I wish market prices would appear Green/White/Red if they are over/at/under average selling price. There are too many to memorize. It would be nice to shift employees over to a certain product if the selling price is unusually high for that market session.
@Stephenmans - "When should I first ascend?" ----- I would suggest ascending when you can at least double or triple your ascension levels and when you have time to grind up to a x3 or x4 tier like Manganite. I think I did +25, then +75, and now about to ascend again with +200 more levels for 300 total. So then I wouldn't ascend after that until I have about 600 more levels available.
TIP: For those mining too slow to smelt efficiently --> You need to invest in Critical Mining & Power Mining. With 25% Critical Mining, 1 out of every 4 times you mine, you'll get 2x ore. That is a flat 25% bonus at all levels. By adding 2 levels of Power Mining you are now getting 4x ore once every 4 times you mine. Meaning 7 ores every 4 times you mine or 1.75 ore per mining. Meaning if you need 4 ore to make a smelt a bar, you just need to mine 2.3 times. So you want your smelting time to be 2.3x your mining time.
This same method can be used from the smelt -> forge stage later in the game. Once your auto levels are 250 mining and about 150 for the others, investments in critical% have a higher return. As the tutorial suggests, make fewer items and sell them for more profit.
Also - Invest heavily into Critical Selling once you are selling at Very Expensive price. 25% Critical Selling is a nice profit boost.
It seems like there should be a bonus for having pigs/cows/??? % up.. but I don't see a difference. The pigs/cows generate the same $ per time they hit the paddle. What is the benefit of having high pig/cow %?
I think you need to provide a more defined starting point. Like, what genre of game you want to make. We can give you all the specifics.. but if someone is telling you what to include in their idea puzzle game, someone else RTS, someone else side-scrolling shooter, someone else Tower Defense, someone else Music, you can't do anything.
That said, I think you should do you best to parody the top games on kongregate. Once you come up with a genre, I will come back and try to provide some specific instructions.
By the way, not sure if you are aware of the 14 day RPG (http://www.bigblockgames.com/games/coffeehero/challenge/) .. but they did something similar.. they had a general concept.. but let the community pick a lot of items and skills and things to be added to the game.
I agree, this is one of my obstacles right now. I was sort of hoping a "genre choice" would float to the top, but it hasn't really happened, so I'm going to go with a sort of action/adventure/RPG and see how many of the features I can work in without causing sense to be lost. Tonight's project is to push through until I've got an actual "player moving around on the screen" sort of thing. Thank you for the input / link
5/5 - Made it all the way through w/o the walkthrough - pretty easy - but that is why there is a MAKE LEVEL option!
my first one (easy)
http://www.thegamehomepage.com/play/red-remover/catapult/27859
pretty easy to max out - just go level by level.. beat the orange one or the one right after 2 extra times for money - be fully maxed when facing the boss..
got 280k on the point level on first try.
5/5 .. 10/5 !! OMG what a great surprise at the end - didn't read the comments first - any MP3!! I remember playing the first version and thinking 'i wish i could play anything'
http://www.paradea.org/empee/OK%20Computer/10%20No%20Surprises.mp3
in case you don't know how to find online mp3z - http://g2p.org/
Huge fan of Mushroom Farm - 5/5 Here! I was hoping more people would catch on to the GemCraft concept of leveling and beating multiple maps as part of a single large game! 10/5 !!
I like it - got to 93% -- some games are too easy / too difficult though...
i.e. the 3 eggs always add up to 16..
the bartender is TOUGH
the Dodge the spawning red guys is tough too - would be nice if my guy was smaller
fun - but not much to it - there was a similar game that had levels and powerups and everything - but this as a demo of what is to come would be promising!
 "Idle Village"){kind=icon}
 "Idle Blacksmith"){kind=icon}
 "Idleplex"){kind=icon}
 "HUEBRIX"){kind=icon}
 "Dragon Bowls : Multiplayer Beta"){kind=icon}
 "The Game That Kong Built"){kind=icon}
 "Red Remover"){kind=icon}
 "Death vs. Monstars"){kind=icon}
 "Music Catch 2"){kind=icon}
 "Don't Look Back"){kind=icon}
 "Mushroom Revolution"){kind=icon}
 "Shopping Cart Hero"){kind=icon}
 "TinyTrials"){kind=icon}
 "Home Run"){kind=icon}
 "Carnival Star"){kind=icon}
I agree, this is one of my obstacles right now. I was sort of hoping a "genre choice" would float to the top, but it hasn't really happened, so I'm going to go with a sort of action/adventure/RPG and see how many of the features I can work in without causing sense to be lost. Tonight's project is to push through until I've got an actual "player moving around on the screen" sort of thing. Thank you for the input / link