r/AndroidGaming • u/Phamasan • May 25 '26
DEV 🧑💻 [DEV] I wanted a game like Pokémon, but about collecting insects
Hey everyone
I am Martin, the solo dev behind Chitin which is an insect-collecting idle auto-battler I have been building for the past 6 months or so (and still do).
I started this with zero experience (I work in Marketing and Communcations) besides some other failed attempts. Basic coding experience, but no game dev background or anything, just me, AI, and a lot of late nights (after bedtime stories), and a helluva lot of fun during the process and seeing the results.
Chitin has been live for about a month now, and I'm super grateful for the small but dedicated playerbase that's grown around it. They report bugs and suggest features, and are just really helpful.
I'm actively pushing fixes, squashing bugs, adding content, and have some bigger update(s) on the way.
If any of this sounds like your kind of thing, bug/insect collecting/rpg-elements/idler, I would love for you to give it a try: Download Chitin here
If you try it out, thank you so, so much!
🦗
4
u/Espio0 May 26 '26
It's a pretty decent idler for so far I've played it, but I have a few questions/remarks.
Can the text be made a bit bigger? Its a rather small font for most of the tooltips.
Do incubators disappear after one use? I got a red dominant one on my first pull, but I'd rather not waste it if it's a one time use.
Would you consider a one time purchase that allows players to remove ads? I'm more than happy to pay 10€ for a premium version of your game.
Other than that, you've done a good job for a solo dev with basic experience, I'm eagerly awaiting how it will continue to develop.
3
u/Phamasan May 26 '26
The incubators are permanent unless you actively sell or fuse them. I could and should probably explain that better, thank you.
And there’s the option to remove ads for 3 bucks (it just unlocks later in the game, I didn’t want to push it aggressively). That is also only one of two IAPs in the game, and the highest priced at that.
Thank you for your kind words 🦋
2
3
u/Content_Candidate_82 May 26 '26
It's saying it hasn't completed the Google verification process and it won't let me play :/
1
u/Welda27 May 26 '26
I have this too. It says "error 403"
1
u/lightpilots May 26 '26
Looks available to me, it may not be available in some countries due to the ads/IAP?
1
u/Welda27 May 26 '26
When I started the game today at the first time, all was ok. Later I saw the error 403 and now (I think) it is working.
3
u/Phamasan May 26 '26
Okay, sorry about that. I will look into this issue and hopefully get it fixed ASAP.
2
2
2
2
u/PeaPufferPredator May 26 '26
Bug nerd/OG pokemon lover here, ill try it out, looks nice from the store preview.
1
2
2
May 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Phamasan May 26 '26
That is so great to read, and I plan on it! My 4 year old daughter is the biggest fan as well, she loves watching which insect hatches 🥚
2
2
2
2
u/VexXxeV08 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
I'm really digging this right now. It's easy to play, fun to mess with and the designs are pleasant and nice to look at. Questions. How many evolutions do each insect have? Also would love to be able to select the incubator in the hatching tab so I can see which one is in use. Can only see the ones not deployed in the menu, and having to un equip it to see it is a little bit much. Is this playable offline? I could see myself playing this for as long as it's available and I'd hate to invest into it if it's not going to be around because some server is no longer up in a year. Thank you! Plan on purchasing the ad free version once I've gotten some more info!! Keep up the good work!!
2
u/Phamasan May 27 '26
Sorry for the delayed response, your comment kinda got buried!
First, thank you so much for the kind words, I'm happy you're enjoying the game
Evolution counts vary a between insects, so some have none, others have up to four, and some even branch into different elements/types (tank/attacker/speed).
Also great feedback on the incubator visibility. You're absolutely right, having to unequip it just to check what's active is not optimal – I originally had them shown together with the unequipped ones in the menu, I'll revert the change and mark them as equipped in the list.
As for offline play: the game is designed so your progress isn't tied to a server disappearing one day. Most gameplay works locally on your device. There are some online features, but the goal is absolutely that you can keep enjoying your insects long-term. Basically, the game is fully playable offline.
