7 ms·
I'm really surprised to see this from a company that makes, of all possible genres, clicker games. Clicker games usually have almost no actual gameplay, and pr
by Deimorz 9y ago
I'm really surprised to see this from a company that makes, of all possible genres, clicker games.
Clicker games usually have almost no actual gameplay, and pretty much only interest people because they exploit many of the same type of psychological tricks that free-to-play games use to keep players hooked. They're a great demonstration of how the illusion of progressing at something is all you need to keep people interested, even when the only thing they're progressing towards is... the opportunity for more progression.
I honestly don't think that charging people up front will work, especially not at a $30 price point. Microtransactions work for this game style because you can take advantage of all the time people feel like they've "invested" into the game. Once they've spent hundreds of hours progressing, it's not difficult for some people to justify spending money here and there to make things a bit faster. I don't think many people will feel the same way when they're asked to pay $30 before they can even start getting addicted.
- rangibaby 9y ago> They're a great demonstration of how the illusion of progressing at something is all you need to keep people interested, even when the only thing they're progressing towards is... the opportunity for more progression. If anyone wants to try this type of "game" give cookie clicker a try.
- rplnt 9y agoOne more with the niche of this forum, and one that doesn't take that much time (depending on your take on the task), is Paperclips http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/
- Jare 9y agoTo close the circle, this was recently released as a paid game ($1.99 or $2.99 not sure) on mobile. This game works so well (within its scope) because of its ability to surprise you with the crazy narrative and convoluted mechanisms it brings in as you progress.
- alexmorenodev 9y agoI love how paperclips is extremely addicting, but short. These games can eat up all your free time for months easily. Paperclips takes one day or two.
- dEnigma 9y agoSpaceplan (http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/ http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/) also ends after a while and was very entertaining for a clicker game. Apparently they have paid versions now too, which I haven't tried.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoI paid for the mobile version, and it was easily worth it.
- dEnigma 9y agoSo it is a significant upgrade compared to the free prototype?
- pavel_lishin 9y agoI don't know; I didn't play the free prototype, but I definitely felt like my money was well spent on the Android app.
- vanderZwan 9y agoWhat is interesting about both Cookie Clicker and Paperclips is that their stories (yes, they have one, although perhaps it falls somewhere between "theme" and "story") are implicit critiques about clicker games themselves. Especially paperclips is on the nose, since the famous "paperclip maximizer" thought experiment fits the game mechanics so well[0]. Games have the ability to let you have a kind of "lived" experience of something. Sure, a good book makes you live the story through the eyes of the protagonist, but adding the act of making choices within a game framework on top of that changes this fundamentally. This more than anything else is what defines games as a medium. Clicker games are in a way very interesting deconstructions of what it means to be a game. Cookie Clicker started out as a joke making fun of other game mechanics[1]. Which shouldn't be surprising, since some of the best jokes are deconstructions. [0] https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/ai.html https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/ai.html [1] https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/gaming/cookie-clicker-julien-thiennot-incremental-games/ https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/gaming/cookie-clicker-julien...
- pavel_lishin 9y agoI haven't played in awhile, but I believe you can actually get stuck in this one - it's possible to run out of resources and be unable to progress further.
- dspillett 9y agoOr the earlier Cow Clicker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Clicker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Clicker
- lloeki 9y agohttps://clickclickclick.click/ https://clickclickclick.click/
- JoshTriplett 9y ago> If anyone wants to try this type of "game" give cookie clicker a try. Cookie Clicker is fun and entertaining, but I'd recommend playing it (and all other "incremental"/"clicker" games) with the JavaScript console open. Enjoy the story, flavor, and twists, without the wasted time and idleness. Also try Spaceplan.
- alexmorenodev 9y agoDon't try kittens game. Please.
- sebtoast 9y agoKittens is one of the best clicker games there is along with space lich omega and a dark room I think. For those interested in these types of games I would recommend subbreddit https://reddit.com/r/incremental_games https://reddit.com/r/incremental_games
- tempay 9y agoThere is also https://cern.ch/particle-clicker https://cern.ch/particle-clicker if you want to play one with an educational element.
