comments for BIOTOMATA
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be me
scientist, medical research facility
late one night, cleaning up a bit
hear skittering, turn around
roach with human eyes and hands staring back at me
Fuck this shit, I quit.
developer response: Oh come on, they're friendly I promise :)))
Also i just had to doodle this: https://imgur.com/a/NMMDHx4
Dude, I came here to play some bad TMT games, not to find one of the best idle games I think I've ever played. The writing, the visual style, the gameplay (for the most part) was all superb. It was a touch slow at times and had a bit of the learning curve, but the unfolding story and the puzzle-like aspects of the endgame made this incredible. Kudos
developer response: I am sorry, I will work harder to make a bad TMT game next time :'(((
Jokes aside, thank you for your review! I'm happy to hear that you found the overall experience enjoyable!
Tip: You can hold combat actions to auto-trigger them :)
developer response: A very pro tip :D
Edit: Oh, also, the "Space" key will quick pause combat!
Absolutely amazing game, i played it originally after finding it on r/incremental games, it was amazing then - i cant wait to experience it without the 42 point cap >:)
developer response: Thanks for playing the original version (and going so far as to play again)! Have fun!! :DDDD
I have to say.. this has been the most impactful game I have played on here. And believe me, I have played a lot (1k hours). Incredible pacing; the slow buildup, the gradual introduction of new mechanics keeps the game interesting without it getting overwhelming. Every new unlock felt like a great surprise. The story is just great too. You start off knowing nothing, yet still knowing everything there IS to know so far. made me emotional. I would give this 10 stars if I could. Exceptional game, it being free is almost a crime!
developer response: Appreciate your kind words! It's very sweet to hear that the game managed to resonate with you in your 1k hours of playtime; really everything a dev could hope for <3
I won't lie, there's definitely a few points in development where my brain went "maybe we could put this on steam? :0" (tick off that line of 'officially' publishing a game in ye olde' childhood bucket list of dreams and whatnot haha), but between the smidge of emotional attachment with this capping off my undergraduate studies and all the wonderful help I've gotten from the community (either via constructive comments on my games that helped narrow down what QoL features I'm missing or helping fill out the survey for my project report), it just felt right to release it for free (with optional coffee) so more people could play (and hopefully enjoy) the game!
Thank you for playing!
I very rarely make reviews-this is probably the first review I made in fact.
This game was FUN and focused less on grinding and more on experimentation and loadouts-I was stuck a few times until I took a seat back and thought, "Huh, what if I tried this instead."
The only question I have is-how many endings are there? I've discovered two of them but maybe a marker or tracker for that would be neat.
Also maybe some bonus perks for a new game plus run.
Overall-this game is worth it. It's an idle game, but more of a story that wears the skin of an idle game. Great stuff, and I would love to see a sequel/more games. Will keep an eye on this Developer for sure.
developer response: Thank you, big honor receiving the first comment from you haha /gen Great to hear that you managed to get yourself unstuck, and that you enjoyed the experimentation aspects!
There's a total of endings, all of which you can get hints from in the achievements tab (little star icon on the top right), and an ending gallery feature is in the works! You get an extra ember and a small exp boost for each unlocked ending as well, if you plan on going ending-hunting :D
Tbh I feel lightly called out with the "story that wears the skin of an idle game" comment (definitely not in a bad way!!) lol, it hits very close to my development approach. I definitely started off with a story in mind and tried to build mechanics that would help with environmental storytelling; I'm glad that my approach seems to have paid off!
My favourite game that I played on this site, hands down! Goes right into my hall of fame alongside Antimatter Dimensions (which I didn't play here, and is a different melon altogether I'd say), so now I have excellent recommendations for both long- and short-term incrementals!
The story was great and the way it connected to the gameplay elements was very neat and a welcome surprise overall - I got here to play another incremental to kill time, I stayed here to get all endings to a wonderful story of an ?-celled organism.
