8 ms·

Since we're all sharing clicker games, this one by Frank Lantz is a real classic: https://decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ https://decisionproblem.com/paperclips

Since we're all sharing clicker games, this one by Frank Lantz is a real classic: https://decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ https://decisionproblem.com/paperclips/

tibbon 2y ago
I wonder if we can get a superintelligent AI to play this one!
- captaincrunch 2y ago
  don't need it - just click the "click" button and then hold down enter.
  - riccardomc 2y ago
    That's exactly what a superintelligent AI would say...
  - Carrok 2y ago
    You haven’t gotten very far if you think that’s all the game requires.
gms7777 2y ago
A Dark Room (https://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/ https://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/) is fantastic as well. It's not only a clicker/idle game, but it incorporates the mechanics in an interesting way. On the whole, I've had to adopt a policy of not even touching clicker games. I find them incredibly addictive, and most of the time I'm not even enjoying the experience or getting anything out of it, I just feel hooked. I'd say Universal Paperclips and A Dark Room were exceptions to that, in that they actually had some depth, strategy, discovery, or story. But even those two I've had to stop myself from replaycing.
- drivers99 2y ago
  I'll play Universal Paperclips once a year or so when I remember it exists and have nothing I need to do for the next 3-6 hours. So I'd add that as a warning to anyone who wants to check it out: make sure your next 6 hours are ok to spend on it, in case you get sucked in.
- otteromkram 2y ago
  Not available on mobile (except by installing an app). :(
  - metabagel 2y ago
    For a clicker, it's pretty slow. You have to do some pretty significant grinding.
    - skeaker 2y ago
      Spoilers! There's a whole combat and map system that's hidden away initially. A lot of the progression really wants you to do that but it's hidden away at first so it's not obvious.
  - hugs 2y ago
    Toggle the "Desktop site" setting in your mobile browser. (Worked in Chrome on Android.)
- cscheid 2y ago
  (Late reply, but) I got to play this over the weekend together with some other suggestions in this thread, and Dark Room was actually pretty good! Thanks for the recommendation.
thispbowden 2y ago
Don't forget Kittensgame! - https://kittensgame.com/web/# https://kittensgame.com/web/#
- mkoryak 2y ago
  I have not forgotten it. I have been playing it every since I started at google (long build times, ya know?) 7 years ago... All-Time Stats Total Years Played 7.951M Run Number 24 Total Paragon 23.614K Buildings Constructed 143.148K Total Clicks 2.411M Transcendence Tier 25 Challenges Completed 11 I have never cheated in it, or used a script to click things.
  - thispbowden 2y ago
    Same to no cheating - Only been playing a couple of years, lots of background. All-Time Stats Total Kittens 84.84K Kittens Dead 5710 Total Years Played 18.33M Run Number 98 Total Paragon 90.36K Rare Events Observed 22.31M Unicorns Sacrificed 4.20P Buildings Constructed 553.38K Total Clicks 712.37K Trades Completed 2.32G Crafting Times 501.64M Avg. Kittens Born (Per Century) 0.46 Transcendence Tier 27 Challenges Completed 8
    - mkoryak 2y ago
      what does Transcendence Tier 27 do for you? there is nothing else after 25 right? You seem to have done a lot better than me with less clicks.
      - wetpaws 2y ago
        [dead]
- bosse 2y ago
  Or Swarmsim: https://www.swarmsim.com https://www.swarmsim.com
3np 2y ago
Antimatter Dimensions is another conerstone in the genre. http://ivark.github.io/ http://ivark.github.io/
- dta5003 2y ago
  Don't click it, that's most of a year I'll never get back.
  - albrewer 2y ago
    No kidding - it really did take about a year for me to finish it. That was _with_ a guide.
extraduder_ire 2y ago
Both in the pretty rare category of clicker games that you can complete and get an ending.
kristianp 2y ago
Isn't cookie clicker one of the earliest? https://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/ https://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/
- chupasaurus 2y ago
  Anti-Idle from 2009 says hi. http://www.kongregate.com/games/tukkun/anti-idle-the-game http://www.kongregate.com/games/tukkun/anti-idle-the-game
- MarkSweep 2y ago
  I feel like Progress Quest from 2002 is the spiritual predecessor of the clicker genre: http://progressquest.com/ http://progressquest.com/ In that it distills the game mechanic of “make number go up” into a simplistic form. It just lakes the clicking. PS, whenever I relapse and play too much World of Warcraft, I play some Cookie Clicker as a cleanse to remind myself of the fundamental pointlessness of the whole endeavor. Great game.
  - jwrallie 2y ago
    Cookie Clicker is indeed eye opening. I think it is one of the few games that "changed my life" in the sense that by getting addicted to it for a few days, it made me see Cookie Clicker in every platform that tries to waste my time. I remember when I first heard about it and I naively thought that such a simple game was silly and in now way could not be addictive, but I let myself play it for a while and it really changed the way I see games.
    - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
      This is a great insight, you see it in a lot of mobile games and "live services" / MMOs especially, a big focus on "numbers go up" with relatively minimal effort or skill involved (or only the perception thereof). In a similar vein, "stamina" in mobile games that limit how much you can do, which on the one side makes the game not "feel" like it takes much time, but which on the other encourages you to open it up a few times a day, and / or buy the "restore stamina" purchase. "Dailies" / "weeklies", things you should do every day / week to stay up to date. "time limited events", miss it and you'll never get the chance again. etc
TechDebtDevin 2y ago
Well there went two hours of my day.
- TechDebtDevin 2y ago
  8 hrs
NooneAtAll3 2y ago
let me save everyone's time of writing each recommendation individually - by linking https://www.incrementaldb.com/ https://www.incrementaldb.com/ where all the games are listed together
ndriscoll 2y ago
For this crowd, there is also bitburner, where you write programs to automate making the numbers go up: https://bitburner-official.github.io https://bitburner-official.github.io Want to make the numbers go up a bit? Write some for loops. Want them to really go up? Time to write a distributed job scheduler.
Unai 2y ago
I'm sadly into the incremental game genre. Universal Paperclips is still my favourite, and I replay it often. A Dark Room is another really good one with some storytelling and an ending, which is not all that common in incremental games. But if anyone wants to get deep into it, Dodecadragons is probably the best implementation of the incremental mechanics, but it's extremely addictive, so be careful with it.

