what're some other interesting "incremental games" out there these days?
for me at least, just seeing numbers go up and get huge (Swarm Simulator) doesn't really do it for me. part of what makes Universal Paperclips so good is that, like Candy Box, a huge part of the joy is uncovering entirely new gameplay systems as you progress. A Dark Room was neat in that it brought the idea of a coherent narrative that you (sometimes subtly) uncover as you progress, too.
I feel like there's a lot of room left to explore in the space: different mechanics and systems to explore (outside of just clicking and upgrading), the possibility of cooperation with other players... the browser-based incremental game is pretty versatile in what it could do.
one of the most interesting one of these I've seen is Parameters (http://nekogames.jp/swf/prm.swf — download & play locally with Ruffle or some other SWF player). it's like an abstract RPG where you go on quests (or something) by clicking squares to fill them up. it's kinda crazy to me that nobody seems to have iterated on this concept.
Also easily the best sound design in any incremental I've played. Which is a seemingly weird thing to combine with an incremental, but they did a truly excellent job.
Spaceplan is a relatively short and simple experience (there's not much to optimize, just do), but it's so well done that I highly recommend it.
Kittens is one I keep coming back to. It's long and impressively diverse, really well done overall. And it is still actively developed, though it's quite slow to change - expect a year or more between new mechanics. (I think this is entirely fine, to be clear)
The mobile port is pretty good too, functional and has some minor tweaks to make it more playable with mobile's more idle style. And the periodic check-ins to build more stuff are quick and easy - you might need a lot of them, but it doesn't waste your time or penalize you for taking longer. Nor does it really benefit from an auto-clicker, except perhaps very early on.
It is pretty slow though, and you'll have to experiment or check the wiki to figure some things out. I personally enjoy that, and I find it more figure-out-able than many of Antimatter Dimensions' challenges (which are essential to progress, and sometimes require hitting things you can't even see happening). Just don't expect to see real endgame stuff in a few days. It'll probably be months before you even see sephirots, much less as a viable target.
I've been enjoying Evolve (https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/) a lot lately. There's lots of new gameplay progression, and I've found it to be very well balanced in terms of entertainment/timesink ratio.
Crank is pretty similar to both A Dark Room and paperclips in terms of feel, also not mobile friendly at all sadly: https://faedine.com/games/crank/b39/
Not sure if it's unfinished but the power balancing was always a mess, solar panels trounce everything else by a country mile. There's a whole "set up plants on planets and receive power from them" system that I missed until I had already completed the game because it is literally 1/100th the efficiency of just making another solar panel.
Fun game though! Definitely worth a play if you're interested in clicker games with an unfolding narrative.
I'd call it finished in practice. They might have had dreams of making alternate or more satisfying endings beyond the current, but there is an effective end.
Re planets: yeah just don't even bother. By the time they arrive, your production will have outstripped anything that gets delivered. I had a bit of fun setting up huge quantities of cheap things on nearly every planet and then racing the stream of pointless supplies around the map... but I was already making far more supplies per second than was delivered and able to be used due to storage and production caps (ignoring that I had no useful reason for increasing further, after some point you just trounce everything trivially).
It's a typical incremental game-reset finish, if that works as a non-spoilery answer. AFAIK there's only one, and no reset bonus / nothing changes after it. The full story is readable through the decrypter.
I can elaborate if you'd prefer, just figure I should try to stay safe by default :)
I just remember the last time I played, I got to some point where nothing new was happening for a good long while, so I assumed I was at the end of the content.
Orb of Creation [1] [2]. Tons of different systems and mechanics to unlock, the graphics and overall theme are original and on-point, and good music too. It's well worth the $5 price tag.
(I'm not associated with the developer in any way, I'm just a satisfied customer.)
It progressively introduces new game mechanics, which you automate away when they start being annoying.
Also: At this point I probably spent about the same time building excel sheets for figuring out prioritization of upgrades as actually playing the game.
Reactor Idle is my favorite. It takes the best parts of IC2's reactor planner and expands on it. Most idle games have dark patterns sewn into their DNA. This one is pure.
I made a cooperative team incremental game about software testing that has silly trivia questions. It won't waste your team's whole day because the story plays out in exactly 20 minutes.
Google's quantum computer idle game [0] was pretty cute, visually. That shouldn't be surprising, though, given that they commissioned doublespeak games (originator of A Dark Room) to make it.
for me at least, just seeing numbers go up and get huge (Swarm Simulator) doesn't really do it for me. part of what makes Universal Paperclips so good is that, like Candy Box, a huge part of the joy is uncovering entirely new gameplay systems as you progress. A Dark Room was neat in that it brought the idea of a coherent narrative that you (sometimes subtly) uncover as you progress, too.
I feel like there's a lot of room left to explore in the space: different mechanics and systems to explore (outside of just clicking and upgrading), the possibility of cooperation with other players... the browser-based incremental game is pretty versatile in what it could do.
one of the most interesting one of these I've seen is Parameters (http://nekogames.jp/swf/prm.swf — download & play locally with Ruffle or some other SWF player). it's like an abstract RPG where you go on quests (or something) by clicking squares to fill them up. it's kinda crazy to me that nobody seems to have iterated on this concept.