itch.io

Grow a Rock is a cute pixel-art incremental game. Tap a tiny pebble to grow it, roll it to smash everything smaller, upgrade with ore, and keep growing: bugs, people, cars, buildings and beyond.

🎃 The Halloween update is live (until Nov 7):

• Free gift skin: Pumpkin Rock, yours to keep after Halloween too
• People in costumes (ghosts, witches, pumpkin heads) and candy flying out when you smash things
• Purple dusk skies, bats, little ghosts and a big orange moon

▶ Play free in your browser: https://dorivoltgames.itch.io/grow-a-rock
Full game: https://dorivoltgames.itch.io/grow-a-rock-full
Update notes: Halloween devlog

Thanks for reading! Any feedback is very welcome.

I made a short browser game about growing up as a wizard, and it is now playable here on itch.io.

Your birthplace, family and magic are random. From there, you make life choices and eventually take the magic-school entrance exam yourself. A good start helps, but it does not sit the exam for you.

The screenshots below are from childhood and the start of school. I am keeping the later parts out of the post so you can discover them in play.

A run takes about 3–5 minutes. It is free, works in a PC or mobile browser, and has English, Japanese and Korean options on the title screen.

https://dorivoltgames.itch.io/the-chosen-wizard

For transparency: I handled the concept and game design; the code, art, music and translations were made with AI.

Thanks for the suggestion! If that was the demo, it only covers the first two areas, so it's meant to be short. The full game goes through 12 areas, and after the ending you can start a New Universe: bosses come back in tougher forms, Hardened objects with more HP drop 3x ore, and Star Shards give you permanent upgrades. So a harder replay with bigger rewards is already in there.

Or did you already clear the full game, New Universes and all? If so, I'd love to hear how far you got! Either way, I'll keep your 2x coins idea in mind.

Thanks for trying the demo! How was it? Any parts you liked or found frustrating?

Thanks so much for playing and for the detailed notes!

You're right, this part wasn't clear enough. Rolling wears your rock down a little each time (that's the cost of a roll), and the ore you bring back buys upgrades. The Snail needs about 23g, so keep tapping (or let Auto Growth work) until the "Next" bar under your rock fills up, then roll again.

The game did show that bar and a few suggested upgrades, but they were easy to miss, so I just pushed an update: when something blocks your roll, the results screen now shows exactly how much weight you need (for example "Weight needed 23g, now 9.2g") and suggests the growth upgrades. Thanks for the great suggestion!

Update 2.0 is out! Bosses now break apart piece by piece: ram the bottom, tap-jump for the middle, hold-jump for the top, and hit the glowing ★ weak spot at the peak of your jump for triple damage. Every boss has its own weak-spot pattern and attacks, and all 9 upgrades now visibly transform your rock.

Patch notes: https://dorivoltgames.itch.io/grow-a-rock/devlog/1722363/update-20-smash-bosses-apart-see-every-upgrade

Free to try in the browser: https://dorivoltgames.itch.io/grow-a-rock

Haha, that snail ends a lot of first runs! Thanks for playing and for the kind words.

I just pushed an update where every area's boss looms huge until your rock outgrows it. I'd love to hear what stops you next.

I made a game about a little rock that can't even beat an acorn. A few upgrades later, it's rolling through cars and buildings.

Grow a Rock is a pixel-art incremental destruction game. Tap to make your rock heavier, spend ore on upgrades, then see how much of the next area you can smash. When something stops you, you can jump over it and slam down on it. Beating an area's boss opens the next one.

Play the free browser demo on itch.io

The demo includes the first two areas. No installation or account needed. The full game is available separately for $2.99, and you can carry your progress over using Settings → Copy save / Paste save.

English and Korean supported. No ads.

I'd love to hear which obstacle stopped you first and whether the growth feels satisfying.

Update (Oct 22): bosses in every area now loom huge until your rock outgrows them, plus jump and collision fixes. Details in the devlog.

— dorivoltgames