The strategy element was great; suitable for folks who like their linear incrementals AND those who love some choice in the gameplay. Figuring out how to defeat the final area enemies with all the different playstyles was immaculate fun chef's kiss.
The exploration period of gaining enough prestige levels to get to the end and find all the options you have, and then the period of allocating gained points and figuring out what works for what ending is neatly paced.
Overall, made my day, killed some time, and bummed me out (looking at you ending). Also, . Thank you!
P.S. a question for the developer, if they see this: from your responses to other comments, I could see you're in uni and made this alongside your studies (or perhaps as a project for them). I'm just curious how long this game took to make, from the conception, or whatever you see as the start-point, until the release? As an aspiring game-dev going into a similar life situation, I'm wondering how big of a commitment and time sink this can be as a hobby, so feel free to rant a bit on your development process, I'd love to hear about it! Best of luck in your future endeavors, Talos!
developer response: Thank you for playing and kind comments! I'm especially glad that the combat was fun and not too complicated for you, since it was definitely a fairly new design space to me! (Ngl, I think one of the most challenging parts of being a dev is that I can't really get to experience my game for "the first time", kinda like how you cook a meal and dont really know if it tastes good or not until someone else tries it haha)
The game's around one year old since conception! Funnily enough, tomorrow will be the anniversary to my first BIOTOMATA github repo commit :D (Though the whole story/planning/research phase took place about a month before that)
I think the "how much of a time sink is this hobby" question is a difficult one to answer, tbh. I'd say it's as much as a time sink as you want it to be, and your mileage may vary greatly. For context, a Tale of Poop and Vengeance took me like 3-ish weeks to make during a semester break, though at that time before starting the project, I knew barely anything about html/css/js besides <h1> is for the big text and <p> is for the small text and you can change color and all that with CSS (i exaggerate a lot but still). Went back to class after that, then learned some React in my free time, made a silly React project for mothers' day, and by then I was at my 2nd-last(?) semester. Capstone project was coming up, and with all the constructive reviews up until this point for my first game I decided "well, I'll have to do something, I guess I'll spend time doing what I know I love and challenge myself", and started working on BIOTOMATA. Spent anything between 0 to 14 hours a day doing gamedev (sometimes slow days be like that, but the time limit of an impending deadline definitely helps with motivation lol), took an extra gap semester since my capstone project landed on a short semester, and a few months later here we are!
Take this with an xxxxxxl sized grain of salt since I'm aware that advice in general may not apply to everyone, and I'm also still an aspiring dev who hasn't even graduated, much less begun an "official" dev career, but I think that a really good way for an aspiring gamedev to start off is with small commitments. Idk if everyone has experienced this before, but if you've been poking around a little with indie/smaller games, you might've stumbled upon some gems that are short but surprisingly fun. From there, maybe test the waters a little, put your own twist into something with mechanics/elements you KNOW you've enjoyed before (and chances are others might enjoy them too). A mindset of "it's a silly little learning project first and foremost that I'll try my best at to make playable and fun. If the world loves it, great! if there's constructive criticism, that's just an extra aspect to learn" will help (at least personally) with the stress of acceptance and "what if my game not good" too. By the time I completed my first game, there was definitely a small confidence boost of "wowow I actually made a game! with my own hands! and it plays and people play it and it doesnt immediately explode into one billion bugs!" and a sense of "wow the way i coded it gave me a lot of tech debt and adding new features during development or refactoring was so hard, I'm glad I don't have to touch it again now that I'm done" /lh (Being able to reflect on the latter feeling/experience is really important imo; i think that being able to experience first-hand WHY my own code wasn't the best and suffering through it while pushing through development helped immensely with knowing what bad practices/structures to avoid in future projects, how to structure for larger projects, and how to write code that doesn't make "future you" want to throttle "current you" lmao.)
From there, you can decide how much time you want to dedicate to a new project, or if you feel your calling may be to another hobby, also valid!
I do hope this aligns with what you were trying to ask and I didn't accidentally spiral into a different tangent 1 bajillion miles away lol.
