Please feel free to duplicate, peruse, experiment, extend, etc.! The models for all of the charts produced in these articles are available as spreadsheets. Part III will look at prestige cycles and balance. Part II will look into alternate growth methods (especially derivative-based).
Part I discusses core ideas of growth, cost, prestige, and generator balancing. This article is Part I of what will be a three-part series detailing topics covered in my most-recent talk. And how on earth do you balance a game that has insanely large numbers? I’ve given a few talks in the past about the appeal and general mechanics of idle games, but what if you actually wanted to make one? Theory and patterns are nice, but there’s some complicated math running behind it. This article was originally posted on Kongregate’s Developer Blog.
