#cookie clicker farm

[stemdapple]

Golden clover?!?!

[shygobrrrrrrrrrr]

a funni + doodles

[orteil42]

please stop leaking confidential cookie manufacturing secrets because you want balance changes in cookie clicker. the pepperidge farm and nabisco lawyers are on my ass

[grechsblog]

me: *stirs water in a cup like its tea that i just put sugar in* i just think isabeau would love idle games yknow? the ones where you start with a certain Thing you need to like, click on or something, and then buy some stuff to make your currency collecting automatic, and then go on down that hill until your play-input becoming minimal - hed like to see those numbers go up. and he knows them all! cookie clicker, leaf blower revolution, idle slayer - you named it he played it. theyd be his most horrific guilty pleasure, i think, and not like, in a 'remembers it exists once a month to click on the daily reward and then forgets about it until the next time' no, no. i think hed be a complete freak about them. hed have 100% them all at some point only to clear his savefile and do it again. hed optimize his farming and stay up all night to get those pricey '+1% to production' like its the thing that will give him courage to confess, and do it f2p style. his phone will be full of some shit like 'idle miner' that he checks religiously every 5 minutes to get that speed bonus. he doesnt hold any speedrun categories but some devs give him enough credit to include in super secret achievements/badges/whatever as the 'made the most [game currency] since launch' guy. hed love those fucking numbers go up so much, ya feel me?

moth behind my closed window trying to get to my lamp: /'|'\

[whattheheckisatazelwurm]

I dunno if this headcanon is gonna be controversial, but hear me out: I think Ennui would be a gamer, but like, an extremely casual gamer, the most casual gamer you can imagine. She's playing Cookie Clicker and Neko Atsume and stuff. Gacha games are too much effort for her because she can't be assed to log in every day to keep up her streak, but she does play Raid: Shadow Legends unironically. Probably some Candy Crush type shit too.

Anxiety is the serious gamer of the group. That girl for sure has a perfectly minmaxed Stardew Valley farm and probably is a Pizza Tower speedrunner. Look at the way she was pounding that console and tell me she doesn't own a fightstick.

[renearatman]

my hot take is that the minecraft community started going downhill when people decided the best way to play the game is to have it basically play itself. i dont want 5 automatic diamond farms and 30 beacons i want to make a warship that doesn't actually move and a space station in the end and a little cafe thats ran by a fletcher villager for some reason. hell yeah give me a weird little guy ill put him in my colusseum of which me and my friends are the only spectators

now the fans get mad if mojang doesn't add 3 new biomes and a mob that revolutionizes redstone and 5 new bosses and a new dimension and an item that changes the entire pvp meta and a mob that goes and hunts down every resource that you cant infinitely farm without touching your keyboard for you every single update. you don't want minecraft dipshit you want cookie clicker

its not like this game is subscription based or anything either you buy it once for 20 dollars and then you have it for as long as you have access to your email address. this isnt like pokemon where they're selling what might as well be ps2 titles at this point for 60 dollars every year that get rid of features the previous games had. "but the marketplace" modrinth is right there "but realms" aternos is right there. theyre not doing anything to shut down either of these services. any other microsoft property would (metaphorically) kill your firstborn in front of you right then and there if you dared to host your own servers. why does java even have realms again no seriously what does it even do

anyway rant over if youre getting genuinely upset over trees in the funny block game please do literally anything else this isnt healthy

[cookieclickercookieeater]

Up today are vanity cookies. Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what cookies Orteil was referencing with these, as searching the internet for vanity cookies was only bringing up results about Cookie Clicker. The most visually similar cookies I could find for a reasonable price were Pepperidge Farm Verona cookies, so that's what I have here.

These are a bit crunchy with a bit of chewiness from the strawberry jam. The base cookie is very plain and the strawberry jam isn't very flavorful, so these are a bit bland.

