Idle Retro Arcade

An idle game where the cabinets really do play themselves. You start with one self-playing Pong machine earning coins off every rally, buy upgrades, buy more boards, and then licence the next game type: brick breaker, snake, and on up through the classics. Once you own more than a few of a cabinet it collapses into a compact bank so the screen stays readable, and a big licence button appears for whatever's next.

The design decisions were mostly about limits. Upgrades are finite and capped at ten levels instead of the usual endless ladder, income is paid out of a calculated per-minute budget split across event types, and there's a light tap layer so the early game gives your hands something to do. Prestige arrives once you've seen two or three game types and know what you're rebuilding for. Portrait mobile was supported from day one with a bottom drawer for upgrades, and desktop uses the width for a side panel.

It's live on CrazyGames. It was also the game where I got my QA screenshot scripts working well: automated shots of every popup and gate on a phone-sized viewport, so a layout regression shows up in minutes.

• Idle Retro Arcade

  Free to play in the browser, desktop and mobile.

      Play on CrazyGames

      Pupskey Productions

• My role

  Design, code, economy and release. Solo project.