We just released our 3rd Major Update!

Another new level: Deadwater Beach. Along with 4 new enemies and a new boss(with mechanics as well)

We really wanted to have players be able to adjust their playstyles a bit somehow, so we decided to add a Gear System.
The Gear System will allow you to select from multiple gear pieces after defeating a boss. These give you powerful playstyle specific bonusses. You can equip up to 4 of these in total.

Another new mechanic: Ghost Hammers. These grant you have a chance to hit random enemies with a ghost hammer when attacking. These hammer also copy your on hit effects, so a ghost hammer with a column hammer equipped will also attack in a column for example!

Please give your honest as possible feedback. It is as always very very welcome

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3364170/WhackAMonster_Demo/

Itch.io: https://brainfog-games.itch.io/whack-a-monster

I released The Board is Yours almost 2 weeks ago with 800 WL and I'm reaching 500 units sold.

Work breakdown

This game is the result of over 600 hours of work. I initially planned the game for 300h (so the typical x2), and it's a very complex incremental game based on chess, which explains why most of the time was development. I did art and sound/music as well, and took a bit more time (100+ hours) for marketing, collecting emails, sending emails, keys, (but which basically lead to nothing yet).

Wishlists

Launched the page in december, and got basically no traction at all (as expected). I released a demo on itch which made around 5K plays and got me ~300 wishlists and a few more with the demo release on steam. I doubled this with the Next Fest and ended up with 800 WL at launch.

Launch & 10th review

I knew some people were interested in strategic thinking in the landscape of incremental games, but I wasn't sure it was a good idea to try to mix the two genres, because in the end, the game is definitely very, very, complex. In fact what happened is that for an idle game, the pacing is as good as the player is (quote from a player), which makes the game duration very hard to predict: some people cleared the game in 4 hours, others in 30h... But the result was amazing:

• Almost 500 sales, with 3.5% return rate
• Over 18 reviews, 100% positive meaning that the target audience of the game really loved it (especially when you read some of the in-depth reviews).
• 2h30 of median time, with an average playtime of 7 hours
• Zero bug report, and several good ideas for QoL improvements that are on their way for the first patch.

I hit the 10th review day 5 and got a huge boost of visibility from the discovery queue which went from ~40 per day to 2K. I also managed to have 2 bundles up with games recently launched, which brought a few more sales from incremental world, but I'm still actively looking for other bundles even if I have very little answers yet (it seems like bundles are very important for the long tail...).

An unexpected boost

With the release, and the good rating on a site dedicated to incremental games (incrementalDB), my game went back at the top of this site and I even managed to have a featuring on it which brought a few thousand people to the itch demo which was still up. After a week of visibility, the itch algorithm started pushing my demo a lot (the very same demo I released in february and which made 5K plays at the time), and it brought 10K more plays to the demo, which gives a very good idea of what the full game looks like. So I guess I got some sales from this as well.

What's missing

First, for now, I did not manage to bundle with chess-based games especially, which is too bad because some big title recently launched and some are doing incredibly well (looking at you Gambonanza), but yeah... I'm way too small to bring anything to the table for them so that's understandable (have a great day).

But the worst is that I basically got zero coverage from streamers. I had a few thousands of views (cumulated) for the demo version, but around 60 views (cumulated...) for the full game, despite sending plenty of keys and still working on that side.

It's still early and I have some hope, especially because the reviews and feedback show that I made a game that people definitely enjoy playing. But at the same time, the game is maybe too hard, not flashy enough and as a result not interesting show to people.

What's next

So I guess I can continue to convert on the long tail, with some marketing, bundling, and still hoping to have some streamer coverage, but I feel like I already managed to show the game to the right audience who enjoyed it, and there might not be that many more people left who could enjoy it. It seems unlikely that I will be able to reach the 50 reviews mark at some point, but the current result still feels like a success for a first game (not a commercial success, the projections looks like $2/h for the lifetime revenue of the game). I tried to make my game for a very specific target audience, and they responded extremely positively which is such a relief after so much work.

So now that I know I can make a good game for a specific target audience, all I need to do is choose a wider target audience!

Have fun making games!

I had a basic browser game in JavaScript that received very good reviews, and when I tried to scale it, I realized I had to start from scratch with a game engine. I chose Godot.

I'm still in development; I don't know if those who liked the prototype will like the new version. I'm keeping the mechanics, the graphics, there's no free building, just upgrade buttons, moving eggs, chickens, filling feeders... but I don't know... I'm afraid this version won't live up to expectations.

What do you think?

