7 ms·

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.

I think my first run years ago was ~24 hours

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.