#incremental

[entropy-game-dev]

Phylogenesia Automatorum is out!! A roguelite / incremental / life simulation hybrid

Download it here!

Over the past couple of weeks I've been working on my entry for the New Years Incremental Game Jam 2024, and I finally submitted it late last night.

It's a silly little game where you tend to your garden of digital plants, hoping to generate enough Life and Death points when they spawn/die respectively, in order to buy more plants, mutate their characteristics, and expand the field in which they live.

Mutations and field properties will directly (and indirectly) change the plants' behavior on both a local and global level, with some very interesting and unexpected results. Numbers going up isn't always better either too, as, if you upgrade their stats too much, you might make a superplant that chokes the life out of the rest of your simulation and other plants!!

(Oh, and my friend did the music for this game, and it's awesome - each plant as their own instrument/track and they layer on top of each other as you buy more!)

It's a roguelite in the sense that each run you will be choosing between random upgrades, plants, and field tiles with various effects between simulation runs in order to try and maximize your point gains and stay ahead of the reset cost. It's not totally balanced (as it was whipped up in 2 weeks), but with a bit of knowledge and juuuust a hint of luck, you can make almost any run pop off! The goal is to buy all 10 plants and have them all produce points within a single run (representing a diverse garden or something, rather than a monocrop).

As I mentioned previously, it's based heavily on Conway's Game of Life, as I am a huge sucker for incrementals with hypnotizing visuals that change and evolve as you interact with the various systems at play. I took this idea, added a bunch of plants that are variations on the standard ruleset, and went from there.

You might also notice that I used some assets from Stellar Terminus, namely, the 3 sound effects, fonts, color palette, and, retro computer theming. I swear I can do other styles, just, er, not in 2 weeks when I already had quite an ambitious idea!

Over the coming days I'll post some more about the development of it, how I implemented certain systems, and a post mortem. You can probably imagine how datastructures-heavy this game was. In the end I had 1 object that ran the entire simulation, 1 that displayed the breakdown of how each plant was doing, and like 20+ objects for UI...

For now though? I'd love for you to try it out, play a few runs, and hear your thoughts on it!!

[pratchettquotes]

800th Post: A Reflection on Increments*

Some jobs offer increments. This one offered--well, quite the reverse, but at least it was in the warm and fairly easy to get the hang of. After a while he got into the rhythm of it, and started playing the private little quantity-surveying game that everyone plays in these circumstances. Let's see, he thought, I've done nearly a quarter, let's call it a third, so when I've done that corner by the hayrack it'll be more than half, call it five-eighths, which means three more wheelbarrow loads. ...It doesn't prove anything very much except that the awesome splendor of the universe is much easier to deal with if you think of it as a series of small chunks.

Terry Pratchett, Mort

*Here, Mort Sto Helit demonstrates the same incremental psychology in his stable work which all tumblr users have refined. When I first started this blog I thought I'd see if I could share 1,000 Pratchett quotes. Let's see, another two hundred posts will be a thousand posts. That's two hundred days, call it six months, which is only half of a year....

[gamertogamedeveloper]

How do these updated gifs look? Do I need to zoom in more?

[ratedjo]

dreamcore95idle.exe

Creator's Description: CAN YOU ESCAPE YOUR DREAMS?

Le leggere ciocche di memoria si mescolano a gocce di sogni. The flowing strands of memory mix with droplets of dreams.

N̵̘̍͘O̶͇̽̈̈́͜S̶��̻̋̅̊T̶͎̳̈́͑A̶̛̦L̵̼̗̓G̷͉͌I̴̖͖̾̚Á̵̝͔̺͑͑ ̵̫̉̅̐Ǐ̶͙̘̪̄S̵̠̅ ̷̥̰͌͝Y̶̢̛͍̙̾O̶̯̬̠̊̿́Ū̶̮̀̄R̸̦̂̒ ̵̳̔̉͝F̷̧̠̓̏͜R̵̹̫̣͝Í̵̫͍͘̚E̴̤̹̓͒̎Ņ̸̰̱̌D̸̢͕͂́̑

Developer: Atovange Engine: Godot Price: Free/ Name your price Download: Itch.io

[ayuranslounge]

Out of all of the 'optimise until you have built a machine to eat the planet' have that I have played (which isn't a ton) bit burner has been the only one to actually make me want to optimise.

I think it comes down to the fact that the main limiting factor to how far you go is primarily up to you.

There's a limit to how deep into the network you can go when you scan-analyse. But nothing is stopping you from long through the entire network if you know how to script it.

Yeah every script is killed off when you reset. But so are all the programs on your pc when you reboot. Your pc has a boot sequence. Robots have an initialisation phase. You can just... program something that gets you everything you need on a fresh startup.

Again. The only limiting factor is your imagination.

Feel like your basic hacking script is not efficient enough? Work on creating a process manager which tells all your little bots what to do.

Heck. The entire game is a browser with javascript. Redesign the ui to make it better for you.

Hack the game about hacking.

And by the end of it you'll understand enough to hack all the idle browser games.

[syi666]

after experiencing the wonder that is pokeclicker. I'm begging someone to make a final fantasy or power ranger themed incremental game. THERE. IS. SO. MUCH. POTENTIAL.

[procrastinator-studies]

day 2/123

yesterday was a good day, I studied in the garden and wrote way more than I expected, however today I was very unproductive, I really tried but I couldn't focus.

I also started a new book I actually like, it's about incremental and participatory housing in Portugal (the main theme of my thesis) during the 70's, when our revolution took place.

