Federation is lagging behind, and I don't want to wait several days for the server to figure out we have a new weekly post, so I'll go ahead and just make it myself! Let us know what you've been up to this week. Keep it casual, fun, and it's appreciated if you link to any games you mention. Thanks!
thepaperpilot
4mo ago
•
100%
Glad the website could get you started on a whole rabbit hole of interesting reads 🫡
thepaperpilot
4mo ago
•
100%
I've always considered this an interesting discussion, sop I've written out a very thorough answer here: https://www.thepaperpilot.org/garden/guide-to-incrementals/defining-the-genre/
store.steampowered.com
PegIdle is a Pachinko idle game. Look at this gif from the store page: 
thepaperpilot
4mo ago
•
100%
I love incremental games with a story! Definitely picking this up
thepaperpilot
4mo ago
•
59%
I don't hate apple. Especially from a privacy record, they actually have a far superior history than essentially every other hardware manufacturer out there.
I think they're overpriced and I don't agree with some of their design decisions, and in general feel like they could give the consumer more control over things, which is why I don't personally have an iPhone or iPad etc., I use them at work and have nothing against them in general)
thepaperpilot
4mo ago
•
100%
This week has been a roller coaster, but I've been playing magic research 2, cat clicker on galaxy, and a couple smaller games as part of Galaxy's verification process.
Been also really working on my personal website and am really excited in the direction it's going! The overall theme isn't implemented yet, but I've been converting some of my personal notes into public pages. This week I documented my experiences with life is strange, so if you're interested in that you could read about it here.
thepaperpilot
4mo ago
•
100%
I've recently found out about https://search.marginalia.nu and want to start using it.
thepaperpilot
4mo ago
•
100%
There's so many interesting jams going on. If I didn't already have a million things on my plate I'd be so down to participate. Well, looking forward to seeing what others can create at least!
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
I'm not sure I understand your question about magic research 2
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
I picked up idle orbs 4 based on this recommendation but honestly couldn't really get into it.
Instead I've just been playing a bunch of Magic Research 2, which I'm having a blast with!
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
I actually just picked up magic research 2, and I play through every USI update as soon as it comes out.
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
Nostr does some interesting things! What I mentioned here is actually just the identity part of what I think could be a significantly improved version of the fediverse. I have ideas on how to support subreddit style communities and decentralized moderation and things like that that make the whole idea a bit different from nostr.
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
Glad to have you! Hope you enjoy the community:)
What games are you playing now?
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
Yeah, I disagree with that part as well. I think it's fine for servers to store the content and provide endpoints for specific queries/sorts, and expecting the clients to have all the posts is a tad extreme.
In this case, yes the data needs to live somewhere, but that's the nature of having data be retrievable.
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
92%
I agree with this take, and recently I actually read this article that criticizes how server centric fedi is as a whole. If it's hard and expensive for a layperson to self host, but you need to have an account associated with a specific server, then you're going to end up with a system where you're under the whims of a instance owner still. Not to mention the whole pick a server step severely hurts our adoption rates.
I like the idea of having an account just being a public and private key pair. Theoretically you could make one client side, use it to sign your messages, and servers could verify the signature and distribute your post without needing to have an explicit account for you. You could send every message to a random instance and it'd still work. You wouldn't have to worry about links to the "wrong instance" and you wouldn't have to attach your identity to a instance that might shut down or be bought by a bad person. The server would be essentially irrelevant.
Personally, I prefer when reset mechanics let me do long, deep runs between each reset. I'm not a fan of doing the same content over and over again in quick succession.
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
Ive been playing cat incremental as well. It requires a LOT of clicking at the start, but I enjoyed it enough to reach end of content. Although I think the last several prestige bonuses are pretty pointless - once you can quickly max out all the cats within each prestige, the remaining prestiges aren't very interesting. Since it's still under active development, that'll hopefully change though
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
For matrix specifically, I recommend fluffy chat on mobile and cinny for web/desktop. Most notably, they both support the not-yet-official spec on custom emojis and stickers, which I think is important for any slack-like.
For the server (since you want to self host), you'd probably want to do Synapse - it supports not being federated as well as SSO. Also it wasn't mentioned by mp3, but xmpp is another protocol that's used by many large companies for internal chat systems as well.
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
What are your thoughts on the antimatter dimensions reality update? It's a game with months of content, but also added a bit of a narrative as you go through the celestials
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
I've discussed this topic and levied criticisms at common issues I see in this genre in an article called What is Content?. Essentially, I think it's better to have planned out the scope of the game in advance (as I've done for gamedev tree, advent incremental, and Kronos), so that the game feels like it has a proper end. It also sidesteps the issue of having new layers outright replace the earlier gameplay rather than extend it, as is common in games that keep asking themselves what to add next. Basically, planning makes better games.
thepaperpilot
5mo ago
•
100%
@kopi-pasted@incremental.social wdym? What does it remind you of?
thepaperpilot
6mo ago
•
100%
While I never got into fair game, I really like that it exists and has such a strong community. Love seeing it succeed!
This is a game I've been waiting on for awhile. The trailer looks so beautiful, and I think it'll scratch that incremental game itch. It's narrative driven and probably shorter than most incremental games, so I'd consider buying this mostly if you're into other games that focus more on graphics and story, like spaceplan or gnorp analogue. Once I play it after work I'll probably comment a more full review.
