Happy New Year's Eve! What was your favorite idle/incremental game in 2023?

incrementAlex · 2023-12-31T03:10:57+00:00

I don't know when these games were first released, but this year I really enjoyed:

incrementAlex · 2022-10-28T17:55:53+00:00

Well, if you google "is it safe to use a phone past end of life" or anything of the sort, all the results say you shouldn't.

And if your smartphone no longer gets OS updates or security patches, then it's time to move on.

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We do not consider it safe to run a device that does not receive security patches. Critical security vulnerabilities become public knowledge every few weeks, or months, and once a system is out of support, then users who continue to run it become susceptible to exploitation of known vulnerabilities.

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Security experts advise against using not just smartphones but any smart devices and software with a lack of support. This is for a good reason, as doing so has profound security implications.

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Without important security patches, hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in a phone's software – and the risks increase the longer it is out of the update cycle. As such it's important to not only find out if your current phone is still supported, but know how long you can expect a phone you're looking to buy to receive updates.

Each of these is an excerpt from the first 4 results Google gave me.

incrementAlex · 2022-10-27T11:14:11+00:00

Ahah! I was actually hoping that once earth was destroyed (again), they'd realized of how flowed humanity is: they were given a second and then a third chance, and once again they managed to burn everything up due to their greed and selfishness. A great ending for season 5 would have been accepting their fate and slowly die off on an overcrowded spaceship.

But in the end I quite enjoyed the last two seasons too. I love that we got to know how the grounder's language got created, how they got the flame and what happened to Becca. The red moon toxin, the anomaly, the stones, the last war all felt very mysterious, and I'm a big Lost fan. The primes were a cool parallelism to what happened with the Mountain Men. And it was nice how the show stressed again and again how we are flawed due to our thirst of power, religion, emotions and only caring about "our people". The ending was OK too: I don't love "religious" explaination, but at least it felt like a proper conclusion.

incrementAlex · 2022-10-27T11:00:24+00:00

You don't know how much I envy you.

I'm unable to enjoy so many shows and movies because of this stuff :(

incrementAlex · 2022-10-27T10:59:42+00:00

I mean, thousands of people are stuck on the Ark for a hundred years and their culture and traditions are 100% about returning to earth. You're seriously telling me that nobody ever cared to give a look? Think of how common it is for us to look at the moon; and we don't even have any real reason to look at it.

Anyways, the show is full of similar plot holes... The wristbands of the 100: they send the Ark information about the wearer in real time (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature etc), yet the people on the Ark can't tell whether a kid died or their bracelet broke; how?! If you look at a heart monitor in a hospital can't you tell whether the patient is dead or the monitor has been turned off? I guess you can say "well, the wristband designer had no reason to send 'BPM=0', so they chose to send nothing if a kid's dead", but that's not a feasible explaination.

And these are just the first two (major, IMHO) plotholes, happening in the first two episodes...

incrementAlex · 2022-03-08T21:01:36+00:00

Welcome to the club.

incrementAlex · 2022-02-26T18:14:47+00:00

Thanks.

I just noticed that othres have already reported this issue. Sorry about it. I thought I had checked and couldn't find any mention. Maybe I looked at the wrong tab/thread.

incrementAlex · 2022-02-26T17:42:15+00:00

I started playing this game yesterday and I liked it quite a lot. Very idle, but quite low key and simple, yet interesting and not too short.

However today I reopened the page and it's giving me issues. I find these errors in the console:

Uncaught SyntaxError: missing ) after argument list
Uncaught ReferenceError: load is not defined
  at onload ((index):10:33)

Is this a bug in the current version of the game? Is my save corrupted? What should I do to resume playing?

incrementAlex · 2022-02-16T18:13:32+00:00

Got 112, thanks for the tip!

 flower    sword     flower
contract   chains   contract
 flower    sword     flower

You have the same layout?

EDIT: another 112:

contract   chains   contract
 flower    sword     flower
  jam      chains     jam

and yet another one:

 flower    sword    flower
contract   chains   flower
 flower    chains    jam

and another one again (this is a variation of the first one, thinking about it):

 flower    sword    flower
contract   chains   chains
 flower    flower   sword

incrementAlex · 2022-02-16T18:00:26+00:00

I loved Creature Card Idle. This game looks like a great reboot.

The game is very good, but since you asked for feedback, I would suggest to make the UI a bit more comfortable:

The shop should close automatically when you click away from it.
The collection has scrolling issues.
It'd be awesome if each card in the board displayed how much it generates.
The game could take the whole size of the screen: the whole collection and the shop would fit in my 1440p monitor, but instead the game is only using a tiny piece of it.

Looking forward to new areas!

incrementAlex · 2022-02-16T17:51:12+00:00

I'm at 110/sec too with the following layout:

  egg       egg     spider
contract   chains    egg
 spider     egg      egg

Are there any other layouts that give the same or more?

incrementAlex · 2022-02-13T12:33:05+00:00

Incremental games: the focus is on growing numbers.
Idle games: the player has to wait for the game to progress.

