Idlings

Devlog

• Idling C64 Cover!
  April 22, 2026 by Palatine Games

  just for fun I thought I’d get ChatGPTs new image generator create an image for idlings in the style of an 80s game cassette, think it did a great job!... Continue reading

  
• Food production machines!
  April 22, 2026 by Palatine Games

  This is a pretty big shift for the game. Up until now, everything has been about digging deeper and pushing progression vertically. Farming introduces a more grounded loop — literally — where play... Continue reading
• ✨ Meet the Elderling
  April 02, 2026 by Palatine Games

  Small change this week, but it’s an important one. The central character is now an Elderling — an actual idling rather than just a structure or abstract “beacon”. You now have something (someo... Continue reading

  
• 🌱The First Steps Towards Food & Farming 🌱
  March 23, 2026 by Palatine Games

  The caves are starting to feel a little more alive. I’ve begun introducing the foundations of a food system in Idlings , starting small with naturally spawning mushrooms and toadstools scattered thr... Continue reading
• Small Polish Pass
  March 18, 2026 by Palatine Games

  A short update this week with a handful of smaller improvements and polish across the game. Variable Grass Length Yes, truly groundbreaking technology. Grass now appears at slightly different lengths... Continue reading
• New Idling character art & Fully Welsh (and French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese)
  March 13, 2026 by Palatine Games

  This week has been a big visual and accessibility update for Idlings . Our new character art for the Idlings has now been implemented in-game. These updated sprites give the little cave explorers much... Continue reading

  
• Steam Page Approved 🎉 Now Active for Wishlists :)
  March 12, 2026 by Palatine Games

  Some exciting news today — the Idlings Steam store page has officially been approved! You can now wishlist the game on Steam, which really helps small indie projects like this gain visibility as dev... Continue reading
• Smoother, Larger World Generation
  March 11, 2026 by Palatine Games#2d terrain, #unity, #TileRule, #Optimisation

  One of the recent improvements in Idlings has been reducing startup "lagging" when a REALLY large new world is created - Terraria style large Originally, terrain tiling was applied all at once when th... Continue reading
• Improved Tilemaps & Terrain Variety
  March 09, 2026 by Palatine Games

  I spent some time revisiting the cave tilemaps this week. The earlier versions were working technically, but the colours were coming through a little muted once everything was layered together in-game... Continue reading

  
• Smoothing the Details
  March 06, 2026 by Palatine Games

  Today was all about polishing the little things that make the world feel more natural. I spent some time refining the terrain RuleTiles so neighbouring materials blend together properly without creati... Continue reading
• Small UI update & New Web Build
  March 04, 2026 by Palatine Games

  Small UI update for Idlings today. I’ve started adding some new pixel art icons for the build tools — ladders, beds, and the pickaxe used for digging. These are still work-in-progress assets , but... Continue reading

  
• Small Polish Update - Multiple Languages
  March 02, 2026 by Palatine Games

  Small Polish Update ✨ A few nice improvements to the slice this week: Updated and refined the main cave tilemap Zooming in and out now dynamically scales sound FX volume for a stronger sense of spac... Continue reading

  
• Zoom Audio Now In
  February 27, 2026 by Palatine Games

  A small atmospheric update Audio now dynamically fades in and out depending on your zoom level. When you zoom in closer to the cave and your idlings, ambient sounds and details become more present and... Continue reading
• Multilanguage UI Support Added
  February 27, 2026 by Palatine Games

  A small but satisfying update today — Idlings now supports multiple UI languages . If your system language is set to one of the following, the UI will automatically display in that language: English... Continue reading
• Big Audio Dynamite
  February 25, 2026 by Palatine Games

  Audio is in from RLJ - I'll go into this in more detail once I've spoken to him, but I think it sounds lovely! Play the web build to listen... Continue reading
• Onboarding in
  February 24, 2026 by Palatine Games

  I’ve been refining the opening onboarding to better guide new players through the core loop. - leaning into the SNES pixel art style we've gone with The start now introduces the terrain tools first... Continue reading

