Arcade game templates
Arcade, here, means one action you repeat until a number goes up. These two templates disagree about whether you have to be in the room for that.
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A button that keeps working
An idle clicker starts as one button, one resource, and one upgrade that earns while you are not pressing. Cookie Clicker (Orteil, 2013) is the joke that you come back. Adventure Capitalist (Hyper Hippo, 2014) makes the absence the product: managers buy the clicks you got bored of. Melvor Idle (Games by Malcs, 2021) borrows an RPG skill list so the wait has a name. Change how soon the second upgrade is affordable. If the first one takes an hour, nobody sees the loop.
The failure is a shop with nothing to decide. Universal Paperclips (Frank Lantz, 2017) works because each purchase changes what the next minute produces. A second currency that does not change the first is a leaderboard taped to a button. Keep one resource until you can say the curve out loud: early buys are fast, later buys are rude.
A beat you can miss
A rhythm game does not let you look away. One track, one lane, a hit window you can feel. Crypt of the NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games, 2015) makes the miss a step into an enemy. Beat Saber (Beat Games, 2019) makes it a block in your space. Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks, 2023) makes it a combo that looks wrong. Those are three punishments. Pick one before you add a second lane.
Too wide a window and the track is a video. Too narrow and the player blames the song. Tune the window against one short phrase, the way a Guitar Hero chart (Harmonix, 2005) is built before a set list exists. A streak that resets will teach the window faster than a score that only rises.
Do not start an idle game by adding a beat, and do not start a rhythm game with an upgrade that plays itself. The AI idle game maker and the AI clicker game maker are the wait. The AI rhythm game maker is the version where you have to be there.
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