Since we're all sharing clicker games, this one by Frank Lantz is a real classic: https://decisionproblem.com/paperclips/
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.
:(
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
You seem to have done a lot better than me with less clicks.
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.