- Server Sustainability Update - 25 July 2026
Industry Idle's server will soon enter its sixth year of service. Last year, I posted a proposal to reduce server costs. However, the community did not reach a consensus, so I moved on to work on my other games. A month ago, our hosting company increased our server costs by almost 300%. This is devastating for a free-to-play game with optional paid content. The game has been operating at a loss for almost three years and has relied on proceeds from CivIdle to stay afloat. To further reduce server costs, I have to shut down all leaderboards. The game currently relies on a Steam API - which requires a public Steam profile - to "verify" accounts. This API has not been working correctly for some time, so I have to use an alternative: only players who own at least one expansion pack will be "verified" on Steam. To help offset the impact, I have relaxed the trading limits for unverified accou…
- Player Trade Server Sustainability - 25 October 2025
Industry Idle's server will soon enter its 5th year of service. The game has a small but active player base, and the server has been instrumental in keeping the community together. However, running a game server comes with challenges — there are ongoing costs, and maintaining anti-cheat systems (especially for a game available on six different platforms) greatly increases those costs. For the past year or so, the game has not been making enough revenue from Expansion Packs to cover the server expenses. In fact, I’ve been using income from CivIdle and my own funds to keep the server running. To make the game sustainable, the community has suggested introducing a player trade limit, which would help reduce the cost of anti-cheat measures. If completely preventing cheaters is too expensive, the next best approach is to make sure cheaters can only ruin their own experience — not everyone el…
- Industry Idle on Sale for Steam Automation Fest - 15 July 2025
To celebrate Steam Automation Fest, both expansion packs are on sale (30% off). If you have been thinking about getting the expansion packs, now is a good chance! If you want to find out more similar games, check out my other games: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2181940/CivIdle/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/3454630/Spaceship_Idle_Design_Build_Explore__Battle/ Cheers, FishPond
- Patch 1.0.0 - Industry Idle is out of Early Access - 13 September 2024
It’s been a while since my last update, but I’ve got some news to share. For those of you following the development of my next game, CivIdle, I’m happy to report that it’s come a long way, and progress has been great. That said, I haven’t forgotten about Industry Idle. I’ve been planning to bring it out of early access for some time, but I ran into a bit of a setback—the laptop with all the release environments and keys (since Industry Idle runs on six platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and Web) died. Thankfully, I’ve recently gotten it repaired, and now we’re back on track! This release includes a handful of small fixes and improvements. Industry Idle has been “content complete” for a while now, so this update mostly focuses on polish. Looking ahead, I’m committed to keeping the server running for as long as possible. I actually use the income from both Industry Idle and Civ…
- Steam Capitalism & Economy Fest Discount - 8 January 2024
Hello fellow capitalists, Capitalists always enjoy a bit of discount, who doesn't? So I wanna pop by and tell you that the game's expansion packs are on discount for Steam Capitalism & Economy Fest. Apart from the additional content and perks (like the shining badge in the chat), all the income from the sales is used to pay for the server bill (and keep the server running). Also, I've made some good progress on CivIdle - Industry Idle's spiritual successor. In fact, recently the game has unlocked the Industrial Age tech tree, so the two universes have finally collided! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2181940/Cividle/ If you like Industry Idle, and wonder what if the game allows you to unlock tech trees and build wonders? Then definitely check out CivIdle!
- Patch 0.20.8 - Bug fixes and QoL and Road to 1.0 - 24 October 2023
Patch Notes: If you own either expansion packs, you can double your offline earning without watching a reward video (iOS & Android only) Bugfix: When Factory Mining policy is active, wholesale orders will not contain natural deposits (reported by @jgestiot, fixed by @FishPond) Bugfix: When Pumpkin Battery or Pumpkin Steel is active, the corresponding research buildings are not shown in Research center (reported by @WingedLeo) Add in-game notification about seasonal events in Policy Center Add a banner and link in Headquarter about CivIdle: Industry Idle's spiritual successor. The banner can be turned off in settings Add back support for Windows 7/8/8.1 Devlog: A lesson I've learned recently is that always read changelogs. I usually keep the game's libraries up-to-date. However, during an update, the library (Electron) dropped support for Windows 7/8/8.1. It broke several players who are…
- Patch 0.20.7 - Weekly Free Premium City Roster - 17 September 2023
- Introducing weekly free premium city roster: every week, a city in either of the expansion packs will be free for all players regardless of expansion pack ownership - Previously, if your account has connected to another game profile, it will fail authentication silently. Now the game will show 'Account Connected' check in Headquarter - Bugfix: In previous patch, the trade quota calculation is incorrect. This patch corrects the calculation: profits result from trading will be excluded when calculating market cap-based quota - Add Hungarian Translation (@KaaPeeM) Web: https://play.industryidle.com/ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574000/Industry_Idle/ Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fishpondstudio.industryidle AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/industry-idle-factory-tycoon/id1554773046 Dev's Note: Recently, I have been getting (back) into A…
