Cookie Clicker: Addictive Game Involving Cookies, Alchemy Labs, and a Horde of Potentially Dangerous Grandmas

December 17, 2013

This stupid game.

Let me start off by saying that as of this writing, I’ve had this game running for 140 hours (almost 6 days), and the total number of cookies I’ve created is: 559,917,581,515,113.

That said, here goes: Cookie Clicker is a pointless and fantastic game created by Orteil that has a simple premise: make a bunch of cookies. Like all clicker games, it starts off really basic… where you have to generate cookies by hand. But, as you gain more cookies, you can purchase upgrades (using cookies as currency, naturally).

You can buy extra mouse cursors who will do your clicking for you. And you can also get fancier, and buy farms and factories. What gets me with this game is the number of upgrades available, and just how large and big it all gets.

I’m not sure where the threshold is for getting “sucked in” to this game, but I definitely crossed it some time ago. It’s not that I get any satisfaction out of all the cookies being generated per se – it’s more about the upgrades, and the advancements. There’s some kind of OCD trigger that’s been flipped, and now it’s a matter of trying to get every single one of these damn upgrades or achievements.

There’s a thought of “Well, I’ve gone this far…” that happens. And after putting in a certain amount of time, you kind of figure that you have to see things through to the end. To the ridiculous, cookie-filled end.

The game itself is beautifully designed. The graphics are fantastic, and there are a ton of upgrades and achievements to unlock. I swore that I had gotten all the upgrades, but in looking closer at the stats window I realized that I’ve only got 70% of them… which is mind-boggling, to be honest.

A lot of the concepts and text in the game are really quite clever and funny. In addition to buying factories and cursors, you can also hire grandmas to help you bake your cookies. But be warned: there are a few upgrades that, at a certain level, have some unintended consequences.

Looking at the developer notes, it seems that there’s some kind of “dungeon” area. Not sure if that’s in the beta or what, but this suggests an additional D&D kind of level within the game, which is just totally nuts to me. This rabbit hole of a game has some corner that has the start of a new rabbit hole. Fantastic.

This stupid game.

*click*

online game

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