Babel Tower

Click, earn, improve

Everything begins with the mouse. Each click mines or processes resources on the screen, and holding the button down instead of letting go makes the work go faster. The game describes your job as mining and trading, and the currency that comes in pays for improvements that strengthen your builds. It is the familiar rhythm of an incremental game, where each purchase makes the next round of work count for more.

Keep three materials in step

The construction runs on three materials: stone, bricks and wood. According to the game, their production has to stay balanced for the building to keep moving, so the one to watch is whichever material is falling behind. It is tempting to concentrate on the resource that already flows best, but a surplus of stone does nothing for a site that is waiting on wood.

Automate early

Working by hand has an obvious limit: when you stop clicking, the work stops too. That is why automation is the investment the game singles out. Its advice is to set it up early, so that production carries on while you are away from the button and progress never stalls. Success, in the game’s own words, comes from smart investments, and the pressures working against you are time and scarce resources.

On desktop or mobile

Babel Tower runs in the browser. A mouse does the job on a computer and taps do it on a mobile screen, and on either one the game presents itself as a test of strategic thinking and planning ahead. The setting is borrowed from ancient history, recast as a construction job in which the real challenge is running a whole supply chain.