comments for Idle Chapel Demo

Cult Nation, All Hail the Orb, now this. 2026 is shaping out to be a dark year for incrementals, theme-wise.
Pros
++ Great vibe, art and music gel really well.
+ I love that the chapel fills up with followers as we collect them.
+ Has an interesting active portion that isn't just another nodelike.
+ Good variation with the different areas in terms of theming and systems.
+ The Penance upgrade screen has some interesting paths.
So-Sos
~ The diagonal upgrade not uncovering tiles if the cardinally adjacent tiles are revealed is annoying. e.g. click on tile (5, 2) revealing a person at (6, 2). Click on (6, 2) once reveals tiles (6, 1), (7, 1), and (7, 2). Clicking on the person again does not reveal (7, 3). Also, say (3, 1) and (3, 2) are revealed while (4, 1) and (4, 2) are hidden, clicking on (3, 1) will not reveal (4, 2).
~ For the second diagonal upgrade, sometimes I would prefer to do the line, but I'm forced to do the square. :(
~ Upgrades are good, but a bit sparse. It would be nice to see more of these.
~ Good indication on the Chapel button when you can buy an upgrade, but total faith and chest rewards (presumably you only get faith?) aren't shown in the run summary.
~ Not sure if this is intended, but goals not spawning on mud tiles makes that area particularly easy, considering you can see mud without revealing the tile. If this is intended, I'd like to see some help for the "find 2" areas later.
~ A bonus for revealing every tile would be nice - especially if it was bonus XP to help with grinding the earlier areas. (Or some way of automating levels when you can easily complete them with your total moves/diagonal upgrades)
Cons
- Forgotten Cellars has the third variation (in a row) on "find 2 things first", I was getting sick of that requirement by this point. (I know that one is slightly different to the other 2, but not by much)
- The "Seek the Herald" bonus for completing all goals isn't very exciting, and easy to miss the first couple of times if you've been grinding the level and hitting "begin again" instantly.
- I already have to pay to unlock an area, why do I need to pay to visit it as well? Usually the cost is low enough to just wait a few seconds anyway, just seems like unnecessary waiting after buying an upgrade.
- I can't click the penance upgrade icons? I really have to hover them, then hit "purchase"?
- It's convention for chance to show a percentage. e.g. As written, it implies that the first Divine Radiance upgrade has a 0.5% chance for it to proc, not 50%. Also: a) this upgrade doesn't say that half the damage is spread. b) It doesn't always spread to all cultists, but it also doesn't always spread to just one other? Does distance matter? This should be a lot clearer with telling you what it does and with how it actually works.
----- I really hate the Guardian's voice, lmao. The sound also seems to carry on much longer than it takes to show all of the text.
Overall
It's a really good demo with some small annoyances. No indication on the Steam page of content beyond the demo, so I can't say for sure whether I'll go for it yet, but it seems promising.

I really enjoyed this, it's nice to see another cultist game in the space. Definitely wishlisting for the atmosphere of the game alone, excited to see what you do going forwards with the game :)

Aah, all upgrades that cost 1mill and up just show the demo popup. Personally I would've preferred the cost buttons changing to show "DEMO" or something.

I admit that I'm only just now opening the second map, but so far this feels like a reskin of Digseum. So I guess what I'm wondering is, other than the theme, if I already own Digseum and can just play that again, what sets this apart from it that will make me want to play it instead or alongside Digseum?

i swear there was a game with the EXACT same name i played like 3 years ago LOL

wishlisted. literally only complaint was getting slapped in the face with "demo" randomly because i've progressed a certain amount and just want to buy an upgrade.

my issue is that a lot of these great prototypes (this is a great demo, i had a lot of fun) just never materialize on steam.

or when they do, it's basically the demo + 5% more content.

that is the absolute norm for demos i find through galaxy.click. i really wish it weren't the case.

but i hope yours is the exception.

The diagonal upgrade doesn't work a lot of the time and sometimes when i click an objective it doesn't collect it and reveals the area around it, making me waste a move.

Why is there suddenly a flood of cult games.
Bring back the TMT flood.

If you destroy everything in The Umbral Crossing expect for the diamond things, the game softlocks.

I reproduced the issue where sometimes it reveals a different spot than where i clicked. i moved my mouse off the square after i clicked, which did damage to the thing i clicked on initially but revealed the area near the spot my mouse was moved to.

Enjoyed the themeing. The puzzle like structure was great as well. Sort of reminds me of Pokeclicker's dungeons.

Brother, you made digseum. It's almost beat for beat the same game. Kinda shameless