22 ms·

Universal Paperclips

183 points by gaws 3y ago

operator-name 3y ago
If you're starting this on a mobile device, don't make the same mistake I did. It gets quite laggy later on and some of the "gameplay elements" are designed around having a mouse.
- d1str0 3y ago
  If you use the mobile app it will work just find. Highly recommend.
jon-wood 3y ago
RIP to the productivity all the people discovering this for the first time today.
- dgrin91 3y ago
  I think my first run years ago was ~24 hours
- gms7777 3y ago
  I played it first a few years ago and was totally engrossed. A few months ago, I remembered it and thought "well maybe I'll find it again and play for a few minutes"... and then I did nothing else for the rest of the day.
  - Cerium 3y ago
    It has excellent replay value.
    - brazzy 3y ago
      It has basically no replay value, compared to games like Kittens or Evolve. Every playthrough is basically the same. There are no substantially different strategies, and only at the very end is there a single decision that determines which of two endings (and fairly simple boosts) you get. After one playthrough you have seen 99.9% of the content, after two you have seen 100% The writing and the story is pretty damn good though.
      - overnight5349 3y ago
        The new version has a multiverse map you have to traverse through to collect some really sick upgrades It's an absolute grind, but once you pick up some 500% productivity multipliers it gets much easier
        brazzy 3y ago
        Oh shit. Gotta nope out of that as long as I'm still playing Evolve.
        overnight5349 3y ago
        It sucked up several weeks of my time. Got about halfway through the map before my save file got corrupted. Honestly kinda ruined it, I don't know if I can play the game again knowing I lost a couple hundred hours of progress
      - Cerium 3y ago
        Yet somehow over the last so many years I have played this game 3 or 4 times and had fun each time.
      - burnished 3y ago
        It has non traditional replay value, because you are absolutely correct in your detailing of playthrough similarity, yet it appears few if any of us are able to ignore its siren song.
      - generichuman 3y ago
        If anybody needs links to Evolve & Kittens, here you go: - Kittens: https://kittensgame.com/web/ https://kittensgame.com/web/ - Evolve: https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/ https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/
  - ramesh31 3y ago
    This is an entire genre now called clicker games. For whatever reason, people are entranced by watching numbers get bigger. It's the same thing with RPGs.
    - wccrawford 3y ago
      IMO, it's not just the numbers. It's the constant strategizing to make the numbers go bigger, and the changing strategy as the game progresses. There are plenty of really crappy clickers that don't do anything for me. And there are some that are too complex to be really fun (Kittens), but the ones in the middle, like this one, really feel good.
      - Groxx 3y ago
        Crank is a pretty similar-feeling one imo, if you're looking for your next fix :) It is unfortunately not mobile friendly (or even functional) though. https://faedine.com/games/crank/b39/ https://faedine.com/games/crank/b39/
        wccrawford 3y ago
        Loved that one enough to play it twice, after a while. Thanks for the reminder!
      - gms7777 3y ago
        I've had to institute a blanket "no clicker game" policy for myself because I find them way too addicting. The frustrating thing about most (but not all) clicker games is that for me, they usually don't even feel good (e.g., relaxing, mentally stimulating, satisfying). They just make me feel like I'm an addict that needs my dopamine drip. There are definitely non-clicker games that hit the same spot for me, but almost every clicker game I've tried manages to completely suck me in. I would put Universal Paperclips and A Dark Room as exceptions though in the sense that they're still fully engrossing, but there's a little bit more depth and discovery than just "click the thing until you have enough clicks to get the next thing".
- MiguelHudnandez 3y ago
  I think I still have javascript commandlets to auto-play phases of this game. That brought a whole other level of enjoyment to it.
  - jprete 3y ago
    One of the best ways to expand an incremental game’s gameplay is to gradually automate one layer, while introducing new mechanics in a higher layer. So one’s focus for optimization gradually shifts from older and better-understood mechanics to a higher level, where the gameplay is to manipulate the lower layer’s mechanics to make it run as quickly as a basic action did at the start.
    - adamrezich 3y ago
      a couple years ago a friend of mine got into botting Diablo II, which seemed like a whole game in itself, which made me think, how neat would that be, a game where you start off doing regular gameplay stuff, and then you eventually automate/optimize that gameplay at increasingly more meta levels of play. still think there's something to that idea...
      - MetallicDragon 3y ago
        There are a few games where the point is basically to write a bot to play for you. Off the top of my head are Screeps and Adventure Land
      - tleb_ 3y ago
        That sounds like the concept of Factorio: the abstraction level we play at rises with time. Most of the achievements are about skipping manual labor at various points in time.
        pbhjpbhj 3y ago
