https://awwhy.github.io/Fundamental/
According to the setting page, I first tried Fundamental on March 27, 2023. I thought it was somewhat interesting, but... man, was it slow.
I feel like a good range of time for the first prestige of any given incremental game is between one and four hours; you want to feel that progression after the first reset and feel like it means something.
With Fundamental, the progression is... incremental.
I tried it for a day or two, got bored, shut it down, and walked away. It was too damned slow. I didn't feel anything from it. There was no flavor, only texture. Not enough to sate me.
I spent the summer finishing up Antimatter Dimensions and a gazillion Prestige Tree variations. That felt good. I chose my games wisely and they rewarded me handsomely.
Then, in the fall, on a whim, I came back. I stuck it out. I finally finished that first big reset. And then there were the Strange Quarks. Not enough to make a huge difference, just a little difference, but that was a huge difference.
It's confusing, I know. Most incremental games give you that dopamine hit of that first upgrade and you can feel it go faster, but not Fundamental. You just sort of... sense it going faster. Your brain isn't sure if it likes it. Your brain is curious, but needs more. So you ask the game for more.
In the beginning, it took a lot of work. Then it took less work, thanks to automation. Then it took more work, because the automation was inefficient. But I got more Strange quarks. And more resets. And more Strange Quarks. Finally, it all comes together. At one point, you have every stage running at once in a cacophony of resets and prestige and Quarks and it is glorious and it feels so good... and then there's that last upgrade to buy. That one last upgrade you need to clear the board and win the game.
You want to win the game, don't you?
Except that last upgrade doesn't win the game. It resets everything and everything you thought you knew about the game has changed. You're in the Vacuum State. Now, all of the stages interact. And not in a good way. It takes a day or two to get back to that first prestige, and when you do... things have changed.
The Void... you should not go into the Void. But that's what Exports and Imports are for. You can stare at the Void, but the Void stares back at you and you know what... let's not go there. Not now. So, once again, from the ground up, you start getting your old pals the Strange Quarks.
Progress is slower, yet also faster? Nothing makes sense now.
You settle into a rhythm. The rhythm takes days, the days become hours, but the hours take days to become minutes. The automation needs additional automation. The Void begins to call, and you visit the Void, in small increments... It is an incremental game, after all. Progress progresses. Prestiges prestige. Increments increment.
The cycles, they get smaller. The circle collapses in on itself. The Strangelets show you a new path. The path condenses. You become accustomed to the Strangeness. You are comfortable within the Void.
At the end of the day, Fundamental is a slow burn. The slowest of burns. But the flame burns so brightly, and you inch ever closer, and demand to be enveloped in its flame. For the flame to consume you. For the length of the cycle to drop to zero, and for the speed of the cycle to approach infinity. You are infinity. You are the cycle. It consumes you. You consume it.
Guys, I think this game has broken me.
-- Universe age: 71 days 9 hours (Real: 68 days 9 hours)
-- Stage resets: 182
x-posted from /r/incremental_games by /u/EelsEverywhere