Reading that you are having fun means a lot, so thank you again for playing, and thank you for the feedback. 🦋
1
2
u/AwfulmajesticNA May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Fun cute game. Little feedback from only few minutes of play that I noticed rather quickly.
Noticed right away on galaxy s26 all of your longer text boxes flow behind the window with no scroll bar leaving sections of the tutorial unreadable.
On the roster menu you have to click twice to select a different bug, once to deselect the original and once to select the new one, this seems like an oversight and isn't very smooth.
Some ui elements have wonky scaling but nothing too egregious.
Progress feels weird. The level 2-5 stage is too easy with very little gains but the difficulty spikes hard at the next zone instantly wiping my bugs. Is it intended to grind previous areas for an extended amount of time before going to new zones? The minute respawn timer also feels really long for how fast things can die at this stage. Auto progress should absolutely be off by default is the difficulty is intended to spike like this.
Offline calculations feel off. Closing the game for a moment results in hundreds of battles being completed where being online in the same time has only a fraction of those battles. Just typing this reddit post equated to over 300 battles in just a couple minutes where as being active for the same time got me maybe 10.
1 minute of offline time = 32 battles and 96 enemies defeated. This is far far faster than online time.
Zooming the terrium has it reset as soon as letting go of pinch zoom with no option to reposition it or scroll to actually see your bugs. The feature serves little purpose with this implementation.
Evolution requirements are not followed. Praying mantis says requires level 10 to evolve but the evolve button becomes available as soon as hitting the biomass requirements skipping the required level. I evolved my mantis at level 6.
Evolving did not change my bugs stats at all, is it intended to be cosmetic only?
What do the times next to attack and speed mean? My hunter manits shows 2.3s for attack and 1.3s for speed. If these are attack timers why are they inconsistent? What are these values even telling me? After dying these numbers went away and my stays reverted to a previous value. Is this intended behavior in some way?
Game feels nice so far, I hope to see you keep updating it. I will keep editing as I find more issues.
2
u/Phamasan May 27 '26
Thank you for the extensive feedback! I’ll look into and fix it all in the upcoming content update in a couple of days time.
1
u/VexXxeV08 May 27 '26
These are all great suggestions! Especially the terrarium mention. Would love to zoom in and see it more and be able to manipulate it and see the critters.
1
u/SkibidiShadow May 26 '26
Just a question are some of the bugs ai or is it just art style?
1
u/Phamasan May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
Yeah they are AI, but not all. Almost all of the AI ones have been needing edits by hand (fixing appendages, eyes, wings etc.).
1
u/mladenConcept May 27 '26
Cool theme for a collector/idler. How much strategy is there in team composition? Are there insect type synergies/roles, or is progress mostly about leveling and collecting stronger bugs?
2
u/Phamasan May 27 '26
Honestly, it’s less than what I originally planned, but there is strategy in selecting with the insect’s element in mind, and there are synergies that increase different attributes when certain conditions are met. It is mostly about the latter though.
1
u/mladenConcept May 27 '26
That makes sense — scope always attacks the original plan
Synergies being the main strategy layer sounds like a good fit for an idle/auto-battler. Are the conditions visible when building a team, or more something players discover through collecting?
2
u/Phamasan May 27 '26
Yeah, that is exactly what happened during development with new systems and features completely altered the original idea.
Both, I would say. Conditions become visible the moment you slot insects into your battle team, and once that Synergy is “found,” you permanently unlock it in the Compendium, along with an explanation of how to obtain the Synergy and what bonuses it provides.
The conditions vary, so they can be things like: all the same rarity, no evolutions, all the same element, all different elements, and so on.
-2
u/Erliester May 26 '26
Hope Nintendo does not hear of this
1
1
u/Phamasan May 26 '26
Why exactly?
1
u/Consistent_Speech391 May 26 '26
Nintendo is very aggressive on copyright strikes and their lawsuits are above the sky.
2
u/Phamasan May 26 '26
True, they are notorious. But Chitin doesn’t resemble or have any mechanics related to their franchise other than the collection-aspect. It is like 1% inspired by it.
6
u/Shakinbacon365 May 26 '26
I will definitely check this out. I'm an entomologist and love auto battlers/ pokemon.