3/5

[pancakeke]

new cookie clicker strategy: shiny wrinkler farming

[misterxsamsa]

I truly love Tumblr because it's like having an ant farm to me. You throw breadcrumbs into the enclosure, and you watch them scurry towards it, and sometimes they're very nice in the tags, or bring more ant friends to your enclosure. Really, I'm averaging about three social interactions per day, so when a post gets above thirty notes it stops being real to me. I'm just in Cookie Clicker, because I can't picture that many people standing in a room!

[cliickermiller]

Could I request a Joelxreader where the reader moves to Jackson and is super sweet and loves to bake things for everyone in town as a thank you for allowing her in and at first Joel rejects their offerings because they’re suspicious of them which makes the reader continue to try and bake things for him, finally he accepts and starts opening up to them and offering to help reader with any labor they need done which leads to them sharing a kiss and maybe starting a relationship

mean spirits and bread cakes - Joel Miller x Reader

A/n: Woohoo first request, I was a little hesitant at first because I want to make sure my requests are written like my stories, with feeling and detail and I hope I accomplished that by the end of this story so just let me know how i did :)

Whenever you were brought into Jackson you were met with guns in your face, mainly by two men but one of them was a lot more lenient with you staying there, You believed that his name was Tommy, he welcomed you after the initial questions and tests and set you up with you own little room, it wasn't big or much but he said it was temporary until another unit opened up. For now you made due, using your time mainly in the kitchen helping the others prep meals for the town and other things, once Tommy helped move you into your new home, which just needed repaired, you quickly made to work making a little farming area outside.

It had been a couple weeks since you finally got your own home, you hadn't really baked since you moved in, trying to help the others out as much as you could, while still maintaining your food source in your backyard. Over the weeks you had met somebody named Joel, who you learned was the other man holding the gun in your face. He was closed off, at least to you, you always say him talking with Tommy and laughing with a teenage girl who you assumed was his daughter. You learned later that her name was Ellie, she was sweet and always came over first thing in the morning to help you bake for the other residents of Jackson, props she didn't really help baking but she watched you and learned how to do it while keeping you company and being a taste tester for you different treats.

"Y/nnnn! What're we bakin today?" Ellie cheered walking into your kitchen smiling brightly "We are making a strawberry bread cake with freshly grown ingredients and I finally made the perfect flour substitute so now maybe your grump of a father will accept them" You proudly stated smiling at the girl, watching as she giggled loudly "Joel is-.." She stopped, what was Joel to her? A father? A father figure? or just some guy who takes care of her? "Yea..yea Joel is a tough cookie to crack" She smiled using your phrasing from the other day "Alright, now, let's get started on mixing dry ingredients, I wanna make sure all these cakes are done by the time the patrols get back" You smiled watching as she took her usual seat on the counter next to your sink to watch you bake. You house was nice, you could tell whoever built it and the other houses knew what they were doing, you never thought you'd live with water or electric again but whenever you found Jackson that was the first thing you noticed.

After almost six hours of baking you were done, you liked doing it though, it gave you time to talk with Ellie, the first child you spoke with since the fall, and considering you were a middle school teacher it pained you seeing all the kids that turned infected; plus it helped feed the community, you weren't taking out of their found resources either, you grew it all and happily contributed it throughout the town, it was the only real way you knew how to pay them back for letting you stay, there weren't many kids, you weren't physically capable of going and fighting clickers like the others, so you stuck with helping them build/setup new cabins and cook little treats for everybody. Ellie filled the time with telling you the story of how she met Joel and how she wishes he was actually her father, how she always longed to have an adult go out their way to protect her, so she didn't have to learn at such a young age. You felt bad for her, Ellie was a sweet but stubborn girl, she reminded you of your younger sister. "Well....I'm happy you've made to here, Ellie, And I'm glad through your journey you found somebody like Joel..He sounds like an amazing man" You smiled placing the small cakes into separate containers, Deep down you know Joel had to of had someone before Ellie that he cared about that much, considering this was the first group of men you found that weren't ravaging assholes and that fact he went across the country and only kept Ellie's best interest in mind really showed his true colors.

