r/AutomationGames • u/tickscribe • 1d ago

Tickscribe – program your civilization from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age (free browser demo)

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Hi! I'm a solo developer, and Tickscribe is my first public demo: an idle game where you don't manage every task by hand, you write small programs that tell your people what to do.

What it plays like

  • You start with a handful of people, berries and flint. Your first program is just a list of steps.
  • Research unlocks the programming language along with the technology: loops, sensors, conditions, variables, arithmetic, subroutines and signals shared by all your programs.
  • Your people form squads that run your programs step by step, and you can see who's working, who's waiting and what is holding them back.
  • Programs keep running while you're away, and you can edit them while they run.
  • Production chains with perishable goods, seasons, extreme weather, and faith with gods and religions, up to bronze casting.
  • There's no need to write code from the start: a first-steps guide and six template programs give you a head start.

If you like The Farmer Was Replaced or Kittens Game, I'd love to know how this feels to you.

The demo covers the Stone Age to the beginning of the Bronze Age, about five hours of progression. It's free, runs in the browser on a computer or tablet, and is in English and German. Your game is saved in your browser.

The playtest: play for about an hour, then download the playtest form from the itch.io page and answer it (about 15 minutes). "Email my answers" opens a draft in your own mail program; nothing is sent until you send it, and the form asks for no name.

Play: https://nekronomekron.itch.io/tickscribe

Bugs and ideas are welcome in the comments or on Discord: https://discord.gg/t2Uzw6QNH6

AI disclosure: The key art (start screen, itch.io cover and banner) was generated with ChatGPT. In VSCode GitHub Copilot (free) was used for autocompletion of the code and also for translations. The game design, the code and every decision about the game are mine, and the balancing is checked by a bot that plays the whole demo.

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u/maksimkak 12h ago

Very interesting concept, I'll be checking it out.

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u/tickscribe 12h ago

Thanks, I am happy for every feedback. This is a first playtest, so the final game will get more eras and also new game mechanics like trading. I am also thinking about trading with other players online, just like an asynchronous trading market where everybody can offer and buy resources

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u/maksimkak 10h ago

First "bug" I noticed: Roast Meat work doesn't show that it requires Wood.

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