I am a gamer, not a developer. My favorite this year is season 2 of r/MakeTradeScale.

I can play at my pace. It's complex and fun with lots of milestones and level rewards.

In addition to research it has mastery, which allows you to up your production of a single product or component by 10% up to 100% uplevel, then it drops to about 4% for 110 percent increase and higher. I have not counted really, but I am guessing 100 or so products and maybe 14 building types. Approximately 14 research lines and a mastery line for each product.

There's a research line called Nanotech that halves building and research time each level. That's something you want to lean into.

The basic idea is that you build a rocket and go to the moon. I finished that and now it's just a tycoon game, but I still like leveling up.

I played all of Season 1 without spending a penny. For me, Season 2 was so good that I decided to support the developer by going premium, which costs about $5 a month. I could play all of season 2 without paying anything, but I want to support him.

There is another level to the game which is being worked on, but I think it's very complete as it is.

The only thing the game needs is more players of all levels so that the market where you buy and sell good can be more lively. You can always sell whatever you make at base price to the market, but it would be more fun if there were hundreds of players. Some people make money in the market and some sort of ignore it. You can build everything yourself and not really use the market.

There are lots of different ways to play the game.

One more thing. There are daily press conferences which give various buffs. You have one conference yourself then you get up to three buffed periods a day from watching other people's press conferences. Every time someone watches your press conference you get a shorter buffed period. The best buff is 10% cheaper building, but there is also cheaper research, market prices, and faster times too.

So give it a try and let me know what you think.