I feel like a lot of idle incremental games end up being very similar: same gameplay loops, same prestige systems, same progression that just becomes exponential

So I’m curious:

What would actually make you want to play an idle game today?
What are you tired of in current games?
And most importantly, what original ideas would you like to see in the genre?

It can be anything: different mechanics, less traditional progression, more impactful choices, some unexpected system, etc

Even weird or experimental ideas are welcome

Hi everyone!

I've been working on Slime Reborn, a pixel-art incremental game where you start as a tiny slime and gradually evolve by unlocking new abilities, gathering resources, discovering hidden combos, and mutating into a more powerful creature.

I just released the first public Early Access version, and I'd love to hear what incremental game fans think.

Since the game is still in active development, I'm especially looking for ideas on incremental systems and mechanics that could make the progression more engaging. If there are mechanics you've loved in other incremental games—or ideas you'd like to see in a slime evolution game—I'd love to hear them.

Any feedback on the gameplay, pacing, progression, or overall experience is greatly appreciated!

AI Disclosure: AI-assisted tools were used during development for some artwork, including backgrounds and other visual assets, as well as programming assistance. Many of these assets have been manually edited, refined, or integrated into the game by me. As a solo developer with limited time and budget, AI has helped me prototype and bring the project to life. My long-term goal is to continue improving and replacing placeholder visuals with more original artwork as the game grows and development allows.

Hey everyone,

After many many iterations, I finally reached the point where I'm comfortable letting other people play my game.

It's called HustleTycoon: https://hustletycoon.com/

The whole thing started because I love idle/incremental games, but I always wanted one focused on building passive income instead of fantasy kingdoms or factories. I wanted the feeling of starting with something tiny (a vending machine) and slowly working toward owning a ridiculous portfolio of businesses.

So... I ended up vibecoding the game that I wanted to sink hours into.

It's still very much an indie project by one person. There are definitely rough edges, and probably bugs that I haven't discovered yet.

This is the first time I'm inviting people to try it, so I'd genuinely love honest feedback—good or bad. If something is confusing, boring, too slow, too fast, or just plain annoying, I'd much rather hear it now than months from now.

No pressure to stick around if it isn't your thing. Even 10–15 minutes of play and a few comments would help me a ton. Thx for giving a solo indie dev a chance. I really appreciate it.

AI disclosure: this app is vibecoded

Hey r/incremental_games!

I discovered the genre with Lollipop Quest 2 back in university, ~15 years ago, and fell hard. Cookie Clicker, Clicker Heroes, Trimps you name it — not a day went by without me checking Kongregate for new releases. I always wanted to make my own, but I couldn't code at all. So I started with what I could do: building a universe. Physics, cosmogenesis, peoples, fauna, flora — I've been shaping that world for over 10 years now.

Along the way, I switched my studies from philosophy to computer science, learned Unity, made a small idle prototype as a student project (Lima, still on itch but it's bad haha !), then led a team building an accessibility-focused game… that got cancelled weeks before completion, for reasons entirely outside our control. That one hurt. After months of rebuilding, my girlfriend and I decided to start a project we would actually finish — and, for the first time, set it in the universe I'd been protecting all these years.

That game is Pebble for a Queen, and as of today, it's out on Steam — 20% off for launch week.

The story: you play Goguz, a Xantul (think crab/scorpion-ish creature), hopelessly in love. Xantul courtship works like this: you offer your beloved a pebble. So off you go, breaking rocks around your nest to find THE perfect stone — and little by little, through exploration, XP and skill trees, you end up shattering enormous boulders across the world.

What makes it different from most incrementals:

It's active, not idle. You explore and break every rock yourself. No offline progress bars.

A meaningful skill tree — not a lazy one. 1,500+ nodes, and choices genuinely matter. At one point you'll pick your elemental path, and each has a real identity: Earth is economy (+ an AoE armor shred), Fire is energy (+ an AoE damage-over-time), Wind is speed (+ moderate damage over huge areas), Water is raw power (+ heavy chain damage). A well-planned build outperforms a careless one. I know it can look intimidating and not super casual-friendly — I've tried hard to balance it so every type of player finds their fun.

Quests gate your progress. This is my favorite part, and probably the most divisive: scattered through the tree are quests and challenges of varying difficulty. Complete them to unlock the next nodes. They give the whole run rhythm and purpose.

A world to explore: 5 zones and 4 biomes, each with its own rocks, look and quirks. Hand-drawn cartoon art, and an amazing sound artist joined us along the way to make all the music and SFX.

