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Idle CenterIdleCenter
IdleCenter: Idle Game Studio Tycoon
Start in a garage, ship games and grow a studio that earns while you play.
IdleCenter is a free browser-based idle game studio tycoon. Pick a topic and a genre, build and polish a game, then release it into your catalog. Every released game keeps paying you while it lasts, its income halving every couple of minutes, so your income comes from the catalog you build rather than from clicking. Hire a team, research upgrades and hunt for hidden topic and genre combos that multiply a game's success.
How to play
- Brainstorm ideas: click to generate ideas, then spend them to start a new game project.
- Build and polish: put work into development, then polish it; quality is rolled when you release and boosted by research and staff.
- Choose a combo: each game pairs a topic with a genre. Some pairings carry hidden multipliers you discover by shipping.
- Grow the catalog: released games earn income that halves every couple of minutes and ends after about a quarter of an hour, so keep shipping new ones, sequels and remasters.
- Hire and research: staff speed up the work and research unlocks automation, analytics and more.
- Found a new studio: use Legacy to reset the run, keep your Codex and permanent research, and earn Reputation that boosts income.
Features
- A studio catalog that pays passive income from every game you release
- Topic and genre combos with hidden multipliers, tracked in your Codex
- A research tree with automation, analytics, sequels, remasters and offline progress
- A Legacy prestige system: found a new studio with permanent bonuses
- Free, browser-based, no download, no account, saved locally in your browser
IdleCenter strategy guide
IdleCenter rewards a studio that keeps shipping. A single hit fades fast, so your income is the sum of a whole catalog of releases at different ages. When income stalls, the answer is usually a better release plan, not more clicking.
The first minutes: ship early, ship often
Make ideas, spend 10 of them to start a project, put work into Build and then Polish, and release. Your first game lands within about a minute and every release grants 1 Research Point, which is the currency of the research tree. Each game you release makes the next one cost about 1.5% more ideas and work, so releases slow down gradually: hire staff to keep the pace up.
Reading your catalog
A released game's income halves every 2 minutes and the game retires after about 14 minutes, so a catalog is only as good as its recent releases. When your best earners in the Catalog are old, you need new games, sequels or remasters.
Live games also crowd each other. Every extra live game in the same genre cuts that genre's income by 12% (down to 40%), and every extra game on the same topic cuts it by another 10% (down to 50%). The two stack, so a varied catalog beats ten copies of your favourite combo. Catalog rows say which axis is crowded.
Combos and the Codex
Each game pairs one of 8 topics with one of 6 genres, 48 combos in all. Some pairings earn far more than others, and you only learn how a combo fits by shipping it: every result is recorded in your Codex, which survives Legacy. Early on, try combos you have not shipped yet; once you know a few strong ones, rotate between them to avoid crowding. Analytics (14 RP) reveals every combo at once and raises income.
Riding the market
Every 6 minutes the market names a Hot topic, a Hot genre and a Cold genre. A Hot topic or genre adds 50% income each, and the Cold genre costs 25%. The bonus is fixed at release for the game's whole life, so the moment you release matters, not when you started the project. The project card shows how the game would launch right now and how long until the market shifts. Trend Forecast (16 RP) shows the next trend so you can time releases, and Market Research (24 RP) teaches Auto-Build to follow the market.
Hiring the team
Developers ($15) speed up building, Artists ($60) speed up polish and raise income from new games, Designers ($100) raise income from new games and generate ideas, and Marketers ($600) make games fade more slowly. Each hire costs 12% more than the last of that role, and every role doubles its output at 10, 25, 50, 100 hires, so pushing one role to the next milestone is often the best buy.
A research route to your first Legacy
- Auto-Build (4 RP) first: it starts, builds and releases games for you and adds passive ideas. You can point it at a combo you pick or switch it off.
- Quality Tools (7 RP), then Analytics (14 RP) to see every combo.
- Bulk Hire (10 RP) and Offline Progress (22 RP). Offline Progress is permanent.
- Sequels (18 RP), Long Tail (24 RP) and Remasters (28 RP): sequels skip building entirely, and a remaster gives an old game a second wave of income.
- Legacy (35 RP) needs both Remasters and Offline Progress.
Studio Legacy (prestige)
Once you own Legacy and your studio has earned $5,000,000 in this run, you can found a new studio. That resets cash, ideas, staff, the catalog and per-run research, and keeps your Codex, permanent research and Reputation. Reputation grows with the square root of what you earned, so the minimum earns about 18 points, and each point adds 3% income to every later run. The first reset usually takes 60 to 90 minutes; the second run is several times faster. After Legacy, a new chain of research opens, starting with Codex Bonuses.
What happens while you are away?
Before you research Offline Progress, time with the game closed earns nothing. Afterwards it credits up to 8 hours. Because games fade within about 14 minutes, a long absence mostly pays through new releases, so leave Auto-Build running before you close the tab.
IdleCenter reference pages
- Research tree: The full IdleCenter research tree: every node with its Research Point cost, prerequisites and whether it survives a Studio Legacy reset.
- Staff and market: IdleCenter staff costs and milestones, all topics and genres, release fading, trends, crowding and Reputation, read from the game data.
Frequently asked questions
- Is IdleCenter free to play?
- Yes. IdleCenter is completely free, runs in your browser with no download and no account.
- Where is my progress saved?
- Progress saves automatically to your browser’s local storage on your device. There are no accounts and no sync, so clearing browser data erases your save. Use the export code in the game to back up your studio or move it to another device.
- Does IdleCenter progress while I am offline?
- Only after you research Offline Progress in the research tree. Once unlocked, it credits income earned while the game was closed, up to 8 hours. It is a permanent unlock, so it survives starting a new studio. Before you research it, closed time earns nothing.
- How long is the first act?
- Your first release lands within about a minute. Reaching the first Legacy reset, Found a new studio, takes roughly 60 to 90 minutes of play, with a new unlock arriving every few minutes along the way. A second run is much faster.
- How does Legacy (prestige) work?
- Founding a new studio resets your cash, ideas, staff, game catalog and non-permanent research. You keep your Codex, permanent research and the Reputation you earn, and Reputation boosts your income in every later run.
- What is the Codex and what are hidden combos?
- Every game you ship pairs a topic with a genre, and some pairings carry hidden multipliers. You discover them by shipping games, and each discovery is recorded in your Codex. Researching Analytics reveals combo stats so you can plan your releases.
- What are Hot and Cold trends?
- Every 6 minutes the market shifts: one topic and one genre become Hot and one genre turns Cold. A game released into a Hot topic or genre earns 50% more for its whole life, and one released into the Cold genre earns 25% less. Live games that share a topic or a genre also crowd each other, so a varied catalog earns more. Trend Forecast shows the next trends, and Market Research lets Auto-Build follow the market.
Enjoying IdleCenter? Try Primordial Tap, our evolution idle clicker, or Realm Forge, a medieval economy idle game, or browse all games at the Idle Center home page.
