Incremental games, from the idle to the active

[Patashu]

I've been looking for new incremental games to subject my brain too, but it's tricky to know what the really good ones are - there's a lot of mobile game slop and reskins in the space, but I've seen and done a lot, so I'm looking for the ones that have something novel to say and do in them, whether they're new or old ones I never got around to. I'll post some of my favourites to kick things off and I'd like to know which ones made the biggest impressions on you!

Idle Loops, the most idle idle game that will ever be made. You set up a list of instructions for your character to do and they will loop forever until you change it to something else. Has 100% efficient offline time in the form of Bonus Seconds. Stretch a time loop that starts out mere seconds long by learning and experiencing things and remembering them between loops, explore the world and slowly become all powerful. Takes several months to complete.

(the) Gnorp Apologue is a tale about a new settlement of critters deriving all their income from hitting a rock and collecting the currency that falls out in increasingly goofy and kinetic ways. Semi-idle. Takes several days to complete, short and sweet and delightful.



Reactor Incremental, a grid based power generation incremental game that strongly kickstarted the urge for me and my brother. Build reactors but don't blow them up, learn how to become more efficient and harnass more and more dangerous sources of energy. Usually idle. IIRC, takes a few weeks to see all content.



Shark Game, a 'short' Cookie Clicker like experience about exploring strange oceans and harnassing different resources in each one. Technically idle but you'll play pretty quickly. A few days to see all content, IIRC. As a note, I always recommend using auto-clickers when a game is click heavy. No sense in injuring your wrist over a video game.

Soda Dungeon 2, an RPG incremental game. Entirely idle except when you want to babysit a fight. Only takes a few days to see the end of plot, but my playthrough gave me a *year* of mostly idle post-game grinding, including theorycrafting optimal builds and their in-game automation scripts, so you can play it a little or a lot and have a good time.



The Perfect Tower II, a deranged incremental tower defense game that has a truly kitchen sink approach to game design. Build the perfect tower with the most broken modules because the enemies won't hold back either. Has both idle and active periods of time depending on what you're trying to accomplish. No idea how long this takes to credits/100% as it's gone through updates since I last played it.



Dodecadragons, a Cookie Clicker like experience, but you get to pet a dragon so it's better. Idleish/activeish depending on which period you're in. A few weeks/months to see all content, I'm not sure as I was playing it while it was being developed. Also, I'm in the game as an easter egg! Ctrl+Click the dragon, lasts until you refresh the page.

FE000000 FE000000, an alternate universe Antimatter Dimensions, that takes into account game design knowledge that was made while making the game, and also explores all the branches AD didn't take in its development. Partially idle, a few weeks (IIRC) to complete.



Fractory, an intriguing game about arranging gems in synergistic power producing fractal grid arrangements. Unfortunately not a complete and polished experience, but you can have a lot of fun figuring out 'wait, how does this work' followed by 'wait, how do I break this', reaching level 100+ and unlocking all content in about a day.



I don't know if most people would count Loop Hero but I'll count it. Build the world for an adventurerer who fights everything in their path and min/max an engine to level them up as fast as possiblw for the boss appears. Absolutely beautiful 'unfolding' design where every few runs you realize an entirely new idea that works better than your previous one. A few days to reach credits, IIRC? 100% active with a pause button.



More games that aren't showcased in this post (but feel free to showcase them yourself if they're your favourite): Undefeated spider, Distance Incremental, Groundhog Life, Orb of Creation, Nodebuster, Sandcastle Builder, Factory Idle, Reactor Idle, Kittens Game, Ginoromo Sword, Idling to Rule the Gods, Realm Grinder, Universal Paperclips, Synergism, Trimps, Idle Wizard, NGU Idle, Melvor Idle, Nomad Idle.

Also, honourable mentions to Creeper World, which while most people wouldn't classify as an incremental game, scratches the same itch for me.
...As well as a lot of traditional Roguelikes, frankly. (Namely Angband and forks.)
...And Siralim Ultimate. I wish that game had an 'auto-explore the realm and use macro in every fight' button so badly, it's so close to being the perfect experience, augh =w=
...And Factorio-likes feels like they SHOULD count but I just feel annoyed by how fiddly it is to tear up and rebuild parts of a factory. I'm always sitting there thinking like, this is not the part I want to do, this is the part I want to abstract over!

[EpsilDelta]

Currently at End of Content in Unnamed Space Idle.

It's still in active development, but I have over 2222 hours in it at this point.

The game allows for a ton of micromanagement and different ship loadouts. Once you get far enough to really milk a mechanic, it tends to get retired or replaced by something more complex.

I think the game has a great flow to it, and feels incredibly rewarding to keep fiddling with it, despite it being an idle game.

[Ribbon]

Dodecadragons, a Cookie Clicker like experience, but you get to pet a dragon so it's better. Idleish/activeish depending on which period you're in. A few weeks/months to see all content, I'm not sure as I was playing it while it was being developed. Also, I'm in the game as an easter egg! Ctrl+Click the dragon, lasts until you refresh the page.

Been obsessively playing this during our work week and it's definitely been making the days fly by. Thank you for these recommendations, will have to peek at the others once this game releases me from its claws. - Finn (fae/she)

[EdenCoven]

Been playing Melvor Idle, which is based on Runescape and getting a sequel soon. It's a very nice one of those with cool combat and such but the last expansion (Into The Abyss) kinda sucks imo. So we're chipping away at it until the new game. Still very recommended and you can start to mess with it for free. The other two expansions are good!

[Lolo De Puzlo]

(the) Gnorp Apologue is a tale about a new settlement of critters deriving all their income from hitting a rock and collecting the currency that falls out in increasingly goofy and kinetic ways. Semi-idle. Takes several days to complete, short and sweet and delightful.

I love [the] Gnorp Apoplogue! Remember I got it on December 31, 2023 and it was basically all I played until the new year came. Highly recommend it.

For those with Android phones, Myriad is a pretty to the point incremental game that's got very little fluff to it, but basically is a digital fidget cube.

[lilpaladin1]

Me personally I've gotten a lot of progress done in Antimatter Dimensions on my phone, been starting the grind of realities for the last month and I'm starting to get it down to being able to reality every day or so instead of like the 2 weeks it took for my first post-reality run. I just unlocked the Black Hole. Funny thing about my save is that it's a transfer from my old phone and I just kind of installed it 5 years ago, played it for a bit, and then forgot about it, so my save is significantly older than it should be lol.

I also used to play a lot of Revolution Idle and actually finished all of the things it had before the current update, but I kind of fell off of that cause I got hooked on AD again, it's a pretty neat AD inspired game that also does it's own weird thing.

[scratchingway]

I am on a self-imposed ban from all incremental games because I will absolutely let them devour all my free time.

But before that ban I dumped 10k+ hours into Realm Grinder, which played in a more puzzle-y way than I had expected from an "idle" game at the time; it's often about developing builds to maximize certain per-prestige statistics to then enable other builds to unlock further build options or upgrades. Would absolutely recommend it.

If you're looking for one you can knock out in one session, check out Nodebuster. It's a little more active, but very fun and satisfying to maximize. Looks great, too.