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Have there been any recent, good games of this genre? It seems to have reached a peak with Cookie Clicker, Kittens Game, A Dark Room and Universal Paperclips,

Have there been any recent, good games of this genre? It seems to have reached a peak with Cookie Clicker, Kittens Game, A Dark Room and Universal Paperclips, others I've tried have been poor in comparison.

polyx_ 4y ago
Antimatter Dimensions is another really good one, focused on different kinds of prestiges and BIIIG numbers and by big I mean 1e100000 big
willis936 4y ago
Clickers cross over with idle/incremental games. Both genres are rife with dark patterns and player exploitation, but there are some notable exceptions. Reactor Incremental takes the concepts from IndustrialCraft 2's nuclear reactors and pushes it far. I think it's the peak of the 2D geometry geometric growth optimizer genre. https://www.kongregate.com/games/cael/reactor-incremental https://www.kongregate.com/games/cael/reactor-incremental I've wanted to make my own for a while but I haven't thought of a way to overcome the what I think is the main issue with the genre: waiting. Instead of running constantly a design could run instantly at the cost of some credits. The better the design the more investment credits you would get in return. Balance would have to heavily favor investment in design changes in between runs to avoid the game switching from an incremental idler to an incremental clicker. Perhaps the player would need to spend a type of credit that you only get from design modification to run a round. Basically: I want a 2D geometry optimizer incremental game that isn't an idler or a clicker. There is also a lot of room for creativity in this space. I think the ceiling can be really raised with things like multiblocks. Imagine something like a fusion reactor where you need confinement blocks and heating blocks. There is no prescriptive layout, just some rules needed for it to work and performance would depend on the layout.
- carl_dr 4y ago
  I assume you’ve played Factorio? It would be interesting to play Factorio on a very small map, with some mechanic where you get to duplicate items you’ve managed to produce - the idea being that you are continuously tearing down older parts of your factory so you can build new production lines, and always being constrained by space. I couldn’t really get into Reactor Incremental in the time I had today, it took me too long to understand how to get going. I’ll give it another go this weekend.
  - willis936 4y ago
    Yep, for many hours. Reactor games scratch a different itch. It's all about maximizing heat dissipation.
    - carl_dr 4y ago
      Pardon my ignorance, but are reactor games a specific sub-genre of these games in itself? Are there other examples I can play?
      - willis936 4y ago
        There are, but I would not play any of them. They are both predatory and bad. There's always the OG reactor planner (or just industrialcraft2 or gregtech if you have more time). https://github.com/MauveCloud/Ic2ExpReactorPlanner https://github.com/MauveCloud/Ic2ExpReactorPlanner
  - mdaniel 4y ago
    I couldn't get that Reactor Incremental to load in order to compare it, but what you're describing sounds like https://factoryidle.com/ https://factoryidle.com/ which I love
    - carl_dr 4y ago
      Thanks! That does seem up my street.
- billfruit 4y ago
  >> I want a 2D geometry optimizer incremental game that isn't an idler or a clicker. Wilmot's Warehouse perhaps.
acutesoftware 4y ago
Not that recent, but another 2 good games are: Evolve ( https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/ https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/ ) start as cells, evolve to humans (or anything), craft stuff, conquer space Swarm Simulator ( https://www.swarmsim.com/ https://www.swarmsim.com/ ) breed bugs, eat meat, consume universe
bombcar 4y ago
Kittens has been by far the most interesting for me - because the various loops are so different and the concept of "resetting". It's the only one I've played with for longer than a few days, because somehow I don't feel like I've "lost out" if I stop for a week.
3np 4y ago
Not recent but in terms of distilling the technical aspect of the genre: Antimatter Dimensions. I'd also add Candy Box and Candy Box 2/to your list of early influential games.
shostack 4y ago
https://marple.itch.io/orb-of-creation https://marple.itch.io/orb-of-creation
ArekDymalski 4y ago
https://danielyxie.github.io/bitburner/ https://danielyxie.github.io/bitburner/ has really great visual style, exciting story, various interesting game mechanics and internal programming language to automate stuff.
bobbean 4y ago
I've really been enjoying Leaf Blower Revolution. it's a very long term game. I've been playing it for maybe 2 or 3 months, checking it every day, and I still have a lot to do. To be fair, it slows down A LOT, but it's still fun.