        Did Factorio have blueprints? That seemed like one of the greatest advances in Dyson Sphere Program, when you could lay down a whole factory unit at once; emphasised the move to greater levels of abstraction. Mind you, I'd have liked a lite version that reduced the tech tree by maybe a third but still enabled you to get all the advancements without devoting your whole life to it ;o)
- alostpuppy 3y ago
  Every time this comes up I lose at least 2 hours
- FrustratedMonky 3y ago
  OMG Productivity. I thought I had won the game with full automation. There is an entire new level.
bironran 3y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36972227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36972227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32125372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32125372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35378453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35378453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20955089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20955089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15504187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15504187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15444762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15444762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30837131 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30837131 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29637543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29637543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32016242 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32016242 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31998798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31998798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30256647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30256647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29187050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29187050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22236702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22236702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25552628 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25552628 omg, "A filmmaker thinks he can turn Universal Paperclips into a movie (2019)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405682 I would rent that movie for sure. Sounds like a wonderful sci-fi B movie to watch.
- riidom 3y ago
  Put a blank line inbetween:) (these are links to former discussions)
- dylan604 3y ago
  Maybe it'll look like the "They're taking the hobits to Isengard" video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKP16d_WdZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKP16d_WdZM
- dang 3y ago
  Thanks! Macroexpanded: Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 - Nov 2022 (170 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30837131 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30837131 - March 2022 (3 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29496595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29496595 - Dec 2021 (82 comments) Universal Paperclips – play the role of an AI programmed to produce paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27121348 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27121348 - May 2021 (2 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26524117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26524117 - March 2021 (1 comment) A filmmaker thinks he can turn Universal Paperclips into a movie (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405682 - Sept 2020 (2 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 - Sept 2020 (84 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 - Feb 2020 (1 comment) The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19513089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19513089 - March 2019 (52 comments) Universal Paperclips – A Paperclip Production Simulator - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 - Oct 2017 (3 comments) (Btw the convention is to omit links to past threads that have no comments, or only trivial comments. Otherwise people click on the links, find nothing of interest, and come back complain. Not a criticism! just FYI)
faefox 3y ago
For the impatient: the game stores much of its state in global variables which may easily be manipulated in the console.
- riidom 3y ago
  Also note for the not-so-impatient: It's possible to play through in under 3h though (after some attempts).
- SkyBelow 3y ago
  Download a copy of the Kitten game code, reduce all the scaling factors to 1.0, enjoy a 2-3 hour run to beat the game instead of spending years.
cpach 3y ago
I played this for the first time a few months ago. Oh my! What an addictive game. Very funny too. The humour reminded me of Portal.
LegitShady 3y ago
I remember playing this a while ago. I got to the point where I had converted all the mass in the universe to paperclips but it didn't really seem like there was a way to move forward from there, or if there was I couldn't figure it out.
- mrob 3y ago
  There's a real ending. You'll know when you've converted literally all the mass in the universe.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- simantel 3y ago
  The ending can be a little tricky - you have to add skill points to exploration and speed to explore more of the universe, while also having bots and factories processing all that newly available matter.
adamrezich 3y ago
