I played the browser version extensively, and in my experience a lot of time was spent with the browser window in the background while it built up enough ops/creative/money/yomi to be able to actually deploy the resource in some way. I found that it was somewhat common (for me, at least) to encounter long stretches of time where nothing was happening other than amassing a resource. Personally I'd prefer not to have the game taking up my phone's screen while it does that, especially as I tend to pop out of the game to do other things. But I suppose other folks might be happy to have the game as a purely "present" experience that doesn't run when they're not actively viewing it. On a very different note, are there any surprises/easter eggs that one gets by replaying, apart from Spoiler the increased demand/creativity? One of the delights of playing the game for the first time is how new features and capabilities pop up to expand the game, and I think it would be great if something similar happened with the replays as well, so that the replays are not identical to the original. Spoiler (For example, it might be cool if reaching a certain number of replays in the sim universe or alternate universe some sort of change occurred, or at least some message acknowledging the replays, to continue the narrative sense of the game.)
An interesting bug(?) I'm not sure if this is a bug, or intended behaviour, but I ran into an interesting situation, and a cautionary tale for others. Spoiler It looks like if you have any extra, non-assigned Trust when you Release the Hypnodrones, that Trust will disappear. My situation was that once I reached 100 Trust, but before I had it all assigned to either Processors or Memory, I Released the Hypnodrones. At that point, I had only assigned 81 of the total Trust to either Processors or Memory, and was going to assign the remaining 19 Trust to either Processors or Memory after the Hypnodrones got released. However, once, the Hypnodrones did their thing, the unassigned Trust vanished, and I was left with only the 81 trust that had already been assigned. It's a bit of a bummer...
Yeah thats also happened to me, maybe its a bug But im deleting this game from today Dont get me wrong its an excellent game, but i lost a lot of sleep and no productivity at all during this past 2 days ... sorry frank im deleting your game now... just unlocked combat, and it become more interesting and complex but i just dont have the time to spare... its great game though
Best clicker I've played. I like this even more than the (still) awesome spaceplan. There are no watch this ad to activate a multiplier or iap shenanigans. Also unlike most FTP clickers you can actually finish this game in a reasonable amount of time. Most clickers just have upgrades to make the counter move faster. This game has multiple 'currencies', which are different types of points you earn to power up different stats which ultimately contribute to the main counter(paperclips). Hard to explain unless you play it. Gives a simple clicker game depth and strategy which I didn't know was possible. So yeah that's why it's my favorite clicker. Best 2 bucks I've spent in a while. GOTW.
Those interested in the deeper philosophical aspects of the game should check out the Wikipedia page for the game, especially the Themes section. That said, the page does contain some broad spoilers, so those adverse to such things may want to wait until they have completed the game.
I am stuck... Hi Frank, great game! I tried it in the browser and bought it straight away when I saw it in the App Store. However, I am actually stuck I am at the brink to space exploration and I cannot activate it. I need 5 oct paperclips and 10,000,000 MW-seconds for it. Either I have enough Solar Farms or enough paperclips but not both. I have disassembled all other stuff, factories, drones, batteries... its not enough. No matter or wire left. Probably I have sold too many clips to get I high rate of money per second? And... I cant reset the game because I have > 100 processors and its impossible to get to -10000 ops with negative quantum computing. Or did I miss something? At least I wanted to let you know that there are ways to get stuck Cheers from Germany, Frank
I also got stuck here and also disassembled everything. What got me going again was building up my solar farms again to charge the battery past 10,000,000. You should have enough paperclips to have gotten to this part of the game.
Frank, thank you very much for such an entertaining, addictive, and thought-provoking game. I have run through it to the end nearly a dozen times, and each time makes me appreciate the deeper themes and issues it addresses. It's pretty brilliant.
Darth, I've thought about this a lot. One of the things I wanted going into the design process was to create a short(ish) game with an ending. I love Kittens Game but I didn't want to create something like that, where people can and do play for years. I *loved* it at the end of 10000000 when the game lets you "off the hook" and gives you a satisfying closure. I wanted something approximately like Space Plan but maybe even a bit shorter. But then, when it came time, I put in a prestige system. Why? I don't know exactly, I guess I felt like it was such an expected feature of a game like this, and there were going to be people who wanted to play through a few times, so why not create a simple structure to support and reward that. And I thought of a way of doing it thematically that I really liked. So I made a very simple system: Spoiler the exile system. And part of what I liked about it was that it made the *real* ending of the game, the *good* ending into a choice - you had to decide to quit, and then you got the satisfaction of ending the game. So part of the answer is the prestige system is there to be rejected. Spoiler But then, after I made the exile system, I started to think about how cool it would be to hide secrets deep in universe/simulation space. Similar to what you suggested. Like, what if there were a cool project that only triggers when you are at 10 universes over AND 10 simulations deep? How cool would that be??? I even started coming up with cool new prestige system ideas. Like a resource that you produce by completing the game with a shorter time than your previous run. Spoiler But... then I think maybe I'm losing sight of the original vision, which is to consciously *avoid* making a "lifestyle" game that you play for weeks and weeks until you get bored or forget about it or quit in disgust. Spoiler So, I don't know. I'm not going to rule it out. But if I ever do it, I probably won't make a public announcement about it. I'll probably bury it deep in the game where only some truly obsessive/compulsive explorer could find it. It's hard to hide secrets in the web version, where the code is so easily readable. But the mobile version would be the perfect place, don't ya think?
Yeah, Spoiler I didn't really consider the situation where someone would unspend all their trust, then release the hypnoDrones. It seemed unlikely behavior, but then again in a game like this players try lots of things to see what happens. I guess at this point you could Quantum Temporal Revert back to the beginning? Sorry!
Hm... pretty sure you shouldn't be able to get stuck there. Can you dm me some screenshots of your current state and I'll see if I can get you out of there.
I certainly respect that aesthetic choice. How much was that impacted by Spoiler the orthogonality thesis? It seems that allowing players to choose to end the game provides not only closure but allows the players to escape the arbitrary goal the game sets, unlike the AI in the game itself. (And it's fiendishly clever to have the game demonstrate the thesis so directly, by having the players themselves engage is so heavily in a completely arbitrary task. Again, kudos.) All that said, I'm glad you're considering Spoiler some sort of system of rewarding re-play. I find the notion of repeated moving to new universes or simulated spaces so evocative, and it would be delightful to have something further to recognize that. I don't think it would undermine the impact of the original ending. But perhaps I'm just being greedy.
I'm loving this game. I'm on universe 2 right now and the only problem I've found so far is that it's consuming my life faster than a available matter in the universe.
Excellent and truly thought provoking game! I’m in the space exploration phase and I believe there aresome bugs (or maybe it’s me playing the game wrong). First, from the start of the space phase, my exploration remains at 0.00000000 (and some more 0’s) percent. Second, Swarm Gifts is stuck with NaN. Third, was there supposed to be any sound? (I read from the patch note that there should be). And... Ignore my third question.