polyx_ 4y ago

Antimatter Dimensions is another really good one, focused on different kinds of prestiges and BIIIG numbers and by big I mean 1e100000 big

willis936 4y ago

Clickers cross over with idle/incremental games. Both genres are rife with dark patterns and player exploitation, but there are some notable exceptions. Reactor Incremental takes the concepts from IndustrialCraft 2's nuclear reactors and pushes it far. I think it's the peak of the 2D geometry geometric growth optimizer genre. https://www.kongregate.com/games/cael/reactor-incremental https://www.kongregate.com/games/cael/reactor-incremental I've wanted to make my own for a while but I haven't thought of a way to overcome the what I think is the main issue with the genre: waiting. Instead of running constantly a design could run instantly at the cost of some credits. The better the design the more investment credits you would get in return. Balance would have to heavily favor investment in design changes in between runs to avoid the game switching from an incremental idler to an incremental clicker. Perhaps the player would need to spend a type of credit that you only get from design modification to run a round. Basically: I want a 2D geometry optimizer incremental game that isn't an idler or a clicker. There is also a lot of room for creativity in this space. I think the ceiling can be really raised with things like multiblocks. Imagine something like a fusion reactor where you need confinement blocks and heating blocks. There is no prescriptive layout, just some rules needed for it to work and performance would depend on the layout.

carl_dr 4y ago
I assume you’ve played Factorio? It would be interesting to play Factorio on a very small map, with some mechanic where you get to duplicate items you’ve managed to produce - the idea being that you are continuously tearing down older parts of your factory so you can build new production lines, and always being constrained by space. I couldn’t really get into Reactor Incremental in the time I had today, it took me too long to understand how to get going. I’ll give it another go this weekend.
- willis936 4y ago
  Yep, for many hours. Reactor games scratch a different itch. It's all about maximizing heat dissipation.
  - carl_dr 4y ago
    Pardon my ignorance, but are reactor games a specific sub-genre of these games in itself? Are there other examples I can play?
    - willis936 4y ago
      There are, but I would not play any of them. They are both predatory and bad. There's always the OG reactor planner (or just industrialcraft2 or gregtech if you have more time). https://github.com/MauveCloud/Ic2ExpReactorPlanner https://github.com/MauveCloud/Ic2ExpReactorPlanner
- mdaniel 4y ago
  I couldn't get that Reactor Incremental to load in order to compare it, but what you're describing sounds like https://factoryidle.com/ https://factoryidle.com/ which I love
  - carl_dr 4y ago
    Thanks! That does seem up my street.
billfruit 4y ago
>> I want a 2D geometry optimizer incremental game that isn't an idler or a clicker. Wilmot's Warehouse perhaps.

acutesoftware 4y ago

Not that recent, but another 2 good games are: Evolve ( https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/ https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/ ) start as cells, evolve to humans (or anything), craft stuff, conquer space Swarm Simulator ( https://www.swarmsim.com/ https://www.swarmsim.com/ ) breed bugs, eat meat, consume universe

bombcar 4y ago

Kittens has been by far the most interesting for me - because the various loops are so different and the concept of "resetting". It's the only one I've played with for longer than a few days, because somehow I don't feel like I've "lost out" if I stop for a week.

3np 4y ago

Not recent but in terms of distilling the technical aspect of the genre: Antimatter Dimensions. I'd also add Candy Box and Candy Box 2/to your list of early influential games.

shostack 4y ago

https://marple.itch.io/orb-of-creation https://marple.itch.io/orb-of-creation

ArekDymalski 4y ago

https://danielyxie.github.io/bitburner/ https://danielyxie.github.io/bitburner/ has really great visual style, exciting story, various interesting game mechanics and internal programming language to automate stuff.

bobbean 4y ago

I've really been enjoying Leaf Blower Revolution. it's a very long term game. I've been playing it for maybe 2 or 3 months, checking it every day, and I still have a lot to do. To be fair, it slows down A LOT, but it's still fun.