pages/assets/guide-to-incrementals_ludology_definition.md.b8d4c239.js

import{_ as e,c as t,o as a,d as r}from"./app.99998402.js";const p=JSON.parse('{"title":"Defining the Genre","description":"","frontmatter":{"title":"Defining the Genre"},"headers":[{"level":2,"title":"Incrementals vs Idlers vs Clickers","slug":"incrementals-vs-idlers-vs-clickers","link":"#incrementals-vs-idlers-vs-clickers","children":[]},{"level":2,"title":"Incrementals as Parodies","slug":"incrementals-as-parodies","link":"#incrementals-as-parodies","children":[]},{"level":2,"title":"Incrementals as NGU","slug":"incrementals-as-ngu","link":"#incrementals-as-ngu","children":[]},{"level":2,"title":"Incrementals as Strategies","slug":"incrementals-as-strategies","link":"#incrementals-as-strategies","children":[]},{"level":2,"title":"Roguelites as Incrementals?","slug":"roguelites-as-incrementals","link":"#roguelites-as-incrementals","children":[{"level":3,"title":"The Berlin Interpretation","slug":"the-berlin-interpretation","link":"#the-berlin-interpretation","children":[]},{"level":3,"title":"The Incremental Games Canon","slug":"the-incremental-games-canon","link":"#the-incremental-games-canon","children":[]},{"level":3,"title":"The Paradigm Shift","slug":"the-paradigm-shift","link":"#the-paradigm-shift","children":[]},{"level":3,"title":"High-Value Factors","slug":"high-value-factors","link":"#high-value-factors","children":[]},{"level":3,"title":"Low-Value Factors","slug":"low-value-factors","link":"#low-value-factors","children":[]},{"level":3,"title":"Are Roguelites Incrementals?","slug":"are-roguelites-incrementals","link":"#are-roguelites-incrementals","children":[]}]},{"level":2,"title":"Sub-Genres","slug":"sub-genres","link":"#sub-genres","children":[]},{"level":2,"title":"Other Related Genres","slug":"other-related-genres","link":"#other-related-genres","children":[]}],"relativePath":"guide-to-incrementals/ludology/definition.md","lastUpdated":null}'),n={name:"guide-to-incrementals/ludology/definition.md"},i=r('<h1 id="defining-the-genre" tabindex="-1">Defining the Genre <a class="header-anchor" href="#defining-the-genre" aria-hidden="true">#</a></h1><p>Video games are placed into genres for a variety of reasons. They can give a mental shorthand to set the player&#39;s expectations up, they can help a game market itself by its similarities to other, already popular games, and honestly, people just love categorization for its own sake. For this guide, it&#39;s important to define the genre so it is clear what games it&#39;s even talking about.</p><p>This poses a problem. &quot;Incremental&quot; is a <em>horribly</em> vague way to define games. <em>Most</em> games have numbers going up in some form or another. We need a more specific definition - similar to how &quot;strategy&quot; can&#39;t just mean any game with <em>any</em> amount of strategy because that would be <em>most</em> games. What specifically differentiates incremental games from the rest?</p><p>&quot;Incremental&quot; implies it&#39;s a genre defined by a game mechanic, but all those game mechanics it could imply exist in many other games. Having a skill tree or upgrades doesn&#39;t make you incremental, and if a reset mechanic is all it takes then every roguelite would be an incremental as well. So clearly there&#39;s more to it than that - what makes an incremental an incremental?</p><p>I&#39;d like to go over a couple of popular suggestions I&#39;ve seen on defining the genre here. I have my personal preferences and will state them here, but I don&#39;t think there&#39;s a truly perfect answer here.</p><blockquote><p>Disclaimer: I mostly play incremental games on my computer, and my definitions will be heavily biased towards the games I&#39;m familiar with.</p></blockquote><h2 id="incrementals-vs-idlers-vs-clickers" tabindex="-1">Incrementals vs Idlers vs Clickers <a class="header-anchor" href="#incrementals-vs-idlers-vs-clickers" aria-hidden="true">#</a></h2><p>Oftentimes people refer to this genre as idle games and/or clicker games. You&#39;ll even find a trend of oxymoronic game titles that contain both terms. &quot;Incremental games&quot;