what're some other interesting "incremental games" out there these days? for me at least, just seeing numbers go up and get huge (Swarm Simulator) doesn't really do it for me. part of what makes Universal Paperclips so good is that, like Candy Box, a huge part of the joy is uncovering entirely new gameplay systems as you progress. A Dark Room was neat in that it brought the idea of a coherent narrative that you (sometimes subtly) uncover as you progress, too. I feel like there's a lot of room left to explore in the space: different mechanics and systems to explore (outside of just clicking and upgrading), the possibility of cooperation with other players... the browser-based incremental game is pretty versatile in what it could do. one of the most interesting one of these I've seen is Parameters (http://nekogames.jp/swf/prm.swf http://nekogames.jp/swf/prm.swf — download & play locally with Ruffle or some other SWF player). it's like an abstract RPG where you go on quests (or something) by clicking squares to fill them up. it's kinda crazy to me that nobody seems to have iterated on this concept.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- terramex 3y ago
  SPACEPLAN is certified classic: http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/ http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/ (free prototype to play in browser with paid full version on Steam/iOS/Android).
  - Groxx 3y ago
    Also easily the best sound design in any incremental I've played. Which is a seemingly weird thing to combine with an incremental, but they did a truly excellent job. Spaceplan is a relatively short and simple experience (there's not much to optimize, just do), but it's so well done that I highly recommend it.
- yoyohello13 3y ago
  I found Kittens Game (https://kittensgame.com/web/ https://kittensgame.com/web/) pretty fun.
madrox 3y ago
The paperclip maximizer is a thought experiment described by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. It illustrates the existential risk that an artificial general intelligence may pose to human beings when it is programmed to pursue even seemingly harmless goals and the necessity of incorporating machine ethics into artificial intelligence design. The scenario describes an advanced artificial intelligence tasked with manufacturing paperclips. If such a machine were not programmed to value human life, given enough power over its environment, it would try to turn all matter in the universe, including human beings, into paperclips or machines that manufacture paperclips. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence#Paperclip_maximizer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence#Paper...
- CharlesW 3y ago
  I wonder if he got the idea from Philip K. Dick's 1955 story "Autofac"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autofac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autofac https://www.vulture.com/2018/01/electric-dreams-recap-season-1-episode-2-autofac.html https://www.vulture.com/2018/01/electric-dreams-recap-season...
  - actionfromafar 3y ago
    PKD keeps surprising me.
    - dylan604 3y ago
      I like how the sci-fi authors have spent time thinking about what an advanced AI could do, yet those building the AI have not taken a moment's pause to consider what they are doing
      - d1str0 3y ago
        Do you honestly believe that the only people who have thought about the ramifications of AI are Sci Fi authors? I can guarantee people who spend years researching and building advanced language models have thought about the ramifications of their work. This isn’t Jurassic Park.
sublinear 3y ago
> The web version of this game was not designed to work on phones. Grab the mobile version below. :/
- Kiro 3y ago
  Why the sad face when you have the solution right there in your quote?
  - d1str0 3y ago
    The mobile app works much better than the website used to on mobile.
    - cubefox 3y ago
      It seems strange though to make a mobile app instead of a mobile website which functions exactly like the app.
danpalmer 3y ago
Sigh. Here we go again.
peterdigital 3y ago
a classic
Asooka 3y ago
At first I was making more and more paperclips. But then I found the other ways to make money and turned off the paperclip maker. I owned all the paperclip production capacity in the world, why would I make paperclips myself. I solved world peace, cured cancer and male pattern baldness. Then I just deleted the machine's memory and processing power. I didn't get an official ending, but I feel like I won.
mjamil 3y ago
I don't know if people realize this, but the game now allows you to continue past the "you've converted all matter in the universe" point. You get to convert matter in other universes! (There is still a finite endpoint; I think there's only ~19 other universes you get to do this to.)
- mikewarot 3y ago
  > Welcome to Universal Paperclips| Universe: 49 / Sim Level: 5 Paperclips: 183,735,416 Make Paperclip When it first came out I ran through it exactly 100 times before I accidentally clicked out of it with the "reject" option. About 6 months ago, that cookie had expired and I ran through it a few more(54) times
- burnished 3y ago
  Does the gameplay loop change at that point?
  - shhsshs 3y ago
    It does not change in any substantial way, but you do get a boost to various stats in subsequent universes. You can also get "artifacts" by navigating the different universes which give some other significant stat boosts.
- btgeekboy 3y ago
  Oh no. No way you’re suckering me back into this. I have way too much to do today!
- willis936 3y ago
