I've mostly been scouring itch.io for games to play lately, since I've felt like I've gone through all the GitHub-hosted games. A Dark Forest is a new game inspired by A Dark Room. I didn't get dragged into it, but perhaps you may. It's still in early development though. Evil Incremental is a game that reminds me of Orb of Creation, or at least the first parts of Orb of Creation. Perhaps a bit too much. Note that it was designed with a mobile UI in mind. More Curiosity is a short, micromanage-y incremental game. I think I recommended this a while back, but I'm too lazy to check.
Also, not an incremental but I've been enjoying I Wanna Lockpick since laleyou recommended it to me a few weeks earlier. It's a puzzle game with lots of numbers. I like numbers.
On a personal note: today is my first full day of summer vacation. Hope I don't waste it.
More curiosity is very fun- I played it with a mouse, trackpad and mousekeys twice total. There was a mechanic in Dark forest that surprised me although the game is not finished.. Have not played Orb of creation since loosing the plot, I want to look back on incrementals to put together how to play something more complicated like that again. don't really want to say anything critical until I can make it clear what I am relating it to,
This week I did dip into several games. It started with the new Idle orbs 4 (3$), owing to it's excellent trailer shock! and the game itself is pretty small and sweet such that I could get reaccustomed, its prestige bonus is pretty weak although there is generous persistence and some bonus features. Reminded me of various things and I felt the excitement about mystery features again.
Still felt drained from playing yet decided to pick up the promising Multi idle (discord required), search it somewhere else for proper onboarding and id say it seems to be ngu progression featuring classes. so yea I'm going to slowly see how that goes i've still only been playing actively so have still to take off with it, the classes did occur to me as overwhelming but no I can think of them like something as quaint as hammerspace's elements and get over just the visual presentation extent of vagueness. so waiting up with that one but I am up to it yes.
I think its actually been two weeks where that was the extent of incremental gameplay but now can say recently have started into NES games, i played the dinky rpg Taro's quest(.nes) before realizing some of the menus were just incomplete or not used and the game cuts off and is not finished which is pretty funny from a incremental background. i have not yet decided on a flaw in the beauty of gameyness and so that game was intrinsically motivating to me for reasons i may need to reconcile in my extent of dread to drag in Profectus to involve it.
Despite this i did keep playing nes games having warmed up. -now I will lens my experiences as incremental but need to explain that before graphics that show everything were considered good, there was a tradition of secrets that was cut off but is still relevant today. so anyway I started some choice action games like spelunker and solomon's key, these games have a common thread of a hard reset that involves linearly replaying what you understand of the game - if you are doing this and can simplify the rest as 'the secrets' arguably this is a bit incremental. I mostly played Milon's secret castle (nes). that game is hard on the secrets (you have to understand these games basically intend for you to dream about them type ideas required) which i have leaned more towards being able to try your own deadend strategy through its arc of symmetry vs it just not working if you forget about pushing but you can either spoil yourself or have already done so somewhere else and are ready to play this time. once you can avoid getting stuck the level of commitment makes the game unreal, its able to be seamlessly unlike anything seen before exciting while grounded in the gameplay you are able to use. a meta structure like turbo shoot or savestates is often seen but being well rested or a incremental game conceptualiser structure would work just as well.
should say more but will reign in the worryingly off track direction this writing session has taken and will be okay. don't be afraid to also write such things, this can be counted as game development even without yet being moved on in format.
I downloaded it and every time I open it I end up feeling overwhelmed and closing out.
I've played more complex things before. I have no idea why I have this reaction. Perhaps I just always happen to open it when I feel tired or burnt out?
Yea I've bordered on similar feelings, I'd say its important to know what activities you are familiar with and see if you can do them with the game. Incremental games can be interesting in that you keep considering concessions on what you are prepared to do, in NGU you may enjoy playing actively and babysitting your gear or you might set into a schedule of hour prestiges, or else end up with something else you like or may like to use. I found ngu pretty readable however I like colours and first played with built up patience during recovery from travel. in general people say to just practice, or ask for information, it depends what you use, i tend to think people have a central practice that they are smart using so relating it to that or to other core memories...
