Hacker News Reader

Comment by rangibaby | Hacker News Reader

> 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.

View on HN

One 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/

To 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.

I 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.

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.

I paid for the mobile version, and it was easily worth it.

So it is a significant upgrade compared to the free prototype?

I don't know; I didn't play the free prototype, but I definitely felt like my money was well spent on the Android app.

What 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

[1] https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/gaming/cookie-clicker-julien...

I 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.

> 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.

https://clickclickclick.click/

There is also https://cern.ch/particle-clicker if you want to play one with an educational element.

Or the earlier Cow Clicker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Clicker

Don't try kittens game. Please.

Kittens 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

Reply on news.ycombinator.com