Build and manage your SETI infrastructure to complete the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Playable in the browser. 100% free. No download required.
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I like the idea! And I like idlers 
I get that it’s incomplete, but is there currently anything else to do than buy upgrades? They don’t say what they each do, so there seems to be no way of making informed decisions - just buying the next and the next. I’m interested to know what you have planned for mechanics and features.
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The concept is quite good. That first email from a friend really immerses you in the concept, and I immediately felt that once I closed the email and saw my research had shot up from finding some sort of signal. It’s like you’re actually getting closer to finding something.
The compute upgrades are a bit hidden, and having to scroll down confused me a bit. I don’t really see how to improve either, since as Phoenix mentioned, the upgrades aren’t clear on what they do. Indeed, I went from making about 1 research per second to 4-ish, but how? I also ran out of upgrades roughly 2 minutes in and quit the game another few minutes later.
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Thanks for the feedback! Overall I like the SETI theme too. My main challenge was finding the right design for the game economy/upgrades. I made a few changes to the core mechanics but still couldn’t quite figure out how to do it right. I’m open to any/all suggestions.
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Thanks a bunch! This comment made my day. As I mentioned in my other reply, I like the overall SETI theme too. I think it’s a solid concept for an incremental game. Unfortunately finding the right design for the upgrades was more of a challenge than I thought. I did make a few changes to it but it still isn’t where it should be.
I’d say the right mechanics depend on the intended game experience. If it is intended to be an idler, there are plenty of games out there to draw inspiration from, but I think the essence is finding a balance between how much / how regularly the player has to input commands, and game progress.
Ideally you want to have plenty of reward at the start of the game, meaning relatively fast progression, unlocking things, and narrative rewards as well - I get the feeling some extraterrestrial stuff might happen
As the player plays further and becomes more invested, the frequency of rewards can be gradually lowered (ie have costs that increase faster than the player’s income), as you’ve probably seen in many games - character levels are a good example of diminishing returns that hook the player early, only to drop more and more in frequency.
Conversely, the most powerful rewards should be the last ones, so they don’t overshadow the lesser rewards.
You might also want some repeatable action(s) the player can always do, when there is nothing to manage, buy or upgrade. A lot of idlers let the player click for small amounts of in-game currency, but I personally find that approach a bit heavy-handed… one could make a dynamically generated puzzle with the same function, or something.
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Good thoughts to keep in mind when I redesign it. I’m kinda going back on forth on whether I should just make it pretty much a purely story-driven type of game or try a totally different upgrade system. I think I might have to change the ‘research credit’ currency thing to something completely different if I want to keep it as an idler/incremental game. I’m not sure which would be easier and more suited to the overall SETI theme yet.
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