Idle Bakery

Idle Bakery is a cozy 3D bakery tycoon. Your shop is a small clay-style diorama you can turn and zoom, with bakers at work behind the counter and customers queuing at the till. You start with a hand quern, a bowl and spoon and a cash box, and grow the business into six shops across town.

Flour goes from the mill to the mixer, the oven and the display counter, while the till brings customers in. The slowest kitchen station sets how many trays you can make, and you sell whichever is lower: what the kitchen makes or what the till brings in. When everyone is served quickly, customers tip 25 percent; when more arrive than the kitchen can handle, the queue grows and tips shrink. Early on you tap the oven to bake by hand; later the income is fully idle, and your bakers keep working for a while when you are away.

Each station goes up to level 300, doubles its speed at levels 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300, and changes its look as it grows, from a hand quern to a windmill silo. Each station can hire three staff, and every hire doubles its speed. Every tray sells for the value of your whole menu, so unlocking recipes and levelling them up raises the price of everything. There are 30 recipes, five per shop, from country loaves and simit to croissants and wedding cakes, and six shops from the Corner Bakery to the Royal Patisserie, each with its own theme and a far higher price per tray. Every open shop keeps earning wherever you are.

Golden buns fly by now and then with a 30-second triple-income rush or a pile of coins. Special orders pay well if filled in time, and town events like rush hour, tasting day and the town fair boost one part of the business. 250 goals arrive one at a time, each adding 2 percent income for good. Once the fourth shop is open you can franchise: shops, levels, staff and coins reset, but goals, perks and your recipe book stay, and you gain Chef Stars worth 10 percent more income each. Stars also buy eight lasting perks, such as longer offline baking or stronger taps.

A few tips: always upgrade the station marked as the slowest, since coins spent elsewhere in the kitchen are wasted; level the till only when the kitchen can keep up, so tips stay high; and push stations to their next speed-doubling level before spreading coins around. Idle Bakery suits short check-ins and longer sessions alike, on desktop, phones and tablets.

Tap the oven to bake, tap stations to upgrade them and always keep an eye on the slowest link. Hire staff, level up recipes and open new shops as the money comes in.

When the fourth shop is open you can sign a franchise. You start again, but you earn Chef Stars that raise all income and buy lasting perks.