Inch by Inch
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
You play a shrinking scientist in a race against time: Can you find all necessary formulas and ingredients to produce the antidote and stop shrinking, before you are too small to operate the life-saving lab equipment?
Processing ingredients takes valuable time – time you should use to search for missing components or rearrange the lab for when you may be too small to reach the machines you need!
Gameplay
Search for the formulas and ingredients you need to produce the three key components of the antidote!
Each formula corresponds to one of the machines in the lab. They produce new ingredients, which may be used in other formulas or are one of the three key ingredients you are looking for.
To win, collect all three key ingredients and place them inside the antidote processor.
When you shrink too small the game is over!
Controls
- W, A, S, D – Move
- Space – Jump
- Shift – Run
- LMB – Use
- RMB – Hold down to pick up items
Credits
- Lucis (https://twitter.com/Lucis_San)
- Marig (https://twitter.com/DareLooks)
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Putting You in Control (of Controls)May 21, 2018
- New Look, Sounds and Sandbox Mode!Apr 21, 2018
- Bugfixes, small improvementsMar 23, 2018
- New: Height Score!Mar 18, 2018
- New, better, smaller!Mar 10, 2018
Comments
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This is a very unique twist to me, its sort of like a puzzle game that puts you on a timer, but it just gets more difficult as time goes on, not exactly impossible. I got so close the second try I gave it in my video, had 2 keys done and the third in hand, but after you get so small, you start to slip through things apparently. It's the 3rd game of my 3 indie games video. Very fun game, but you'd think a scientist would know what a coffee pot is, lol.
Don't know if it's a bug, but I'm pretty sure the game is cheating me by just not spawning one of the ingredients I need to complete the game. I played like 5 times, only completed 1, the rest of the time one of the ingredients just didn't exist. One time I'm pretty sure it spawned an ingredient in a cabinet later into the round, I'd already checked everything over like 5 times and then suddenly it was there, but too late for me to win.
Also, even when it works, sometimes the RNG will just give you a bunch of formulas only using like 2 of the machines so the game just becomes a bunch of waiting and you have no way to improve your score. It's a cool concept but maybe needs more machine options and some safeguards against RNG that wrecks any chance to get a good score. If you had more machines and a bigger lab you could also have extra ingredients you don't need and decoy formulas that take you in the wrong direction, that would contribute some much needed gameplay variety.
There's always all the ingredients you need--however, there are some hiding spots that are very easy to overlook: Always make sure to check the shelves and inside the locker
But yeah, you can definitely get unlucky with the RNG and how it assigns the machines!
I was checking inside the cabinets and locker first thing on every run. I did later find a bottle hiding behind a box on the shelf so maybe I'd been consistently missing them there? I'm still unsure about the late spawn though, I swear I checked every container multiple times and then suddenly there it was, in a cabinet
super fun game but for some reason when I completed the formula the game stopped. I could still move and walk around and I stopped shrinking but never got the "You Win" screen and the "I've stopped shrinking... How do I get bigger?" text never popped up
Great game! Will review on my TikTok account in the coming days. You really made me sweat 😅
crashes on startup on Linux. XIO: fatal IO error 2 (No such file or directory) on X server ":1"
I think I've seen this on YouTube like a while ago
A great problem for a game. I did notice you need to add an end and victory screen at the end, however, Racing against the clock and stressing over if I had grabbed everything that may be out of reach in a few seconds had me on edge.
This was so good, I was extremely close to not being able to make it on scientist difficulty
It's a really good game, short history but very funny and relaxing
It was a pretty great experience. One thing; I placed a box in front of the seat under the table, when opening the cabinet in front of it, the box got stuck under the table and I wasn't able to move neither the box neither the chair
I wanted to download it (because it was the only option) but it keeps saying (Failed-Virus scan failed) Does anybody know how to fix this?
NERD
i bough this for like 5 bucks on steam a year ago :{ didnt know what itch.io was
Sorry for the confusion!
