Castle Clicker

Clicker games exemplify what happens at a point in time where game development is accessible to pretty much everyone. Designing a simple game a few decades ago still required a lot of coding knowledge and some artwork designers on your team, so it made little sense to commit to all that work just to put out a basic clone on the market. Nowadays, that is no longer an issue, because everyone and their grandmother can design a game in a matter of days.

Castle Clicker is barely any different from the rest of the clicker games out there, which means that innovation is not what the developers pursued. Instead, the game is designed to be as simple as possible and provide you with something to do if you cannot afford a fidget spinner. There are some unusual elements in there too, but they hardly make a difference at the end of the day.

You start by gathering basic resources, so you have to click on trees in order to get wood, and use this wood to lay the foundations of a new city. Things get more complex later on, but only on a theoretical level, because your job does not change along the way. Clicking randomly remains your main activity, so boredom is bound to show its ugly face sooner or later.

As mentioned before, the goal is to build cities from the ground up, so you have to erect all sorts of specialized structures along the way too. Whether you need banks to generate money or various other facilities that create resources without clicks, the whole thing is designed to feel a bit like a tycoon as well. This is definitely a nice touch, but it’s not as meaningful as the developers envisioned, unfortunately.

Lastly, the gameplay mechanics are nothing too special either, at least if you are familiar with clicker games. However, it is worth noting that you can actually hold down the left-click button instead of mashing it, which is a good way to spare your mouse of some abuse. The interface is a bit disorienting at first, but the small number of options should allow you to learn everything by heart very quickly.

Even if it presents itself as something more than a clicker game, Castle Clicker is not that special, and it can lose its appeal in a matter of minutes. Thus, it all depends on your ability to cope with simple and repetitive mechanics.