Emberwood
An idle/incremental RPG about a druid tending a world that grows by its own rules.
Currently still in Prototype stage - Currently working on art and deeper upgrade systems
Most idle games hand you a number that goes up. Here, the thing you're harvesting is actually running underneath.
🌱 Emberwood — Growth
A living field of cells that evolves on its own. It's a real cellular automaton.
Seed empty ground, harvest what ripens before it decays, and learn to recognize rare patterns that appear naturally. Sometimes the best strategy is simply leaving something alone long enough for it to become something better.
⛏️ Stonehollow — Delving
A mine that only changes when you strike it.
Break through rock, uncover hidden ore veins, and decide when to descend. Deeper layers are richer, but every level becomes more dangerous.
🎣 Stillmere — Angling
A lake filled with around 150 fish that genuinely school together using boid flocking behaviour.
Each species moves differently, and learning those patterns becomes part of the challenge.
Unlock three fishing styles as you progress:
- Fish with a rod and decide how long to wait before pulling in.
- Cast a net where you think the school is going.
- Herd individual schools into position and target exactly the fish you want.
How it plays
- Every skill is built around two simple taps. The challenge isn't fast reactions, it's reading the simulation between those actions.
- OSRS inspired progression with individual skill XP, equipment, drops and an expanding skill tree.
- Every region ends with a unique guardian that unlocks the next area. Bosses use the same underlying mechanics as the skills themselves, rewarding understanding over raw damage.
- Idle progression forms the baseline, while active play is designed to reward learning and mastery.
- Play instantly in your browser, on desktop or mobile. Installable as a PWA. No accounts, no servers and no ads.
Prototype Status
This is an early playable prototype that I'm sharing to gather feedback.
- The pixel art is placeholder while I focus on mechanics.
- Balance and progression are still being tuned.
- Saves may reset between prototype versions. Any reset will be announced in the devlog beforehand.
Feedback I'd love
I'm mainly trying to answer a few questions:
- Which skill did you enjoy the most?
- Which one became repetitive first?
- How did the pacing feel?
- Did any mechanic feel confusing or unfair?
- Would you keep playing if this were expanded into a much larger game?
I'm a huge fan of OSRS, Melvor Idle and incremental games in general. I'm also fascinated by mathematical models like cellular automata and boids, and this project is my attempt to turn those kinds of simulations into gameplay rather than just visual effects.
If you give it a try, I'd really appreciate hearing what you think. Even a few sentences of feedback will help shape where the game goes next.
Comments
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It's funny, I've never seen such mechanics.
Is this a dot clicker simulator?
*> The pixel art is placeholder while I focus on mechanics.
I’d really like to see you expand it into using actual pixel art instead of just dots? I think that would be a huge leap in terms of immersion..
yeah, I feel the same, i wanted to see how it plays with the current mechanics before spending lots of time in art that could be reworked if I change anything. I‘m really excited to get it looking good once I have a good basis
hey dont mean to be mean but this is kinda lazy, dont you think?
mainly regarding how its just ALL ai
this is a prototype, I implemented it with ai but still put a lot of work into the concept and progression. I wanted to base this of cellular automata and interesting mechanics, so I focused on that aspect
Да, игрушка прикольная. Но она полностью сделана из ИИ, даже оформление сделало ИИ. Советую прочитать правила джема и сделать свой проект,своими знаниями
So incredibly obvious AI slop it's probably made with one prompt. The cover art, the game, everything is AI generated. (maybe read the rules)
I implemented it ai, this is a proof of concept for me, I put a lot of time in the idea and making it work for now. I will work on making this into an actual game next!
Pretty enjoyable game, I really like it! here's my feedback for you:
1. hard to say which skill I enjoyed most, Stillmere was the most engaging, but Emberwood felt the most rewarding
2. Stillmere probably became the most repetitive for me first, but I think that's less to do with the gameplay itself, and more to do with the pacing. Speaking of...
3. I think the pacing honestly was way too fast for everything except Stillmere, which was the one skill lagging behind everything else for me. I'd unlocked most of the game before I'd really got a proper handle on what it was about, and at the end I didn't really bother finishing to level up Stillmere because it was getting kind of repetitive.