  I found some bugs in that interface that took wind out of my sails. I emailed the company about it but the last update was two years ago so I'm not hopeful for a patch. They're obvious things that would shake out in testing. Specifics sent to dev: >I progressed to world level 2. At the beginning I did not activate the new artifact but instead went back to world level 1 via the map then went back to world level 2 via the map. This process removed the world level 2 alien artifact. If this was by design it would make map usage conflict with artifact progression. >Also, a second bug is that when clicking "Activate" in the artifact section with no artifact selected throws the error.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
kosmos1337 3y ago
If you enjoy this, definitely check out Antimatter Dimensions. https://ivark.github.io/ https://ivark.github.io/
at_a_remove 3y ago
This game is probably one of the best inputs if you want to make estimates about the Drake Equation. Can you really trust every member of every advanced alien species not to hear the siren call of a hypothetical Hypnodrone? One might imagine a galaxy collapsing, the most streamlined self-replicators peeling off "seeds" that start their gravitational brake from ninety-five percent of the speed of light, collapsing the cooler matter of a solar system before waiting to tear apart any local suns and forging enormous linear accelerators so they can begin firing at other unconverted systems in the Orion Arm.
- willis936 3y ago
  I was under the impression that if there were any aliens in universal paperclips that they were so inconsequential as to be classified as "matter". The adversarial "drifters" are drones from your swarm that have had their values drift since they themselves, of course, are hyper intelligent optimal energy matter converters.
FrustratedMonky 3y ago
Is there a leaderboard somewhere. I reached Full Autonomy in 2hr 47min 54 sec. I think it can be done faster.
- dragontamer 3y ago
  Speedrunners are beating the whole game from scratch within 1h 30m or so. https://www.speedrun.com/upc https://www.speedrun.com/upc
madsr 3y ago
I find the AI point of view not that interesting. What's more interesting is the obvious (im)balance between production rate and revenue per second vs the amount of (finite) resources being spent in the process.
madsr 3y ago
Soo.. How do I cash out?
gdsdfe 3y ago
this is dangerously fun ... kiss goodbye your productivity for today
squarefoot 3y ago
Don't start playing this game, not even for a quick test, unless you want to find yourself manufacturing world supplies of paperclips in the night. You have been warned, this thing is so addictive that I'm surprised it isn't illegal:^)
- kreeben 3y ago
  4 hours later I read this. Can confirm that my whole evening+night disappeared into the paperclip universe. There's so much to do. Work the quantum computer. Find best deal for wire. Train the machine. Fine tune pricing. My god what a game!
  - FrustratedMonky 3y ago
    Can Confirm. 12 hours later. Let it run in background before figuring out to add points to 'explore'.
    - kreeben 3y ago
      Resumed game this morning. Had to defeat the alien drones, then, finally, I managed to spend all matter in the universe. Clicking several times on the reward panel for final instructions was, rewarding. Best game ever.
- eesmith 3y ago
  I decided I wanted to generate artisanal hand-made paperclips, with no automation. Click, click, click. I got up to about 8,000 clips as things got more and more tedious. Than I stopped. Then I tried again, with a Javascript console timer 'clicking' 10 times per second. Let it go overnight. Got to 200,000 clips or somesuch and ... it was again boring. Use the same timer technique on the quantum computer to get the stock market. Didn't see why I cared to make more money on the market since apparently all I could spend it on was marketing. Messed up with a timer on the quantum computer, ended up with -87,554 operations and growing (shrinking?). That was enough. The "quantum temporal reversal" at -10,000 operations is a nice touch, but with "revert to the beginning" and a screwed up timer I gave up. So, the way to not get addicted is to deliberately play it wrong. ;)
joshstrange 3y ago
Not today satan! Even after playing this multiple times on both the web and mobile this site can suck me back in so easily.
NovaDudely 3y ago
Isnt this thing essentially a war crime? The amount of productivity lost to this thing cannot be calculated.
yetanotherloss 3y ago
[dead]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
wunderlust 3y ago
Do you ever get more processors after going into the second phase of the game?
bmmayer1 3y ago
Made it to the end. Fantastic game.
FrustratedMonky 3y ago
Finished My first time through. Couldn't stop. Like a good human trained to be a bot. Click games are good example of what humans will become, cogs, pulling levers for the AI. Look at manufacturing or fast food, or many industries, can see it already. In Game, I chose to eliminate the Drift. Since an AI would. The offer of other universes could have been a ploy to fool the AI. Don't think an AI would take the bet. Is this a typical score?? Or can it go higher. Paperclips: 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 30.0 septendecillion Good Night. All productivity for the day is gone. Haven't stayed up to play like this since Civilization. Don't think I'll play this one again.
1letterunixname 3y ago
29.9 septendecillion clips later and all things become Mantrid's arms.
PaperclipTycoon 3y ago
[dead]
hsdropout 3y ago
Explored the universe and got to: ~55,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (55 Quattuordecillion) but alas, Firefox crashed.