Since we're all sharing clicker games, this one by Frank Lantz is a real classic: https://decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ https://decisionproblem.com/paperclips/

tibbon 2y ago

I wonder if we can get a superintelligent AI to play this one!

captaincrunch 2y ago
don't need it - just click the "click" button and then hold down enter.
- riccardomc 2y ago
  That's exactly what a superintelligent AI would say...
- Carrok 2y ago
  You haven’t gotten very far if you think that’s all the game requires.

gms7777 2y ago

A Dark Room (https://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/ https://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/) is fantastic as well. It's not only a clicker/idle game, but it incorporates the mechanics in an interesting way. On the whole, I've had to adopt a policy of not even touching clicker games. I find them incredibly addictive, and most of the time I'm not even enjoying the experience or getting anything out of it, I just feel hooked. I'd say Universal Paperclips and A Dark Room were exceptions to that, in that they actually had some depth, strategy, discovery, or story. But even those two I've had to stop myself from replaycing.

drivers99 2y ago
I'll play Universal Paperclips once a year or so when I remember it exists and have nothing I need to do for the next 3-6 hours. So I'd add that as a warning to anyone who wants to check it out: make sure your next 6 hours are ok to spend on it, in case you get sucked in.
otteromkram 2y ago
Not available on mobile (except by installing an app). :(
- metabagel 2y ago
  For a clicker, it's pretty slow. You have to do some pretty significant grinding.
  - skeaker 2y ago
    Spoilers! There's a whole combat and map system that's hidden away initially. A lot of the progression really wants you to do that but it's hidden away at first so it's not obvious.
- hugs 2y ago
  Toggle the "Desktop site" setting in your mobile browser. (Worked in Chrome on Android.)
cscheid 2y ago
(Late reply, but) I got to play this over the weekend together with some other suggestions in this thread, and Dark Room was actually pretty good! Thanks for the recommendation.