The detail of the background pictures getting better as your eyes improve is truly great.
developer response: Vision simulator 2025 B)
Thank you, glad you enjoyed the little detail!
Okk finished all the endings, that's a really great game you can be proud of yourself, I hope your teachers liked it
Thanks for this !
developer response: Congrats! :D And I really appreciate your kind words, fingers crossed I'll be able to graduate soon!
I’m enjoying this original experience :) Good job! How long did it take to develop?
developer response: Yoooo, it's the 4da dev, hiiii!! Thanks for playing! I enjoyed your game too, though I did play it in the short duration where 3x speed was available haha
Today's the one-year anniversary for BIOTOMATA's first GitHub repo push! Story/planning took place about a month before that, so I'd say it's about 1 year and 1 month old!
Alright, non-shitpost comment. Just got my first ending, and I cried a little. The writing on this game is fantastic. Truly, truly fantastic work on this one.
developer response: Thank you! I'm really happy that you're invested in the writing and story <3
Very fun game so far! I made it to what I assume is the final boss and feel stuck. I've been focusing on Power and have ~750. Any advice is welcome!
developer response: Bursting is definitely one of the strategies! There's also slowly grinding it down once cap out, though both approaches will require slightly different movesets.
While PWR is a solid choice for mid-late game, the final boss is definitely going to require different strategies and a focus on different combat stats depending on the you plan on ending with. Hint:
Personally, that's the only game, that hooked me in and I completed it without altering the save by any means. Wonderful work!
Completed in normal mode (not in challenge one, sorry 😓) during 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th (full) mutation stages, of course after resolving the "Safe Room" event.
Still need to 100% the achievements tho...
developer response: Wait, SERIOUSLY???? Ngl I find this lowkey funny bc one of the reasons I left save exports as plaintext is because "ah well, if someone doesn't enjoy the pacing they can always edit the exp, it's a singleplayer game anyways so whatever brings them the most joy" lol. I did consider base64 encrypting it for portability, but so far that use case doesn't seem to have come up yet
Thank you for playing and no worries, normal mode is just as valid :D I hope you end up finding the other runs reasonably enjoyable with your new embers, since may admittedly be a small doozy :p
So, this game actually blew me away compared to many other idle games here. I can definitely see some influences from Armory & Machine's combat system in this (I loved that game). Managed to get all endings and all achievements, and I love the fact that all the builds work in different ways to beat the final boss(es).
Personally I think there could also be an ending you can get if you find a way to .
This is definitely getting a TvTropes page, it needs one.
developer response: Thank you! Surprisingly enough I've actually never played armoury and machine before, though I HAVE played magic research and Lootun. I might check the game out in a bit! That's definitely a fun trigger for a secret ending lol, though I can't say I can think of a way to incorporate it into the current storyline :p
Also, DAMN I CAN'T BELIEVE THERE'S ACTUALLY A TV TROPES PAGE NOW. That's really neat! Definitely made me feel called out a few times, certainly not in a bad way XD I love how is classified as a and less of a lmao, and I think it's a particularly cool human phenomenon when quite a few players expressed seeing the as the among the other available.
I'd say a couple minor inaccuracies that I have spotted would be in the section, since the journal endings are written from perspective, and in the .
I'm really glad you enjoyed the game!
ok but really though a game based on one of the endings from this game would be epic
developer response: Haha thanks, glad that you enjoy it and would like to see a sequel! :D
Finally created an account on this site just so I could say that this, THIS is literally PEAK. What a fucking banger game. Beat all endings, and god this shit is so goated I'm so sad it's over. That being said, I'm quite happy by the length of the game. Extremely well paced, good tasty lore, super fun diversity of builds (which they all can work!), and a very interesting twist of idle game mechanics, this game is just cheff kiss.
