Demo: Bugtopia has us buggin’ out in this adorable little idler

If you take away two facts about me, it should be that I love idle games and I’m obsessed with bugs. So, when Bugtopia crossed my newsfeed, I was immediately enchanted. Downloading the demo was a no-brainer and after playing it, I’m excited for the full release sometime during Q2 (Spring).

Booting up Bugtopia, you’re given one bug to start with, not only does it serve as a guide, but when you’re ready you can sell it for quite a bit of upfront money to get yourself started. The whole premise is that you’re trying to collect all the bugs and build up a terrarium of your own design.

You’ll have a bunch of options to customize the environment like mushrooms, plants, houses, and more. You can change the background and the color of the water as well as the size of the tank. You’re fairly free to make what pleases you.

And, all the while, your little bugs will exist in style while you reap the rewards of their company. You can either buy up bugs when they’re little and sell them for a profit when they’re grown. Or, you can try to breed more expensive bugs so that their presence counts for more in earning currency. The more bugs you have, the faster you’ll earn idle income.

What I love is that these bugs generally come in five different shades, all based on real bugs. So, generally, you buy a bug and it will grow into one of two colors. The last three colors are ones you have to find through breeding by putting two different colors in the breeding box.

As you grow your bug empire and amass more wealth, you can spend that on upgrades that will help your breeding boxes run faster, and allow for more bugs to exist in a tank. There are a lot of upgrades to help you enhance your gameplay. 

Bugtopia: Taking a bug house and making it a bug home

Cleverly, it’s not just bugs of the insectoid nature that you’ll be dealing with. Every so often, a bug that looks suspiciously like a virus will pop up on the screen, and by clicking on it, you will get either a few seconds of better earning rates or just a lump sum of currency.

Honestly, it was slow upfront, as most idle games are, but it really ramped up once I got into the swing of things. I loved trying to get the new variant colors and I’m stoked to get my hands on the full release version so that I can really sit with this game and collect them all.

This idler is the perfect example of being as involved or as idle as you like and suits the needs of many players. I had a lot of fun and I think you will too. So, head over to Steam and try out the demo for yourself. Despite it being a demo, I was able to play for 5 hours and still didn’t discover all the bugs I had access to. While you’re there, wishlist the game because it helps the developer out.

If you want to check out our latest review, you can look at Ropuka’s Idle Island. Yes, I have an idle game problem.