Post

📈🚀📈🚀📈🚀📈🚀 Hey come check out some experimental clicker / idle / incremental games! 👇📈👇📈👇📈👇📈👇 For their final projects in my 'economics for game designers' class at @nyugamecenter.bsky.social, students made some awesome incremental games, so I wanted to do a thread sharing their work! 🧵⤵️ 1/~15

(Some context: - The prompt was loose, but it had to be "recognizably an incremental game", and we focus on systems design - All solo projects, made in about five weeks - Students gave me permission to share these - They're all relatively short-form, generally playable in a single sitting.) 2/

First up check out "Squares" by Jon Topielski, a minimalist clicker made in Pico8 about filling up an ever-increasing grid of squares. I love the embrace of abstraction here, there's no 'theme', but it still has this satisfying progression. Check it out! jontopielski.itch.io/squares 3/

"Omni-Sort" by Riley Lyman is an impressively polished incremental game about sorting algorithms. I think this one came out beautifully, a really in-the-weeds topic that's conceptually a great fit for the genre, and some great juice with the bar charts too 📊 rjley.itch.io/omni-sort 4/

Incremental games can often have a mechanistic feel, but "Plantagotchi" by Zhili Chen explores a more organic take on "growing". It's a neat plant-based spin on the genre. I'm always very partial to plant games, so especially loved this. 5/ zhili-chen.itch.io/plantagotchi

All incremental games are about labor, really, and Lucas Chan's "Stairs Simulator" is an especially Sisyphean example about ascending an endless staircase. There's a clever setup here with nested meters that I really like mechanically as well. 6/ lucaschann.itch.io/stairs-simul...

No batch of incremental games could be complete without a Lovecraftian one- Amber's game has you leading a delightfully uncanny "finger tribe" of ambulatory digits, members of which march around the screen's edge. Some interesting chance mechanics here as well. 7/ oldzombie14.itch.io/finger-fingers

This next one needs a partner! Abhishek Chatterjee's "Ascension" is an incremental *fighting* game, where two players compete in raising a number. The shared pool of points you take from is a nice touch I think. Grab a friend! 8/ abhishek-chatterjee.itch.io/ascension

Patrick Liu made a particularly stellar (heh) space game, where acceleration is the number to go up as you speed through asteroid fields faster and faster. Very finely balanced for a ~10 minute or so experience, and a nice active clicking mechanic too 🚀 9/ k9ght.itch.io/edge-of-the-...

A more experimental one, Adrian Becerra's "Try" is really promising prototype that plays with temporary and ephemeral game elements which I don't think I've seen done in an incremental game before. The upgrades come and go, but you remain. bcra.itch.io/try 10/

CY's 'pinball game' is a pachinko incremental with lots of inventive upgrades, and a great demonstration of how incremental games are great for showcasing funny mechanics 🍕 11/ (Also, think this is the bluesky thread limit? More games after the 'continue' 🧵⤵️) pigeon-hcy.itch.io/pinball-game

With a lovely fictional OS interface, Shuhang Chen's 'Rosruc' is a typing game about AI coding and how automation becomes management. Open up notepad++ to get started, and note the funny error pop-up if you resort to spamming the same letters over and over. 12/ lappas.itch.io/rosruc

(That typing-as-mechanic incremental idea is an unintentional callback to a fantastic project from last year, "you are a writer" by @thewriterwins.bsky.social, about writing rather than coding. Typing is underexplored as a clicking analogue!) 13/ bsky.app/profile/lite...

Another one pushing at the genre constraints is Leolym_'s "Grid City Builder", which is all about adjacent bonus optimization. I like the adoption of an idle game's no-lose-state to make an easygoing version of what's otherwise almost a puzzle game. 15/ leolym.itch.io/grid-city-bu...

And finally, to close things out, why not relax at Marco Carenza's capybara ranch? Making money is free, but capybaras need hot springs and crowns, so costs add up fast. Some of the best capybara bouncing physics I've ever seen too! 16/17 evileyezzzz.itch.io/capybara-ranch