(the) Gnorp Apologue Reviews

The style is great, but the progression simply isn't fun. I feel like it's better as a screensaver than an actual incremental game.

This is by far one of the best incremental/idle games I've ever played. The little lore was pretty cool, the various builds you could do with talents and spending is sick. Plus, tons of cool pixel art dudes running around with a million colors.

if you buy it: the game will count progress from when the game is closed, so it doesn't need to be open in the background. Charming, fun to look at, very easy to leave idle and to micromanage and optimise; both work well. I didn't stop once while playing and that whole time there were lots of little things to do. The branching choices in builds are very cool, though, in my case, rather than try new builds each prestige, I built and optimised one build combo since the first time I prestiged. Some choices are a bit too easy to make: all the multiplicative damage status effects are obviously better, with numbers like 1.5x and 2x. Some stats feel bad, like range, to me at least, because the difference between no range and some is tiny, but lots of range and maximum range is huge. The impression mostly comes from the courier gnorps not turning back until full, and so if some shards are flung really close then not a single trip is shortened sinch each gnorp grabs some and continues on to the back. If you haven't already, get gnorping

This might be one of the greatest idle games I ever did witness. That what it feels like to get the ending: [h3]witnessing[/h3]. Almost got kinda emotional, it's such a Sisyphusian task for the Gnorps and you're with them the whole way. [h3]Gameplay is Very Engaging for an Idler[/h3] I like the prestige system a lot with how you can tailor your own builds. I never unlocked the final tier of prestige upgrades though, even with finishing the game. The prestige requirements are a lot more demanding than I'd have liked towards point #14 onwards. Zybellium as a resource is fine, but there's a bunch of upgrades that feel really bad to spend it on since it is a finite resource (extra housing, the garden, Zynorps). Also not being able to reallocate Gnorps is [i]ROUGH[/i], I understand it'd probably break the game to change. But especially the shrine, you really can't help but accidentally waste Gnorps/Bought King of the Pile to see how it works without knowing about the prestige upgrade. And having to prestige for nothing just because you didn't have the hindsight to know drones and rockets are wayyy better than actual Gnorp-intensive buildings isn't great. Also would've liked to have seen more impactful weakspot and archery upgrades. Really just using Zybellium on a single collection perk as opposed to damage really tended to softlock the run which feels pointless. [h3]Game is Cute[/h3] I absolutely adore how the Gnorps animate and how they do the things they do. The music is very fitting (makes the ending as good as it is, and it's very good), even if it's simple in concept, just being synthed classical music. I found the tooltips very funny as well. There were some things I felt could use more clarification but that's not a big deal. If you like gnome-adjacent Sisyphus simulators, this is (very) IT.

[h1]Go Punch Rocks[/h1] I enjoyed the Gnorp Apologue enough to finish it. But I would stop short of recommending it. TGA is is a pseudo-idle game: though there are wrinkles, the goal is still essentially to make a number big. Progression is soft-gated by talent points earned when you "Prestige," or reset all progress. I don't really consider it a full idle game. Firs, there is no offline mode - it needs to be open and running to do its thing, like idlers of old. To compensate, mechanics are somewhat faster and more involved than your typical idler. The central goal of the game is to beat the crap out of a rock in order to build a pile of rock shards. Shards are generated by dealing damage to the rock - more damage, more shards. However, damage isn't the only thing you'll be doing. You also need to collect those shards, so you can spend them on - what else? - stuff that gets you more shards. Thus you'll be setting up two complementary systems - damage and collection. And yet, neither are how you actually win the game. To actually progress and win, you'll need to build your pile of shards to a certain height, at which time a "compression event" occurs that kicks you up to the next tier. In this next tier, shards take on a different hue and are worth more than before. That means the damage that built a nice big pile now only builds a tiny mound. There's a final wrinkle - as your pile gets higher, the rock "fights back" and begins re-absorbing shards back into itself - slowly at first, then faster and faster as the pile grows higher and higher. In short, you won't be able to slowly nickel and dime your way to the next tier. So how do you build a pile? When damage is dealt to the rock, it flings however many shards that damage dealt a certain defined range away from the rock - from 0 to 10 units. If shards land in the same "column," they stack. Thing is, all you need for a compression event to occur is a single column of shards to be high enough - the rest can be totally empty and it'll still work. So not only must you consider damage, but where that damage will leave the shards. Of course, collecting the shards removes them from the pile as well - collect too much, or from the wrong region, and you may find yourself stuck. Bumping up to the next tier is not just a penalty - you're rewarded with a single very limited resource called a "Zye." By default, you get a max of 9 of these, and a threshold talent makes that 10. These are essentially a second system of talent points but without persistent progression - you always start at 0 (or later 1) and can only earn up to 9 (or later 12) more. So far, so good - this is a clever setup, the levers are interesting, the goal deceptively simple - all of this is top notch. But a smart idea is the least important part of a game. You probably see where this is going - TGA botches the execution pretty badly. The UI is fine, controls are good, the look and feel good, any actual player interaction is just fine. The issue instead lies entirely in balance. There is, essentially, a single solution to the game. Essentially half of the Zye you'll earn are spoken for before you even earn them - you [i]must[/i] spend them in certain ways or you're simply stuck and have to reset. Meanwhile, out of 35 or so persistent talents, maybe 5 are simply mandatory to progress past a certain point, another 5-10 more are at least vaguely useful, and the remaining 20 either do nothing, are decoy choices leading you down dead-end strategic paths, or are actively harmful to one of your three competing goals. There is no "theorycrafting' in TGA. You're up against a goal that scales exponentially, but there's only one damage source that can scale exponentially. You have to focus your entire build on it (while also avoiding worthless talents that might screw up a different part of the equation) or you're simply stuck, or need weeks of idling to continue when you could just Prestige, spend Zye and talents properly, and beat the game in under an hour. This is why I don't recommend (the) Gnorp Apologue - it's a question and there is an answer. And I don't meant this in an "S Tier versus A Tier" metagame debate kind of way, but in a pass/fail "this works and everything else doesn't" way. Looking at a Steam guide for help actually spoils the entire game for you. tl;dr Pros: - There's a lot of personality in its modest presentation. - Well-priced for what it is. - Gameplay is compelling initially. - Clever design. - Doesn't overstay its welcome. Cons: - There is one core solution, and all valid solutions are variants on that theme. - Heaps of worthless/trap options. - Barely any room for theorycrafting.

