Orb of Creation

This is not an idle clicker. This is not an incremental game. This is the distillation of the factorio, the satisfactory and the dyson sphere dopamine drips, embedded in the lore of Master of Magic. I am not sure whether by accident or by design, but the designer of this game stumbled (devised) THE best, abstract, resource/production chain management game up to now. Read on if you need the rationale. The game is not an idler. I bought it on version 0.5.x so I don't know how it was before. But it is not an idler because you can't play it without thinking. There are intertwined systems within systems of production, resources and upgrades, distilled out of spatial trappings (where to put factories-where to store the stuff) and you need to have your mind there if you want to meanigfully progress. The game has such a great emergent lore "flavour" that it really puts you in the shoes of a disembodied sorcerer who is again coming to the world and shaping it. In fact this game reminded me already of the diverse spellcasting of Master of Magic. If the developer adds (or has already? I don't know) armies, minions, cities and summons then I can definitely choose this over MoM2. I bought this game for about 3-4 euros with a "meh, let's try it" attitude. The developer is doing themselves a disservice! If they classified, correctly, their game as resource production, management game they could legitimately charge 10-12 euros for it. The fact that you have numbers going up is irrelevant. Numbers go up also in the storage containers of Satisfactory. This is simply, the best distilled, resource and production chain management game in steam now. The developer needs to understand that and the fact that they can play in the major league with features like those in Cultist simulator. The days of the itch.io feature list must end. This game is moving towards Slay the Spire territory.

I cannot in good faith give this a thumbs-down. It is excellently crafted. It is a perfect seratonin treadmill. A stellar specimen of the incrementor genre, it will keep you occupied at all times - there's never ever nothing to do but wait, even within the bounds of mostly classic implementor gameplay. If you are prone to addiction, stay the HECK away - this is not a joke. There is no language strong enough to express this. Orb of Creation is designed to grab ADHD players and never let them go. It is an excellent game, and it is dangerous. Avoid it at all costs. (also it doesn't run when closed, so prepare to leave it running all night)

This has the promise of a great start to a game, but if you're reading this review and semi interested, put it on your wishlist and wait till the author finishes making it. I bought this in 2022 after reading reviews about how great it was and how frequent the updates and progress was coming, at version 0.5. It's now almost two years later, with one content update. Author has clearly had some burnout. Which happens, but future shoppers deserve to be made aware of it. I cannot recommend this game in its current unfinished state, and at this rate will be pleasantly surprised, wrong, and happy to change my review if its completed, but I'm putting out my thumbs down for the lack of progress and communication from the developer.