Paperclip Tycoon

I really like the game, its a unique art style. Really unique concept :D

"Unfortunately no company can be taken seriously unless it undergoes constant expansion."

Looks like the paperclip business is on fire! Capitalism at its finest.

I got 18 workstations and 9 employees.

But I don't know why, once I started getting more workstations, whenever I tried to assign a new worker to them, it said that it was already occupied, even if the workstation was just added and empty…

Gets hectic pretty fast!

@caiqueassis - "But I don't know why, once I started getting more workstations, whenever I tried to assign a new worker to them, it said that it was already occupied, even if the workstation was just added and empty…" - Ah yeah that seems to be some kind of bug i didn't have time to fix, I think its just other (invisible colliders) stuff getting in the way. The best workaround is just to move the camera so you get more of a clean line of sight to it. In retrospect I could I have just disabled the options on the ones that are already taken, I had the option to fire them (it fit in with a bunch of mechanics i never had time for), but thats not really a useful feature. - Thanks for playing.

I like the idea but there could be a lot of inprovements. A fixed camera, a HUD with a description of what each employee does, and a slower ramp would help a lot. Still impressive for a weekend project.

Despite the obvious inspiration, I'm not going to compare this to "that other paperclip game", because it's very different.

It feels like there's a lot of dull micromanagement in manually picking up the paperclips. It detracts from the enjoyable strategy aspects of the game: which employees to summon, which contracts to fulfil? Speaking of strategy, it would be better if I could see up front (or at all) how much an employee costs me, so I can make an informed decision.

There are also UI issues that detract from the gameplay. Sometimes it seems like clicks are misdetected, and I can't hire an employee even though I think I clicked an empty table. The contracts jump around when new ones are added, and when there are too many, you can't even click the button to accept them because they start overlapping.

Overall, I think the concept would work better in 2D with a top-down perspective, with automatic paperclip dispatching. To add to the strategy aspect, it would be nice if the factory layout mattered; for example, if paperclips stacked up on an employee's table and they'd have to bring them to a depot, or directly to the sales manager who generated the order they're fulfilling.

@thomastc thanks for the feedback, whats the other paperclip game? I never played one. yep there are certainly plenty of UI issues in the current version, sorry about that. I think what you describe is more what I had in mind. I had wanted it to be more about the employees having different stats and having to arrange things to try and boost production and fire the worst ones. But with a few hours to go I saw that wasn't going to happen so it turned into a slightly dull clicker game. Oh well maybe next time :)

You never heard of Universal Paperclips? It's an idle clicker game that looks extremely boring at the beginning, but turns out to be pretty engaging as you get further into it. Maybe you somehow heard or read about it, and subconsciously remembered it. Because otherwise… why paperclips? :)

@thomastc nope,  although I have now 😁. i think i was thinking paperclips as a reference to a joke about receiveing a lorry load of paperclips in the Blackadder Goes Forth series. Paperclip Tycoon seemed to have better absurd comic value than e.g. Oil Tycoon. Actually the title might be the best part about my game. 🤔

This is pretty cool once you figure out the right ratio of makers to sales people. I think it needs a "production manager" employee or something to automatically collect paperclips from a certain number of employees, otherwise things become impossible to keep on top of very quickly. I was never really able to get to the pink & gold paperclip stage.

Having a 3D perspective camera also did not really help when it came to precisely clicking on things when the gameplay became frantic - I was sometimes accidentally clicking on the desk instead of the paperclips, and I encountered the same bug as others with not seeming to be able to add employees to newly created desks.

But, the models are nice, and the core gameplay concepts are good.

I would have like to have a clear idea of what table I have selected as it can be hard to tell sometimes. The clicker genre is certainly a good one for this theme, but the joy of a clicker I feel comes from the automating and escalation of the mechanics as clicking on paper clips itself isn't the interesting part. I would lean more heavily on the management aspect of the game by maybe adding someone you can hire to pick up the paper clips for you.

Also, agreed you should check out Universal Paperclips, its great and was a huge inspiration when I did a clicker game for a previous jam.

I like a business-themed game but the UI was a bit frustrating as others point out (I couldn't assign new workers on a certain desk). However, that feeling you're doing well and profitable was great.

Interesting idea, but I did not really enjoy the gameplay. It was almost impossible to keep up with orders as you had to click for each paperclip separately. So after you hired some paperclip makers, it didn't make sense to hire more because as soon as you collected all produced clips, the first worker was finished again. It also did not make sense to hire more sales people as then you would just have to pay more penalty. So in the end I had a large amount of unused desks. It would have been nice if you could hire someone who collected the paperclips for you.

Fun little game! Definitely fit the theme. It's actually fun to see a clicker game with some stakes (i.e. fulfilling orders in time), rather than it being mostly idle.

This was a bit tricky to get into in the beginning as you didn't have orders to guide your progress right from the start. Would have loved a slightly different camera angle or the possibility to rotate around (maybe that existed but I didn't find the control?). Progress bars on the tables would've been helpful too.

Great job!

Time wasters is what I call clickers. At least there's an ending here, endless clickers are the worst of the worst.

Dexterity challenge is an actually apt term to describe this sort of interactivity. Think fast and click fast. The amount of clicking is the problem, it's good 90% of the whole activity. Clicking is filler, not interesting!

Thinking fast trumps spamming the left mouse button any day. The paper clip collector and room layout suggestions given by others are good. Additionally more complex paperclips could be built from the standard clips requiring a production chain (one worker passing their work to another) and extra resources (paint, gold, tools, etc.) which need to be bought and moved around the building too.

The visual are fine, audio not so much. An ever growing company fits the theme, but the company type isn't too original (clicking isn't either, obviously!)

Try not to fall for the clicker curse next time. It will consume you(r artistic integrity)!

Overall: Average (4)
Graphics: Above average (6)
Audio: Bad (3)
Gameplay: Say no to clicking… (1)
Originality: Terrible (2)
Theme: Good (7)

@HuvaaKoodia harsh but fair, flattered that you think I might have artistic integrity though :)
Ok no more clickers, probably ;) … you should try everything once though right?

Once is acceptable.
I too tasted the forbidden fruit many a moon ago.
Never again!
Without proper pay at least…