Thank you Talos for this. Will be looking forward to the stuff you put out. But for now, I guess it's time for A Tale of Poop and Vengeance.
developer response: DAYUM, IM HONESTLY REALLY FLATTERED! Playtime checks out too :0 Definitely brings a smile to my face knowing you enjoyed it this much! There's always revisiting the game in 5 years once the memory of it fades a little :P
A Tale of Poop and Vengeance is admittedly going to be rather underwhelming after coming from BIOTOMATA considering it's my first practice game, but I still hope it'll bring you a sliver more entertainment as this game did! :)
the peak has finally arrived
developer response: Heck yea! :D
This is my first message on the site, I had to share my thoughts, this game is so good, easy 5 star for me, took me about half a day to get everything done. I enjoyed every second of it.
developer response: But did you enjoy every third of it?
(ok that was a horrible joke i'll see myself out)
Seriously tho, thank you for playing!! Really honored that this is your first message after 4k hours of playtime (that's dedication, damn!)
Damn what a game. It might just be one of the best games on this site and I've almost played everything on here to completion. It's kinda funny coming from A Tale of Poop and Vengeance to this, though your knack for story telling kept on. On that note, the story is a very nice touch. I don't really expect an engaging story out of games like these, but I did really enjoy the overall progression with Daniel and I liked how I could slowly see where it was all heading as the game progressed.
The pacing is very solid. Like you said in the info, basically every part goes by pretty smoothly (unless you're deliberately trying to skip something or you're doing something wrong). The combat is very nice too. Early on, I felt that the Constitution Vitality build carried me through everything but as I did Ending runs, I gained a lot of appreciation for the other builds. It's really nice how everything has its own unique flavor. The battles are also varied and interesting too, with most having a purposeful gimmick for you to adapt your build towards. The variety of mechanics is also nice and the game introduces and paces them out well. The prestige system is also strong and I never felt like I needed to grind runs and that I always had the choice to go for longer runs or runs specifically geared towards different objectives.
I also enjoyed the challenge mode. I always had a feeling you could do some interesting shenanigans with the ascension perks and I'm glad there is a way to utilize them, though I think it is for the best that it isn't like this way in the main game.
Personally, I feel like this game would benefit from a Dialogue/Cutscene Log or an Gallery/Ending Viewer. There's a lot of tidbits you can accidentally skip over and it'd be nice to see some of the endings again without having to redo a run.
I think some people might also prefer for there to be a bit more automation. I found it to be fine since you could just skip past all the first stages later on in the game, but some more decimates or area wide decimates could be a good quality of life choice. It's also not a particularly long game, especially if you don't do all the endings, but that's perfectly fine by me. In fact, I really don't think it needs to be any longer. As I said before, the game feels perfectly paced to me. Though maybe a wider expansion of a challenge mode with greater perks could work if you wanted to release it on steam and justify a price tag.
All in all, a really great game and I hope you continue to make more.
developer response: Thank you for playing, and an extra thank you for playing A Tale of Poop and Vengeance before this! :P I'm really glad you enjoyed the story! Funnily enough, I'd like to think of A Tale of Poop and Vengeance as a distant prototype-ish cousin to BIOTOMATA, mostly with the "event-storyline" and "mechanics that support storytelling" aspects. Ngl I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised with the reception it got, and it's definitely constructive/encouraging comments like this one which gave me the confidence to pursue BIOTOMATA as my uni capstone project
Happy to hear that you found the pacing appropriate and the combat enjoyable! I think it's pretty cool that you went with a vit/con build, since I've seen dex builds being quite common with midgame! Glad that you enjoyed the rest of the mechanics too!
The Ending gallery is definitely showing up as a common request. I'll add it to my TODOs, though it'll definitely need a separate UI component of its own, hopefully I can get it to work! Valid point on the automation, I might experiment with the decimate threshold a little and see what sticks better :)
Hard to say where my gamedev journey will take me next, especially since I'll be graduating soon and may likely need to start finding some stable employment first. Fingers crossed BIOTOMATA will be a neat enough portfolio project and I'll be able to find something that's just as rewarding while still allowing me to continue gamedev in my free time!