"housing for the greatest number" , Nuno Portas

[howifeltabouthim]

There's a simple small line at the mouth of hell. It's not a big deal when you get there. It's just another step is all.

Lisa Taddeo, from Animal

[cnu-newurbanism]

Great Idea 4: Incremental development

Great places are built in small increments, and urbanists are restoring America's know-how and capacity for small-scale development by many individuals in their own communities. Do you want to be a small developer? Read more.

[entropy-game-dev]

Phylogenesia Automatorum Post-game Devlog #1: Idea conception

In this series of posts, I'll take you through my thought processes in coming up with and developing the game I release for the New Years Incremental Game Jam 2024. But first, if you aren't familiar with my game, please go and try it out for yourself first! And if you want, you can also rate it and check the other cool entries out!

My favourite part of any incremental/idle is having some nice accompanying visuals that are directly impacted by the decisions that you've made. I really can't remember how I began thinking of Conway's Game of Life in this context, but I thought this would be an amazing jumping-off point for an incremental game.

I quickly implemented the very simple rules (the left image). Counts of cells in the 8 surrounding cells are needed to progress the simulation, so I have a debug overlay of the counts for each cell. Each tick, the simulation progresses according to the following rules:

If there are exactly 3 live cells surrounding an empty cell, on the next tick, that cell becomes live on the next tick

If there are between 2-3 live cells surrounding a live cell, that cell persists to the next tick

If the above is not true, the live cell dies on the next tick and becomes empty again

When defining this with code, I quickly realised a cell is defined by 4 values organised into two ranges: its spawn range (3-3) and sustain range (2-3). I then thought it would be interesting to see how another "organism" with different ranges would change the dynamics of the system.

I coded in a second type of cell, which I had termed the Voidberry. It had a spawn range of 0-8 and a sustain range of 0-8. This meant it could spawn anywhere, but I decided to make the simulation probabilistic by giving it a spawn chance of 2% and a spontaneous death chance of 80%. While Conway's original rules were completely deterministic, I felt this would limit the types of cells I would be able to create. So now we have 6 parameters total.

In the right picture, you can see how the Voidberry disturbs a stable formation of original Conway cells, making it disintegrate over the following ticks.

These two cells would go on to have the following sprites in the game:

I knew I wanted to modify these values and so I also wrote some simple code to tally up how much were spawning and dying, too. I didn't know how quite I'd be using them at the time, but these would go on to become the Life and Death points that drive the player's influence and progression in the final game...

And that's it for Part 1! Thanks for reading and I'll have more for you guys very soon!

[gamertogamedeveloper]

I'm making an aquarium simulator you can resize and place anywhere on your desktop called Peacequarium.

[williamjokela]

Short Weirdo out now on soundcloud and newgrounds.

[spaupa-the-nerd]

I'm terminally addicted to this game. You can't save me.

[ameliakeli]

Copy Box Files to SharePoint Online with Incremental Changes

[fuzzypuzzy]

Epic Tower Idle Defense World 2

Dark enviroment world for out idle game called Epic Tower Idle Defense on android and apple

[linuxgamenews]

Astrodle: A Stunning Space Shooter Game with Zodiac Signs

Astrodle incremental space shooter game is due to evolve onto Linux with Windows PC. Thanks to the creative genius of Robin Nicolet. Available now on Steam with 96% Very Positive reviews. Robin Nicolet, a French indie developer, has just released his debut title, Astrodle. It’s a short but stunning incremental space shooter where sci-fi Zodiac signs help you become a god by simply making numbers go up. And it's also due to get a native build.

I'm using the Unity engine to develop the game. I will totally consider supporting a second branch when the game gets stable enough and there are fewer builds to manage.

Robin Nicolet's email reply means there wasn't a plan for a Linux build because no one showed interest — until now. He’s still working on it, and the native build will be released when he has time. Astrodle stays true to its genre by practically playing itself, so when you return, you’ll see all the progress made while you were away. Watching those colorful blobs pop in and out of existence is super satisfying, especially as you rack up resources to upgrade your spaceship. In this title, you’re on a mission to collect Zodiac essences and become an immortal space god. Shoot, collect, upgrade, repeat, become a god. Sounds simple enough, right?

Astrodle – Trailer

Features:

Shoot and Collect Essences Your spaceship is armed with lasers, and those poor blobs don’t stand a chance. Blast as many as you can to gather Essences and make strides in your quest.

Upgrade Your Ship While your lasers are already good, you can make them even better. Spend your Essences on upgrades to boost your firepower to the next level.

Revel in the Numbers Now, take a step back and enjoy the Astrodle chaos you’ve unleashed on the blobs. All those numbers flying everywhere — it's perfect.

Complete the Story Space is vast, but you’re not alone. Sagittarius, Aquarius, and Taurus are here to guide you on your journey to godhood. It’s been ages since they’ve seen a human, but that’s no big deal, right?

Beat the Game Don’t you hate when you can’t tell if an idle game has an end? Both modes in Astrodle can be completed in a day if you play actively. It’s perfect for a laid-back weekend session.

The title also keeps you hooked with some hands-on gameplay. The automatic shooter aspect is just engaging enough to help you unwind after a hectic day. In short, Astrodle is a mesmerizing incremental space shooter that’s all about shooting blobs, collecting essences, and upgrading your ship until you become a space god. Whether you’re playing actively or letting it run on its own, it’s a satisfying experience that fits perfectly into a chill weekend. So, get out there, blast some blobs, and start your journey to godhood. It's coming to Linux as well as Windows PC via Steam. Priced at $5.39 USD / £4.49 / 5,39€ with the 10% launch discount until July 3rd.