Idle Clickers
This is my entry for the Wizard Jam, I chose Idle Thumbs 152 - Piercing the Fourth Dimension. I went into the jam looking to try create something mechanical and UI heavy to build up my experience with the new UI system in UI. Episode 152 had a great discussion about ethics (pre-GG) in games journalism with Danielle, Sean and Chris. This gave me a spark to try adapting the Cookie Clicker mechanics to a games news site. I wanted to try build off that core loop (and boy is it a loop!) and try and integrate some management aspects into it.
I think I succeeded. Functionally it is complete, players need to balance money and clicks to amass an exponentially growing pile of numbers. Players click, and hire and allocate those workers to particular tasks to keep those numbers growing. I managed to get a message system in there that conveys some the mechanics to the player in a fun and fairly natural way (including a fictional tabacco from the forums). Unfortunately, I didn't get around to completing messages for all the unlocks in the game or do a sufficient amount of balance testing. But there is definitely enough there to help players become accustomed to the basic conceit of the game.
Overall I am pretty happy, the game saves, loads, some neat panel transitions and I think it is pretty pretty. I'm glad to have gotten a chance to participate in the Wizard Jam, and I hope you enjoy it.
There is references aplenty but you'll be rewarded for seeking the idlest reference of all.
Note: The game is intended to be purposefully ignorant of the actual truth of games journalism. Any snark towards actual sites is just an approximation of how I see these sites criticised. I never skip straight to the comment section. :p
Credits:
"Video Games"
"Der Überweinhandler"
"Rich Uncle"
"Cool Uncle"
by Blambo
"Most Famous Player"
"Cyber Scoops"
by atte
"Lord Chris Remo"
by BigJKO
"Wiiiizzaaaard:
Blizzard
Icons:
Icons8.com
I got in touch with Blambo & BigJKO who said it was ok to use their images as thumbnails. Waiting to hear word from atte. And my uncle at Blizzard says it's cool if I use that wizard picture.
BUGS: Occasionally posts won't start auto-clicking after restoring a backup
