It <i>is</i> a fantastic game.<p>Speed runners have done it in 1:40:05, first runs can take 8 - 12 hours or more. A first run report, with advice but no spoilers <a href="https://fogknife.com/2017-10-11-i-played-universal-paperclips.html" rel="nofollow">https://fogknife.com/2017-10-11-i-played-universal-paperclip...</a><p>Some interviews with the designer, and previous postings:
<a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=paperclips&sort=byPopularity&type=story" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...</a><p>Other great idle/clicker/growth games include:<p>* Drowning in Problems: <a href="http://game.notch.net/drowning/#" rel="nofollow">http://game.notch.net/drowning/#</a><p>* Derivative Clicker: <a href="https://gzgreg.github.io/DerivativeClicker/" rel="nofollow">https://gzgreg.github.io/DerivativeClicker/</a><p>* 2nd Derivative Clicker: <a href="https://jamuspsi.github.io/second/" rel="nofollow">https://jamuspsi.github.io/second/</a>
If curious see also (but note: here be spoilers)<p>2019 <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19513089" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19513089</a><p>2017 <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15474055" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15474055</a><p>2017 <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15437697" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15437697</a><p>2017 (a bit): <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569</a><p>A bit from 6 months ago: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560</a>
Oh god. Just clicked this and remembered the first time I discovered this game a couple years ago. It was a Sunday morning and I'd just had a cup of strong coffee.<p>Before I knew it, I spent literally the entire day playing the game. I eventually got to the end after an entire day of playing.<p>Incredibly addictive.
If you want to try a different way to play through this game, most of the functionality is pretty accessible as js functions. You can try to automate stuff in various ways with a tampermonkey script or whatever. For example, click(N) is equivalent to pressing the main paper clip button N times.
Made me remember<p><a href="http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/" rel="nofollow">http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/</a><p>(It's been released as a paid mobile app but you can play the original web version by clicking past the message)
I have the Kittens Game open in another tab. A few hundred years in on my 6th reset. Yet, for some self-destructive reason, I clicked this.<p>I played this a few years ago and I think I "beat" it? I don't remember having any path forward after I did all the things (I won't spoil it here), but I maybe just felt like I went as far as I wanted to.<p>I guess I'll find out this week...
<i>Wow</i>.<p>"Universal Paperclips achieved in 5 hours 25 minutes 8 seconds"<p>I did <i>not</i> have those extra 5+ hours to "waste"... but this has got to be one of the single most compelling activities I've ever done.<p>Seriously one of the simplest yet cleverest things I've seen in a long time.
I've been wondering about if there is an algorithm that gives an (approximately) optimal sequence of decisions that are optimal: <a href="https://github.com/void4/notes/issues/66" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/void4/notes/issues/66</a><p>And created a site with a number of deterministic games with a limited number of steps: <a href="https://qewasd.com/" rel="nofollow">https://qewasd.com/</a><p>What is the highest/lowest value that can be reached? Which scores can be reached and which cannot? It seems to be equivalent to the halting problem.<p>If anyone knows of a better solution than brute force, let me know!
This is a really, really good game. I found out about it from HN comments to some article around a year ago, and then over Thanksgiving family gathering we had probably 5-6 people having a blast with it at a family gathering.
This is a fantastic game, but I wish it were a native app or ran in WebAssembly or something.<p><i>spoiler alert</i><p>I took my time on Stage 1, and running in the browser it began to stutter a lot toward the end when lots of activity was going on at once (2B paperclips, price $400ea, 290K clips/sec, WireBuyer, AutoTourney, stock market, full quantum chips, etc). I assume it's due to garbage collection or some kind of Chrome constraints (but that's just a guess).
One thing that's funny to me about this game is that it the classic "hello world" for the Elm architecture is a button that increments a number[1]. It's not hard to imagine that something like this could've started with that and just kept running with it.<p>[1] <a href="https://guide.elm-lang.org/architecture/buttons.html" rel="nofollow">https://guide.elm-lang.org/architecture/buttons.html</a>
Well dang. I wasn't expecting to be so compelled by paperclip production but...
> Full autonomy attained in 2 hours 32 minutes 5 seconds|<p>Awesome game. Thanks creator!
After wasting far too much of my evening, it looks like I made it to the beginning of Stage 3.<p>Ran out of patience.<p>This game keeps going and going...<p>Edit:<p>Apparently it saves your state when you close the tab.<p>May have to go back another time and keep on going.