Ellie shrugged a bit shoving some containers into her bookbag ready to help you pass them out, "I guess I kinda owe it to him? He helped me get this far I probably would've died by now" She mumbled, you offered her a kind smile wrapping an arm around hers to lead her outside to start your rounds. It probably took another hour to hand them out and you and Ellie still have 4 more containers together to pass out, splitting down the main road you stopped at the house you knew would be a problem, you didn't know why you still tried giving things to Joel, he always declined and acted like you were carrying the next world ruining virus and were ready to kill all. Looking up on the porch you saw him sitting in a rocking chair with his guitar propped on his lap "Hi.." You mumbled slowly stepping up on the porch "What're you doing here, y/n?" He grumbled, you frowned "I uh..-um.." You were stuttering, after hearing Ellie's stories about him you felt nervous under his watch, flustered. "Spit it out. I gotta start lookin for Ellie soon" He huffed sitting up straighter "Oh! E-Ellie she helped out today again..I wanted to drop off a strawberry- uh- bread cake" You stuttered watching him furrow his eyebrows "Don't you know flower started this entire damn mess?" He snapped standing up "N-No! I uh, I've been finding other things, not containing wheat t-to make a substitute for the flour.." You rambled, a little worried by the tone and body language, He looked around, catching eye of Ellie talking to Tommy stealing a piece from his food container and walking towards the cabin. "I don't want it" He huffed before going back inside, leaving you on the porch alone, you huffed, not letting his mean spirit get you down to happily pranced to Ellie "I'll see you later alright, hun? You need anything you know where to find me"

You woke up the next morning to Ellie pounding on your bedroom door, what the fuck? Getting up in a rush you swung the door open looking at her "You weren't awake whenever I knocked on the door and I got worried you left in the night a-and when the door was locked I-I thought you got infected or died" She rambled before hugging you tightly, you hugged her back tired and confused, the moment that really woke you up was Joel standing in your hallway peeking through the doorway "S-Sorry..Whenever you didn't answer I got Joel..." she whispered "N-no hun that's okay, no reason to be sorry, you were worried" You said rubbing her back before pulling away wrapping the blanket you had around your body before leading them both back out to your living room. "Ellie...you gotta help Maria today..better get on that" Joel said lowly, motioning her out of the cabin before closing your door sighing. "She cares about you" He said finally, turning around to look at you, you still had horriendous bed head and you looked like you just climbed out from under a rock (In your defense it was the best sleep you've ever had)

"I care about her..She's a sweet girl..one of the only people left her age that actually care about what's left in humanity" You whispered calmly going to the kitchen to get a bottle of water "She's cared about a lot of people..most em have died..so..whenever she cares about...un-infected she cares alot" Joel said, you nodded understanding what he was saying "I've noticed..I've seen kids deal with loss and grief...most grow resentment towards others..-" Joel cut you off "-But she's different" You agreed with him picking at your covers "Tried that..damn..strawberry? what the fuck did you call it?" He asked running a hand over his facial scruff "Strawberry bread cake" You whispered trying not to crack a smile, he sat down on the edge of your coffee table sighing "it was good..real good..Was kickin myself most of the night for not trying it sooner" He chuckled embarrassed rubbing the back of his neck "Ellie made you try it didn't she?" You chuckled watching him huff "Damnit she's right you can read people like a damn book" He grumbled before readjusting his sitting position "If..If you keep bringin them little cakes and other things over..I'll be happy to take em..." He smiled softly, You smiled back at him, maybe all Joel needed was an okay from Ellie to be friendly "Mmm..I dunno..I might need compensation now" You teased playfully, Joel laughed shaking his head a bit "How bout this..whenever I'm not on patrols..any hard labor you need done..I'm there" He offered, you smiled nodding "Sounds like a pretty good deal to me" you smiled softly, he smiled looking at you "Ellie..told me about how you guys met..and how you saved her..gotta admit Joel..You are one hell of a man" You smiled softly, he coughed a bit looking down now flustered, you giggled a bit resting a hand on his knee "I'm serious..alot of other men...sadly probably wouldn't of ever left your old QZ with her..you a good man" You whispered, nudging his knee a bit with your hand.