easy learning curve strategy involved love seeing gnorps move around nice talent tree and build planning can leave idle while doing something else so simple yet so captivating 9/10 - hope to see more updates and features

(the) Gnorp Apologue – Cute Chaos Simulator with a Dash of Despair I wanted to love this game. I really did. Gnorps? Rocking. (Snort. Get it? ROCKING! … No? Cough... nevermind.) The vibe? Quirky and fun. The gameplay? Well... it tried. But after hours of managing what felt like a stoned ant colony (don’t do drugs, kids) with no clear purpose, I realized: this game might be charming, but it’s also a frustrating mess. Pros: *The gnorps are fantastic. Little squishy dudes doing stuff? Big win. *The concept is fun. Automate, grow, headbutt, expand, explode. Classic. *It feels like someone gave an idle game a sugar high and a hug. Cons: *Achievements are broken. I did the thing. The game says I didn’t do the thing. I researched the thing. Did the thing again. I save-scummed and did the thing countless times. Still? Nope. *No idea how many drones I have. Could be 12, could be 600. Who’s counting? Not the game, apparently. *Rockets rule everything. I built a diverse army. Carefully planned upgrades. Then rockets swoop in like, “Nah, I got this.” Suddenly, nothing else matters. *Late game turns into molasses. You're not progressing. You're waiting. Staring at gnorps while slowly aging. *Some upgrades feel like scams. Spent all my resources unlocking a unit that does... nothing? Cool cool cool. Final Thoughts: (the) Gnorp Apologue is like a beautiful, wobbly Jenga tower built out of bugs, bad balance, and good intentions. There’s a fun game buried in here — somewhere. Maybe. If the devs fix things. Or if the gnorps revolt and code it themselves. Would recommend only if you like cute chaos and disappointment in equal measure.

It took me just over 50 hours to beat, and though some of that was just me leaving the game open, i enjoyed every second of playing. I felt like i was really able to figure out how everything worked and the perfect perks to choose that would come together and allow me to finally beat (the) Gnorp Apologue. if you at all enjoy watching the result of your choices play out in front of you, or enjoy some strategy in your games, this is a great one for you.

A dynamic and fun idler/strategical economy building game. I personally feel like it achieves the right balance between an active game and an idler. You can get many hours on record but effectively you're playing very little. Idle through the tedious grind, then spend your hard earned credits to buy the right buildings and upgrades to beat the game. What's that? You bought the wrong buildings and upgrades and now you're softlocked and can't progress? Don't fret, just prestige and start over. Don't worry, you get talent points which carry over after each prestige, making each subsequent run take less time as you speed through the early and mid stages of the game straight into the later phases, reducing the grind time required for you to try new strategies. That's how the game really shines IMO. It forces you to learn some basic and advanced mechanics but it doesn't force you to sit through long, boring grinds everytime you try a new run, since you can just let the gnorps generate and collect shards for you while you go do house chores or your spouse. Be sure to grab it, especially on sale, and even if you're in the age of "I wanna play games but I'm too old and bored of them", at the very least it serves as a good distraction.

Gnorp and Tower Wizard bundle was hard to ignore. Played both at the same time and had a blast.