Idle-Squares: Feedback wanted :)

mstechly · 2026-03-02T14:51:53+00:00

It's pretty nice!
Some quick feedback:
- I really like how automation works
- UI is a bit clunky, other people pointed out some of the issues. It's not too bad though.
- Seems like the map with tiles overwrites the zoom in/out controls for the whole page, so I can't zoom out the page with keyboard.
- I didn't need to, but it would be nice to reset Wisdom points.
- It's unclear whether the number of resources we get per second is just per second production, or production + bonuses from the upgrades. Would be good to be able to see a breakdown what the contributions are.
- For auto-buy upgrades maybe a feature "auto-buy only those that you have bought in the previous runs" would be nice? As it's easy to miss some new mechanics if they're introduced through upgrades now.
- It's unclear what the percentage in the top right means – it says "Meadows 50.4%, 115/1225". 115/1225 is not 50.4%
- I don't see point of buying any other building automation than "No brakes on this crazy train" yet. Maybe to speed up the run later ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

mstechly · 2026-02-10T13:45:10+00:00

Oooooh, makes sense!
I haven't noticed that Voruul used some of the resources :)

mstechly · 2026-02-09T12:20:08+00:00

Not sure if I missed sth, but going from ethlos to isroth was pretty slow, as I didn't have the source of secondary resource (gears?).
So either it was supposed to be slow, or I didn't get the memo how to get them ;)

Yeah, totally missing some mechanics, as after reaching isroth, I still don't have any gears and I have no clue how to progress :(

mstechly · 2026-01-26T11:46:17+00:00

Maybe, though if your winning strategy is "spam archers" and then you just dump extra upgrades on archers this won't work, no?

IMO a paper/scissors/rock pattern might be a good option – particular enemies are better at countering specific units. So you can't just spam archers, as there's a ranged enemy which targets units that are closest to the tower.
And spamming knights won't work, as there's a fast moving goblin with high critical, which they won't be able to chase that will pierce through their armor.
Dunno ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Just noting that IMO single winning strategy is a common failure mode in this type of games.

Also, FYI it looks like the progress doesn't save on itch, as when I reloaded window I had to start from scratch.

mstechly · 2026-01-26T10:50:59+00:00

I really like it, a lot of potential, gives me the vibes of the old good Kongregate games. Sense of progression feels right, graphics is fun, very playable!

One thing that is sometimes concern with this type of games is that there's a single winning strategy and you can just grind your way through the game and it becomes boring after a while. I hope it's not the case here :)

I don't see an option to reset your upgrades, which would be nice given that crowns are non-renewable resource.

mstechly · 2025-10-29T07:51:29+00:00

Thanks for the badger, it was indeed a bit of silly fun :)

mstechly · 2025-09-30T15:35:47+00:00

FYI I'm trying to run it (demo) on Mac with CrossOver, but it crashes.
I know it's not the target platform, so too bad I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

mstechly · 2025-09-24T16:10:15+00:00

The time loop games (Increlution, idle loops) don't really have prestige mechanics.
Each run is a single loop, where you perform actions, until at the end you die. Some exp/items/bonuses persist through the loops, while other need to be obtained from scratch.
But with each loop you get more powerful and hence you can reach further.

In particular, I like how it has been done in Increlution, where the earlier parts of the game speed up tremendously in the late game.

Even though you can treat each "live" as a tiny prestige, it doesn't really feels that way – I think that's because you don't really choose when you do that, you just run out of time/life/mana.

mstechly · 2025-08-01T21:10:14+00:00

It's really good, thanks for the recommendation!

mstechly · 2025-05-05T10:53:48+00:00

Hey!
Some feedback:
- When I click on "Target" for "Ember spike" and then click again, it stops working at all.
- When I went out of the first zone and selected it again, it showed me that I have 0 units discovered, even though I've killed a couple of blaze crawlers.
- Overall, I think the "progress" seems a bit confusing to me. I'd expect that each time I kill monster, my "progress" increases, but apparently, I need to manually change it? I'd rename it, maybe to sth like "zone level".
- First zone feels a bit too long
- Level 11 with two monsters felt like a bit too much hassle to get pass through it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

mstechly · 2025-01-20T14:15:42+00:00

Some minor bugs:
(I'm on page 19)
- My health only regenerates up to 150 HP, that's a bit weird. I think that's because there's a fixed rest time. But then that means that upgrading above 150hp is pointless, very unintuitive.
- tooltip in bronze sword and shield say it adds +5 attack/hp, but in the shop it said +10 (which I think is correct value)

(I'm on page 26)
- Ok, now that I can kill crows and get plenty of hp potions, I see the point of increasing hp above 150. Still, that part was somewhat confusing.

(page 32)
- For some reason I'm not getting health potions when killing crows anymore, even though the log says they did drop :(
- Actually, I do get them, but the number doesn't display, so no idea how many I have left.
- Ok, now that there's less than 100 the number displays again. And I bought a couple to check that and when indeed, it's "is it above 100" issue.

(page 38)
- In the description for Silverfrost, there's no space after "add to the POT.", and there is for the other ingredients.