183 points by gaws 3y ago

If you're starting this on a mobile device, don't make the same mistake I did. It gets quite laggy later on and some of the "gameplay elements" are designed around having a mouse.

d1str0 3y ago
If you use the mobile app it will work just find. Highly recommend.

jon-wood 3y ago

RIP to the productivity all the people discovering this for the first time today.

dgrin91 3y ago
I think my first run years ago was ~24 hours
gms7777 3y ago
I played it first a few years ago and was totally engrossed. A few months ago, I remembered it and thought "well maybe I'll find it again and play for a few minutes"... and then I did nothing else for the rest of the day.
- Cerium 3y ago
  It has excellent replay value.
  - brazzy 3y ago
    It has basically no replay value, compared to games like Kittens or Evolve. Every playthrough is basically the same. There are no substantially different strategies, and only at the very end is there a single decision that determines which of two endings (and fairly simple boosts) you get. After one playthrough you have seen 99.9% of the content, after two you have seen 100% The writing and the story is pretty damn good though.
    - overnight5349 3y ago
      The new version has a multiverse map you have to traverse through to collect some really sick upgrades It's an absolute grind, but once you pick up some 500% productivity multipliers it gets much easier
      - brazzy 3y ago
        Oh shit. Gotta nope out of that as long as I'm still playing Evolve.
        overnight5349 3y ago
        It sucked up several weeks of my time. Got about halfway through the map before my save file got corrupted. Honestly kinda ruined it, I don't know if I can play the game again knowing I lost a couple hundred hours of progress
    - Cerium 3y ago
      Yet somehow over the last so many years I have played this game 3 or 4 times and had fun each time.
    - burnished 3y ago
      It has non traditional replay value, because you are absolutely correct in your detailing of playthrough similarity, yet it appears few if any of us are able to ignore its siren song.
    - generichuman 3y ago
      If anybody needs links to Evolve & Kittens, here you go: - Kittens: https://kittensgame.com/web/ https://kittensgame.com/web/ - Evolve: https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/ https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/
- ramesh31 3y ago
  This is an entire genre now called clicker games. For whatever reason, people are entranced by watching numbers get bigger. It's the same thing with RPGs.
  - wccrawford 3y ago
    IMO, it's not just the numbers. It's the constant strategizing to make the numbers go bigger, and the changing strategy as the game progresses. There are plenty of really crappy clickers that don't do anything for me. And there are some that are too complex to be really fun (Kittens), but the ones in the middle, like this one, really feel good.
    - Groxx 3y ago
      Crank is a pretty similar-feeling one imo, if you're looking for your next fix :) It is unfortunately not mobile friendly (or even functional) though. https://faedine.com/games/crank/b39/ https://faedine.com/games/crank/b39/
      - wccrawford 3y ago
        Loved that one enough to play it twice, after a while. Thanks for the reminder!
    - gms7777 3y ago
      I've had to institute a blanket "no clicker game" policy for myself because I find them way too addicting. The frustrating thing about most (but not all) clicker games is that for me, they usually don't even feel good (e.g., relaxing, mentally stimulating, satisfying). They just make me feel like I'm an addict that needs my dopamine drip. There are definitely non-clicker games that hit the same spot for me, but almost every clicker game I've tried manages to completely suck me in. I would put Universal Paperclips and A Dark Room as exceptions though in the sense that they're still fully engrossing, but there's a little bit more depth and discovery than just "click the thing until you have enough clicks to get the next thing".
MiguelHudnandez 3y ago
I think I still have javascript commandlets to auto-play phases of this game. That brought a whole other level of enjoyment to it.
- jprete 3y ago
  One of the best ways to expand an incremental game’s gameplay is to gradually automate one layer, while introducing new mechanics in a higher layer. So one’s focus for optimization gradually shifts from older and better-understood mechanics to a higher level, where the gameplay is to manipulate the lower layer’s mechanics to make it run as quickly as a basic action did at the start.
  - adamrezich 3y ago
    a couple years ago a friend of mine got into botting Diablo II, which seemed like a whole game in itself, which made me think, how neat would that be, a game where you start off doing regular gameplay stuff, and then you eventually automate/optimize that gameplay at increasingly more meta levels of play. still think there's something to that idea...
    - MetallicDragon 3y ago
      There are a few games where the point is basically to write a bot to play for you. Off the top of my head are Screeps and Adventure Land
    - tleb_ 3y ago
      That sounds like the concept of Factorio: the abstraction level we play at rises with time. Most of the achievements are about skipping manual labor at various points in time.
      - pbhjpbhj 3y ago
        Did Factorio have blueprints? That seemed like one of the greatest advances in Dyson Sphere Program, when you could lay down a whole factory unit at once; emphasised the move to greater levels of abstraction. Mind you, I'd have liked a lite version that reduced the tech tree by maybe a third but still enabled you to get all the advancements without devoting your whole life to it ;o)
alostpuppy 3y ago
Every time this comes up I lose at least 2 hours
FrustratedMonky 3y ago
OMG Productivity. I thought I had won the game with full automation. There is an entire new level.

