The Paper Pilot

Guide to Incrementals

251 words, ~1 minute read. Planted . Last tended to .

Referenced by: My Personal Website

This is a comprehensive guide to Incremental Games, a genre of video games. It will explore defining the genre, why it's appealing, and how to design and build your own incremental game. Along the way will be interactive examples, snippets from other creators, and relevant material to contextualize everything.

Note: This is an incomplete document. I want to keep adding opinions and opposing views from other incremental games developers, and add interactive examples to illustrate various points regarding game design and balancing. Consider this a living document - and see the changelog at the end.

Note: This was made before my switch to a digital garden, and is written as prose. Hope you don't mind!

Why am I making this? ​

That's a good question! What authority do I have to be making this guide? I haven't made the best incremental games, nor the most incremental games, certainly not the most popular ones either. But I do have some formal education in game development, know a lot of incremental game devs (as well as other game devs), and have a passionate interest in ludology, classifying genres, etc. I've also made a couple of incremental games) myself.

If you have any additional questions about my credentials or anything on this site, feel free to reach out!

Ludology ​

Making an Incremental ​