- Patch 0.20.6 (and Some Updates on CivIdle, the Spiritual Sequel) - 14 August 2023
Patch 0.20.6 - Update translations - Balance: When calculating market-cap based trade quota, trades since the last market update will be excluded (@FishPond) - QoL: The game will try to renew authentication if it expires. There's also a new button in Headquarter to manually renew authentication (@FishPond) - Upgrade game engine and runtime frameworks - this should help improve compatibility (@FishPond) Also, I'd like to provide some updates on my future plans. As those of you who are on our Discord server are probably aware, I am focusing on developing the spiritual sequel: CivIdle https://store.steampowered.com/app/2181940/Cividle/ There has been a small-scale closed alpha testing, which provides very useful feedback and results in a rebuild of the tech tree and progression. The progress has been slow at times but the pieces are coming together. I have finished most game content before…
- Patch 0.20.5 - QoL and Bugfixes - 8 April 2023
0.20.5-build.337 - Added Turkish and Bahasa language in chat (@FishPond) - Hide Produce All Crops Swiss Boost if the game does not have Expansion Pack 2 (@FishPond) - Bugfix: Activating Electric Fish Pond policy without Hydro Power Plant will cause Fish Pond to malfunction (@FishPond) - QoL: Add building count in building panel (@WingedLeo) - QoL: Add a warning if a building does not benefit from certain policies (@WingedLeo) There are 154 resources, 234 factories, 66 policies, 19 maps and 71 achievements available in this version Web: https://play.industryidle.com/ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574000/Industry_Idle/ Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fishpondstudio.industryidle AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/industry-idle-factory-tycoon/id1554773046
- Patch 0.20.4 - We are Steam Deck compatible! - 4 April 2023
0.20.4 has been released. This version is compatible with Steam Deck. - Allow returning trade profit by paying resources (@FishPond) - Showing the existing trades that offers better profits in Player Trade UI when adding a new trade (@FishPond) - Bugfix: Fix disabling controller support does not work (@FishPond) - QoL: Batch sell of buildings (@WingedLeo) Web: https://play.industryidle.com/ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574000/Industry_Idle/ Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fishpondstudio.industryidle AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/industry-idle-factory-tycoon/id1554773046
- New Anti-Cheat, Improved Game Controller Support and Bunch of QoL - 25 February 2023
0.20.3-build.327 - New anti-cheat mechanism: previously repeated trades with cheating account will result in an anti-cheat ban. This process involves a lot of investigation and takes a lot of effort. Now this will result in a trade suspension - you can resume trading after returning all the profits made from trades with the cheating account. This can be resolved automatically in Player Trade UI (@FishPond) - Add a page showing past player trades (by @FishPond) - QoL: New settings menu (by @GrayTheWanderer) - QoL: New batch mode action: Downgrade - All/Cluster/Adjacent (by @GrayTheWanderer) - Add Turkish translation (by @Readrift) - Improve Steam Deck support (@FishPond) - QoL: Add support for game controllers: use left joystick to move camera, right joystick to move cursor, trigger buttons to zoom/scroll, right shoulder button and X button to click. Joystick sensitivity can be adjusted…
- Patch 0.20.2 - QoL, Bugfix and Christmas Event - 10 December 2022
0.20.2-build.308 - QoL: Add more purchase amount option in Trade Center (by @jimmyh77) - QoL: Allow filter player trade by price range and player name (by @jimmyh77) - QoL: Add warning for Purge My Trades (by @jimmyh77) - QoL: Add an option to show only positive tile modifiers (by @jimmyh77) - QoL: Change power bank units to Joules (by @2kai2kai2) - Bugfix: Nikola Tesla policy in Detroit no longer requires nature gas (by @ryansb) - Bugfix: Wind Turbines and Solar Panels cannot be turned on when turned off by inheriting default settings (by @GrayTheWanderer) - Bugfix: Fix an exploit w.r.t cancelling player trades. You need to upgrade to this version to cancel player trade (reported by @WingedLeo) There are 154 resources, 234 factories, 66 policies, 19 maps and 71 achievements available in this version This is the first release since open source. On behalf of the community, I'd like to th…
- Next Chapter For Industry Idle: Leaving Early Access and Going Open Source - 29 October 2022
It's been more than two years since I started working on Industry Idle. The game was released on Early Access 1.5 years ago and I am blessed with a great community - reporting bugs, providing feedback, helping new players, and supporting the game's server expense by purchasing Expansion Packs. Going Open Source Working on this project as the only indie developer in my free time is a huge commitment. A lot of players in the community are developers themselves and have offered to help with the development. However, as you can probably imagine, the game's codebase was nowhere near ready for that. And I felt that cleaning up the codebase and onboarding more developers would add more overhead and slow down the development when the game was constantly changing. Now, since the game's core mechanisms and content are more or less stable, I feel this is a good time to take a look at this. I spent…
- Halloween Event: Pumpkin, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Pumpkin Pie and Exclusive Policy - 18 October 2022