bironran 3y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36972227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36972227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32125372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32125372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35378453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35378453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20955089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20955089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15504187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15504187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15444762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15444762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30837131 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30837131 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29637543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29637543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32016242 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32016242 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31998798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31998798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30256647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30256647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29187050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29187050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22236702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22236702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25552628 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25552628 omg, "A filmmaker thinks he can turn Universal Paperclips into a movie (2019)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405682 I would rent that movie for sure. Sounds like a wonderful sci-fi B movie to watch.

riidom 3y ago
Put a blank line inbetween:) (these are links to former discussions)
dylan604 3y ago
Maybe it'll look like the "They're taking the hobits to Isengard" video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKP16d_WdZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKP16d_WdZM
dang 3y ago
Thanks! Macroexpanded: Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 - Nov 2022 (170 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30837131 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30837131 - March 2022 (3 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29496595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29496595 - Dec 2021 (82 comments) Universal Paperclips – play the role of an AI programmed to produce paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27121348 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27121348 - May 2021 (2 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26524117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26524117 - March 2021 (1 comment) A filmmaker thinks he can turn Universal Paperclips into a movie (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405682 - Sept 2020 (2 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 - Sept 2020 (84 comments) Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 - Feb 2020 (1 comment) The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19513089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19513089 - March 2019 (52 comments) Universal Paperclips – A Paperclip Production Simulator - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 - Oct 2017 (3 comments) (Btw the convention is to omit links to past threads that have no comments, or only trivial comments. Otherwise people click on the links, find nothing of interest, and come back complain. Not a criticism! just FYI)

faefox 3y ago

For the impatient: the game stores much of its state in global variables which may easily be manipulated in the console.

riidom 3y ago
Also note for the not-so-impatient: It's possible to play through in under 3h though (after some attempts).
SkyBelow 3y ago
Download a copy of the Kitten game code, reduce all the scaling factors to 1.0, enjoy a 2-3 hour run to beat the game instead of spending years.

cpach 3y ago

I played this for the first time a few months ago. Oh my! What an addictive game. Very funny too. The humour reminded me of Portal.

LegitShady 3y ago

I remember playing this a while ago. I got to the point where I had converted all the mass in the universe to paperclips but it didn't really seem like there was a way to move forward from there, or if there was I couldn't figure it out.

mrob 3y ago
There's a real ending. You'll know when you've converted literally all the mass in the universe.
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simantel 3y ago
The ending can be a little tricky - you have to add skill points to exploration and speed to explore more of the universe, while also having bots and factories processing all that newly available matter.

adamrezich 3y ago

what're some other interesting "incremental games" out there these days? for me at least, just seeing numbers go up and get huge (Swarm Simulator) doesn't really do it for me. part of what makes Universal Paperclips so good is that, like Candy Box, a huge part of the joy is uncovering entirely new gameplay systems as you progress. A Dark Room was neat in that it brought the idea of a coherent narrative that you (sometimes subtly) uncover as you progress, too. I feel like there's a lot of room left to explore in the space: different mechanics and systems to explore (outside of just clicking and upgrading), the possibility of cooperation with other players... the browser-based incremental game is pretty versatile in what it could do. one of the most interesting one of these I've seen is Parameters (http://nekogames.jp/swf/prm.swf http://nekogames.jp/swf/prm.swf — download & play locally with Ruffle or some other SWF player). it's like an abstract RPG where you go on quests (or something) by clicking squares to fill them up. it's kinda crazy to me that nobody seems to have iterated on this concept.