I've been really enjoying this demo for a game called epic auto towers, even moreso than I enjoyed super auto pets, which I think is fair to say the same genre. Compared to SAP, this game is PvE, and adds relics and bosses. Ultimately it has a ton of really satisfying combos that can get really high stats, and I'm super excited for more content but am wary they're probably going to nerf things like the guardian spamming + 1 obsidian tower combo, or the exponential growth of the flower + bee build. So it's been making me wonder what kind of game could exist in the incremental sphere that would have that same kind of crazy combo finding, but be totally fine with some combos getting to like expoential levels. To keep the exploration side of things, I think you'd have to have some sort of system where you have parallel "runs", and towers are more expensive based on how many you have across all active runs, thus encouraging you to find combos with completely new sets of units. Perhaps the main progression would be buying additional towers and increasing the number of parallel runs. Each of these "runs" wouldn't actually reset when they lose, they just keep playing that last level, forever gaining the currency used to buy towers and increasing max parallel runs. Then you as the player can replace a tower to have the run restart and see if it gets to a higher "last level". There could still be interesting and unique bosses along the way etc. My main concern with that implementation would be it not really working with RNG - it'd have to be fully deterministic. But I like the aspects of rolling for units and getting a random selection of cool relics. I'm just not sure how to integrate those into the idea.
I'm sure most of us are aware that a lot of the mechanics of incremental games rely on things like skinner boxes to make us want to keep playing by just promising us future positive moments, rather than just giving us positive moments. Where do you think the line is, between genuine fun vs just being manipulated into wanting to keep playing? Or is there no difference? Additionally, awareness of video game addiction is pretty important within the genre. The community has a lot of young people who could be harmed if playing games long enough into the night as to disrupt their sleep cycle, for example. To that end I've been considering adding a notice to my future games when the game has been actively played a lot, that mentions video games addiction along with some resources to help. When do you think it'd make sense to display this? I was thinking about showing it if the player has been active within the game during 6 of the last 8 hours.
By recognizable I mean ones your can tell a game was made in it immediately. Engines like IGM, TMT, or Profectus. Relatedly, what are your favorite games made in an engine such as those? Or most impressive use of the engine.
I've been working on a new game, and it's designed to be a multiplayer game, focused on collaboration with player interactions that are "progression agnostic", like applying mutual %-based buffs. I'm also planning on having regular resets and starting new "seasons" a few times a year where mechanics get tweaked, added, etc. What are y'all's thoughts on multiplayer incrementals? Do you enjoy them, or are playing any currently? What's the longest you've played one for?
Personally I really the loops subgenre, with stuff like stuck in time, increlution, cavernous, etc. They give such a strong sense of progression over time. I think a lot of that is how the speed improvements are polynomial so progression didn't feel like it diminished over time.
incremental.social
Howdy! I'm thepaperpilot, and for the past few months I've been working on something I think the internet doesn’t have enough of right now—a comfy, human-first social media space without ads or corporate interference. [Incremental Social](https://incremental.social/) combines Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and even Github through a collection of open source applications all customized and connected under one banner. The goal of this website is to contribute to a "cozier" web, filled with smaller, more customized websites away from the hands of advertisers and corporations hunting for profit. The idea is to help people find a community they most fit in with, where they approve of the moderation practices, the people, and the discussions. For me, and possibly you, that was always going to be a community centered around incremental games. So this is intended to include anything a member of the incremental games community might want—be they a player, a developer, or both! I host communities like this for fun, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, my favorite communities are neither monetized nor toxic. Running communities like these is a passion of mine, so I can run this website without ads or charging for features, indefinitely. As for toxicity, I’ve teamed up with /u/CardboardEmpress (`@cardboardempress`), a previous moderator on /r/incremental\_games who shares my goals towards moderation, to co-admin Incremental Social. We’ve both been participating and moderating within the incremental games community for many many years, and understand this community well. That’s why I can promise you Incremental Social will feel great to participate in. I believe in cultivating a positive and affirming community where developers feel safe and welcome to share what they’ve been working on—ultimately leading to more games for players to enjoy. This will be a tight-knit community, one where you recognize your neighbors, even if you’re just lurking. Beyond this, Incremental Social isn’t just a singular platform. By virtue of being Federated, you can still get the full benefits of joining multiple communities like you would on Reddit, Discord, etc. Once you sign up, you can chat, make threads, and otherwise participate within not only the incremental games community, but other threads, posts, and people across thousands of other communities, covering subjects like [technology](https://incremental.social/m/technology@lemmy.world), [memes](https://incremental.social/m/memes@lemmy.ml), and even [George Takei](https://incremental.social/u/@georgetakei@universeodon.com). If you're already familiar with the Fediverse and would rather join us from your existing account, you can do so by searching `incremental_games@incremental.social` on lemmy/kbin/mastodon or joining the chat at [#hub:incremental.social](https://matrix.to/#/#hub:incremental.social)! I hope to see you on [Incremental Social](https://incremental.social/)! In fact, once you do, go ahead and [reach out to me](https://matrix.to/#/@thepaperpilot:incremental.social). Ask me questions about the site, let me know what you think, and I might know a few people who you’d get along with. Thanks for reading this whole post. I’m really looking forward to spending less and less of my time on reddit and discord and spending it here instead. I’ve also still got some incremental games cooking in the background, and y’all will be the first to see them! TL;DR: Incremental Social is a new community for incremental game enthusiasts combining features from Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Github. CardboardEmpress and I, two long-standing community members and moderators, are dedicated to cultivating a cozy, positive, and tight-knit community. Give it a try [here](https://incremental.social/) and let me know what you think!