What's Up With Idle Games? And 3 Unrelated Hype Games
Look at those indies and numbers go!
Ever played a game that plays themselves or requires as minimal input as possible? Kind of weird when you think about it, right? Video games are know for their interactivity, their immersiveness, but also, their innovation and variety on entertainment. If a list of video game genres was made, it would be insanely long (I mean, you could go through Wikipedia, but you get my point).
Maybe one day, or one of the many clever writers in this platform, will look into what make a video game a video game, or would that be an attempt to gatekeep? The one genre I want to spotlight regarding this is:
Idle Games
It’s interactive. I click from time to time.
Video games are known for the interactivity, their immersiveness, the mechanics, but in idle games… Well, it kind of takes a lot of that away. Some start you clicking to gain money until you can fully automate, others just have you automating from the beginning.
It’s like you start with a small cash printer, and when you have enough money, you get another cash printer, and then when you have enough money, you get a cash printer, and then when—
As ridiculous as that sounds, I’ve been a sucker for these types of games for a long time. I believe the first idle game I played, and I won’t count afk farming in Runescape as the first, were tycoon games in Roblox; they were all the same, and usually the only differentiating factor was their theme.
You’d spawn, pressed a button you spawn a conveyor belt, then a proper that would shoot out the resource, resource would reach then end, rewarding you with money, you would buy and upgrade, then rinse and repeat. Some have you starting with a proper instead.
In the Roblox realm, developers have innovated in changing how you start, how you can entertain yourself while you gain that cash, and how much actual money they can squeeze from your pockets. But that’s another story for another article (Roblox is very depredatory). The first “real” idle game that I played was none other than:
Seeing those green bars fill up, watching my money go up, all those pretty effects. Idle games are basically casinos, which is why it doesn’t surprised me that Roblox developers have mixed the two (Lootbox RNG. What an idea. I’ll stop mentioning Roblox now).
Around this time I was also playing auto-battlers, such as MyBrute on Kongregate, and other games I forgot. The biggest difference between MyBrute, and a ninja game was that in this two, I had to equip gear, maybe test a build out, but AdVenture Capitalist just made me look at the number go up. And up. And Up.
And while I did stop vehemently playing them for years, I did go back to them for a while now, and I’ve recently found some idle games that looked pretty cool. One thing you’ll notice about these idles games is that they run somewhere on your desktop, except the first one. No need to tab out or anything, as they just neatly play along as you do whatever you’re doing. The last one even cheers for you from time to time!
Journey to Incrementalia
Developer/publisher: Adam Travers
Socials: Twitter | Discord | BlueSky
Price: $4.99
Tons of skills, minions, spells, and abilities to upgrade, no wonder the screen gets covered with all those guys. I’ve accepted that most idle games are the same, so you then find the appeal through their presentation, and this looks great. Though, I might be biased because I love Necromancers and Warlocks. Looks at all those undead fight!
Rusty’s Retirement
Developer/publisher: Mister Morris Games
Socials: Twitter | Discord | BlueSky
Price: $6.99
This was the first idle game I discovered that lays neatly on the bottom of your desktop. Plant crops and watch Rusty cultivate, and then use the resources gained expand your farm. You can also automate it by upgrading customizable helper robots, switch it to the side of your screen, zoom in and out, I mean, I’m not sure if it was the first of its kind, but it sure did innovate on the idle concept. It’s like those weird desktop pets people could download, but without the weird part.
My Little Life
Developer/publisher: 9FingerGames
Socials: Instagram | Twitter | Discord | TikTok | BlueSky
Price: $5.99
This really reminds me of The Sims, but at the bottom of your desktop. Choose your career, get more people by building different homes (or one big mansion), decorate, a lot of the things you’d expect from life-sims. Considering the genre, I appreciate that is says that there are no loud popups or distracting events while also allowing you to make the important decisions. Scratching that life-sim itch and idler itch.
Ropuka’s Idle Island
Developer/publisher: Moczan, Little Chmura, Begoña Pereda
Socials: Twitter | Discord | BlueSky
Price: $3.99
You know how the others were on the bottom or side of the screen? Well, in this one, you watch a frog just be chill in his island, cut grass, decorate it, in any part you want to place him. He does live on a floating island. I did like a lot that he cheers for you. Frogs are cool, so having a chill old frog living his calm life in cheering for me sounds pretty cozy.
All of this, all of this idle talk to say that I will be (finally) looking into Clickolding so I can play an idle game with a story, and finally read Good Game Lobby’s post on the game.
Demos!
I also played these pretty cool demos that I had no idea existed! How do these fly under my radar? Well, there’s too many out there. But check these hype games out!
ODDCORE
Developer/publisher: Scarecrow Arts
Socials: Discord | Twitter | BlueSky
A rogue-like movement shooter that’s SCP themed? This has to be the most fun SCP game I’ve ever played. It’s still being developed, still being added content, and while it does feel like it could use more content, I love where this game is going.
You’re an ODDCORE runner and you have been employed to protect your memory core. Unsure what that means, but it sounds like a fun way to show up in the backrooms, empty malls, that one SCP street with the green hills, and more. Dash, slide, and many other skills with a variety of weapons at great speeds, or run away from that scary face trying to eat you.
RailGods of Hysterra
Developer: Troglobytes Games
Publisher: Digital Vortex Entertainment
Socials: Website | Discord | Twitter | BlueSky
Playing the demo reminded me a lot of V Rising, but only in some parts. This survival game has you surviving after a cosmic horror fallout, and working together not only with up to four friends, but also keeping you Eldritch Train God alive. Your base is with the train, as you can add railcar to it and customize it. I may not be a big fan of survival games, but I do like Lovecraft’s Dreamworld, so I’ll keep an eye on this cool game.
DuneCrawl
Developer/publisher: Alientrap
Socials: Discord | YouTube | Twitter | Website
An online coop action-adventure game that has you controlling a giant crab with canons like a mecha with your friends, riding big bugs, invading enemy giants crabs, and slashing, shooting, firing enemies? And they’re all cute? It’s such a beautiful game with quick and action oriented combat, quirky characters, and has tons to explore. How can you not want to drive a giant crab?
Did you ever play idle games? Which games interested you? Let me know!
RailGods of Hysterra and DuneCrawl are nice finds!
I really couldn’t get my head around the idle steam fest. I feel like my limit was auto battlers / bullet hell types in terms of little to no input. But I like the retirement game you listed. That sounds like something I might like 😅