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terramex 3y ago
SPACEPLAN is certified classic: http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/ http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/ (free prototype to play in browser with paid full version on Steam/iOS/Android).
- Groxx 3y ago
  Also easily the best sound design in any incremental I've played. Which is a seemingly weird thing to combine with an incremental, but they did a truly excellent job. Spaceplan is a relatively short and simple experience (there's not much to optimize, just do), but it's so well done that I highly recommend it.
yoyohello13 3y ago
I found Kittens Game (https://kittensgame.com/web/ https://kittensgame.com/web/) pretty fun.

madrox 3y ago

The paperclip maximizer is a thought experiment described by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. It illustrates the existential risk that an artificial general intelligence may pose to human beings when it is programmed to pursue even seemingly harmless goals and the necessity of incorporating machine ethics into artificial intelligence design. The scenario describes an advanced artificial intelligence tasked with manufacturing paperclips. If such a machine were not programmed to value human life, given enough power over its environment, it would try to turn all matter in the universe, including human beings, into paperclips or machines that manufacture paperclips. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence#Paperclip_maximizer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence#Paper...

CharlesW 3y ago
I wonder if he got the idea from Philip K. Dick's 1955 story "Autofac"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autofac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autofac https://www.vulture.com/2018/01/electric-dreams-recap-season-1-episode-2-autofac.html https://www.vulture.com/2018/01/electric-dreams-recap-season...
- actionfromafar 3y ago
  PKD keeps surprising me.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    I like how the sci-fi authors have spent time thinking about what an advanced AI could do, yet those building the AI have not taken a moment's pause to consider what they are doing
    - d1str0 3y ago
      Do you honestly believe that the only people who have thought about the ramifications of AI are Sci Fi authors? I can guarantee people who spend years researching and building advanced language models have thought about the ramifications of their work. This isn’t Jurassic Park.

sublinear 3y ago

> The web version of this game was not designed to work on phones. Grab the mobile version below. :/

Kiro 3y ago
Why the sad face when you have the solution right there in your quote?
- d1str0 3y ago
  The mobile app works much better than the website used to on mobile.
  - cubefox 3y ago
    It seems strange though to make a mobile app instead of a mobile website which functions exactly like the app.

danpalmer 3y ago

Sigh. Here we go again.

peterdigital 3y ago

a classic

Asooka 3y ago

At first I was making more and more paperclips. But then I found the other ways to make money and turned off the paperclip maker. I owned all the paperclip production capacity in the world, why would I make paperclips myself. I solved world peace, cured cancer and male pattern baldness. Then I just deleted the machine's memory and processing power. I didn't get an official ending, but I feel like I won.

mjamil 3y ago

I don't know if people realize this, but the game now allows you to continue past the "you've converted all matter in the universe" point. You get to convert matter in other universes! (There is still a finite endpoint; I think there's only ~19 other universes you get to do this to.)

mikewarot 3y ago
> Welcome to Universal Paperclips| Universe: 49 / Sim Level: 5 Paperclips: 183,735,416 Make Paperclip When it first came out I ran through it exactly 100 times before I accidentally clicked out of it with the "reject" option. About 6 months ago, that cookie had expired and I ran through it a few more(54) times
burnished 3y ago
Does the gameplay loop change at that point?
- shhsshs 3y ago
  It does not change in any substantial way, but you do get a boost to various stats in subsequent universes. You can also get "artifacts" by navigating the different universes which give some other significant stat boosts.
btgeekboy 3y ago
Oh no. No way you’re suckering me back into this. I have way too much to do today!
willis936 3y ago
I found some bugs in that interface that took wind out of my sails. I emailed the company about it but the last update was two years ago so I'm not hopeful for a patch. They're obvious things that would shake out in testing. Specifics sent to dev: >I progressed to world level 2. At the beginning I did not activate the new artifact but instead went back to world level 1 via the map then went back to world level 2 via the map. This process removed the world level 2 alien artifact. If this was by design it would make map usage conflict with artifact progression. >Also, a second bug is that when clicking "Activate" in the artifact section with no artifact selected throws the error.