I feel like overall opinion trends towards yours (I remember complaints about repeating the same content with little change for tiny boosts), but what people specifically consider too little a change, too tiny a boost varies. And if they have enough of other things they like in a game, they might put up with it, or deal with the problem by using automation scripts.
I can say I like when a prestige lets me do the content that took 3 days in 3 hours. I cannot really give a definitive answer on how I'd feel about taking 1 day to do what I did in 3. I did not finish Advent Incremental, but I can speak for what I have played so far. When you had to redo content, it didn't take that long (because the content you were redoing did not take so long in the first place) and it gave you a pretty nice upgrade afterwards. I tend to be a fan of redoing your past progress with a twist added in order to receive a bonus. Idle Formulas did this really nicely in my opinion, especially since your first go-around might take at least a day, but when you try to redo your past progress under specific limitations for a bonus, you are also expected to take 30 minutes or less to complete it.
I feel like the answer to this question is more of an art than a precise science, and that my answer is not too enlightening or good, but for the sake of engagement on this small community and on the Fediverse in general… I'm posting.
Just glad to find an incremental community that is not totally inactive. I started with @incremental_games awhile ago, answered a question about free games I am playing, and since I mentioned incrementals I figured I might point people to a community. And then I figured I should find one that actually has activity, so I went hunting again and I am here now.
I liked the demo for the first Magic Research, but the part where the optimal combat strategy was using a sword instead of any magic spells turned me off. Didn't cater to my magic fantasy, I want to fling spells, not use brute physical force ;-;
I know it's a very petty reason to decide not to go forward with the full game, but hey. It's my money at the end of the day, and sometimes one little thing can ruin a person's subjective enjoyment. I am happy for the developer, who's finding success with the game, and all the people who enjoy it.
Unfolding mechanics are one of my favorite things in an incremental. I might give USI a shot, thanks for the recommendation!
I like both! However, less abstract games have a way to pull me in to at least try the game that more abstract ones do not. If I think the game theme is cool I'm more likely to try it. Think along the lines of being a shark lover, so when you hear about a shark incremental you immediately give it a shot.
Haha I didn't expect somebody to reply to a post so old. People should probably do that more, although the way discussions are formatted here probably acts as a detriment to that sort of conversation.
Anyways, I liked how you listed both shark-themed incrementals as one is abstract and the other less so. I do take slight issue with the fact that the text saying "shark incremental" is not the text that links to Shark Incremental.
I figured on the Fediverse, the norm about "don't necropost" might be a little less strict. At least on my instance, I see this, the weekly posts, and one other post about making meaningful content as the only posts here, so I figured I was cleared to engage.
Am in principle a big fan of doing the same thing over and over again even in quick succession because any activity i think has at least two simultaneous parts so it doesn't actually have to be the exact same, that being said the content needs to be promising such that i am not trying ways of playing for dead end reason and that they have the authors energy to resonate against ..off the top of my head,
I don't like resets that are just a few seconds long or less than a second, because they tend to become repetitive and therefore boring. However, I believe that these issues are not just exclusive to quick resets. They can also be applied to games with longer reset cycles and in many of those cases the effects feel far more draining (an example: I've never been able to stick with Trimps for long). What I believe matters more is how much the game allows you to play at your own pace. I think a minute is a nice limit for a satisfying reset loop, though that is an arbitrary number so don't take it as law.
Looking at galaxy.click's user playtime page(topright menu> myplaytime> lastplayed) I was able to remember playing Cat clicker which is small and well done and nostalgic for the incrementals that exist on minecraft hypixel housing.. similar to roblox but not sure to recommend there though as they are a preservation nightmare, could probably reconjure a few. also liked the layout
Also remembered to mention the short game https://klianc.itch.io/clickr-100 , which full disclosure seems to be kindof a rage game but a pathetic and distracted one to where its also normal fun.
Ive been playing cat incremental as well. It requires a LOT of clicking at the start, but I enjoyed it enough to reach end of content. Although I think the last several prestige bonuses are pretty pointless - once you can quickly max out all the cats within each prestige, the remaining prestiges aren't very interesting. Since it's still under active development, that'll hopefully change though
I've been playing NGU Idle ever since I found out I was able to access Kongregate again (I don't have a Steam account). Other than that, I haven't been playing anything that I didn't mention last week.