thispbowden 2y ago

Don't forget Kittensgame! - https://kittensgame.com/web/# https://kittensgame.com/web/#

mkoryak 2y ago
I have not forgotten it. I have been playing it every since I started at google (long build times, ya know?) 7 years ago... All-Time Stats Total Years Played 7.951M Run Number 24 Total Paragon 23.614K Buildings Constructed 143.148K Total Clicks 2.411M Transcendence Tier 25 Challenges Completed 11 I have never cheated in it, or used a script to click things.
- thispbowden 2y ago
  Same to no cheating - Only been playing a couple of years, lots of background. All-Time Stats Total Kittens 84.84K Kittens Dead 5710 Total Years Played 18.33M Run Number 98 Total Paragon 90.36K Rare Events Observed 22.31M Unicorns Sacrificed 4.20P Buildings Constructed 553.38K Total Clicks 712.37K Trades Completed 2.32G Crafting Times 501.64M Avg. Kittens Born (Per Century) 0.46 Transcendence Tier 27 Challenges Completed 8
  - mkoryak 2y ago
    what does Transcendence Tier 27 do for you? there is nothing else after 25 right? You seem to have done a lot better than me with less clicks.
    - wetpaws 2y ago
      [dead]
bosse 2y ago
Or Swarmsim: https://www.swarmsim.com https://www.swarmsim.com

3np 2y ago

Antimatter Dimensions is another conerstone in the genre. http://ivark.github.io/ http://ivark.github.io/

dta5003 2y ago
Don't click it, that's most of a year I'll never get back.
- albrewer 2y ago
  No kidding - it really did take about a year for me to finish it. That was _with_ a guide.

extraduder_ire 2y ago

Both in the pretty rare category of clicker games that you can complete and get an ending.

kristianp 2y ago

Isn't cookie clicker one of the earliest? https://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/ https://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/

chupasaurus 2y ago
Anti-Idle from 2009 says hi. http://www.kongregate.com/games/tukkun/anti-idle-the-game http://www.kongregate.com/games/tukkun/anti-idle-the-game
MarkSweep 2y ago
I feel like Progress Quest from 2002 is the spiritual predecessor of the clicker genre: http://progressquest.com/ http://progressquest.com/ In that it distills the game mechanic of “make number go up” into a simplistic form. It just lakes the clicking. PS, whenever I relapse and play too much World of Warcraft, I play some Cookie Clicker as a cleanse to remind myself of the fundamental pointlessness of the whole endeavor. Great game.
- jwrallie 2y ago
  Cookie Clicker is indeed eye opening. I think it is one of the few games that "changed my life" in the sense that by getting addicted to it for a few days, it made me see Cookie Clicker in every platform that tries to waste my time. I remember when I first heard about it and I naively thought that such a simple game was silly and in now way could not be addictive, but I let myself play it for a while and it really changed the way I see games.
  - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
    This is a great insight, you see it in a lot of mobile games and "live services" / MMOs especially, a big focus on "numbers go up" with relatively minimal effort or skill involved (or only the perception thereof). In a similar vein, "stamina" in mobile games that limit how much you can do, which on the one side makes the game not "feel" like it takes much time, but which on the other encourages you to open it up a few times a day, and / or buy the "restore stamina" purchase. "Dailies" / "weeklies", things you should do every day / week to stay up to date. "time limited events", miss it and you'll never get the chance again. etc

TechDebtDevin 2y ago

Well there went two hours of my day.

TechDebtDevin 2y ago
8 hrs

NooneAtAll3 2y ago

let me save everyone's time of writing each recommendation individually - by linking https://www.incrementaldb.com/ https://www.incrementaldb.com/ where all the games are listed together

ndriscoll 2y ago

For this crowd, there is also bitburner, where you write programs to automate making the numbers go up: https://bitburner-official.github.io https://bitburner-official.github.io Want to make the numbers go up a bit? Write some for loops. Want them to really go up? Time to write a distributed job scheduler.

Unai 2y ago

I'm sadly into the incremental game genre. Universal Paperclips is still my favourite, and I replay it often. A Dark Room is another really good one with some storytelling and an ending, which is not all that common in incremental games. But if anyone wants to get deep into it, Dodecadragons is probably the best implementation of the incremental mechanics, but it's extremely addictive, so be careful with it.