The RPG-influenced Clicker Heroes is one of the most popular games in the “clicker” genre, where players are given simple tasks, such as clicking, and many things happen around this gesture. These games tend to make their money through microtransactions. Given how well Clicker Heroes did, it’s no surprise developer Playsaurus would make a sequel, but they’ve made some genuinely shocking choices with Clicker Heroes 2. Most importantly, the game won’t be free, a choice informed by, among other reasons, to ”not feed an addiction.”
as a girl who is playing 2 clickers right now (but blessedly has never dropped a cent on either) i found this article really interesting. Good on the devs for doing the right thing. I’ve actually never played Clicker Heroes, but I think I will now just to support devs being a positive change in the clicker space
It’s cool to see this be the case for what I think is one of the bigger clickers (not really sure). I’ve not played a clicker in a long time, but that kind of attitude in development makes me want to support them.
There’s only ever been one mobile game I’ve been into, and I’m still playing it currently. When I first read the above I thought it didn’t apply, but in reflection, I totally do pay for their monthly ‘diamond’ pack. It allows me to collect all of the items for their short-term events (usually < a week), and without it, I’d be limited to getting only 25-50% of them, even if I did everything right. It’s definitely one of the more generous F2P games when it comes to giving players free premium currency, but even then it isn’t enough just to be skilled, and they have other hooks in there to get you paying as well.
This is an attitude I really like and appreciate, so it’s very persuasive as a reason to get Clicker Heroes 2 when it comes out.
I’m curious if this is a stance that they would (could?) take if Clicker Heroes (the first) wasn’t successful. For small indie devs like Playsaurus, it’s pretty rough going out there these days. “Free” is a pretty appealing proposition to get people onboard and notice you.
This is really cool. I am a fan of the first Clicker Heroes. I dropped a few bucks, as I tend to do when I enjoy a F2P game, but didn’t feel like it was particularly necessary or even useful.
I’ll be picking this up when it comes to mobile, and I look forward to getting my Founder’s Pack a year and a half later when they switch it back to F2P because they aren’t making any money.
Good on them, but yeah, I wonder how the audience will treat a paid clicker.
Oddly, I think clickers/idle games have generally been pretty reasonable with their F2P models – most that I’ve played have avoided gacha mechanics and are pretty upfront with what you’re buying, and they’re typically solo affairs so you don’t feel pressured to keep up with other players.
I look forward to seeing how this works out. I played an OBSCENE amount of Clicker Heroes when I was studying for some big exams a couple years ago. I ended up dropping about 20 bucks on it. I was happy to do so because of the hours and hours of “enjoyment” I got out of it. Will definitely buy when it comes out.