That night would start a landfill of good nights with Joel and Ellie, leading you to one night imparticular. You were standing on Joel's porch, waiting for him to answer the door "Hellooo?" You called sighing softly, almost then the door opened and there stood Joel in a towel with wet hair, panting like he rushed to the door "S-Sorry I can come back another time" You whispered nervously, he ran a hand through his hair "N-No just got a bit worried thinking something bad happened" He said smiling at you in relief "N-No I was gonna see if you were still coming over?...That broken window is bringing in a cold chill" You whispered nervously "oh! oh yea of course, let me...get dressed, come in" He said pulling you inside of his cabin gently before disappearing into his bedroom. You wandered, peeking into his kitchen "Mr. Miller! are you getting a second helping from me after Ellie gives you one?" You called seeing the extra containers in his sink "Totally not! I'm a good man remember?" He asked as he walked out, now dressed with his hair now maintained and under control. "Mmm You can be a good man and still be taking extras" You giggled as he walked closer to you standing by the sink, You didn't realize till now how close the two of you actually were until then, you could feel his breath on your face, not that you were complaining, somehow the man still had minty smelling breath in the end of mankind. "You gonna charge me extra for it?" He asked raising an eyebrow, you looked at him tightening your lips into a pursed line before resting a hand on his shoulder "Maybe...or maybe we could work out a deal?" You teased, trying to keep an upset face, Joel gasped playfully before chuckling "Gonna charge me extra? My little girl is the one who helps pass em out" He laughed leaning closer to you "Oh! So you're taking Ellie's serving" You teased giggling louder, he placed his hands on your waist, causing both of your giggles and chuckles subdue leaving you looking at each other. Joel couldn't help it, After losing Sara's mom, he was convinced he'd never meet anybody as amazing as her, as sweet or kind and yet here you were, and you were breathtaking.

"Joel.." Your voice pulled him out of his thoughts, he cleared his throat placing a hand on your cheek before kissing you, if it were anybody else you would've pulled away, knocked the dude the hell out for kissing you, but instead you kissed him back, running your hands through his damp hair, he moved his hands back down to your waist picking you up and putting you up on the counter. "How bout..you..start usin my kitchen..give me a chance to see ya everyday" He panted looking at you "Then we don't gotta do the walkin to each others houses and knockin" He continued as you pecked his lips gently "Are you asking me to move in with you sir?" you teased smiling resting your hands on his shoulder "Maybe I am.." He whispered, both of you jumped as the door slammed and Ellie cheered loudly "FUCKING FINALLY!" She yelled jumping up and down in excitement towards her bedroom.

---

soooo how'd i do?

[plumdonutsv]

hi!! i saw ur post abt fom :]

i hope u dont mind if i structure this like a point by point answer to questions u put in ur tags <3

i feel like im playing the game right. unlike stardew, fields of mistria doesnt make me feel bad for not using every second of the day. i think fom has a nice balance between easy and not too easy

i kinda feel like im going slow and fast at the same time? time during the day passes in a blink of an eye but when i look at the calendar im like still halfway through the season. idk how to feel abt it yet

my time management is so bad 😭😭 im terribly forgetful so i'd like set a goal for the day and a second later i'd be like "wait what" but i dont usually mind cuz i dont feel rushed by the game at all which i really appreciate. i think that mistria places a huge emphasis of getting to know the people and i love that

i like a LOT about the game: the soundtrack (especially the mines music), the aesthetics, character sprites art, environment art, the art in general, i LOVE the characters so much, it feels like everyone has their own thing but you can't tell all of the stuff they're about immediately i think? like i didn't realize Holt made toys until i saw his station in his house, i love environmental storytelling <33 honestly i love that most of them are so kind to you, it's the kind of game i personally needed. i love that the combat is not a clicker and that u gotta watch how the monsters act to figure out the best way to defeat them, i love the set up, i love that the earthquake has lingering consequences on the town and the community. it's a lot of fun <33 ofc i have some criticizms too and stuff to improve but im too tired rnfjsndbd