- Seasonal harvest: Farmland and Greenhouse will produce pumpkin in October. Pumpkin productions are doubled! - Seasonal recipes: Bakery will produce pumpkin pie (from pumpkin, flour, butter and milk) and drink factory will produce pumpkin spice latte (from pumpkin, refined sugar, coffee and milk) - Halloween Timed Exclusive (Oct. 15 - Nov. 5): New resource - Pumpkin. All power plants produce a certain amount of pumpkins. - Halloween Timed Exclusive Policy: Pumpkin Battery (FREE) - All buildings that consume battery use pumpkin instead - Halloween Timed Exclusive Policy: Pumpkin Steel (FREE) - All buildings that consume steel use pumpkin instead You have to be on the latest version on Steam to participate in the event! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574000/Industry_Idle/
- Patch 0.20.1 - Bug fixes and "Default Building Settings" QoL - 9 October 2022
- Bugfix: Fix a bug where some buildings are not appearing in Research Lab on maps that meet the unlock requirement - Bugfix: If a building is shut down, it will not be supply-chained boosted (boost will be given to other eligible buildings) - QoL: Add 'Set as Default' for production settings in building page There are 154 resources, 234 factories, 66 policies, 19 maps and 71 achievements available in this version Web: https://play.industryidle.com/ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574000/Industry_Idle/ Google Play: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.fishpondstudio.industryidle AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/industry-idle-factory-tycoon/id1554773046
- Patch 0.20.0 - Icons for Recipes, Seasonal Harvests/Recipes and New Buildings - 2 October 2022
- Buildings with multiple recipes now shows an icon indicating current production recipe: we are still missing some icons for certain recipes. If you'd like to help add missing icons, contact me directly - Seasonal harvest: Farmland and Greenhouse will produce pumpkin in October. Pumpkin productions are doubled! - Seasonal recipes: Bakery will produce pumpkin pie (from pumpkin, flour, butter and milk) and drink factory will produce pumpkin spice latte (from pumpkin, refined sugar, coffee and milk) - New building: Quantum Computer Lab - New building: TV Studio+ - Resource explorers, farmlands and greenhouses now use recipes - this also allows them to be part of an Industry Zone chain - you might need to re-select their output - Update translation files - a big thank you to all community translators - Update game engine version to improve stability Web: https://play.industryidle.com/ Stea…
- Patch 0.19.1 - Bugfixes - 21 August 2022
- Balance: Now auto sell capacity upgrade will grant a baseline capacity: even if your production is zero, you will still be able to auto sell a certain amount. This amount is affected by Swiss production modifier boost/upgrade - Bugfix: Fix a bug where tariff rate is not calculated corrected based on price difference - Bugfix: Fix a bug where Hydro Farming policy will break Greenhouses if there's no hydro dams - Update translation files - a big thank you to all community translators Web: https://play.industryidle.com/ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574000/Industry_Idle/ Google Play: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.fishpondstudio.industryidle AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/industry-idle-factory-tycoon/id1554773046
- Patch 0.19.0 - New Player Trade Tariff System and Content Update - 6 August 2022
- New Player trade tariff will replace the old player trade quota. Each player will be granted tariff credit based on production and market cap. Trades that exceed the tariff credit will be taxed. The tariff rate depends on price difference between trade price and local price. You can see a detailed tariff calculation breakdown when adding and filling trades - Cancelling a trade will now refund 100% of resources (instead of 90%). Tariffs are not refundable - Offline productions are now counted towards production-based tariff credit - Add a new recipe for Photogram: 8x Three Course Meal -> 2x Internet - New building: Meal, Ready-To-Eat Plant (Expansion Pack 2). It has the following recipe: 3x Whopping Burger -> 1x Spaceship; 4x Cocktail -> 1x Nuclear Missile; 7x Wine + 7x Pastry -> 1 Aircraft Carrier; 22x Joyful Meal -> 1x ICBM - New building option: Resource Input Buffer - The maximum c…
- Help Test and Give Feedback to the New Player Trade Tariff System - 25 July 2022
The existing player trade quota system was designed a long time ago - the intention was to curb player trade abuse. Over time, more rules have been added to patch loopholes and the rules have become too complicated to comprehend - and it's not very obvious in-game as well. New players always have trouble understanding the system. Also, it is a bit too punishing for new players - with a limited quota available. I have been thinking about redesigning this for a while. And it's surprisingly hard to design a trading system that is easy to understand yet can prevent market manipulation without frequent manual intervention. In the real world, international trades are heavily managed, with customs duty, quota and anti-dumping rules. I want a simple system that can capture the essence of international trading in the game. The new player tariff system will replace the existing quota system in th…
- Patch 0.18.2 - Balancing Update - 27 June 2022
- Multiple Sources is always enabled for Trade Center (this no longer requires Expansion Pack 2) - Balance: Adjust trade center pricing - now the minimum price is 10% of the original price instead of $1. This will increase the resource valuation (and trade quota) - Balance: Auto-selling now drives down the price slower than before There are 151 resources, 213 factories, 65 policies, 19 maps and 71 achievements available in this version Web: https://play.industryidle.com/ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574000/Industry_Idle/ Google Play: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.fishpondstudio.industryidle AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/industry-idle-factory-tycoon/id1554773046
