Developer: Hyper Hippo Productions
Publisher: Hyper Hippo Productions
Platform: Mobile – Android, iOS PC – Steam, Web
The incremental game genre is super weird to folks who’ve never experienced it firsthand before. Basically, these titles are gaming-ness distilled to a very pure form. In AdVenture Capitalist you’re simply presented with a screen of potential businesses for you to buy out and profit from. The lemonade stand is your first business, but soon enough you’ve moved onto a pizza parlor – and then your own hockey team because why not?
All you do is click the business you wish to buy more of and expend some cash. After owning enough of one the speed at which you receive profits from it increases. Upgrades and managers multiple profits further, leading to eventual profits far surpassing the trillions. It’s a very tongue-in-cheek (and simplified!) version of capitalism but the framing makes more sense than Cookie Clicker at least.
So basically, AdVenture Capitalist is all about clicking icons every so often, closing the game, and letting it accrue funds overnight and then repeating the procedure. Every so often you’ll even want to reset back to 0 businesses in order to gain angel investors. Angel investors add a 2% bonus apiece each restart which means future playthroughs gain immense amounts of cash faster each time.
This incredibly simplistic format is one which most incremental games thrive on and is definitely a love it or hate it sort of thing. If you enjoyed Cookie Clicker, Clicker Heroes, or Candy Box though it’s worth a download. I don’t find it nearly as charming as my preferred Cookie Clicker (which delves into such wonderfully ridiculous territory), but hey, it’s a free game on Steam for me to indulge on between actually playing games.