Sometimes you want a video game that doesn’t ask much. Sometimes you want a video game that asks for almost nothing at all. Idle games vary in terms of the engagement required from the player, but most of them do incorporate the dopamin filled rush of incrementally improving your game state: more points, more buttons to click, more, more, more! Here are four titles that we recommend trying out if you haven’t already (ranked in no particular order).
Orb of Creation
Orb of Creation by Marple is an excellent idle experience providing many hours of gameplay. The game requires more out of the player than the average idle game, utilizing a hotbar of spells and abilities that the player must chain together to keep a constant flow of different resources. The mid to late game switches focus to automating more and more of these systems, providing a sense of accomplishment and rewarding the player for their invested time.
Orb of creation is available for free on itch.io and for sale on steam. The Steam release does appear to be more updated and may be worth the money if you are enjoying the game.
Did I mention the music absolutely slaps? Marple has the soundtrack listed on soundcloud. Go take a listen: https://soundcloud.com/marple-muse
Idle Slayer
I started playing Idle Slayer recently. It’s also available on mobile devices, and honestly, that’s where I have spent most of my time with this game. You play a decidedly generic fantasy character on a quest to defeat an ancient evil. You accomplish this by killing approximately 1 billion goblins and collecting an equal number of coins and jewels. Money is used to unlock run improvements, and souls from monsters are used for prestige unlocks that permanently improve your character.
My favorite aspect of this game is the limited amount of time you actually need to spend playing it. You can open it a few times a day for a five to ten minutes and more or less stay on pace with your goals.
Leaf Blower Revolution
This one is a long one. I’ll be honest, of the games I’m listing here, this is the most mathematically forward of them all. BUT…. It’s worth checking out of you want a game with lots of content and long term milestones for incremental improvement. Its also appears to have a fairly active online community, and continues to be regularly updated!
The game starts simply by blowing leaves in your own yard, but soon exands on a universal romp through the leaf multiverse. There is honestly too much content to list here, but its well worth playing this game. Did I mention its free? Check out Leaf Blower Revolution
Cookie Clicker
Oh wow! I can’t believe he picked Cookie Clicker. How brave and unique…. It’s a really good game, okay?
For those that don’t know, I would estimate that 10% of all office hours are spent playing cookie clicker. This is a one of the greats. You start with a small army of cookie producing grandmas, soon expanding to a cookie empire! I don’t want to spoil anything for new players, but keep going, keep playing, because there are some very surprising mid to late game events.
It’s a simple game with easily understood mechanics. You click cookies, you buy stuff that clicks and/or makes cookies. You try to make as many cookies as you can.
Conclusion
This is just the tip of the idle iceberg, but they represent some of the highest quality idle gaming out there. If you like these, then you just may want to expand your horizons into the wide world of idle games. Remember to go outside once in a while though. You really do need the vitamin D.