Small Gods

As of Oct 2025, the game is still in early development, although an alpha version is available.

Small Gods is a browser-based, text-driven, incremental game inspired by Terry Pratchett’s book of the same name, as well as other browser games like Kitten’s Game and Fallen London. Designed and developed as a personal project, it combines interactive storytelling with incremental game mechanics to create a unique gameplay experience.

I chose to create an incremental game because it is a genre I enjoy. There’s something uniquely satisfying about gradual progression and optimization to slowly improve that progression. Building one allows me to explore and experiment with novel mechanics, and forces me to think about design trade-offs. Having to design and balance a game myself also helps me understand why other games are designed the way they are. In most incremental games, narrative often takes a back seat to mechanics, but for this project, I want to make storytelling the key focus, and design mechanics that allow for that.

The concept for this game has been in development for several years. A friend and I have often toyed with the idea of designing an incremental game, and this is my fourth or fifth attempt. The both of us have started and abandoned multiple projects, for various reasons. After experimenting with different technologies and design approaches, I ultimately decided to develop the project using React rather than a dedicated game engine such as Godot. This decision was primarily driven by the desire to maintain a focused scope and avoid the feature creep that contributed to burnout in earlier attempts.

The project is written primarily in Typescript and uses the Next.js framework for React. While a simpler setup using vanilla React with a bundler like Vite could have been sufficient for a browser-based game, Next.js provides additional flexibility, particularly the option to integrate API routes as needed. It also offers a convenient foundation for potential future expansions, such as a dedicated landing page or documentation site.