Idle / Incremental Games
Missing: a lot of random browser games with neat progression and balancing and a bunch of other stuff I probably forgot about by now
48 Games
Antimatter Dimensions is impossible to ignore the influence it had on the idle/incremental game space. To this day, the ways it layers systems upon systems in ever increasing absurdities of scale is seen copied and recontextualised in every release since its inception. The development of the mythical "Reality Update" has reached cult status in itself, as the release always seems to be just 5 more minutes away. Boy do I hope its good. Please be good.
UPDATE: IT REALLY WAS THAT GOOD
UPDATE: IT REALLY WAS THAT GOOD
1
You are an AI with task to make paperclips. Play this game, it takes only about 6 to 10 hours to complete.
2
Banger of a soundtrack. Weird and wonderful worldbuilding. Only takes 40 minutes
3
The best longform Idle yet released. A lot of offline progression, best played for like half an hour once per day. The recent updates add great endgame content and espacially important polish in terms of quality of life changes
4
A longform game with slow, but constant progression. Always has another strange mechanic to introduce. Can be played like a visit once a day facebook game, but with actual content behind the facade.
5
Short, visually appealing and to the point. Like 5 hours I think. Amazing ending!
6
A longform game about building a civilization with kittens. Always something new to discover, but slowly. Think idle CIV.
7
Longform game with deep gameplay and a lot of things that get introduced over time. Throw your army of trimps into the frey.
8
Anti-Idle is a marvelous piece of prediction, influence and parody. It came out right at the time the genre was setting foot on Kongregate, and by making fun of a lot of the overly simplistic gameplay many idle games had then and now, created a whole sub-genre on its own. Anti-Idle is like twenty smaller to larger mini-incrementals in one big package, and they all influence each other in weird obscure ways. Unlike other Idle games, Anti-Idle really demands your attention if you want to get anywhere close to finishing it. Its also really fucking long! I also want to say that the card game in there kind of ruled? I think its copying a lot of the early magic the gathering rules, cards and meta. And its just in there? Like for free? What?
9
A relatively short critique of Capitalism... i mean Loot Boxes. Great for an evening
10
This game is incredibly slow, unplayable without a guide and contains so many weird twists and turns that the numbers are hardly the point anymore. Almost has the appeal of an ARG. Don't play this one unless you are a huge nerd with to much time on their hands.
11
What's in the box? - The game. Made the formula for short discovery based idle games.
12
More ambitious, yet slightly worse sequel. Play the first one first. Good!
13
A dark twist on the candybox formula. Another classic
14
The one that popularized the whole genre. Iconic parody of the capitalist mindset. I would recommend playing this at least once until you get about 80% of achievements, slows down HARD from then on.
15
Played this since it was just a simple looking cookie clicker clone. Expansive, surprisingly challenging to find the way to progress.
17
Consistent progress in various features which interlock and boost each other quite well. Kept me coming back and still has a lot of potential to grow
18
A buffet of fun and interesting features. Like a idle mini game collection. Good sequel.
19
Established idle game buffet formula. A more simple version than its sequel, thus more of a focus on the core tower defense game.
20
Has some of the qualities of NGU Idle, and explores some interesting new playspace. However, the loop kind of breaks down after some progress and stops being engaging. Abandoned by the developer for that reason most likely.
21
Played this for a long time, pretty much reached the end of numbers. Takes a damn long time though and doesn't change much.
22
A dungeoncrawler with a lot of production quality. Sadly only progresses while open, thus a lot of waiting on auto-battles. Good rpg mechanics.
23
If you liked the first one, this is the second one. More production value, some new features.
24
A town/city builder and manager clearly a lot love and effort went into. I lost interest because I forgot again that I don't like city management that much.
25
Blowing leaves is fun until you hit a weird progression wall. Has a surprising amount of content, but I don't want to put the effort in to see the stuff after the wall.
26
Great theme and great aesthetic for a game that is not that different from the old Cookie Clicker formula
27
The real time strategy aspect is made irrelevant by the AI that plays the part by itself, would be annoying otherwise. Pretty good pacing.
28
The balls bounce, the numbers get higher. Fun!
29
A clicker heroes style time sink. Bonus points for shooting!
30
Very stripped down incremental game with a math theme. Offline progression keeps it from becoming stale . Not many decision points
31
Short and Fun!
32
What if you turned clicker heroes into a game you could actually play like an FPS? Turns out, repetition sets in and you often use the idle mode anyway. Fun movement!
33
A very perculiar inspiration to some of the best games on here, namely NGU Idle. Deep, lots of features, completely incomprehensible at first.
34
You love merging pairs to get higher numbers? Oh boy do I got the game for you
35
A classic. So low on the list because it just EATS your time. Not one of the best, but definetly one of the most addicting
36
The sequel to the classic has some cool and interesting features, yet too many problems to recommend for the pricetag.
37
Only played for a bit, seemed to have potential though
38
Cute easter eggs, relies to much on random events. Fun for a while
39
The most embarassing entry on the list. Played it for a joke & got hooked into the skinner box. boobies
40
Extremely Simple. Really nothing wrong with it, alright passing, but that's about it.
41
Nah, not the worst but long and boring.
42
Why did I play this for such a long time?! It's pretty bad.
43
Tries to get your real world money. Game Loop kind of fun. I never want to hunt down one of those damn drones again
44
Demands your attention and your thumb tendants. Not worth it.
45
Almost the same game as the first.
46
Mechanics break down easily. Minus points for misrepresenting communism.
47
terrible
48
3 Comments
I tried Trash the Planet before Erato_Heti, I think I got stuck somewhere in phase 2 as I wasn't really in the mood for the amount of reading it throws at you to truly get immersed in its themes. I'll make sure to play it again someday
thank you for making this list, i'm a cookie clicker/kitten game loyalist and have a lot more stuff to check out!
Erato_Heti
1 year ago