Area Denial
Vibe Idler
Run a vibe coding consultancy. Hire AI agents. Ship contracts. Buy faster machines. See how far it goes.
Support
The fastest way to get help is email: support@areadenial.games. Include your operating system, the game version (visible in the window title), and a description of what happened.
For urgent crashes, attach the crash log if one was written. See locations below.
Common issues
- The game won't launch.
- Confirm Steam is running and online. The Steamworks SDK initializes at startup; if Steam isn't reachable the game falls back to offline mode. On Windows, install the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable. On Linux, the game runs inside the Steam Linux Runtime 3.0 (Sniper) by default — no extra steps required.
- My save didn't carry over to another machine.
- Steam Cloud sync requires that Steam was online both when you quit on the first machine and when you launched on the second. Open Steam → Friends & Chat → Settings → Downloads → verify “Enable Steam Cloud” is on. Local saves remain on each machine as a fallback.
- Text is too small / too large.
- Resize the window — the terminal grid reflows automatically. Press F11 or Alt+Enter to toggle borderless fullscreen.
- Audio is missing or distorted.
- The game ships with optional ambient and radio audio that require the matching shop perks to be unlocked. If audio is still silent after unlocking, restart the game with another audio app closed to avoid output-device conflicts.
- Crash on launch.
- Check the crash log path below and email it to support. Include your GPU model and OS version. Most launch crashes are GPU driver issues — update your graphics driver first.
File locations
Save game
- Windows:
%APPDATA%\vibe-idler\save.json - macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/vibe-idler/save.json - Linux:
~/.local/share/vibe-idler/save.json
Crash log
- Windows:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\vibe-idler\crash.log - macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/vibe-idler/crash.log - Linux:
~/.local/share/vibe-idler/crash.log
System requirements
| Platform | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Windows 10 64-bit, 1 GB RAM, DX11/Vulkan-capable GPU | Windows 11 64-bit, 2 GB RAM |
| macOS | macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple Silicon or Intel, 1 GB RAM, Metal GPU | macOS 13 Ventura, Apple Silicon, 4 GB RAM |
| Linux | Ubuntu 22.04 / SteamOS 3, 1 GB RAM, Vulkan 1.2 GPU | Ubuntu 24.04, 4 GB RAM |
500 MB available disk on all platforms. Verified on Steam Deck.
Privacy
Vibe Idler does not collect, transmit, or store personal data of any kind on Area Denial servers. The game runs entirely on your machine.
When launched through Steam, the game uses the Steamworks SDK to enable Steam achievements, Steam Cloud save synchronization, the Steam overlay, and rich-presence updates visible to your Steam friends. All of those features are handled by the Steam client and are covered by Valve's privacy policy. Area Denial does not have access to your Steam account or any data Steam stores on your behalf.
Save files live only on your local disk and (optionally) Steam Cloud. Crash logs stay on your local disk and are only shared if you choose to email them to support.