It started with a pixelated chocolate chip cookie. Back in 2013, Julien "Orteil" Thiennot probably didn't realize he was about to break the internet's collective productivity with a simple JavaScript experiment. You click. A number goes up. You buy a cursor. The number goes up faster. It sounds stupid when you say it out loud. Seriously. Why would anyone spend three weeks of their life watching a digital counter reach decillions? But here we are, over a decade later, and the genre of incremental games—or more colloquially, games like Cookie Clicker—is a massive industry pillar.
The psychology is actually kind of terrifying. It’s dopamine on a drip-feed.
Most people think these games are just about mindless tapping. They aren't. Not really. The "clicker" part is usually just the hook that gets you in the door. The real meat of the experience is the math. It’s about efficiency. You're basically playing a spreadsheet hidden behind cute graphics and satisfying sound effects.
The Evolution of the Idle Genre
When Cookie Clicker first hit 4chan and then the wider web, it was a parody. Orteil was making fun of how easy it is to manipulate the human brain. But the joke backfired because the manipulation worked too well. We liked the numbers. We liked the feeling of "prestige" where you wipe your progress just to get a 5% multiplier.
Since then, games like Cookie Clicker have branched out into weirdly specific niches. You have AdVenture Capitalist, which leaned into the raw greed of high finance, and Clicker Heroes, which turned the mechanic into a fantasy RPG.
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Then came the "unfolding" games. This is where the genre gets brilliant. A Dark Room is the gold standard here. You start by just stoking a fire in a cold room. That's it. No cookies. No grandmas. Just a flickering flame. But as you click, the world expands. You realize you're in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. You're managing a village. You're exploring a map. The clicker mechanic is just the interface for a deep, narrative-driven survival game.
Why Your Brain Can't Stop
It's called the Zeigarnik Effect. Essentially, our brains hate unfinished tasks. When a game tells you that you need 1,000,000 cookies for the next upgrade and you have 950,000, you aren't going to close the tab. You're going to wait. Just five more minutes.
Then you get the upgrade.
Now the next one is 5,000,000.
But wait! Now you’re earning cookies twice as fast! So it’ll actually take less time to get the next one than it took to get the last one. That's the trap. It’s a constant cycle of goal-setting and achievement that never actually ends. Some developers, like those behind NGU Idle (which stands for Numbers Go Up), are incredibly honest about this. The game is literally about watching numbers grow, and yet it has a dedicated fanbase because the unfolding mechanics are so tightly tuned.
What to Look for in Games Like Cookie Clicker
Honestly, if you're looking for a new fix, don't just go for the ones with the best graphics. The best games like Cookie Clicker are the ones with the most interesting math.
Take Universal Paperclips. It was designed by Frank Lantz, the Director of the NYU Game Center. It starts with you making paperclips. By the end of the game, you are a transcendent artificial intelligence that has consumed the entire matter of the universe to create—you guessed it—more paperclips. It’s a commentary on the "Paperclip Maximizer" thought experiment by philosopher Nick Bostrom.
It’s also incredibly addictive.
If you want something more "gamey," look at Leaf Blower Revolution or Magic Research. Magic Research is particularly cool because it blends the idle stuff with a mana management system. You're a headmaster of a magic school. You have to balance researching new spells with automating your resource collection. It feels active even when you're not doing anything.
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The Difference Between Idle and Clicker
We use the terms interchangeably, but there’s a subtle divide.
- Clicker Games: These require active participation. If you stop clicking, progress slows to a crawl. These are great for short bursts but can lead to actual physical strain (Carpal Tunnel is real, folks).
- Idle Games: These are meant to be played in a background tab. You check them once an hour, buy three upgrades, and leave.
- Incremental Games: This is the umbrella term. It covers anything where the core loop involves increasing the scale of your resources.
Most modern hits are a hybrid. You click a lot in the beginning to get the engine started, then you let the automation take over.
