AGAIN.
But in all seriousness, there is an entire world of idle games out there that deserves the public’s attention. I’d like to bring some up and tell you why I think they could be worth your time.
I’d also like to discuss Incremental Games, of which idle games are a subgenre, but there are many that aren’t idle at all.
NGU Idle
(Available on Steam)
This game is very… complex. As seen in the image, part of generating growth comes from investing in different augments, which makes you more powerful. Power is the main currency in this game, and “beating” it consists of defeating all of the bosses, of which there are 301. With the stats visible in the image, I am currently at boss 101. The upgrades all take time to be completed, and the length of time depends on how much “energy” is invested. Because of this, I think it’s a good game to play once a week or so, because the gains from the higher levels can be great.
While moving on from one boss to the next requires a click, it’s common to become stronger than several at once, for which there is a special button to kill all that you have surpassed. I’d say that the “active” component of this game, beyond investing in different abilities, is the adventure mode, where you fight smaller versions of the bosses and receive items that you can equip, though this can also be set to idle.
Idle Skilling
(Available on mobile)
One thing I appreciate about this one is the “content curve.” Most idle games are split between normal gameplay and rebirth, but there are many with more sections; Idle Skilling involves leveling up idle workers in a variety of sectors. The main skillers will give you strength and health, for which you can battle increasingly stronger enemies, eventually moving to new areas with stronger enemies. You also have access to miners, a forge, and a fisherman, and later a group of cultists who will summon souls that affect different factors, such as gold gain, skiller speed, or mining rate, and later unlock the ability to farm and make potions from the farming that also aid in different areas of the game. Even later, there is a Pets tab where you can breed animals, and have them fight their own set of increasingly stronger enemies. The animals have their own distinct levels, but the vessels you can receive from battling with pets can be used to aid in different areas of the game.
Everything is a balancing act. Gold lets you upgrade mining which lets you upgrade items which lets you fight stronger enemies, which gets you more gold; though, there is a sprawling web of these different chains. This seems like a lot, but I have been playing for a while, and this content is added slowly during progression so that you feel like you understand everything and how they fit together. There are parts of the game that I still don’t have access to but am excited to see at some point.
Because of all the different sections, it’s good to set aside 10 to 20 minutes to check on everyone and allocate upgrades; this could be every day or every week depending on your interest level.
Idle Slayer
(Available on mobile)
This is another one that you should check out.
Universal Paperclips
(https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/)
You should go into this one blind
Non-idle incremental games
Unfair Flips
(Available on Steam)
This is one that’s meant to be frustrating, but is a worthwhile experience. (Also, you can beat it in less than an hour, if you’re the type to refund games on Steam after playing.) You win the game when you flip 10 heads in a row, but the coin is weighted so that there is only a 20% of landing on heads. Flipping the coin is done by pressing a button on the screen. The coin must finish its flipping animation before it can be flipped again. This process cannot be automated.
Every time you do land on heads, you get the value of the coin you flipped, starting with a penny, but these can be used to upgrade the likelihood of flipping heads, the money received from landing a head, and the speed of the coin flip animation.
The time it takes to beat this one is mostly based on good ol’ luck. I feel like it could be fun with a group, getting really excited when getting to 8 heads, and then having to start over again. It also makes you question the validity of the shown percentage when you get 5 tails in a row even when it says 50% for a heads.
A Dark Room
(https://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/)
Though it’s available for free on a browser, the switch version has dedicated graphics
The rest that I will list are all free on itch.io, and as such have pretty thorough descriptions on their pages, so I will be brief. Also, some are still being worked on, so it might be nice to show some support.
Planet Life
(This one actually is idle, I apologize)
Execute
The goal of this one is to kill the entire population of the world in increasingly efficient manners
Terraformental
https://sh4dowsand.itch.io/terraformental
This is a really interesting one, because it is an incremental time loop game. You wake up from a cryo sleep pod in an abandoned facility and must make your escape while oxygen is depleting. The gameplay comes from selecting an option among the available choices, then waiting for the action to complete (usually a few seconds for smaller tasks.) You must also maintain the character’s hunger, thirst, and oxygen levels which fall during any action, where you have to click to consume one of your limited resources.
Sometimes you get an option to try and pry open a locked door, which ends up taking longer than you think. Once you die, which you will eventually, you might decide to maybe not do that. In addition to external awareness of different possibilities, the main character will sometimes make things easier as time goes on, becoming more accustomed to doing the same tasks over and over. This can lead to a certain pattern being automatically done in order, or reducing the time it takes to hack something, or find directions to a building.
To be honest, I dropped this one a while ago after playing a lot for a few days, but I really want to get back into it.
It seems you have a lot of experience playing games like Cookie Clicker, so I’m curious as to where your key enjoyment or motivation from playing comes from. For me, I don’t feel a lot of accomplishment playing Cookie Clicker since success is often guaranteed by playing (or should I say laboring) long enough on the game. It also bothers me to think of idle games when I am away from them, as if they are a pet I need to keep alive rather than something I voluntarily enjoy spending time with. For a game like Unfair Flips where I know that there is a time commitment of repetitive actions before even playing, I personally would rather not even try because I know I won’t feel very mentally stimulated but it will bother me to quit. (Also sorry for not playing any of these games despite your article being about games I should try if I didn’t like Cookie Clicker lol).
As someone who actually enjoys idle games, this is a great list. People think the whole genre is just “click, number go up,” but there’s way more depth once you start exploring. NGU Idle is such a good example—funny, weird, and way more complex than you expect. Idle Skilling layers systems so smoothly that you always feel like you’re learning something new. And Universal Paperclips is one of those games you need to go into blind. I love seeing incremental games that break the mold too, like Unfair Flips and A Dark Room. The genre has so much more variety than people realize.