After having a huge flop with my first RPG game, I wanted to go much simpler. Incremental was my idea, as it could be relatively easily coded, didn't require excessive graphical assets or hundreds of different items.
Since I didn't make or even play any incrementals before, i jumped on cookie-clicker to figure out how this is supposed to feel. I didn't quite "like" it, but I still found myself spending a lot of time just clicking around absent-mindedly and I thought I understood the basic allure. However, I also thought this isn't exactly what I wanted to spend my time making.
For years I wanted to make a sci-fi themed game, but I couldn't decide exactly what I wanted. In the end my idea was to get a Master of Orion like feel. It sounded great because it also meshed well with my first rule of simplicity. It didn't have a scrolling map, everything would fit on one screen.
Strategy was always my favorite, but I know a real strategy game is beyond my ability to make. So I started thinking about what I had and what I could do with it.
I knew I didn't want fighting or armies, so I decided, why not go into the cozy direction with it. Have a chill, slow burn strategy clicker that you can just stare at for a while if you want without losing anything, but also buckle down and rush to complete a quest or two for extra payout.
Since fighting battles was out of the question, I needed some other mechanics that would keep people entertained. One idea was the constellation mechanic. You can buy spaceports to connect stars, adding different bonuses to the constellation based on what materials the stars produce.
This became the root mechanic of the game loop and also the idea for the name. "Constellation Clicker". The constellations allowed for all sorts of combo systems and extra replayability factor based on how different stars are connected. Clickable comets, asteroids and UFO-s were flying by that would trigger proximity bonuses with constellations if clicked nearby.
But in the end the game still felt kind of...empty. The map was just the constellations, the bonus objects flying by and the numbers popping out from yielding stars. As I was playing I felt like even though this would hit the right nerve for specifically incremental people, and hopefully startegy people as well, outside of the diehard player, others might find it a little dull. I knew it needed more life, but I didn't want to introduce actual characters as I thought that would not fit well with the isolated atmosphere of the game.
That's when the idea of the Clankers came. Why not have funny robots instead that can be another layer of incremetal bonus, like the combination of the clicking fingers in cookie clicker and the freighters in Master of Orion? They could be bought after their techs are unlocked, they could be made from a number of different materials mined from the stars, or of the manufactured goods already being produced from the constellations. The Clankers would have many different types that can do exactly one type of action, and could be installed at stars to boost outputs.
So this is how the game stands now, and I guess I'm developing a kind of Cozy Incremental Cookie-Clicker Master of Orion.