There's a lot of games on that site, many of which I skimmed over. One of the games which caught my eye (non-incremental) was a game called "HP Atk Def", since the mechanics seemed similar to Tower of the Sorcerer and I had been searching for games like it ever since the discord server for Cavernous introduced me to it and the sub-genre it spawned. I'd say it was easy since stats were not retained between levels and thus you didn't have to think too far. But I liked it, and considered it a nice warm-up since I haven't actually played any other game in the subgenre. Oh, by the way, if you have any other recommendations for games like this let me know (although keep in mind I don't have money or a Steam account, and I can only read English).
I spent more time talking about a non-incremental game than I did about incremental games. I hope that's okay.
NGU is really fun, at least I like what I remember of it yet not sure what to do with that atm.
someone who's a big fan of Tower of the sorcerer is LAWatson who made I wanna Lockpick, and indeed that is the popular iteration of it in puzzle games atm.. yea not even remotely casual though apart from via love of pure math, lots of paradigm shifts at least.. really I am just in kindof a creative rut, it is actually a great game, begging the question of such greatness as predicated on creativeinspiration, notwithstanding..
Incremental games are kinda nihilistic to me. I find a neat new one and get the rush of making progress, then a few days later the emptiness of it and existence in general hits me and I stop.
I don't think it's a genre you can make meaningful through mechanics. The only way to make it meaningful is through the context/story of it, ie, paperclips, sand castle builder, peter talisman, the mars potato one. And games with a message or story kind of inherently are incompatible with the giant games with months of content and dozens of interconnected systems.
What are your thoughts on the antimatter dimensions reality update? It's a game with months of content, but also added a bit of a narrative as you go through the celestials
I've discussed this topic and levied criticisms at common issues I see in this genre in an article called What is Content?. Essentially, I think it's better to have planned out the scope of the game in advance (as I've done for gamedev tree, advent incremental, and Kronos), so that the game feels like it has a proper end. It also sidesteps the issue of having new layers outright replace the earlier gameplay rather than extend it, as is common in games that keep asking themselves what to add next. Basically, planning makes better games.
I haven't made an incremental game and I haven't quite played out a single one for longer than a month, I could make things up and yet I'll just share a perspective I already have on hand:
I have seen people enjoy even scratchy action games, who play a lot of action games because they like the language and find actions they can bring over in pretend from other action games. I have found incremental games the same with the exception that 'time' is in someway more nebulous than moving a character around, though the amount of times I actually feel like I am exercising skill in a incremental game honestly is far from 0 and probably pretty similar.
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Repeating a simpler stage with a later one in mind, being attuned to ups and downs of E notation, reflexively tabbing out and back in, feeling shocked after you closed a game but still try to tab back, projecting to complete a set, deciding to just pile up a resource, deciding at what frequency to prestige, running around and keeping things in mind..
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Went through various thoughts about progress, - feeling like its the spatial component of a game that keeps you from fully leaving an earlier area, even if it may be a arbitrary way of recalling the memory. not sure many games deliberately try to reconjure a prior point in 'the' experience, can imagine devs may well think to do that but yea not sure how often it lands..
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Probably a real answer would be you just have to feel it out, giving an answer here would effect your feelings though, and yet oh well. am not sure what creates a particularly memorable moment and certainly wouldn't say the conclusion.. seem to have really strayed from that perspective, like, sure 'whats behind that ??' but 'whats at the end?' I don't feel like many games actually ask that themself but am kindof blind, so anyway, hope this helps for now! my beautiful content..
Today I'm too lazy to include links. The games should be one search query away anyway.
I've mainly been playing Idle Elemental this past week. This game is grindy in a fun way. There's always this feeling of having something new to unlocked, and each new unlocked thing introduces new aspects to the previously unlocked things. There's a certain beauty to how these elements interact with each other. The one major thing I don't like about the game is that sometimes it feels like it's forcing me into situations that'll make me desire new elements instead of having said situations naturally arise out of the scaling. The biggest example of this is when new elements are suddenly introduced into the costs for upgrades. It's just a pet peeve of mine. By the way, the game is available on the web and Android. I recommend playing it on Android as the web version can lag considerably.