The Best Titles You’ve Probably Missed
Everyone knows Candy Box 2. If you don't, go play it right now. It’s a masterpiece of ASCII art. You start with a candy bar that increments by one every second. You can eat the candy or throw it on the ground. Eventually, you’re fighting dragons and solving riddles for a squirrel.
Then there’s Antimatter Dimensions.
This one is for the hardcore nerds. It dispenses with the fluff. There are no graphics. It’s just rows of dimensions that produce antimatter, which produces more dimensions. It uses scientific notation because the numbers get so big they literally break standard math. We’re talking $10^{308}$ and beyond. It’s peak "Number Go Up" energy.
Is It Actually "Gaming"?
Purists love to argue that games like Cookie Clicker aren't real games because they "play themselves."
That’s a narrow way of looking at it. Is a management sim like Football Manager not a game because you don't physically kick the ball? Incremental games are about resource allocation and optimization. They are games of strategy and patience.
Sometimes, they’re also about the story. The Enthusiast or Spaceplan use the clicking mechanic to tell a very specific, often funny or poignant, narrative. Spaceplan, in particular, is a short, focused experience based on a misunderstanding of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. It involves potatoes. A lot of potatoes.
How to Get the Most Out of the Genre Without Losing Your Job
It’s easy to let these things take over your life. I’ve seen people (okay, I’ve been that person) setting alarms for 3:00 AM just to click a "Rebirth" button.
Don't do that.
The beauty of games like Cookie Clicker is that they respect your time—if you let them. They are the perfect "second screen" experience. Play them while you’re listening to a podcast or waiting for a slow render at work.
- Prioritize Automation: If an upgrade says "increases click power" and another says "adds +1 per second," always go for the second one first. Efficiency is king.
- Don't Fear the Reset: Most of these games have a "Prestige" mechanic. You lose everything, but you get a permanent buff. New players often wait too long to do this. If your progress feels like it’s hitting a wall, it’s time to explode your empire and start over.
- Check the Community: Games like Realm Grinder have insane levels of complexity. There are "builds" and "factions" that you would never figure out on your own. The wiki is your friend.
The Dark Side: Monetization
We have to talk about mobile gaming. While the PC/Browser scene is full of weird, experimental indie gems, the mobile market for games like Cookie Clicker is a minefield.
Many mobile "IDLE" games are designed to create artificial walls that can only be bypassed with your credit card. They give you a taste of that sweet dopamine, then they throttle it. If a game asks you to "Watch an Ad for 2x Speed," it’s probably not a well-balanced game. It’s a machine designed to harvest your attention.
Stick to the classics or the highly-rated indie titles on Steam and Itch.io. They usually have a flat price or are completely free without the predatory garbage.
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Moving Forward With Your Incremental Obsession
If you're ready to dive back in, start with the "Big Three" of the modern era: Cookie Clicker (the Steam version has actual achievements and music), Universal Paperclips, and A Dark Room.
Once you’ve cleared those, look into Trimps. It’s a text-heavy game that starts with you managing a few "trimps" to gather wood and eventually turns into a massive multi-dimensional war simulator. It’s incredibly deep and receives updates frequently even years after release.
The genre is constantly evolving. We're seeing more crossovers with other genres, like Melvor Idle, which is basically RuneScape but without the walking around. You just click the skill you want to level up. It’s brilliant because it strips away the "grind" of an MMO and leaves you with the pure satisfaction of seeing a bar fill up.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Visit Itch.io or DashNet: Search for the "Incremental" tag to find new, experimental titles that aren't trying to sell you microtransactions.
- Audit your "Idling": If you find yourself clicking more than actually playing, it might be time to move to a game with better automation mechanics like Kittens Game.
- Use a Browser Extension: If you're playing web-based games, use something like "Tab Suspend" to make sure your idle games aren't eating all your RAM while you're trying to actually work.
- Check out the r/incremental_games subreddit: It is the primary hub for developers to post "Prototypes" which are often free and have really innovative mechanics before they hit the big stores.
The numbers will always go up, but your time is finite. Choose the games that actually give you something back—whether it's a cool story, a math puzzle, or just a really, really big number to look at while you drink your morning coffee.