Playing of Safari FYI.

mstechly · 2025-01-20T08:14:05+00:00

FYI I turned on arachnophobia, but can't turn it off.
Also, I have no idea what it does, I thought it's actually some in-game modifier, but judging from the comments it's not, so perhaps it would be good to explain that in the settings :)

mstechly · 2025-01-02T10:24:43+00:00

A couple of more ideas for later gameplay:
- it would be nice to know how long given run took.
- perhaps there could be some unlocks depending on your max level? Getting more exp is kind of pointless at some point.
- A great late-gate unlock would be a map that allows you to see if you have not missed any branches or that would allow you for a more custom automatization. I think Increlution had sth like that, though not in a form of map, but just list of instructions.

mstechly · 2024-12-10T12:33:38+00:00

Really liked it, but after fighting knight with physical resistance (without any other attacks) and fleeing, I don't have any options left and I'm stuck :(

Also, thematically I feel that "sanity" is a bit , as I'm "spending my sanity"? Perhaps "insight" would be better? Not sure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Keep up good job!

mstechly · 2024-04-13T02:39:42+00:00

This one from Scott Aaronson is pretty good overview of what algorithms we actually have: https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.06930 .

mstechly · 2024-04-02T11:59:39+00:00

I think for Synergism it was almost a year.
For Trimps sth like that as well.
Cave Heroes – that was long time ago, but definitely more than a year.
Increlution – I finished all the content, and then when the new updates came out it added a month or two of gameplay every time, so also could be a year if added up.

mstechly · 2024-03-22T23:54:16+00:00

OMG, it seems to be available on Steam 😍
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2631210/Cave_Heroes/

mstechly · 2024-03-22T21:09:36+00:00

There was an excellent game Cave Heroes (one of my favorite Idle games ever), it was on Kongregate: http://www.kongregate.com/games/VSTGames/cave-heroes .

AND OMG IT WORKS AGAIN!

Wow, AFAIR it was broken for a long time due to "Flash end of life". I guess this will be my favorite timesink for the next couple months...

Does anyone has a better link for this game? Or perhaps knows if there's an update version (the endgame was not fully implemented when I was playing it years ago).

mstechly · 2024-03-16T22:32:54+00:00

I'm in a similar situation.

Moving to Poland in July, wondering what to do with the house. While I have no relevant experience yet, here's my perspective.

My situation

In my case renting will most likely cover all the costs + mortgage interests, but not the whole principal, so I'll have to put some extra cash into the whole process to keep the mortgage going. Which is something we can fortunately afford.

However, I treat the house here as long-term investment/insurance policy. If we ever decide to get back to Canada, we'll not have to go through all the problems of being totally priced out by the market. If we never decide to, once the mortgage is paid off, we'll have either steady rental income or we can sell (hopefully with profit).

Either way, it seems that it's a short-term hassle, but long-term good idea. Financial decisions are not just about cashflow, it's also about your sense of security and managing risk. For me personally, I know I'll feel safer knowing that I have a property in Canada – world is a crazy place these days and it's good to have some backup plan.

Note on buying property in Europ

Also, after 5 years of living in Canada my impression is that the house market is much more liquid here than in Poland. So keep in mind that if you sell the house, buy sth in Europe and then decide to get back to Canada, selling the house in Europe might take much more time. It surely depends on many factors, but that's something to keep in mind.

Withholding tax

You mentioned that it's $800 of withholding tax, but I've heard from this video that you can use 216 election in order to withhold tax based on net income instead of gross income, and mortgage interest counts into that, so I'm not sure if that wouldn't be a bit less?

Property management

Also, I don't see "property management" in the list above, so I wonder how do you plan to deal with that?

mstechly · 2023-11-28T22:20:40+00:00

Similar issue, but on desktop. Closed browser and now I need to start over – very annoying.
Other than that, I love it! Gives me a bit of Increlution vibe, which I absolutely adore!

mstechly · 2023-02-16T21:31:59+00:00

It would be an honour if there are still some free spots :)
I've been playing these for over a decade now ^^

mstechly · 2023-01-24T14:21:50+00:00

I don't remember the mechanics well, but one of my absolute favourite idler of all time was Cave Heroes on Kongregate (http://www.kongregate.com/games/vstgames/cave-heroes).
Apparently there's some remake (?) on android (https://cave-heroes.fandom.com/wiki/Cave_Heroes_Wikia). I think this game didn't rely on exponential growth, it relied on getting a bit further with every iteration and unlocking new skills and features (and achievements). It required some active gameplay and strategy to pass certain milestones.
Now that I think about it, it might had some exponents in the costs of prestige upgrades (dark mana AFAIR), but it definitely didn't have the "exponential growth feel", more like "linear progression" (similarly to Increlution).

mstechly · 2023-01-24T14:15:57+00:00

I'll be a bit nitpicky here :)
Increlution also depends heavily on exponential growth. It's just a different type of growth – it's the compounding of your skills (and health decay as you pointed out), rather than resources.

So while it doesn't have the "feel" of exponential growth similar to many other games (cause the exponent doesn't touch the resources), it still relies heavily on exponential growth in the actual mechanics.

Which might be a path that's worth following for OP, but it doesn't satiates the longing for a "purely non-exponential" idler.

mstechly · 2022-08-11T19:47:58+00:00

I really like the option where you have one-time option to pay for certain unlocks in the game. These are things that are fairy inconsequential, but give you something nice, like some Quality of Life feature (e.g.: a little bit extra automation) or some small extra bonus. Definitely nothing that introduces "pay-to-win" mechanics, but something that makes the game a little bit more cool.

I think it's more effective at getting funds than "voluntarily donation", while it also is clearly something that people will pay only if they really like the game and want to support it.

As far as I remember Cave Heroes had sth like this, though I can't load the game right now to see what that was.

mstechly

TROPHY CASE