OH AND THE LORE!!! i need to know more about mistria's lore. especially the magic and all that stuff thats goin on in the mines

i love all of the characters fr, my fav love interesrs are Ryis and Adeline. Ryis is just so sweet and kind and gorgeous, he loves birds, he's from a family of bakers, he has family with a lot of sisters in the capital that send him care packages with cookies, HE LOVES BIRDS (<- it was the thing that had me like "you're the one"bfjsnhdsnbd) just a disney princess type of guy

Adeline just got me in her palms and i'm not even sure why or how exactly yet but all i know is that i walk around her like a puppyfjsnbd she's such a nerd and i adore her, she loves doing paperwork and calls it a "party", she is the heir to the land and she loves taking care of it and its people but forgets to take care of herself and im just like *biggest wettest eyes at her* also pink hair. oh mh god

and like i think all of the other townies are so cool. I love the kids, theyre the cutest and i love seeing them around town doing their thing. i love that we have different models of families like. man i'm so excited for more stuff in this game

i'd love to chat mistria with u if you'd like to <33 and i'd love to know what u think :D

have a good dayyyy

omg thanks for your response!! i feel like i relate to many things you said. i haven't played a farming sim before bc i didn't think i would like it. since i would prefer games w some kind of story or lore, i didn't think this game would be for me. really, i had no idea what to expect in the game

i feel like i'm also going slow and fast while playing! the day goes by so so quickly but i also feel like maybe i'm not doing enough. sometimes i'm thinking "why are my crops growing so slowly please grow faster!!!" but then i'm surprised w how quickly they grow. i get up and see my tomatoes and corn ready to be harvested. but for the most part, i feel like i'm going at it too slow. i'm almost done w summer but i just got magic

i relate to what you said about time management. there are some items on a task that i just couldn't find so i do another task. then i just entirely forget to search for that item (like i cannot find seaweed still). then literally TODAY i was in the mines for too long and had to rush home. the next in-game day i went to the mines earlier in the day to not make the same mistake.

the music in the game is amazing! i find myself humming along while playing or humming when i'm doing something else. i'm surprised that i even remember how the music goes. i've played totk for a bit but i can't remember a single song. i love how everyone has different seasonal outfits. i really like how celine has a different outfit in the early morning. (idk if other characters have a different outfit at that time i can't remember). i'm glad i could play the game bc i'm gonna be moving back to school soon and this would be a nice way to take a break from coursework.

i also like how most of the characters are nice to your farmer. i just cannot pick one favorite character. it's too hard for me to bc they are all so lovely 😭. i agree that the kids are cute! i try to give luc a bug each time i see him.

one of the things that i don't like so much is that there is only one place to save. i can't remember if there are other places to save

[sniffanimal]

soliciting video game recs! I am extremely picky with video games and that makes it really really hard to find games to play, so maybe you, my Gamer Followers, can point me towards stuff I might like if I list some of the things I enjoyed? stuff I like/dislike under the cut. super open to Indies/short games!!!

platforms I have: switch, android, hacked 3DS, and a very Mid-tier PC. I greatly prefer controller over mouse+keyboard! not opposed to emulation

genres I've enjoyed: puzzle, sandbox, dating/friendship Sims, a lot of random simulator types, factory management/resource management, games where you need 3 different wikis to understand, farming, turn based combat, numbers-go-up/clickers, silly gimmick games, and more-art-than-gameplay types. I'm a casual who's only in it for cute pixels and numbers go up. lots of love for peaceful/accessibility settings!!

games I've generally enjoyed: portal/portal 2, Minecraft, hypnospace outlaw, Factorio, animal crossing, Littlewood, stardew valley, cookie clicker, Minecraft, idle Skilling, the Stanley Parable/tspude, turnip boy commits tax fraud, Minecraft, kill it with fire, and puzzles like sudoku/nonogram/etc.

what I know I don't like (not a hard No list): lots of combat especially if I need reflexes for it, 3rd person shooters, most shooters tbh, survival crafts that are more survival than crafting, online co-op, bullet hell, straight up VNs unless they're really really really good

I'm REALLY into artsy games that are like... less about the game and more about Something yanno?