4. Most of the mechanics seemed pretty well integrated and self explanatory, I didn't need to read the instructions at any point to understand what to do.
5. With some improved pacing and a few more elements to it, I can definitely see myself playing a full game of this! It seems pretty well polished and has a lot of interesting elements to it.
Additional feedback that doesn't fit into the rest of the questions:
I really like the concept of the gear, but currently it feels a little half-baked. I honestly wasn't really paying attention to it for most of the game, and the constant pop ups at the bottom of the screen did start to get kind of annoying, especially for the gear I'd outclassed, so having an option for being able to turn that off would be nice. I think if there was some way for it to be integrated where using it felt more like an intentional choice than just an afterthought that it could work really well though.
This might just be a continuation of the pacing problem, but I feel like I breezed though the guardian fights far too quickly for me to even notice I was unlocking stuff until I went back to it after the fact. I actually really enjoyed the gameplay of those parts, but didn't really get to appreciate that because they didn't last very long.
The main difference between the pacing of Emberwood and Stonehollow vs Stillmere that I noticed was that for the first two, the levels were the bottleneck for the next unlock, whereas for Stillmere the bottleneck was gathering the materials, which led to it being a bit lopsided where I would have tons of materials for the first two but lower levels and really high levels for the other one but basically no materials. Just thought I would mention that if you wanted more specific pacing related feedback.
I think this game has a ton of potential! I'd love to see more mechanics introduced in future and a bit more depth to the gameplay (I think it would be fun if the different skills were a bit more integrated with each other than being wholly separate, but that's just one direction you could take it in to add a bit of depth). I look forward to seeing what you do with it and I hope my feedback was at least somewhat helpful lol
Thanks a lot for the feedback!! It helps a lot!
I love to hear that you liked the concept, thats what excites me most as well, and I'm looking forward to explore more of these!
I'm currently working in depth on the skill and progression system, to polish up the skills and give them actual content and interconnection.
The guardians input was also really good, I like their identity so far but need to blanace them well with the new skills. Unfortunatley items are also still a placeholder as you said, and I want to give them some proper place.
Also thanks for the pacing feedback, thats really valuable, I'm working on it feeling smooth. I'm working on deeper tiers, so the current pacing will be akin to the earlygame lateron.
If you don't mind I'd be really excited for what ideas you have for the current systems, and maybe even what you would do with them or wish they would become. I'd also be really interesting how you liked the boss mechanics, and what other bosses or ideas you have? what could you imagine for the fishing boss.
Thanks a lot for taking the time!
Glad my feedback was helpful! I'd be happy to offer you some further thoughts as well!
In its current state, the game could really go in a lot of different directions depending on the kind of vibe you're going for and different players will have different preferences when it comes to those different styles. I'd say it's probably a good idea to nail down the specific vibe you want to go for so future implementations are more motivated and less haphazard and disoriented. Personally, I prefer a more hands on incremental game, sort of something closer to an rpg style incremental (which is what made me curious to check this out to begin with), but some people prefer to buy a bunch of upgrades for things and let the game automate itself, which lends itself to a more idle approach.
For suggestions/ideas, I think if you want to go for the more rpg style route, having the materials atually mean something beyond a currency for upgrades would go a long way to achieving that kind of vibe. Like, there's currently no reason for timber to be timber, or ore to be ore aside from saying "this is the currency you use to upgrade this skill". There's no reason why that can't work if that's what you're going for, but I think if you wanted it to feel more intentional, then having a use for those materials that actually correlates to what they are would go a long way in doing that (eg. using the ore to make gear or something). This could also be used for integrating the skills together like I mentioned in my previous comment, like using the timber to upgrade supports in the mines to avoid collapses or something.