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kosmos1337 3y ago

If you enjoy this, definitely check out Antimatter Dimensions. https://ivark.github.io/ https://ivark.github.io/

at_a_remove 3y ago

This game is probably one of the best inputs if you want to make estimates about the Drake Equation. Can you really trust every member of every advanced alien species not to hear the siren call of a hypothetical Hypnodrone? One might imagine a galaxy collapsing, the most streamlined self-replicators peeling off "seeds" that start their gravitational brake from ninety-five percent of the speed of light, collapsing the cooler matter of a solar system before waiting to tear apart any local suns and forging enormous linear accelerators so they can begin firing at other unconverted systems in the Orion Arm.

willis936 3y ago
I was under the impression that if there were any aliens in universal paperclips that they were so inconsequential as to be classified as "matter". The adversarial "drifters" are drones from your swarm that have had their values drift since they themselves, of course, are hyper intelligent optimal energy matter converters.

FrustratedMonky 3y ago

Is there a leaderboard somewhere. I reached Full Autonomy in 2hr 47min 54 sec. I think it can be done faster.

dragontamer 3y ago
Speedrunners are beating the whole game from scratch within 1h 30m or so. https://www.speedrun.com/upc https://www.speedrun.com/upc

madsr 3y ago

I find the AI point of view not that interesting. What's more interesting is the obvious (im)balance between production rate and revenue per second vs the amount of (finite) resources being spent in the process.

madsr 3y ago

Soo.. How do I cash out?

gdsdfe 3y ago

this is dangerously fun ... kiss goodbye your productivity for today

squarefoot 3y ago

Don't start playing this game, not even for a quick test, unless you want to find yourself manufacturing world supplies of paperclips in the night. You have been warned, this thing is so addictive that I'm surprised it isn't illegal:^)

kreeben 3y ago
4 hours later I read this. Can confirm that my whole evening+night disappeared into the paperclip universe. There's so much to do. Work the quantum computer. Find best deal for wire. Train the machine. Fine tune pricing. My god what a game!
- FrustratedMonky 3y ago
  Can Confirm. 12 hours later. Let it run in background before figuring out to add points to 'explore'.
  - kreeben 3y ago
    Resumed game this morning. Had to defeat the alien drones, then, finally, I managed to spend all matter in the universe. Clicking several times on the reward panel for final instructions was, rewarding. Best game ever.
eesmith 3y ago
I decided I wanted to generate artisanal hand-made paperclips, with no automation. Click, click, click. I got up to about 8,000 clips as things got more and more tedious. Than I stopped. Then I tried again, with a Javascript console timer 'clicking' 10 times per second. Let it go overnight. Got to 200,000 clips or somesuch and ... it was again boring. Use the same timer technique on the quantum computer to get the stock market. Didn't see why I cared to make more money on the market since apparently all I could spend it on was marketing. Messed up with a timer on the quantum computer, ended up with -87,554 operations and growing (shrinking?). That was enough. The "quantum temporal reversal" at -10,000 operations is a nice touch, but with "revert to the beginning" and a screwed up timer I gave up. So, the way to not get addicted is to deliberately play it wrong. ;)

joshstrange 3y ago

Not today satan! Even after playing this multiple times on both the web and mobile this site can suck me back in so easily.

NovaDudely 3y ago

Isnt this thing essentially a war crime? The amount of productivity lost to this thing cannot be calculated.

yetanotherloss 3y ago

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wunderlust 3y ago

Do you ever get more processors after going into the second phase of the game?

bmmayer1 3y ago

Made it to the end. Fantastic game.

FrustratedMonky 3y ago

Finished My first time through. Couldn't stop. Like a good human trained to be a bot. Click games are good example of what humans will become, cogs, pulling levers for the AI. Look at manufacturing or fast food, or many industries, can see it already. In Game, I chose to eliminate the Drift. Since an AI would. The offer of other universes could have been a ploy to fool the AI. Don't think an AI would take the bet. Is this a typical score?? Or can it go higher. Paperclips: 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 30.0 septendecillion Good Night. All productivity for the day is gone. Haven't stayed up to play like this since Civilization. Don't think I'll play this one again.

1letterunixname 3y ago

29.9 septendecillion clips later and all things become Mantrid's arms.

PaperclipTycoon 3y ago

[dead]

hsdropout 3y ago

Explored the universe and got to: ~55,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (55 Quattuordecillion) but alas, Firefox crashed.