SPACEPLAN

You start with one button. Each click makes a watt, and watts buy machines that make watts for you, which is where the clicking stops being work. From there you manufacture and launch fifteen starchy devices and probes from your satellite, each one more ridiculous than the last: generators, scanners, things that get fed to the sun.

The joke never quite runs out of steam, because the writing keeps it going. Your onboard computer chats away in the corner with dry remarks, hints and the occasional bit of Russian, and it gives the whole thing a personality most idle games never bother with. There is a real ending here too, not just numbers growing forever. The gameplay itself is thin, and the early stretch is mostly clicking, but the story gives every upgrade a reason to exist.

Beneath the potato jokes sits a story that starts sane and goes somewhere strange. You orbit a mysterious planet, scanning it and the rest of the solar system to work out what happened, and each scan or orbital move nudges the plot along. Eventually the secrets of five different planets unfold across two different realities, which is about as much as can be said without spoiling it.

The presentation carries it. Minimalist geometric visuals, a synth soundtrack with a genuinely spacey atmosphere, and sound design that makes pressing a button feel like waking an ancient machine. Play with sound on, especially for the finale.