Are the boss mechanics you're referring the guardian fights? (I'm not entirely sure, because there's nothing in the game labelled as being a boss and the guardian fights don't have any kind of difficulty curve that you generally get with boss fights) If that's what you mean then I'd say the direction you take that mechanic highly depends on the direction you take the rest of the game. If you introduce more skills, then you could definitely continue to have those fights be used to unlock the other skills (probably give them more levels though, and have the final level for each skill be the boss fight that unlocks it or something), but in its current form, having that be their only purpose makes them feel a bit redundant because there are so few skills to unlock, and unless I'm mistaken, defeating the fishing "boss" didn't really have any reward for doing so because there were no more skills to unlock.
Overall, I think a lot of the things you could do with this depend on whether you want this to be an incremental with minigames that's reskinned to look like an rpg (which is what I'd currently describe the game as, and you can lean into that more if that's what you're going for), or if you want to make an incremental rpg that actually has rpg elements to the gameplay itself beyond just the names of the items and stuff. Both are perfectly valid paths to take, it just depends on which one you're more interested in making. My suggestions were mostly based on the idea of going down the latter path because the vibe of the game lends itself well to that, but you can also keep the rpg elements purely aesthetic and focus on improving the incremental elements instead if that's what you want to do.
Sorry if this was a bit long-winded or repetitive, hopefully it gives you some food for thought though. And good luck with the game!
I like it, pretty smart and addictive
Thanks for the feedback! I'm planning to make the whole upgrade system more in-depth. What areas of the game would you like to be deeper and more strategical?
I'll just say... the preview image for the game is the kind of 2d pixel art style often found in rpg games - and is consistent with what one might expect from the description - so I expected that the game would actually look like that. Big disappointment, and made me feel kind of misled.
sorry to hear! This is currently just at a prototype stage. I’m really excited as well to get the game polished and with some actual art
I didnt get it, i tapped on some stuff for a while but i didnt get it
thanks for taking the time, I will make a better tutorial soon!
Since you're asking for feedback:
1. Which skill did you enjoy the most?
Angling in Stillmere with the net: The flocking behavior was interesting to watch, and there is a bit of skill in throwing the net so as to catch your intended targets.
2. Which one became repetitive first?
Delving in Stonehollow: I just clicked rapidly along the top-most row, and then clicked rapidly along the new top-most row, and so on. It felt repetitive almost immediately. I stopped as soon as I unlocked automation.
3. How did the pacing feel?
It felt pretty good! Emberwood was fast paced. Stonehollow felt a bit repetitive from the beginning. The angling started to feel slow around roe ~300.
4. Did any mechanic feel confusing or unfair?
No! Everything was self-explanatory. I didn't feel like anything was confusing or unfair.
5. Would you keep playing if this were expanded into a much larger game?
No, I don't think so. The tasks were simplistic--and that's about all there was to the game. The upgrades unlocked one after another, so it didn't feel like there was any strategy: you just click until you get bored and wander off. I like games that have a non-linear skill tree--so you're able to pick and choose the upgrades that will help you level up the fastest. It's also great if there's some strategy to the tasks themselves. For example, in a tower defense game, there is a ton of strategy in choosing which tower to place where, and when to upgrade the tower. I feel like the Emberwood forest had the potential for strategy, but, because of the pace, you tend to just click on mature cells when they pop up, and seed bare cells when the grid is getting a little sparse. That's about the extent of it--which is a real shame, because I know you built some interesting rules into Emberwood! If there were more time and an incentive for the player to discover them, it could be very interesting.
thanks a lot for taking your time and writing the detailed feedback!
I‘m glad to hear you liked it! I‘m still pretty early in development and the feedback is really valuable.
My biggest issue is the simplicity and lack of depth as well, I wanted to test out the mechanics for the skills first, before diving in the detail.
Are there specific upgrades or ideas you can already imagine that I could integrate?
My final goal is an extensive crafting/production and skill system that interlocks all systems!
Well, if it were my game, I think I would develop the fishing mechanics into a complete fishing game. You'd have a price for different types of fish, which could have different levels of skittishness. The player would start with a fishing rod. They'd have to decide which upgrades to purchase for it. When they're ready, they'd unlock the harpoon, the net, the hand grenades, the rocket launchers, and any other lethal weapons that could be useful against a small school of fish.