There's a new round in FairGame, and I'm participating in it. It's a very relaxed round. On web.
I've been checking in more on Gooboo. It has nice ideas though the pacing is a bit too idle for my taste. Web.
I'm also playing Unnamed Space Idle. Web + all major desktop platforms.
I really am feeling lazy today. I only wrote a long description for the first game. Anyways, it's kinda quiet here considering the amount of people who have joined. I see a lot of people here now.
Thanks for sharing idle elemental. I enjoy it so far. Do you know, how fire prestige is supposed to work? I only see the 2 min timer, but there is no way to activate it. Am I missing something?
For that, you first have to unlock metal (get 12 earth) and then spend the metal on activating temporary automation (bottom right corner of each action). Each second of temporary automation contributes to ticking down that timer. If you have multiple active the timer ticks down accordingly faster, so don't be afraid of activating as much temporary automation as you can afford.
Furthermore, the effects of fire prestige only take effect after purchasing the second transcend upgrade in the air tab.
I'll admit it's tough to understand what to do. It wasn't intuitive to me either.
Yay that makes sense. I got my first two "on accident" and wondered, how it works. So "Auto 2m" means "Auto(mate anything for) 2 minutes. Thanks for explaining
This week I have several games previously mentioned in prestige zone limbo, roblox Generator incremental, Calculator evolution, and idle Elemental. I went back to some of them after retrying https://sciencecrafter.github.io/one-potato-incremental/ (infinite prestige esque game) which I had the mood for after deferring to replay the first region of Pokeclicker which is fun.
Also have been playing https://galaxy.click/play/4 after seeing it in the first few numbers of galaxy's links.. 'tree of nerfs' I don't usually find prestige trees colourful enough in some way, still this one is somehow so silly. Its hard to even notice the effect of the nerf upgrades sometimes and I like it feels like the 3d pipe screensaver just verymuch the complicated spaceyness you imagine in a unfolding game. seems it was made very casually but in an act of special genius no doubt.
Also tried Unnamed space idle, got a couple prestiges in yet haven't pulled together a sense of the loops yet and despite wanting a idley game I may just not be relaxed enough for it atm.
Did feel confident to try and revisit the few games I skipped over, https://nagshell.github.io/elemental-inception-incremental/ Alkahistorian #3, the menus I suspect are a unique challenge and yet that is less incrementalish, + because did not internalize the upgrades I would be going for, will take a harder look at it now I think.
Huh, I found OnePotato always crashed on me at some point relatively early in the game (potato 5 or 6?), and the dev has completely abandoned the project. (Source: The dev said it in the game's Discord I was part of)
Huh yes just by luck seeing their release posts on the reddit at one point so not much to offer there.. also yes I painted a bit that one potato does abruptly end having upgrades, never fully crashed for me though that's why I said it can be like Infinite prestige and or like just the first region of Pokeclicker, somewhat arbitrary points to make but I like it
All games browser playable unless stated otherwise.
FairGame - a multiplayer incremental. Looks simple but isn't (unless you start late). New rounds start every few days, if you miss the beginning just hang about for a bit, or ask in chat for tactics/strategies.
PedroPascalsTrianglesofPrestige - a game written for the April Fool's game jam last year. Don't let the timer trick you, this game should be completable within 5-6 years.
Louigi Verona's Bliss - I quite like his games and his website has more listed.
Emoji Recycling Centre - also made for this year's April Fool's game jam. It's slow, meditative, thoughtful and one of the best games I've played in a very long time.
Fundamental - I spent ages on the first world trying to do everything in one go. Madness. Someone took me by the hand and gently slapped me around the head and now I'm cranking through it.
Anti-Idle:The Game - Flash standalone, downloadable from the dev's Google drive. This game is the reason I created a Kongregate account back in ... 2011, it appears! 14 years of playing it and still not bored (although I have specific things I do now, such as defeating the Legendary monster in FCG because I do l like a CCG)
Cividlization 3 is out as early access/testing. Get in early!
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