MOBILE GAMES

What's the point of a game that plays itself?

- MAGGIE MALLINSON

SO-CALLED ‘IDLE GAMES’ ARE PERFECT FOR BUSY PEOPLE, RECOVERING cryptocurrency addicts, or anyone whose attention span has dwindled to the size of a fruit fly’s.

These titles all earn in-game currency while you are not playing, so if you are halfway through watching Inception again and need a little dopamine pickme-up, a quick check-in on your idlegame progress neatly fills the gap.

The mechanics are not about the currency itself, which can be coins, sweets, potions and more, but rather the accumulation of it. Watching the numbers go up simply scratches an irresistible itch in our monkey brains.

A good idle game rewards you for playing it and then stepping away and allowing your currency to accumulate over time. The very best idle games will have you playing a bit every day for a long, long time.

Necromerger
Free, Android, iOS