  
• Core Loop Locked In
  February 18, 2026 by Palatine Games

  We’ve now locked in the core loop for the Idlings vertical slice. At its heart, Idlings is a calm underground light colony builder about restoring a forgotten world — not through urgency or combat... Continue reading
• Core Demo Loop In: Light, Rescue, and Dreams
  January 05, 2026 by Palatine Games

  The core gameplay loop for Idlings is now in place and playable end-to-end. At its heart, the loop is about rescuing lost Idlings , guiding them back to the central cave, and restoring light to the wo... Continue reading
• DevLog - Lighting Part II
  December 11, 2025 by Palatine Games

  Rescued Idlings now brighten up the world when they return home... Continue reading
• Dev Log — Lighting Update
  December 05, 2025 by Palatine Games

  For a while, a small design idea has been at the heart of Idlings: the little Idlings are lost, and the caves they once built for industry have grown dark. Bringing them home isn’t just about rescui... Continue reading

  
• Central Cavern
  November 26, 2025 by Palatine Games

  This build introduces the first playable iteration of “lost Idlings” scattered around the central cave. Players start with a single builder idling, tasked with rescuing these lost Idlings and brin... Continue reading

  
• Going Underground
  November 11, 2025 by Palatine Games

  The prototype is now taking shape deep beneath the surface . We’ve shifted the focus fully underground, starting each session in a central cave. From there, the goal is to venture outward through da... Continue reading

  
• Hundreds!
  October 31, 2025 by Palatine Games

  I gave this build to my chief QA officer (my son) and the first thing he did was spam the 'spawn new Idling' button - but it didnt break, the work over the past few weeks kept the FPS rock steady as a... Continue reading
• Devlog Update – Pathfinding Overhaul 🧭
  October 30, 2025 by Palatine Games

  Devlog Update – Pathfinding Overhaul The latest build includes some major pathfinding optimisations aimed at keeping the frame rate steady, even as more Idlings join the fun. There’s now a good de... Continue reading
• Multiple Idlings!
  October 23, 2025 by Palatine Games

  Up to now, development has focused on getting one Idling working — finding a job and navigating to it within a 2D tilemap world. But the long-term vision for Idlings has always been to have many, ma... Continue reading
• Automated Builders!
  October 21, 2025 by Palatine Games

  It's very basic but you can now draw your building 'intent' using the tools and then have the idling automatically go off and build it. Use the tool palette at the bottom left to choose between: point... Continue reading

  
• Dig Baby Dig! A Mid-October Progress Summary [Oct 18]
  October 18, 2025 by Palatine Games

  Two months in, it feels like a good time to reflect on progress so far. There’s been a lot of design exploration and technical problem-solving along the way, and now that the core build–AI–A* pa... Continue reading

  
• ☕ When Creativity Needs a Coffee Break / Pan Mae’r Creadigrwydd Angen Torri Coffi – You Make a UI Language System to Support Cymraeg (and 中文!) [19 Sept]
  October 18, 2025 by Palatine Games#multi-lingual, #welsh, #cymraeg, #ui

  After wrestling with big design choices — Terraria vs Lemmings, Idle vs Agency, Crafting vs Shopping — my brain was ready for a break. So I switched gears and did something straightforward: UI and... Continue reading

  
• Shopping or Crafting? [1 Oct]
  October 18, 2025 by Palatine Games

  Once I had the general mining algorithm in place, a lot of my time went into understanding resource collection and balance — which is still very much ongoing! Even in the early stages, it became cle... Continue reading
• Terraria Vs Lemmings - who wins?! [12 Sept]
  October 18, 2025 by Palatine Games#terraria, #lemmings, #perlin noise, #2d terrain, #tilemaps

  When I first started Idlings , I was torn between two very different design instincts: the open-ended chaos of Terraria and the structured, goal-oriented charm of Lemmings . One side of me wanted endl... Continue reading