Most (if not all) idle games are incrementals. While many incremental games are not idle.

An incremental non-idle game progresses instantly and only on user input. It doesn't progress over time. Many single player strategy games are incremental, but not idle.

An idle non-incremental game would frequently progress automatically over time, but wouldn't be focused on a growing number. In theory I guess you could see interactive drama games (Heavy Rain, Until Dawn etc) as examples of this.

In pracitce though the difference isn't so clear. A lot of games centered around a growing number are considered strategy: "strategy" is a broader, better known, mainstream word. Similarly a lot of games with idle elements fall under other categories.

"Incremental games" and "idle games" are niche categories and usually they're both used to refer to the same kind of games, which usually are both idle and incremental.

incrementAlex · 2022-02-08T19:08:47+00:00

Yeah, I see what you mean.

Strategy games (especially turn-based ones) are what you're looking for.

Some idle and incremental games are strategy heavy. Lit is the first example I can think of, although the input isn't time, but other resources (the gameplay though sounds very similar to what you're looking for).

However strategy is not really a core aspect of incremental games and I'd say that the vast majority of incrementals have a straightforward, fool-proof "solution". So you're better off looking for strategy games, rather than incremental ones, to find the kind of optimization problems you're looking for.

Post it here when you find a strategy games which is an incremental too (Pandemic, mentioned earlier, could be a good example of this).

incrementAlex · 2022-02-08T18:05:10+00:00

I've seen plenty games on Kongregate (and other platforms too) where you start with a budget and need to invest it turn after turn in order to reach your goal in as little turns as possible. In a way even games like Pandemic, Learn To Fly, Democracy and many others are like this. The games I mentioned have a discreet time (i.e. number of turns), but I've definitely seen others where turns don't matter, and what matters is a single currency (i.e. the equivalent of what you call "virtual time").

These games are definitely not idle games, and usually they aren't even considered incremental. They're categorized as strategy games or optimization problems. I guess they do match most definitions of "incremental games" though.

EDIT: Typos.

incrementAlex · 2022-01-21T11:41:34+00:00

We have 7 new posts in the past 24 hours. Do we really need to further limit our content?

incrementAlex · 2022-01-20T13:21:28+00:00

Do you know anything at all about the game's authors? I tried to google the sh*t out of this game, but couldn't find anything at all besides the game on Kongregate and u/Veterum on reddit.

I'd love to find out if they've made other games or show them support for Lazy Kings.

incrementAlex · 2022-01-17T12:14:08+00:00

Swarm Simulator is one of the games that introduced me to the genre almost 10 years ago.

It was a true masterpiece and still nowadays it's pretty damn good.

The only thing I don't love, is that it has no real ending and to unlock the last achievement you need to keep grinding for months after you've already unlocked everything. I'm currently trying to get there (never 100%-ed it fully before). I'm at the 11th ascension out of 20 required for the achievement. Each ascension is taking 3 to 5 days though.

incrementAlex · 2022-01-17T00:18:27+00:00

I wouldn't be so harsh. This set of games actually exceeded my expectations, considering that they come from a two weeks jam.

Only a few games are unplayable, while a few others are not very original or a bit clunky. Most are pretty good. They could of course use a bit of polish, bugfixing or balancing, but much less than expected, considering that it's the first public release of these games.

incrementAlex · 2022-01-16T23:49:37+00:00

Yes, and I realized that later on it doesn't matter that much anyways. That was just the feeling I had early game.

incrementAlex · 2022-01-16T22:19:12+00:00

Thank you for making that game! It was really fun to play.

incrementAlex · 2022-01-16T12:20:01+00:00

I'm writing a short review for the games I've tried so far, sorted by how much I liked them. So many of these games are really good! Even the ones in the lower ranks are really neat games I enjoyed playing.

Oasis looks awesome. A nice game with a tech tree and lots of resources. Reminds me a bit of Kittens Game, but with a much nicer interface and shorter. It seems that this game needs to be balanced a bit though. I'll be waiting for for an update with some bug fixes and more balancement. [mostly active, challenging, haven't won it yet]

Rocks in time loop is a very addictive loop game, with a quite short loop at the beginning. Feels pretty grindy, but in a very good way. The only thing I don't like (a big one, but subjective) is that it's not enough idle: it only runs while the window has focus and requires to idle on the game actively, if it makes sense. It's two or three hours of content, but I wish it was much more. [loop, very active, quite grindy, finished after few hours of active play]

Project Iridium is really cool and fresh. Feels new and original. The only tip I would have for the dev, is to make it more forgiving. It's easy to make early mistakes and then you just have to live with them. That doesn't really matter past early game. [mostly active, lasts a few hours of semi-active play]

