Idle Exotics Patch 0.0.6 and DevLog (November 2025)

Good news! There's actually a patch this month, and part of that patch is adding an autosave feature.

I'm still working on finding a way to import and export a save file that will work in the browser, though. I'm just starting to muddle my way through how Godot goes about reading and writing files, and what it's capable of in the web environment. This wouldn't be the first time things don't translate 100% between the new version on itch and what I see locally - see when I tried to detect if the user was on a desktop or mobile.

However, that will be a part of the final game - even if I have to write some custom Javascript to do it. Even if the Godot Engine isn't prepared to do something like that, I think I can manage it in Javascript.

Once again, like last time, I'm skipping my usual headings for these blogs, since this was basically all code this time around.

For a quick TL:DR:

- Fixed a small bug when switching from the Stats tab to the Achievements tab in the Stats Menu.
- Tweaked the settings on scrolling menu items, so that (hopefully) they should be more responsive on mobile.
- Added a title screen and name selection.
- Added the Egg Queue, showing which eggs are currently being incubated.
- Added a Prestige/Perk system - all perks (outside of a few that are mostly flavor text anyways) are fully implemented.
- Added a "mobile control scheme" option in the options menu, and a prompt when you start the game to choose the control scheme corresponding to your device.
- Added a background selector (unlocked in the prestige menu).
- Added code for all species supposed to be present in the final game.
- Added autosave and load features.

And, now, the long version:

I fixed a bug that I noticed in the Stats Menu. Basically, if you switched from the Stats tab to the Achievements tab, it would render the statistical information on top of the achievements. That was an easy fix, because it was a small copy-paste error on my part. Adjacent to bug fixes are a few tweaks I made to scrolling menu items. Tap to swipe works pretty well on some of the menu items I made before, and I tweaked the settings on new scrolling items that weren't working so well to be more like those. I guess we'll see if it worked as I release the patch.

The Egg Queue is a new addition I added to show the player what's being incubated. It basically shows you what's next, and if you click on the eggs in the queue, it'll show you a readout of the parents used to produce the egg, if it's one you produced through the breeding menu. Every time you buy a license, you get some stocked by default, which will show "unknown genetics" instead.

I also added a background selector. This one is only available through the new prestige system (more on that later), so you won't see it when you start a new game. For now, it just changes the background color, since the actual backgrounds aren't drawn yet. Once they are, it should be a simple switch to change a background sprite instead of a background color.

You might have also noticed that there is now a title screen and a name selection screen - I mentioned this last time, but it bears repeating. These are placeholders for when the art is finished, but the function should be more or less the same.

I added a mobile control scheme option to the options menu. This is really only used in the prestige screen, as I thought the desktop control scheme might be a little buggy on mobile. It doesn't change anything else, though. I also added an explainer that forces you to pick which device you're using to set it up from the get-go and let players know that there are different control schemes in the options menu.

And now, the prestige system. I've changed the condition for accessing the prestige menu, to where if your total earnings reach a certain cap, you can prestige. So, you don't have to have the $1B all at once. I might tweak it up or down depending on how testing goes, but I'm leaving it at the original $1B for now. Prestiging allows you to spend prestige points, which you can use to activate bunch of different bonuses. Some of them are just starting with free stuff at the beginning of a run, where others have more unique effects like slowing down the temporary bonuses so they're easier to click, or giving you bonus earnings for unlocking achievements - things like that. This took me quite a while, hooking up all the prestige bonuses and implementing them. But, as the TL:DR said, everything is already implemented. I might tune the numbers up or down depending on how some extensive play testing goes, but code-wise, everything seems to be working. That is, excluding a few perks that are basically just flavor text. They're clearly labeled that they don't do anything, so if you pick them, that's on you.

Finally, we have the save/load system. It took some doing, but I finally got it working. And, I think I've done a decent job of making the code stable, even for bad save files that might have missing data. I'm sure I'll add more safeguards, but you shouldn't have any problems if you don't start tampering with your save files.

That is, assuming it works at all. I tested the feature briefly on desktop and the result seem promising. So hopefully we got it all right, and there aren't any major problems.

The bug report form is always open, in case you've 1) read this blog post, 2) play the new patch, and 3) encounter any problems.

So, after all this, what's next?

Well, I think, unless major issues show up, I'm going to focus on art assets for December. There's a lot to get done, and I am probably not going to meet the end-of-year deadline I set for myself. But, that's OK. We're coming up on the home stretch, and I'm feeling good about where the game is. I'm sure I'll have to rebalance the numbers - this is the time where I'm going to start fine-tuning everything. And the prestige system is going to be interesting to balance, I'll say that much. For now, everything costs 1 point, which I'm hoping will be fine, but to be completely honest, I have no idea if it will be.

I think the priority is going to be on stuff that I already know what I want them to look like. I'm going to try to stick to simpler stuff, so hopefully that gives me time to fully realize some of the ideas where I'm not as certain.

I'm also going to try to re-size some of the sprites. I'm sure if you put the game in full screen, you might notice that some sprites don't scale as well as others. So, in the interest of hopefully fixing the issue and saving time, I'll just add margins to things until their dimensions reach a base of 2. In case you're reading this blog and you're not a game developer, sprites typically are sized in bases of 2 - for example, 16x16, 32x32, etc. This is because, at least in the past, these numbers were easier to work with, but I wasn't sure how important it was in the modern era of game development. So, I did them in whatever size I needed, thinking, "Hey, it's the 2020's - it probably doesn't matter anymore!"

But, I have a hunch that this is why some sprites generally don't look as good as they probably should. So, I'm going to try fixing their dimensions so that hopefully, they won't be a problem anymore.

I should also mention that I'm going to be changing my approach for sprites that change color. After changing backgrounds in the upgrades menu turned out so well using shaders, I think I'll be taking the same approach for the reptile sprites. It just gives me more control over the palette, and I can shift colors the way they should be to make them look better. Besides, changing the sprite's color property is really limiting. There are just some colors that don't show up well using that method, so I think shaders are the way to go.

Technically that's a code change, but with how easy shaders are to write for palette swaps, it's basically an "art" task, honestly.

That's not to say that there won't be any more code changes in the future - there just aren't many that aren't directly related to replacing art assets, or just tweaking numbers to get the balance just right. So, with any luck, I'll have to make only minimal changes to the code for the rest of the development cycle.

So, wish me luck! Hopefully, I can get real close to finishing this completely by the end of December.