Two new indie idle games take very different routes through incremental progression, from Swarmslam's planet-cracking demo to Lazy Kickers' chaotic soccer economy.
Image: kotaku.com
Two small idle games, two very different promises
The freshest concrete hook in this week’s incremental discovery pile is simple and wonderfully strange: Swarmslam has a Steam demo with Native Linux support, according to GamingOnLinux, and its core loop is about directing a swarm that cracks planets open for ore. In the same July 27 window, Lazy Kickers surfaced as a soccer-themed incremental from Sos on itch.io, where the official listing prices it at $2.99 or more and says a purchase comes with a Steam key.
That pairing creates a useful split for idle players hunting for new idle games. Swarmslam is selling scale, repetition, and prestige through a cosmic destruction loop. Lazy Kickers is selling sports management as a noisy toybox, with a team that grows from one player into a field full of automated goal scorers. Both are indie idle games built around numbers going up, but they appear to chase very different instincts: one leans into the clean satisfaction of breaking worlds, the other into the messy comedy of a soccer economy spiraling out of control.
There is also a practical wrinkle worth clearing up early. HappyGamer reported Lazy Kickers as live and free on itch.io, but the itch.io page provided for this piece lists a paid minimum price of $2.99. The official store page is the stronger source for current purchase information, so readers should treat Lazy Kickers as paid unless the developer changes the listing again.
Swarmslam turns idle progress into planetary demolition
Swarmslam’s pitch is unusually readable for an idle incremental game because the fantasy is physical. The Steam page, as quoted by GamingOnLinux, describes “a swarm that smashes planets, cracks their core and moves on.” The player does not directly control the swarm. Instead, the page says you give directions, add power, and watch ore fly.
That distinction matters for incremental players. Some idle games are spreadsheet engines with a theme taped on top. Swarmslam’s premise suggests a loop where the act of progression is visible: smash, harvest, invest, repeat. The quoted Steam description says players gather more power by cracking planets over and over, invest ore into “otherworldly powers,” and grow stronger and more efficient until they satisfy “THE VOID.”
The confirmed systems list is also promising, though still broad. The same Steam copy mentions lots of planets, lots of ore, sinks, a skill tree, COREBREAK prestige, and even trading with a question mark attached. Prestige is the critical tell here. If COREBREAK works like a strong reset layer rather than a cosmetic milestone, Swarmslam may be aimed at players who enjoy planned restarts, compounding multipliers, and the long rhythm of sacrificing a run to make the next one cleaner.
For now, expectations should stay measured. GamingOnLinux reports that a demo is available on Steam and that the game has Native Linux support. The outlet also says it looks like Swarmslam was built with the open source LÖVE framework. The provided sources do not confirm a full release date, final price, Windows or macOS support, or how deep the prestige and trading systems actually run.
Lazy Kickers makes soccer into an economy of plants, coins, and chaos
Lazy Kickers takes the opposite route. Instead of cosmic abstraction, Sos’s official itch.io page frames the game as “a relaxing incremental soccer madness,” then immediately gets weird: you grow your own balls from plants, shoot them into a goal, earn coins, and spend those coins on players, inventory upgrades, and abilities.
The idle soccer loop is built around team growth. The official listing says players manage a soccer team trying to score millions, trillions, and quadrillions of points while climbing different leagues. You can play actively or let the team work by itself while the game runs in the background. That background-play promise is important because it separates Lazy Kickers from a traditional sports-management sim. The appeal is not precision tactics or real-time athletic control. It is setting up a system, improving its output, and returning to find that your tiny club has become a noisy scoring machine.
Sos’s page also points to several layers beyond simple coin farming. Players can assign roles, unlock new roles and abilities, and experiment with strategies to maximize income. Progression through leaderboards appears to have its own reward track: the listing says you surpass rival teams’ net worth, earn Match Points, and spend those on ultra-powerful upgrades. Enemies can also send units and place obstacles on the field, giving the loop a disruption layer that could keep the screen from becoming pure automation.
The store page’s tone is handmade and chaotic, spelling errors included, but the mechanical shape is clear. Lazy Kickers wants the pleasure of watching a machine get out of hand. It starts with one player and, according to the official description, can grow into hundreds of players generating billions of coins every second.