A full first run should take around 10 hours, and going for all achievements roughly doubles that — you'll tell me! When I try to speedrun it, I do it in more than 5 hours but I'm sure you can beat me !

The practical stuff: it's on Windows, Linux and macOS (full honesty: the Mac build made it in just in time and we couldn't test it on Apple Silicon ourselves, nor on Steam Deck — if you're on either, I'd genuinely love to hear how it runs). Playable in 11 languages. Controller, keyboard, mouse, or any mix — and if you want the chillest experience, mouse + autocast is lovely. I personnaly prefer Controller as I like to optimize everything !

This is the first time I've ever taken a game all the way to release. I'm equal parts excited and terrified. I'll be here all day answering questions and taking notes on everything — I know I still have a lot to learn.

Steam page : https://store.steampowered.com/app/4915590/Pebble_For_A_Queen/

AI Disclosure : Ai was used for translation from English+French ! Of course, Ai assist my code, but it's not vibecoded or telling AI : DO A GAME, it was more like an assistant and a StackOverflow++. Not that it's a shame to use it, it's just to be clear, design pattern are my own for the best and the worst hahaha !

AI Disclosure: None for player-consumed content—no art, music, text, etc. Used Claude code for help with coding.

STEAM DEMO LINK

I like looong, systems-heavy (something to always work towards and grow) idle games that I can spend weeks or months playing every few days or so. Wanting this I made a game.

It starts out requiring active play for the first 20 or so minutes, but eventually you can begin to automate much of the progress, though it still rewards you for active play.

The demo is out, but the full game is looking for a November release though that might change based on wishlists and the like. The game is feature complete. I am just testing/polishing the progression by hand, which takes a considerable amount of effort even with tools.

I love kind feedback and helpful critique. Please let me know what you think, and if you like it, wish list and consider sharing it on your social media; it will help me make more stuff like this in the future!

My game is out on iOS!!

Hello! My name is PaintedChaos and I’m the solo developer behind Idle Nebula Drift! I hope this is okay to post, I recently launched my first ever game as a new developer and I would absolutely love for you all to check it out, maybe join the discord and provide me with feedback or even just help me build a community and enjoy the game. I actually just did my first patch and update of the game based on some user feedback and my own time spent playing. Thank you so much for your time and energy!

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/idle-nebula-drift/id6783057733

Updated AI disclosure, being fully straight:
- Art/Visual assets: AI-generated
-Code: built with help from Claude
-The game itself (design, decisions, direction, and the work of actually shipping): me

I’m a solo dev, not an artist and AI is how I got this to look like anything. My earlier wording was muddled and I shouldn’t have hedged it. Sorry about that.

Hi everyone! I’m the solo developer behind Duck Tycoon. It’s an idle/merge game where you mutate ducks to generate infinite money and I just added a huge progression system with quests and secret perks! Here is the link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/duck-tycoon/id6790207558 

I’d love to hear your feedback to improve the game!

AI disclosure : this app was vibecoded

The super original title returns. A little over 3 months ago I was thinking of stopping the incremental game I was working on, I was trying to mix the bits I liked most from management/idle games. I had made a post here and to my surprise 100s of people played it and gave it a go and gave great feedback on the game (https://www.reddit.com/r/incremental_games/comments/1si0iio/early_game_feedback_for_loot_goblins_a_super/) which gave me the motivation to keep going despite kinda knowing just based on the style and the slew of crap in the space that it's not going to get back a fraction of what I put into it.

Since then there has been a bunch of under the hood changes and loads of quality of life changes. The biggest final hurdle right now is trying to balance keeping things too simple early (just straight forward upgrades / buffs like attack ups) with more interesting trade offs that might chain in more interesting ways (converting stats, disabling items but making others better, on hit affects, status affects).

If any of you lovely folk have 15minutes to give it a try again (playable on Itch!) and let me know what you think. Questions for those who have the time to try:

1. Are the items and shrines too simple in the demo (I want more complicated chaining items earlier)
2. Spells that are equipped right now just automatically trigger, would it be more fun to have to manually cast or have the ability to toggle casting?
3. Did you find the swapping levels confusing at all?

Demo - https://sunwillshinegames.itch.io/loot-goblins

AI Disclosure: No AI used in this game. All assets were either hand-made by us or purchased from artists.

Mind The Gap is a pixel-art trading game set on the London underground. Buy low in Croydon, flog it dear in Mayfair, and clear £8,000 of debt in 35 days before the rent puts you back on your mum's sofa. No idle loop, just a 30-60 minute run where your capital curve races the debt curve.