- noncoml 9y ago> They're a great demonstration of how the illusion of progressing at something is all you need to keep people interested, even when the only thing they're progressing towards is... the opportunity for more progression First time I heard about clicker heroes game was 2 hours ago, reading your reply. Guess why it took me 2 house to reply? That’s right, I’ve been clicking and clicking. It’s crazy how something so pointless can be so addictive. I have to agree with you. I would definitely not pay $30 up front to play it, but once you get hooked, I can see how easy is for people to start pouring money into it.
- chii 9y ago> pay $30 up front to play it i'd rather pay upfront than be nickeled and dimed afterwards. Esp. if the production quality of the game is up to scratch (e.g., no unrecoverable bugs, good looking graphics/sound, and intuitive UI etc).
- arkades 9y agoBut there's no gameplay! Sorry, I mean to say: there's no inherent evolution of plot or mechanics. It's a game that's literally defined by "numbers increasing on the side of the screen, and microtransactions to make those numbers go up quicker." What would that look like without the microtransactions? while True: i++ print i Done.
- chii 9y agohow does tetris work then? You press button in response to what's on the screen. The clicker does have _some_ choices you have to make - it's just an easy choice most of the time.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoI think the difference is more that there are no _penalties_ in clickers, and usually no way to _lose_.
- 9y ago
- Retric 9y agoClicker heroes does take actual strategy to progress as you need to do cost benefit trade offs in how you spend resources. Gold, then hero souls, then log(hero souls sacrificed). Add to that when you reset the world, and how you reset it to gain hero souls or sacrificed hero souls. That said, whenever optimal play is found using a spreadsheet it's not really interactive gameplay.
- vanderZwan 9y agoSounds like clicker games could be turned into motivation to pay attention in high school economy class
- gfosco 9y agoThis is a really interesting attempt, and it might work because of how well-known the game is already. I got this game (on iOS) about 2 years ago, and enjoyed the progression, and found myself continuing to work on it in 30 second chunks a few times a day. Weeks, months, now years later, I still keep the game on my first home screen and at least once a day continue the progress. I decided to grab some rubies, mostly to support the developers, spent maybe $25 over 2 years, and felt like I got the best of the deal. Balance is tough, it's been a long time since I've had any desire to buy more rubies. I pre-ordered after reading this article, happy to support their hard work.
- scrooched_moose 9y agoI was seriously surprised this has become a "real" game. I played Cookie Clicker for a couple weeks (and a bit of Clicker Heroes) and always thought they were a parody of the infinite treadmill modern gaming is turning into. At least for me, they made the math behind the grind so blatantly obvious I've lost interest in any game that uses this mechanic for real. I wasn't aware there were people so into these games they'd drop real money on them, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around gacha games being so profitable.
- Noos 9y agoThe entire genre started with Cow Clicker by Ian Bogost, which was a parody of Facebook games at the time and their lack of interactivity. The problem was though that the parody worked as an actual game for many people, and became the thing it criticized while spawning an entire genre of idle games like it. Tv Tropes had an entry that is called something different now, but i knew it as "Truffault was right." It's point was that you can't make a movie about the evils of war without inadvertently throwing in enough cool stuff (handsome actors, big explosions, lots of drama) that you end up glorifying it by mistake. That's what happened to Bogost...for all his commentary he just strengthened the whole social game mechanic by distilling it to its ideal form.
- WorldMaker 9y agoBefore Cow Clicker there was also Progress Quest [1], which was a similar attempt at deconstructed satire (of fetch quests that were not much more than progress bars), but just as much also paved the way for games/game systems that aren't satire using the same distilled mechanics. (Several MMOs come to mind that have "progress quest" systems to keep players checking in every few hours/days.) [1] http://progressquest.com/ http://progressquest.com/
- vanderZwan 9y agoAccording to Wikipedia, Cow Clicker was first released in July 2010[0]. That would mean that the SMBC Theater's sketch "MMO" precedes it by a few months[1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Clicker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Clicker [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD69PAIqiYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD69PAIqiYo