Space Idle.
All I can say is that it’s definitely another entry in the NGU/WAMI/ITRTG subgenre of games. It’s pretty nice with a couple clever ideas, but I’ll see how long I really stick with it.
Currently on Sector 25, and I see it as a clear evolution of NGU, in the same way WAMI was. You can tell how much was inspired (Compute being the standard “Boost your attack/defense” mechanic), improved (Equipment merging in NGU was always a bother and a chore) and then innovated (The ways you can build your ship, Base building)
4G was very obstinate to making any kind of crucial changes to NGU and had to be bullied extensively to add the minor QoL he did, so seeing others taking the ideas and going a step further is, at the very least, reinvigorating.
played SuccuBox yesterday/today on the recommendation of this thread and enjoyed it! satisfying number go up and writing that gave me a couple of hehes. also, it has an ending? amazing
saw Loop Hero mentioned further up - it’s currently 2/3rds off in the Steam sale! I’d heartily recommend it for a somewhat atypical idle game.
I completely misread that reccomendation of Loop Hero as being Idle Loops. Loop Hero is very interesting, the graphics are at the very least amazing, though I couldn’t get very far into it, somewhat too repetitive and not enough idle for my tastes. Might try again another time tho.
i recently downloaded a game called AFK Journey which I think counts? It’s by the people that made AFK Arena, which is like, the idle game on mobile phones by my understanding. Gacha trash so don’t touch it if you don’t trust yourself, as per usual.
For me I’m enjoying it because of the polish and the fact that it’s another game I can play in portrait mode, again, the way god intended for us to hold phones in our hand. there’s a story that i’ve barely touched, i’m mostly just clearling the AFK stages and powering my units up. there’s some other event modes and what not but i’ve not engaged with them yet. it’s even easier for me to ignore the shop in this game than other gacha trash because these are marathons, not sprints - why pay for extra resources when the whole point is to wait until you get more tomorrow you know?
I played AFK Arena way back in the day, when I didn’t even know what a gacha was. The One Punch Man gacha game followed the exact same formula as well.
Thought Journey was like, some sort of rip-off, I’ve seen a few ads for it but no idea what its actually like.