Free in-browser: https://mindthegap.mercilessstudio.com 

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mercilessstudio.mtg

AI Disclosure: I used agentic AI coding assistants. Writing, design, balancing all by me.

After 8 months of development me and my friend just launched our silly, slightly weird little mining game - Pickochet! (pickaxe + ricochet)

Check it out: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4275920/Pickochet

Some features of our game:

• Ricocheting pickaxes that automatically mine for you (you can mine yourself as well too)
• Special pickaxes that feature unique effects (exploder, ghost, spawner, etc)
• A bunch of abilities that you can use to create different builds (mix and match & try out combos, people are still showing us things we would have never even thought off! feel free to share yours with us!)
• 6 different mining locations (each one giving more rewards than the last and 5 having unique unlockable events)
• Crazy and slightly weird random world events (they happen randomly during runs)
• 29 Steam achievements (they're not too grindy, don't worry!)
• Cheese enforcement officer (he WILL get you so watch out)
• Mentions of Tahiti and mangos (IYKYK)

Also to be upfront: The game is designed to be a shorter experience and typically takes between 3-5 hours to complete depending on how you play and what ability combos you use. Just wanted to say this not to miss-lead anyone as I know not everyone enjoys shorter games!

If short games aren't your thing but you're still curious what the game is about a few people like Idle Cub and Dex made some playthrough videos on YouTube :)

also reddit compression crushed the video quality. Here's the HD video for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_eddZcY9Gw

AI Disclosure
ai was used to translate the game into other languages

edit: added link to HD video

It's a bear that runs while you upgrade, prestige, and pull cosmetics. No install, just opens in your browser: www.sebbierun.com
Curious where it starts getting boring for you

AI Disclosure: built with a lot of AI help, Claude Code, Codex and Cursor.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4967130/Wild_Boar_Digging/

Playable demo (on itch, steam follows soon): https://indiejoh.itch.io/wild-boar-digging

AI disclosure:

The animal card images are created with the help of AI. Everything else is hand drawn.

Have a go and let me know what you think of the demo for my first solo dev project. It’s a mix between a survivors-like game and an incremental.

Here’s the Steam page for the demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4077900/Geometrical/

AI Disclosure: I only used AI to help me build some complex systems and to fix some bugs I couldn’t find.

I am playing Celestial Incremental and I killed Tav a few weeks ago. Now I'm absolutely stuck and can't get more upgrades with (negative) infinity points. What should I do to progress? I'm close to stop playing this game because I have no ideas what I should do for weeks now.

Thanks!

Want recommendations of the best mobile idle games that fit a particular genre? Want a list of games that have cloud saving? Cross-play? Multiplayer? Games that involve slimes? Want help finding that one game you played back in 2016 but can't remember the name of? This thread is for you!

If it'd normally break Rule 1 or shouldn't be a full thread per Rule 9, it's fine here. Except for referral links. Nobody wants to deal with referral links.

When asking your question, see if you're able to answer any of the other questions asked too.

Previous Help Finding Games and Other questions

Previous Feedback Fridays

Previous recommendation threads

If you're looking for autoclickers, check out our list on the wiki.

I released my first game about a month ago but have been giving it a bit before making any posts so I can work out some obvious bugs and make my own plan for future content.

I'd love any feedback to be honest, good or bad, especially anything regarding balance and just overall enjoyment. Let me know any issues you find or things you'd like to see big or small!

My game is Garden Idle, Available on Android and iOS

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pure.gardenidle

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/garden-idle/id6779788391

AI Disclosure: Claude Code was used in the making of majority of this game and it's content.

Hi guys, i will release Dungeon Tactics next week. Hope you will like it and any feedback is welcome ! Steampage: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4194860/Dungeon_Tactics_Idle_Incremental_Autobattler/

AI Disclosure: I dont use AI, just my code and assets

I highly recommend playing PC downloadable win as the browser player needs to be optimized

https://neverrestenjoyer.itch.io/neverrest

Hello everyone it’s been about a week since i shared my demo on reddit. Ive been working hard on some of the feedback (onboarding and UI) and i feel like it has really improved my game. The demo was a success even though i felt like I rushed it i got some very valuable information and even my very first players! A lot of work has gone into it since and id love to hear your feedback! I am still working on a lot of the balancing!

