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