I know, I know, I probably should have waited with this review and come back when I have more experience and hours in. But it’s just that BubbleByte is so stinking cute, and I genuinely believe that dropping early feelings can help indie devs a lot! And I genuinely like this one as far as I’ve poked it already—and no, not because I’m a cat mom, lol. I’m unbiased, I swear. So here I am. And if you’re a fan of incremental games or just someone who wants to command a cat army, you should be here, too, because BubbleByte is a must-try/have!

The game loop is straightforward and yet endlessly engaging. You start with your mouse and trusty clicker finger, popping bubbles to rack up cash, which you then spend on your first cat (of the army, moehaha). Early on, there’s some idling, but it’s slowish at this point, of course. So, you can either chill, go AFK, or do what I do—click like a caffeinated woodpecker to stack that cash faster. Soon, your cat crew takes over, popping bubbles left and right, and it’s just so satisfying to glance over and see them at work, quickly checking if I can buy or upgrade something and carrying on with whatever I’m doing on my other screen.

Then there’s the cool stuff—like coming across these mysterious shrines that unlock rare cats with funky powers. Although sometimes it took some of my brain power to figure out how to unlock them, that’s probably just me and my tiredness overlooking the dumbest stuff, again lol.
Finding interesting combos, a few already led to an achievement, and oh boi, there are a lot to collect! And when I say a lot, I mean a whole whooping 389 a lot. I hope they aren't too grindy, but time will tell, I guess. And as in most clicker/idle games, when you hit the prestige button, you reset with permanent boosts—rinse and repeat always to get a little but further and better. Nice!

It’s all so cute and chill, with these goofy cats lifting the heavy. And I know I haven’t dug super deep yet, but I’m already hooked. But yeah, like I said earlier in my review, if you love incremental games or want a cat-powered vibe, grab this—it’s a total gem so far! I hope I find a little more time soon to dive back into this cutiepatotie game. Comes with the option to change to unlocked backgrounds and music, which I also considered a super cool touch.

Big bonus points—yes, this is biased cat mom speaking at this point—for the inspiration behind BubbleBytes. I think it’s super charming that it’s inspired by the developer's cat, who is absolutely fascinated by soap bubbles. Like, hello, how cute is that?! Now I wonder how mine would react to it, but being lazy, spoiled sphynx, they probably just yawn and ignore it and snuggle back under their blanket without a care in the world… Ah well.


One of the many mysterious shrines VS let the cheevo hunt begin!
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3461584398
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3461584121

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I would be super grateful if you could consider giving a follow over at the following places for more first looks, reviews, recommendations, etc:

• | My first looks | ~My YouTube channel.
  
• | Tchii made ya look | ~My curator
  
• | IndieGems | ~Wonderful Indie curator
  
• | IndieGems Gameplay | ~IndieGem's YouTube channel.
  
• | Calm | ~Curator for the Dutch-speaking folks out here.
  
• | Calm's first looks | ~Calm's YouTube channel.

Thank you!

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First of all, I want to preface this by saying I absolutely ADORE this gem of a game. It's as if it were made special just for me xD. I love a lot of game genres, but incrementals, clickers and idlers (with economy strategy/management) are my bread and butter, and we all know how good bread is!
Some people have said the graphics are bad. They aren't. They are quite typical and expected of this style of game. In my opinion, the hand-drawn, "Lisa Frank" neon paint gradient effect "scrapbook" cat characters that sometimes look like rodents are the best part because they show a lot of personality and character. For example: Are they drawn by a random 4 year old kid, a captive elephant with access to art supplies, a 92 year old grandma, or the dev themselves? Who's to say, and that's why the art direction is so great and must be protected at all costs, as I would hate the drawings to become "clean" or modernised at the expense of it's undeniable charm.

Secondly, The gameplay may require a little further polish or tuning, especially in regards to the prestige system because at later prestige it feels like little progress is made and you'll feel stalled, which can be a draining slog. BUT WHO CARES IT's PRETTY! It's addictive and fun!

Final word, I was a bit disappointed to find the time trial/speed run update implemented to include achievements recently. I have not tried playing that game mode yet so I'll hold back on judging too harshly for now, but (and this is probably a me thing so whatever) time trial/speed run has no place in a relaxed, cozy incremental game like BubbleByte. I honestly find the idea kinda jarring. It's as if it's trying to market to two completely different groups of people at opposite ends of a spectrum at the same time, and this attitude is unfortunately becoming more and more commonplace. I think game devs should pick a lane and stick to it with precision, quality and vision, as opposed to trying to appeal to as many people as possible. I bought the game and was already at the 60 hour mark when the time trial/speed run mode was introduced and I always detest when "new" modes for a game come out along with a string of annoying, time-consuming (and oftentimes impossible) achievements that (to me) seem counter-intuitive to what the game actually is.

The game is a huge yes from me, even if you choose to ignore the time trial mode it's still worth it. Take my ramblings and venting with a grain of salt - I am just grumpy because the thing I bought changed, and I didn't think that was necessary. I can tell a lot of energy and care went in to making this game, along with the marketing videos and material. It feels like a passion project made manifest, a love letter to 80's cartoon art aesthetics and homage to all the special cats in our lives.

*Edit for spelling errors and refinement.

A very enjoyable, short but creative incremental.

Took less than 2 days to finish overall; but that's a good thing. I had a lot of fun, and now I can move on with my life.

Gameplay structure is a bit different from usual. There are distinct 'levels' to reach in the game, which offer different benefits in terms of unique cats.
There are several different types of cats you can buy, each with different 'powers'. You can place the cats where you like, creating the possibility of interesting synergies between them. (Although for the most part these are fairly obvious, but the trade-offs when you have more cats than space is pretty interesting.)

There are different discreet prestige levels too; each prestige level seems to have a set number of prestige points associated to it, rather than those increasing depending on in-game currency (not 100% sure about that though).

Each overnight idle session jumped me up through multiple prestige levels. Itself a new idea. Giving a small amount of strategy if you are playing actively: you can either wait it out and reach those new levels in the current run, or prestige and hope to get back where you are now even faster. It's sometimes not clear which is better.

I'm really not entirely sure how the entire thing maps onto the usual kind of prestige in incremental games. Maybe it just doesn't.

As another reviewer has commented, this one doesn't fall into the trap of making each prestige artificially further and further apart. It just ups the tempo over and over. Increasing the speed and complexity ever faster. Incre-asing the speed. Incre-mental. Got that, everyone out there developing "incremental" games?

I'm a bit disappointed in a way that it was so short. But given how the pace just gets so stupidly silly so fast, I think this was inevitable. This is a universe collapsing to a point, unlike most incremental games which are a point in space exploding to infinite size. As it were.
Also, would my life have been significantly different if it had taken weeks or months or more of pointless CPU cycles to get to the same ending? No.

This isn't the same as most incremental or idle games (I've played dozens, maybe over a hundred by this point). And that's not because it's themed on bubbles and cats. It is a genuinely creative new look at the genre, with some clever ideas and almost flawless execution. And for that it can only be given the highest praise possible.