AI Disclosure: AI-generated art, music, code

https://reddit.com/link/1v317qj/video/uujrgtw6joeh1/player

As someone whos been using this subreddit off and on for what can only seem like since its creation. Its been rather annoying in the recent number of months as we see more and more "ai" games. As someone who has made their own game and who has spent 3+ years developing it, and even started from scratch to rebuild the game out of unity, but in the browser to make it more accessible to everyone without requiring a download, A game development decision. The use case of AI just gradually increases month by month. But because my game has always looked like something a typical AI will create, It will naturally always be viewed as "AI Slop" regardless of how much planning, actual code put into the game, Or paid assets that I've accumulated over the years (10k+, which is honestly very minimally used in my game)

While i do agree there's a massive increase of games, A large number of "AI" slop, that even i do agree is AI slop. I think there's a lot of people who don't truly understand, but i went through the effort, with the AI obviously, To create a look at the last 14 days of the subreddit to see new games, releases, AI usage and more. This even includes how many failed posts a user has created in order to get an actual post accepted. Taking 5+ attempts before finally admitting their game contains AI.

You can view the very large display on my site at https://mclama.com/reddit/ig-report.html

I've done another test on the feedback Friday. Now maybe we got some variance. But this week which isn't even finished has gathered over 100 new player accounts, Where the week before i made a post, but i added a honest AI Disclaimer, and gained like 10 accounts.

This report that i have created shows a large amount of info. The AI has read every single post individually, and by an author scale. Deciding sentiment inside of the comments of the post, Platforms of the game, genre , And mainly deciding on if the game used AI or not, And what AI was used. Obviously not everything can be factually reported. Maybe the Developer didn't report their game was playable on steam. So some data might be missing due to lack of information in the developer posts. With the biggest lack of information that i've discovered, is either the users intentional decision to hide their AI use, Since 29% of the new games in the last 14 days feels like a drastically low number. With 189 expected "new games" posted in the last 14 days. Thats 13.5 new games A DAY, With 4 of them being made with AI.

the page will show every post, linkable to the actual post to verify things yourself. I would highly suggest looking into this data. Its interesting.

https://reddit.com/link/1v2z2ix/video/pzroi7h05oeh1/player

I just released a demo for my very first incremental game, I plan to release a full version with more reset layers and features sometime in August

DodecaDragons is my goat of incremental games and I was mostly chasing that feeling where there's always one more thing you can just barely afford.

Free, runs in the browser, no signup: https://heartwoodincremental.com/?ref=reddit

The demo ends at the Fruiting Tree, so it covers sunlight, seeds, roots and fruit. There's more after that (blossoms, seasons) but I'm not really here to pitch you on it. I mostly want to know if the opening drags before seeds unlock, and whether it's obvious what to do when a new tab appears. Looking for suggestions and future ideas

AI disclosure: the code and the pixel art were made with Claude (Anthropic's Claude Code). The design, mechanics, balance and pacing are mine.

Hello,

I am trying to make a medieval life simulator where you can do anything.

You start from nothing and the only limit is the sky.

If you can take a look at the game and tell me what do you thick as a concept.

Website - PC/MOBILE: https://age-of-thornvale.vercel.app/

"AI disclosure" - pictures, graphics, some text, 30% of code

above is picture after 20 days of progress

this game is not a popular incremental game, but it's great enough to review here.
this game has no other guides (at least as far as i know) so this review is also a comprehensive guide about the game.

currently i am playing for 22 days and still not completed.
The incremental game which goes for weeks and has enough depth is rare in 2026, and it's one of it. it has surprisingly deep progression unlike how it looks like.

please ignore the ratings in galaxy.click and incremental game database. galaxy says it's 3.3 out of 5 and database says it has 16 upvotes and 63 downvotes, but mostly people just can't understand the game. they didn't even played for 5 minutes.

this game can be hard to understand at first, but it takes only a few minutes to actually give a shot and start progressing.

this game has 4 layers for the first stage of game, 4 layers for second stage. each layer has probably more depth than previous.
the first 4 layers are successor, addition, multiplication, exponentation
the last 4 layers are ordinal, hydra, non recursion, proof theory.
the proof theory is grand layer and has more than half of total playtime, even the previous layers has still enough depth

