About Merge Workshop
A merge board with an idle town economy. Drag a building onto an identical one and they become the next building up, fourteen steps from Cottage to House, Bakery, Supermarket, Skyscraper and finally Stadium. Every building on the board earns coins every second, delivery vehicles drop new ones, and orders pay extra for the buildings they ask for. Spend coins on upgrades that multiply everything, collect earnings while you are away, and restructure for permanent bonuses once the town has grown. There is no losing, only a bigger town.
How to play
- Drag a building onto an identical building. The two become one building of the next level up.
- Every building on the board earns coins every second, and higher buildings earn much more, so merging pays even though it leaves fewer pieces.
- Delivery vehicles drop new buildings onto the 42-cell board. Orders ask for particular buildings and pay coins when you deliver them.
- Spend coins on upgrades that multiply your income. There is no way to lose: the town only grows.
Tips
- Read the payback time. Each upgrade shows how many seconds it takes to pay for itself. Buy the one that pays back fastest first.
- Keep a free cell. A full board stops new drops landing. Merge or deliver before the last cell fills.
- Night Shift pays while you are away. Time away is paid on the same clock as play, up to two hours at first. The Night Shift upgrade raises that limit up to a day.
- Restructure when it is worth it. Restructuring resets the town for permanent bonus points based on everything you have ever earned, so there is nothing to gain by doing it too early.
Read the full Merge Workshop guide (4 min read)
From the developer
Merge Workshop started on 10 September as a merge and idle tycoon: a 7 by 6 board, fourteen tiers of items, workbenches that produce on a timer, standing orders, upgrades and a prestige reset. It is built in a 3D engine and compiled to WebGL for this site.
An idle economy runs into very large numbers, so money is stored as a mantissa and a power of ten throughout; an ordinary number silently breaks past certain sizes. Offline earnings go through the same step the running game uses, and the tests check that an hour away pays exactly what an hour of play paid. A simulator plays thirty days under five strategies to check the growth curve neither flattens nor runs away. Those checks found a real bug: a gain of exactly one prestige point was rounded to just under one and refused.
For this site I gave it a town. The 14-step ladder runs Cottage, House, Townhouse, Coffee Shop, Bakery, Pizzeria, Diner, Boutique, Supermarket, Apartments, Factory, Tower, Skyscraper and Stadium, from SimplePoly City by VenCreations, with its vehicles as the workbenches. I picked that pack because it has a ladder of fourteen things that each read as bigger. The panels and buttons are from Hyper Casual UI Pack by Smashy Tech.
Son Hoang, who made Merge Workshop
Update history
- A town to build: merge 14 buildings from Cottage to Stadium, with delivery vehicles as the workbenches and a picture of the wanted building on every order card.
- On an upright phone the board turns a quarter turn to fill the width, and you drag to merge with your finger.
- First version: a 7 by 6 merge board with workbenches that produce on a timer, offline earnings, upgrades, standing orders and a prestige reset.
Questions
Can you lose in Merge Workshop?
No. There is no lose state. The only question is how fast your town grows.
Does it keep playing when I close the tab?
Your earnings keep counting while you are away, up to two hours at first and up to a day with the Night Shift upgrade. They are paid when you come back.
Can I play Merge Workshop on a phone?
Yes. Drag buildings with your finger. On an upright phone the board fills the width and orders and upgrades sit in tabs below it.
How big is the download?
About 14 MB the first time. The browser keeps it for later visits.