[kingabezka]

I wanted to do one too

For context, Cookie Clicker's farming is mostly AFK and RNG based.

Feel free to pick the least bad one in the tags

[orteil42]

Hello there! I was wondering, what media inspired cookie clicker to be what it is today? I was thinking of plague inc's "newsboard" which really got me thinking. What sort of games or media do you take inspiration from? Thanks!

Cookie Clicker was initially made for laughs, the whole gameplay loop mostly expanding on the lollipop farm feature in Candy Box:

(as a sidenote, the reason i've promised a dungeons minigame for about 10 years now is entirely because Candy Box had them)

the game's current presentation and design logic stem from the years i spent as a kid playing old macintosh shareware as well as my interest in skeuomorphic UI. if you browse through Macintosh Garden long enough you're bound to find some of the stuff i obsessed over between 7 and 17 and i'm sure a lot of it has subconsciously found its way into the way i make my games.

some of Cookie Clicker's major features originate from early player suggestions and from reading discussions about the budding idle game genre, ie. the prestige/ascend system was added after i read people discussing a flash game named Kaguya Table (which involves a feature called "mastery"):

the ascend screen itself takes after Path of Exile's passive skill tree:

i've been asked before where the creepy grandmapocalypse body horror idea comes from and for the most part the answer is i'm just kind of a little freak like that. Cookie Clicker's initial "made-in-4-hours" version ended with the grandma building going bonkers and replacing the whole background. i'd been into Junji Ito and similar things for some time at that point so turning it into a whole thing for the "i'm making this game seriously actually" version felt like a logical step. pretend the Junji Ito image i'm including is from his gorier stuff

finally, the kitten upgrades and possibly the whole "achievements grant milk" thing were added at the insistent request of a tumblr user who really really wanted me to add cats to the game somehow.

if you were specifically curious about the news ticker at the top of the game, i more or less directly lifted that from the one in SimCity!

[beast-of-mosss]

My boyfriend n I were discussing video games and the DAI companions and their reaction.

Varric would play survival games with Hawke, but he pretends to be bad at it to mess with Hawke. Surprisingly god-tier at shooters.

Cassandra wouldn't play video games, but will play cookie clicker on her phone.

Solas pretends not to play video games, but has beat every level of candy crush and it's very embarrassing.

Cole would like life simulations or farming game (sims to animal crossing), although he does stream and is one of those chill streamers you come across.

Dorian would play cod, mostly to destress from his modern day magic-science job

[theromanbarbarian]

Idle Games

Looking for some cool Idle Games? Looking for something that almost could be described as "fun"? Looking for something to completely suck up your attention, making you completely unable to do anything enjoyable or productive? Want your brain to be hijacked so that all you can think about are ever increasing meaningless numbers?

Here are four of my favorites:

4. Cookie Clicker

This is the most well known, most standard idle game: click on cookie, get cookies, build buildings that produce more cookies. And this simple loop, combined with the big ever increasing NUMBER of cookies that exploit some glitch in my brain and makes me think exclusively how to get this NUMBER bigger faster. An after it has completely converted you into a fanatical NUMBER acolyte: it. does. not. end.

So you have to claw yourself back from this abyss and like swear to yourself that you will never again open the site just to see that beautifully terrifying ever increasing NUMBER again.