this game looks complex at first, but all you need in beginning is find successor tab and increase the number. you buy the upgrades with numbers and progress further. at certain point, you unlock addition.
this part of the game is confusing at first due to text-based interface and awkward tab system, but it's quite quick to adapt to it. this part has nothing special.
once you unlock addition, it can be still boring. it's just linear progression.
but after you unlock multiplication(2nd prestige layer. not related to actual multiplication operation), the real fun starts. some interesting features unlocks and progression starts to get exponential.
the only problem here is too much grinding. at first, repeated reset of 1-2 multiplication point is common when the cost is like 30 multiplication point. after enough progression, you are going to grind for 1e50 multiplication point wall. you need to reset for dozens of times to grind for 1e50 multiplication point. it gets faster until certain point, but gets slower after 1e40 multi point. you can consider using time shards for 3x speed boost. time shard is inside the bottom of tab menu and you can claim from them after the timer ends. you can exchange 1 time shard for 1 minutes of 3x progression speed, and has better exchange rate for bulk exchanges. you might claim massive amount of time shards(1000-5000) after 7 days of playing(including offline) due to weekly timer ends.
In late stage of multiplication layer, challenges unlock. you grind for it fairly quickly and progress much further and further. the last challenge unlocks exponentation layer.
multiplication Challenge stage is solid and nothing much to review. once you unlock exponentation layer, there's even more feature and even more fun. this is the last layer before real fun starts. yes. it's not even 10% of the game's depth.
the beginning of exponentation is quite straightforward. after the beginning, some features can be complex or timewally. once you reach astronomer data gather stage, you need 5,000,000 bytes to progress and it would require dozens of minutes or even hours if you don't use time shards. you eventually unlock singularity in end of this layer, which leads you to actual potential of this game and why i review this game.
the bad thing about exponentation layer is the explanation can be incomplete, and some unnecessary timewalls. the explanation is incomplete due to the original game language is Chinese, and english translation is not the highest quality. at most of the time, it has no problem for playing until late-game. but this layer can be hard to understand due to complexity.

the singularity is the biggest shifting point of the game, from a regular idle game to game like ordinal markup, and goes much deeper in depth.
to reach this point, you will spend 3-6 hours to 1-2 days depending on your style , if you didn't stuck too much.

After you unlock singularity, you unlock the Ordinal layer quickly. this is the most solid and fun part of the game. it's like Ordinal markup(by patcail) at beginning. It has less timewall than ordinal markup, though it still has many small timewalls instead of big one. you end this phase at e1e154 ordinal progression! much higher than ordinal markup due to minimum base being 4. progressing to this point is very solid and fun.
you reach Hydra layer after the ordinal phase ends. hydra layer can be confusing at beginning. after understanding how it works to progression, it gets surprisingly solid again. you unlock number theory 4 to boost the hydra layer even further. the problem here is it has many timewalls(again) but now it's even bigger timewalls. some timewalls are hours long. but don't worry. you can use 3x speed time shard to get it faster, and offline progression works. once you finally finish the last big timewall for 1.08e2466 hydra energy, you unlock dillution. it's similar to corruption in synergism, but much shorter. it's one of the hardest parts of the game due to no guides given and easier to get lost. it's still easier than synergism though. you get the dilution milestones gradually. once you reach the last milestone and buy last upgrade of dilution. you finally unlock the next layer. it's such a long grinding for unlocking 2nd last layer. isn't it?

the review of deeper parts starting from Non recursion part goes to part 2(will be posted soon).

I just released Bunny Meals Inc. on the Google Play Store! It’s a semi-active incremental shooter with nonstop gameplay action.

The goal is to feed cute bunnies to earn money and XP. As you progress, you can purchase upgrades to improve your Carrot Basket Launcher stats and unlock unique skills with various capabilities.

Skills range from sacrificing bunnies for quick cash to unlocking a star-rating system that boosts your income based on your score.

• Price: $2
• Platform: Android
• Monetization: No In-App Purchases / No Ads
• Download: Google Play Store

AI Disclosure: AI was used for coding assistance (generating human-reviewed blocks of code) and to generate a few icons. Game design, mechanics, characters, and scenery are all handcrafted.

Edit: formatting.

Hey there, so i guess most people here know or have played the game The Tower. I generally think this game is really good except the massive paywall. Its way too expensive or too slow if you dont pay imo so i am thinking about building a somewhat similar game (not a copy) but with more features (propably 3D like „The perfect Tower“) and not the need of spending thousands of dollars to really make progress. I would really appreciate any opinion about this and if you are interested please tell me what you like and dont like about The Tower or similar Tower defense games and also features that you think would be cool to have if you have good ideas :)

any help/opinion is appreciated :)

I am super excited to announce, that my incremental tower-defense nodebusterlike combo, Incrempire is RELEASED!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4301300/Incrempire

The game's been released today on Steam, giving around 3-5 hours of gameplay for the main mode, then an increased difficulty for another 4 hours, with lots of unlockable contents and "surprises".

AI Disclosure
No generative AI was used in this project. All art and UI have been handcrafted.