So I know its a bit wierd to see skill telegraphs in a top down shooter but because of the dual control system in my game I had to put them in.
Some skills fire off from the main character and some from the mouse cursor, kind of like a twin stick but its just mouse controlled and you hold down spacebar to disconnect the cursor from the main body and your skills are on the left and right mouse button. so you can hold space down to free the cursor, move the cursor across the screen fire off a attack there and at the same time fire off a AOE explosion around the body.. or set traps, healing bubble, firewalls, blackholes n stuff.
Anyone else seen stuff like that in a top down shooter? most of my inspiration for my games come from mmorpgs because I've played so many of them.

If any ones curious the demo is here https://store.steampowered.com/app/4512830/Null_Root/

The full release will be on steam in a few months, just after the Steam Next fest in June. Oh there is also a native steam deck version as well so no need for emulation.

TL;DR: Does our new capsule art look AI-generated?

When we first launched our Steam page for our game One More Core, we quickly threw together some capsule art just to get the page up. After the page opened, we sat down properly and made a second version. We're still working on updating it.

I sent the new one to an acquaintance who works in the industry (wanted an outside opinion, someone with no emotional stake in it). First thing he said: "Is this AI?" And when I said no, he actually suggested we go back to the old one because if people assume it's AI, it might be a problem. That stuck with me. So I sent it to a few other people with similar backgrounds, this time asking directly: "Does this look AI-generated to you?" Some of them said kinda. Lately, I've been seeing a lot of beautiful drawings being accused of being AI-generated. I don't want that to happen to us.

For context on how it was actually made: we rendered our planetary structure in 3D, then our concept artist did manual detail work on top of it. Actual human hours. No AI in the pipeline.

So I'm genuinely asking, what's your opinion?

I'm not very skilled at pixel art, and the skill tree icons in my game look terrible right now. Where can I get icons for free or for a small fee? How did you create your icons?

Each upgrade icon has a bar next to it to it, showing the cost as a proportion of remaining money.

Attempting to solve a bit of a frustration I have with some incremental upgrade trees, where I end up having to hover over all the upgrades to determine the cost, as costs differ by orders of magnitude, so you will have upgrades that cost 1% of your money mixed in with ones that cost 90%

Still getting some confusion from playtesters about this UI feature (albeit a few don't have much incremental experience) - so wondering if it is coming across clearly, or if anyone has suggestions for how to make it clearer?

Hello!
I am an indie developer working on my idle fishing game. I made this prestige system which, although i am pretty proud of it, i am looking for feedback to juice it even further!

That's where i need your help : What do you think of it? How could i juice it more, or even what do you dislike about it?

Every feedback is welcome and very appreciated, thank you!

In this hacker idle-clicker, you build a malware empire on a simulated 90s PC by coding viruses, automating processes, and completing illegal darknet contracts to fund a mysterious organization.

Hi!

I'm Sos and I've been making games for 25 years! This is my first incremental game and I've been working on it for quite a while already!

I have finally put together a proper demo that's representative of what I want the full game to be like! I added tons of new stuff including teams, leagues, enemies, and detailed stats! Check it out and let me know if you like it!

You can play the demo in the browser. If you played before, it will give you a bag of free coins! The demo is not long (around 2 hours?) but it's fun as hell and I'm pretty happy with the pacing! Would love to hear your thoughts about it!

Demo on itch.io: https://sos.itch.io/lazy-kickers

Demo on galaxy.click: https://galaxy.click/play/630

Wishlist on Steam (pretty please!): https://store.steampowered.com/app/4613890/Lazy_Kickers/

Have fun!

(ps. I didn't know which flair to use, at least 5 apply, hope I chose well :P)

I’m making a corporate-themed incremental game where you climb office ranks, improve skills, hire coworkers, etc.

Recently I added shareable employee badges/profile links (video below), and it got me thinking about lightweight social systems that fit idle games without turning them into “guild chore simulators”.

Current idea is something like corporate branches/departments:

• adding coworkers/friends,
• seeing their ranks/job titles,
• maybe small async department goals or company-wide events.

I like the idea of making the company feel more socially alive, but I’m not sure where the line is between:

• fun ambient social features, and
• systems that just become obligation/UI noise.

What social features have actually worked well for you in incremental games?

And which ones sounded better on paper than in practice?

Booster Pack Heroes just got a visual overhaul along with the Steam demo release!

You can check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4659940/Booster_Pack_Heroes_Demo/

Hello everyone,

For many months now I have been working on a browser game.

I was inspired by two games that I really like, Melvor Idle for the active/inactive game side with a nice progression and World of warcraft for the talent tree side, mythic dungeon + and many other features to discover on the game.

There are currently 4 classes, all of which have different gameplay options that can be enjoyed by anyone: a quest system that follows you throughout your adventure, and many activities in mid-game and late game.

If this might interest you, here is the link: https://aethyridle.com/

In addition, I have an active community on Discord if you want to join it: https://discord.gg/vnHqGqXhGB

Thank you all