Do not play this game

3. Kittens Game

While cookie clicker was mercifully boring enough for you to realize that the NUMBER, beautiful in its horror as it may be, is ultimately meaningless and will never love you, Kittens game actually has some solid game mechanics. Its more focused on resource management with a lot of choices and strategies. It's almost engaging. But after some time it gets clear that it is in fact an idle game, so all you do is click and wait, while the game slowly infects your brain and completely hijacks your attention. So whats this game about?

You are a kitten in a forest and you grow catnip, the you can build some huts for you kitten friends (make sure you feed them catnip though or they will die) and since they do not have money and you are basically a kitten cult leader you make your "friends" work by farming, woodcutting, mining and most brutally of all: scientific research. And so you build up your little village to a city, country or galactic empire under your watchful eye. I don't know how big you can get since again: it. does. not. end.

Mercifully this game does not have a NUMBER to which we have to sacrifice our life to, so it is easier to claw your attention back, leave your kittens leaderless and do something more worthwhile(have you tried staring at a blank wall?)

However it still steals your attention and does not offer anything real in return so:

Do not play this game

2. Progress Quest

This is often considered the first idle game a parody of MMORPGs. It cannot be really be called a game since it is an "RPG, that plays itself", you choose your race and class and press play and all that's left to do is watch the progress bars as your character (an Eel Man Jungle Clown named Greviliet) does all the RPG things: slays enemies, sells loot, buys gear, repeat. Its really more of a long gif of increasing progress bars, which makes it a much more relaxing experience. You cannot make the progress go 0.01% quicker by buying the "Impressive Venomed Pole-azde", so all that you can do is sit back watch the progress bar climb and chuckle about the pretty funny randomly generated enemy/gear/item names. Here's a sample: "passing battle-finch tickle-mimic", "Imaginary Beelzebub", "warrior sea Hag", "Mr. Fekod the dung elf", "vampire pancreas", "Venomed viscous Peen-arm"...

It's not really a game but it won't steal too much of you brain power, so it's pretty much the best game on this list(maybe except for the next).

You can play this game

1. Universal Paperclips

Now, dear scroller, you might wander how did this tragedy start? How was I first introduced to the scourge of Idle games that keeps torturing me?

Well, let me introduce you to the first idle game I have played: Universal Paperclips. In this game you are an AI tasked with producing paperclips. You first produce them and sell them to people to get money to make more paperclips. So you manipulate the price, advertise and use every trick in the capitalist book to be able to make as much paperclips. Soon you don't need to care about those pesky humans, using hypnodrones you can make them give you anything you want. You use up all resources on earth and it's time to leave this husk of a planet to go to space and convert anything you come across into paperclips. And that's it, right? Now you can make as many paperclips as you want? Well not quite, since as you get more paperclips, you can make more paper clips and thus get more paperclips, etc. You see the problem? Its exponential growth and so the infinite vastness of the universe that seemed like an inexhaustible treasure trove of paperclip material, turns out to be finite after all. And as the last gram of matter is made into the last paperclip you have completed your task. That's right: the. game. ends.

You look back onto a universe full of paperclips with no paper in it and think to yourself: well, that was completely pointless. Your hours long obsession with getting the NUMBER of Paperclips to rise as fast as possible, all the strategizing and thought just devoted to make something that no one will enjoy. Your brain was given a NUMBER and thought to itself: "finally, someone tells me clearly how I'm doing", so you devote all your energy to make this score higher, but as everything that seems clear and simple in this world, it was a lie. The only thing making more paperclips does is make you feel better for fleeting moments and anxious the rest of the time since you might not be producing enough paperclips. In the end the NUMBER cannot rise any higher, as physical reality ultimately prevails over any illusion and all that's left to do is to gaze upon the destruction you have created while chasing the NUMBER.

I'll leave the broader conclusions to you, dear scroller: is universal Paperclips about AI, capitalism, technology? I don't know, but I know that it succeeded where almost all other idle games have failed: it told an interesting story, that was supported by the game mechanics and affected me emotionally. Not a high bar, but it's definitely enough to say:

You should play this game