Players can make massive progress in an idle game without so much as touching it for days, so what makes these hands-off experiences so compelling?
In this 2015 GDC talk, Kongregate’s director of browser virtual goods Anthony Pecorella aims to explain just that.
Pecorella digs into the history, appeal, and monetization possibilities of idle games. He notes that, in 2015, idle games had some of the best retention rates and were some of the most played games on Kongregate’s website.
His full talk can be found on the GDC YouTube channel and also covers what mechanics are typically found in games of the genre and how developers can best monetize their own self-playing titles.
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