Idle Ascent
Your heroes fight and collect loot even when you're not playing.Prestige progression, 21 heroes with evolutions, a castle, events, a world boss and an arena.
/ About the project
NextApp Labs wanted a game of their own for Android, designed from the start to be played daily and to support marketing campaigns. Idle Ascent is a role-playing game in which a team of heroes fights on its own, wave after wave, while the player steps in to make decisions: which heroes to evolve, when to “ascend” for permanent bonuses, which events to join.We built all of it: systems design, the economy and pacing of the progression, the interface, the server with anti-cheat validation, live operations and data analytics.
On Google Play/ Project details
Name:Idle Ascent, idle game for Android
Client:NextApp Labs
Industry:Mobile games
Timeline:Since September 2026
Status:Launched on Google Play
Live:Google Play
Outcome:Launched to production after three weeks, with 21 heroes, 131 enemies, 18 biomes, 11 event types scheduled across 52 weeks and 33% day-one retention
/ The challenge
An idle game lives or dies by the pacing of its progression: if the player advances too fast they get bored, if they hit a wall they quit. Every system (heroes, castle, talents, events) feeds the shared economy, so one number changed in one place shifts the balance everywhere. And all of it has to run on cheap phones, with a small download.Making an idle game isn't hard; making a balanced one is.
/ What we built
Progression and prestige
Waves of enemies, boss walls and the “ascension” that resets the run in exchange for permanent bonuses. The pacing is checked with an automated simulator of a typical player, so no stage ever becomes an impassable wall.
Heroes, castle and collection
21 heroes with 42 evolutions, summoning with pity guarantees, mastery from duplicates, a castle with buildings and talents. Every duplicate and every building counts, so the player always has a goal within reach.
Events, world boss and arena
Weekly events, a world boss attacked by all players, themed seasons with limited heroes and an asynchronous arena against other players' teams. All content is scheduled from the server, with no app update.
/ How it works
The player opens the game, collects the loot gathered overnight, upgrades the heroes and pushes the waves further than yesterday. Then they attack the world boss, play a few arena duels, claim the daily rewards and come back in the evening for the ongoing event.The heroes keep fighting and gathering gold and loot into a time-limited chest that calls the player back.
/ Tech stack
Unity / C#
The standard engine for mobile games: one codebase for Android and iOS, good performance on low-end phones and a mature ecosystem of tools and ad networks.
Unity Gaming Services
Cloud Code, Cloud Save, Remote Config, Leaderboards. The server validates every result to block cheaters, saves progress in the cloud, and events, prices and balance change from the server without a new release.
Firebase Analytics + BigQuery
Every step the player takes is measured, and decisions about retention and economy are made on real data, not intuition, from a dashboard updated daily.