The Steam version is $3 – and while the itch.io version is Pay What You Want, you do get achievements with Steam!
since I bought it so long ago I had forgotten the price, however I don't mind having paid for it as it is an amazing game.
one of my favourite games I have played ever
this game is AWESOME but can you add VR or multiplayer?
its really laggy for some reason
Sorry to hear! Have you tried turning off the post fx/processing in the settings?
reduce your graphics settings
I have a potato pc and the game isn't harsh on the CPU
It's a really cool game! Nice idea and graphics, the playability works very well.
WOOW this is awesome. got it on sale or something months ago and I've realized it's waiting for me in the library. The mechanics are really original and funny :D
I really want to play so plz make the game fre
You can download and play the game for free: After pressing "Download Now" you have to click "No thanks, just take me to the downloads" right above the price input field!
I downloaded the mac OS version beacause im from mac OS ad the game dont will open
I've just uploaded a macOS version "2020" - can you download and try that one?
There have been a number of security updates in macOS, too, so you will probably have to manually allow mac to run the app.
Thank you it worked with the 2020 version
Glad to hear!
How do I get in the game do I have to be on PC?
There's versions available for Windows, Linux and macOS.
After clicking "Download Now" you can pay what you want or select the option to get the game for free; afterwards you can download the right version for your operating system!
My mouse in-game goes up without me doing it, it looks up towards the ceiling and I can't control it. Has this happened to someone else?
Sorry to hear that!
I think we've had similar issues like this in the past – do you maybe also have a game controller connected, by any chance? If so, you could try to disconnect it before starting the game and see if the problem still occurs.
Yea I had a controller in, unplugged it and the mouse and restarted. After all was good ^^ GREAT game btw :)))
Ah, sweet! And thank you! :D
I thought this game was so so good. I've been playing it the past two days and had to make a video on it.
Realy????
This was a really cool game!
uhh i know, im late here, but i think it's my videoboard, but the game colors are so, idk, like texture errors? sounds like the game itself, bc i tested in the gaming pc of my friend and same, some solution? or my pc trash and he got an possesed pc?
Oof, I think I saw a similar issue on an old notebook one, which is why also assumed it was a problem with the graphics card, or some such... But that doesn't explain why you had issues on the other PC, as well.
Have you tried turning of "Post FX" in the graphics setting? Those sometimes cause problems, but otherwise I'd have to look further into it!
oh sorry, it was my graphics card, thx anyway, but in the other pc, it was the post FX, very cool game bro!
Really interesting game!
puss
WOOOOOOOOW, its a good game. and funny to play!!!!!!!
Thank You!!!
Inch by Inch not running on Linux if you use wine
Sorry to hear! What distro do you use?
originally Wine and PopOs but i fixed it by using itch
have you tried beer?
Nice pun
This game is great! I saw my fav youtuber DanTDM play this game so I wanted to try it out and I am started to liking it. Keep up the good work!
Great game! Have you considered making it vr compatible? I think it would work great with roomscale and a teleportation mechanic that changes effectiveness relative to you size...
Glad you like it! :)
And we definitely have considered it! At the moment there are no concrete plans to port it to VR, however; mostly because we curently lack the necessary equipment and making it VR compatible would require large rewrites of the entire game, unfortunately - but we'll definitely keep it in mind!
amazing game
Are you now making it into a full game with Size Matters or did someone steal your idea?
Hi, there! Size Matters is a separate game that has taken a lot of inspiration from Inch by Inch; here's a thread about the situation, over at: Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/992120/discussions/0/1741103267312288922/
Couple Suggestions:
1) Maybe have a couple of maps to choose from. It would be nice to change up the room.
2) Maybe have a list of names for the potions that players can change so they can have their own potion names. Ex: Vividiom (not the best namer)
3) It almost seems kind of sad being in the room because it is so grey. Maybe liven up the room a bit.