In “Skies Above,” the main character is an airship captain trying to secure supplies and upgrades for the ship by playing a series of minigames.

Gameplay: Despite those minigames, gameplay more closely resembles that of “Cookie Clicker” or “Paperclips.” Resources are freely available in small quantities. As the number of resources needed to open up new areas increases exponentially, the player can buy upgrades to gather resources more effectively. The game is ultimately about resource- or time-management, with the goal being to reach and complete the final level as quickly as possible. There are also achievements for various actions or strategies that can be viewed post-game, along with other statistics. 8/10.

Mechanics: The minigames themselves are simple. Most involve pushing a certain key based on prompts; the most complicated one is just looking up a particular bit of information in a block of text. The more interesting part of the game is navigating the upgrade tree to get better results from those minigames. One minigame, for example, involves operating a pump to produce a valuable resource; if the protagonist works out in a gym long enough and thus becomes strong, the pump minigame generates more resources. The game is well-paced, and the minigames and upgrades start to get tedious just as it’s almost over. 8/10.

Presentation: Although the idea for the game is fundamentally a simple one, the author has put significant effort into embellishing the game with small details. Most significantly, there are numerous sidequests and optional upgrades to alleviate the repetitiveness of the main game. The NPCs in the game are two-dimensional, since the focus of the game is its mechanics, but they match their setting and are memorable. 8/10.

You might be interested in this game if: You liked “Cookie Clicker,” “Paperclips,” or similar games.

Score: 8