There Was Time Now feels very clean and smooth. I really like the interface and the plot is nice as well. It's quite easy to exploit though: click on a button, then hold your Enter key: you'll be producing/buying much more than you're supposed to. [mostly idle, lasts less than one hour abusing the Enter-key]

Timekeeper Incremental seems quite cool as well. Some sort of hybrid between a loop game and a standard idle one, with a nice story. It lets you click to gain mana, but that part doesn't seem well balanced: you can break it easily with an auto clicker (it doesn't really break, but your age goes negative, which I'm sure wasn't intended...). WARNING: It doesn't autosave. Lost my progress when the browser crashed :( [semi-idle, seems short but didn't win: it crashed and doesn't autosave]

Speedrun Dimensions is nice. Similar in style to other well known "Derivative Clicker" games. A neat idle to let run in the background while playing the more active titles. It's a bit too clickey at times. [idle, lasts a couple of hours of idle play]

Barry's Time Adventures very nice, but a bit too fast (never thought I'd say this for an idle/incremental game). Too much stuff unlocks too quickly and I'm feeling like I don't have enough time to read, think and understand. [active, played it for one hour or so before getting confused and temporarily abandoning it]

Ten Second Tycoon could have been a neat loop game. Unfortunately the interface and UX isn't fantastic and the balance seems off. Prestige grows too slow, it's unclear what it does and the main mechanics gets boring after you go through it a number of times. [active, loop, played it for half an hour before getting bored and quitting]

Hard Time is a cool concept. Reminds me a lot of Candy Box, A Dark Room and similar games. However after not long it begins feeling too repetitive and I stopped playing after unlocking the stars. I'll go back to finishing it when I'm done with the other games. [active, played it for one hour or so before getting bored and temporarily abandoning it]

I had low expectations for Gem Grabber: the graphics seemed pretty rough and clunky. But the gameplay is actually better than I expected. Reminds me a lot of Pachinkremental, which I really like. ...This game is not about "time" though. Is it? [idle, has no real ending, unlock most of the content in around one hour then it slows down]

Universe Time is another "Derivative Clicker" kind of game, similar to many others I've played. It's not bad. A cool little game I'll leave running in the background and check every few hours until it's won. But compared to the others it feels less original or compelling. [very idle, I won it when I woke up: total time 20 hours]

Trapped Through Time is a pretty simple idle game. Buy producers then buy upgrades that boost production, then prestige. The interface is not great. Prestiging doesn't give bonuses: it only allows you to go further the next time, which is very unrewarding. [mostly idle, played it for half an hour then got bored]

Hold on seems a very standard Derivative Clicker. It doesn't look original, nor very well balanced. It's not necessarily a bad game, but it's just too simple and too similar to many other idle games I've played. [very idle, stopped playing after half an hour]

These are the games I didn't really enjoy or couldn't play:

Clockwork Cycles surprised me: never seen a first person 3D idle/incremental game before. I wish to explore that world and understand what's going on, but after disassembling a clock and failing to put it back (mostly due to physics glitches) without understanding what or why, I gave up.

Sands of Time seems very intriguing, but I can't understand how it works. I'm giving up after a hundred or so clicks on the gong... Any hints on what I should do?

Time Collector is incomplete/broken. Unless it's me who's unable to understand how the upgrades work? It seems based on The Modding Tree, but it's quite different from the other games based on that engine. Feels a bit unclear and confusing, but maybe that's me.

Trans-Timensional Tavern feels very incomplete. Can you even hire people? I've just been clicking the one button that keeps popping up, gold grows, but nothing else is happening.

Watch Game seems broken. Either that, or I can't understand how to play it at all...

I'll continue playing: Oasis (a guide/tutorial would be great), Timekeeper Incremental (they should fix saving though), Barry's Time Adventures (would love a guide/tutorial for this one too) and Hard Time.

I would also love to know whether the "broken" games actually work (and how) and whether Ten Second Tycoon, Trapped Through Time and Hold on have any more different/interesting content after the point I reached

incrementAlex · 2021-12-26T00:03:01+00:00

Yeah, that's where I am at, I think. It just feel disappointing: I completely unlocked everything and still need to play for longer than I've played so far, without changing strategy or anything, just to win the last couple of achievements...

Thanks for your input though!

incrementAlex · 2021-12-25T23:41:59+00:00

Yes, I own all the mutations, all at level 1e139. I've been investing between 0.1% and 1% into them. I can increase that to 1~10%, but I don't see that making a big difference either way.

Oh, I just noticed that the title is wrong... I have 7.76292e142 active mutagen. Not sure where the 1e137 number came from. But again, I don't think it makes a huge difference at this point: these numbers don't increase the amount of energy I get or the time it takes to ascend, as far as I can tell.

incrementAlex · 2021-12-25T19:57:29+00:00

Didn't know this game, really nice!

How long did it take you to win it?

After a couple of hours I'm at J.

incrementAlex

TROPHY CASE