So the first thing you need to know is that there are at least four separate forks of the game called Idle Loops:

• Stop_Sign's version, often called simply "Idle Loops", which is the original and was abandoned at version 0.77.
• Omsi6's version, which modestly extended the original and added QOL improvements, made after Stop_Sign stopped development. This is the one the original dev recommends that people play. I don't think it has an incrementaldb entry. Final version is 0.94.
• lloyd-delacroix's version, which picked up from where omsi left off, adding a final zone and a reachable ending. This is the one you're looking at now and the only complete version of the game. Final version is 3.0.
• mopatissier's version, which is a complete rework introducing a new companion mechanic, and is sometimes called "Squirrel Loops" or "Idle Loops: Squirrel Edition". Development of the playable web version was abandoned around zone 4, and as of 2025 the game is being fully refactored with a different engine, to be re-released at some future date. Playable version is 0.3.9.

All four have a robust core and plenty of content. That said, there's little functional difference between the first three versions, except for how far they go, and I would advise playing Lloyd's since you can play the same game start to finish without worrying about importing saves back and forth.

And despite the daunting interface, this is WELL worth playing. It inspired an entire sub-genre of "move list" incremental time loopers -- Loop Hero, Stuck In Time, Cavernous, wrtsc, etc. There's a long, unfolding, continuous sense of progression as you gradually unlock more actions and areas via longer and more efficient runs; every single playthrough is a micro-prestige which gets you little micro-bonuses, automation persists fully between runs (along with a list of saved movelists you can hotswap between when you are trying to progress in different ways), and the game is remarkably friendly to queueing it up for idle progression and then checking back in when you've pushed enough for new content to unlock.

It's on my shortlist of top-tier classics and this version is the definitive one. Take some time to wrap your head around the interface and enjoy the grandfather of move-list loopers. After you've finished this, if you're hungry for more, check the squirrel version out.