The store-page details are part of the story
Lazy Kickers is already in a more legible buying position than Swarmslam, but the listings still need careful reading. On itch.io, the official page lists Lazy Kickers as a downloadable work priced at $2.99 USD or more. It says the purchase includes a Steam key and access to lazy_kickers_v1.3.5.zip, a 26 MB file. The same page shows a 5.0 out of 5 rating from two total ratings, which is encouraging but far too small a sample to treat as broad reception.
The Steam listing also exists at app ID 4613890, and the page title supplied in the source material says “Save 25% on Lazy Kickers on Steam.” The provided Steam text does not include the current sale price, base price, release date, system requirements, or supported operating systems, so the safest practical advice is to check both Steam and itch.io before buying. If the itch.io promise still holds, the $2.99 purchase there may be especially useful for players who want the downloadable build and a Steam key in one transaction.
The HappyGamer write-up introduces the main conflict. It calls Lazy Kickers free on itch.io and describes it as a solo indie project from developer “sos.” The official itch.io listing agrees on Sos as the creator and the incremental soccer identity, but not on the free price. That kind of mismatch happens often with tiny games whose pages change quickly, but it is exactly the sort of detail idle fans should verify before sharing a link or recommending a download.
The itch.io page also tags Lazy Kickers as Cozy, Desktop Pet, Funny, Idle, Incremental, No AI, Pixel Art, and Relaxing, and it states that no generative AI was used. Those tags help set expectations. This is being positioned less like a competitive sports sim and more like a small desktop-friendly progression toy with soccer as its organizing joke.
Which incremental players should watch Swarmslam
Swarmslam is the one to watch if your favorite incremental games are built around long-term systems rather than moment-to-moment intervention. The Steam description quoted by GamingOnLinux emphasizes giving directions, increasing power, investing ore, and repeating planet cracks. That sounds like a game for players who enjoy optimizing production chains and milestone resets while a central animation keeps the fantasy readable.
The best sign is the presence of sinks, a skill tree, and COREBREAK prestige in the quoted store copy. Sinks give idle games somewhere to send surplus resources. Skill trees give players choices that can make one run feel meaningfully different from another. Prestige, when tuned well, turns a wall into a decision instead of a quit point. Swarmslam still has to prove those systems have enough texture, but the pieces named on the page are the right ones for a durable incremental game.
Linux players have an extra reason to keep it on the radar. GamingOnLinux specifically reports Native Linux support for the Steam demo, which is still rare enough in small indies to be worth noting. The possible use of the LÖVE framework, as observed by GamingOnLinux, also suggests a lightweight 2D technical profile, though the provided sources do not give performance metrics or hardware requirements.
If you are cautious with upcoming indies, the demo is the sensible entry point. The sources confirm the demo, the basic premise, and Native Linux support, but they do not confirm the final economy balance, content length, monetization, or release timing. Try the demo for the feel of the core loop before assuming the full game will have the late-game depth implied by its prestige language.
Which incremental players should watch Lazy Kickers
Lazy Kickers is better suited to players who like their incremental games active, silly, and visually busy. The official itch.io page repeatedly stresses escalation: one player becomes a horde, coins become billions per second, and the field eventually drops into chaos. Its sports angle also gives it a cleaner identity than many new idle games. Soccer is familiar enough to understand instantly, but strange enough in this format to feel fresh.
The big question is depth. HappyGamer argues that sports idle games are an unusually empty lane compared with cookie factories, dungeon crawlers, and space empires. That is a fair observation within the provided context, but rarity alone does not make a loop last. Lazy Kickers will need its role assignments, enemy disruptions, Match Points, and upgrades to keep producing decisions after the first burst of novelty fades.
Players who want a polished, stat-heavy football management game should not read too much into the soccer label. The official description is about coins, upgrades, plants, roles, obstacles, and leaderboards, not licensed teams, real leagues, or tactical match simulation. It looks like an incremental game first and a soccer game second, which is exactly the point for the right audience.
For practical buying, Lazy Kickers is easier to evaluate immediately than Swarmslam because the official itch.io page lists a price, file version, file size, rating count, and Steam-key inclusion. The pricing conflict with HappyGamer’s report means you should use the live store page as the final word before purchase. If you want a compact indie idle soccer experiment with a low listed price and a weird premise, Lazy Kickers is the one to try now. If you want a demo-led test of prestige-heavy cosmic scaling, Swarmslam is the one to wishlist and sample first.