Upgrade
8 games
Description
The upgrade loop is one of the most reliable things in games: do a thing, earn something, spend it on doing the thing better. It shouldn't work as well as it does.
Fire Hose uses it to make later levels survivable, upgrading your water capacity between runs. Bloons Survival.io ties upgrades to surviving waves, and Weapon Upgrade puts the whole thing front and centre. Idle Factory Empire keeps earning while you're gone, and Raccoon Retail wraps it in a shop that isn't taking itself seriously. The good ones make you choose between upgrades rather than letting you buy everything, so your build ends up being yours.
There are 8 free games under this tag, all playable in the browser with nothing to install, and the good ones make you choose between upgrades rather than eventually buying everything.
The idle end sits with Simulation games, and Arcade games covers the quicker ones.