Idle Exotics Patch 0.0.3 and DevLog (June 2025)

Well, this month didn't go as planned. We'll get into the details, but I wanted to talk about why the blog post is a little later than usual.

I tried doing art, but ran into some art block because I got frustrated with something that wasn't working out. So, I switched back to doing some code for the time being. And because the code I was working on was almost finished, I pushed this out so it can be more of a "patch notes" with a general update at the end.

So, here's what's new in patch 0.0.3.

I added a new bonus for morph collecting. Every morph gives you 0.5% more money from all sources. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it adds up if you're actually using the system. Each species has 96 different morphs to discover, and you can probably find a lot of them pretty early. That is, once again, as long as you're using the breeding system and attempting to discover morphs.

I may add an additional bonus for other forms of completion, like giving an extra bonus for discovering all 96 morphs for a species. But, for now, I think this is sufficient.

Speaking of breeding, though, I added a pause button to the breeding menu. Since the outcome of breeding is dependent on which morphs you have selected, I figure people might want a way to keep from breeding the same pair for too long. This will be especially helpful if you've found a method to how the system works, and want to find specific morphs. There were definitely ways to stop the progress bar before, but the primary method of doing so required you to have multiple species unlocked, which isn't always going to be the case.

I got some feedback about how the upgrades menu is a little "busy" or it starts to feel cluttered very quickly. And I can see where people were coming from. With so many different upgrades, some of which not fitting everyone's playstyle, I could see how the menu could accumulate a lot of different options that some players might not be interested in. So, I decided to add a filter menu so that you can quickly filter out the upgrades that you don't want right now.

You'll probably notice that the little "badge" to show that you have an active bonus, and the filter menu don't have their official art assets yet, but they are in the works.

If you just wanted to know what's new in the project, that's it. But if you like the "classic" Development Blog format, you can keep reading for other updates.

Though, while I'm still talking code, I wanted to address some other feedback that I'm getting on patch 0.0.2. A lot of people still think that things are too slow, and I'd agree. However, I think we're generally in the right spot for now. The reasoning for that is that the majority of the new features I'll be adding are going to make progression faster. So, I don't want to spend too much time fine-tuning the progression rate right now. This is because if I get the balance just right, I'm inevitably going to have to keep re-balancing as I start adding new features that change the balance.

So, once again, I agree, but I'm going to wait and see where we're at after I add most of the features before I start making many more balance changes, unless something is so bad it needs a hotfix.

Art Updates

Unfortunately, the last 2 concept arts I wanted to finish this month elude me for the time being. I worked on the actual sprites for the concept that was already finished; I still can't get the last sprite for that one where I want it. So, it's not quite finished yet.

All in all, art was stalled a little bit, but I did get some code done. So, at least it's progress. I'm not really worried about falling behind on art right now. The features that will be in the beta won't be ready for some time. So, missing the mark for June on art assets isn't the end of the world.

What's next?

At this point, I can go one of two ways. Either I can give the concept art another shot, or I can keep working on features. I have a roadmap with features mapped out for this stage in development, so it shouldn't be too hard to pick one.

If I were to single out one feature out to work on, it would probably be the temporary bonuses. That kind of works with a theme that's starting to appear in the feedback. Some players want more interactivity. These bonuses were always planned, but I didn't really know how I wanted to implement them until now.

After that, I'm sure there will be some art assets to work on that are less demanding on my creativity, if I'm still not feeling like I can handle the concept art. The menu for the upgrade filter needs art assets - I won't be keeping it as the default forever. Same for the indicator for the bonus I added. But, as for what I'm going to do art-wise, I'm going to play it by ear. If I feel inspired, I'll work on the new concepts. If not, I'll work on menus and icons.

I just think that the bonuses will be a lot more complex than the features I've been casually knocking out during my art block.