How Cookie Clicker Ruined My Weekly Software Development Article

Or how a ‘super dumb’ and ‘super addictive’ game shows essential strategies for better software development and planning.

Prompted and edited by the Author.

This game has been criticized as ‘super dumb’ and ‘super addictive.’ It’s so addictive that it took away my chance to write this week’s article. And it’s so dumb that I’m almost embarrassed to admit I’ve been playing it, if not for what I’ve learned. It turns out the game has a strong algorithmic and planning component, and many decisions and implications remind me of software development. So, shall we first look at the game and then the mathematics behind it that can help with software development? Have I mentioned the game is super addictive? Yes, I’m repeating myself, but consider yourselves warned!

Source: Coockie Clicker Wikie

The game is Cookie Clicker. If you’ve never played it, you should know it’s a perfect example of idle games: games that can play themselves even when you’re doing nothing. Examples include FarmVille, SimCity BuildIt, or Clash of Clans. These games allow you to accumulate resources over time, helping you progress toward your goals even when you’re not actively playing. Cookie Clicker takes this to the extreme. While other games have limits requiring player interaction, Cookie Clicker continues indefinitely, accumulating points. All you need to do to enter this mode is click 15 times on a giant cookie. At that point, you can start the automations that will keep it going indefinitely.

So,

The goal of this game is to make cookies — the more, the better.

To achieve this goal, we can either click the giant cookie or accumulate enough cookies to buy one of the following automations:

Initial cost and profitability of firsts 6 items. Source: own data pictures from Coockie Clicker Wikie.

If you look at the table, you can see the initial costs of each automation. But that is not fixed. Each time that you buy one item, its cost raises immediately. It increases a 15%.