This new Hyper Casual game from Original Games lets you venture into the world of Crypto currency without losing a cent!  Do you have what it takes to mine a Bilcoin fortune and take over the DuckWeb?

The sole object of the game is to make as much “Bilcoin” as you can.  To earn your initial coin you have to click the mine button.  Once you have enough coins you will be able to purchase computers to do the mining for you.  The idea behind this Crypto Duck game is to simplify the idea of CryptoCurrency in a satirical way.

The development  of Crypto Duck had a strange beginning.  The game originally had nothing to do with crypto currency until the prototype was complete.  When I began this prototype, it was a continuation of the Cube-Space app that I had begun to develop over the first half of this major project.  The Idea of Cube-Space was to aid students and young professionals on how to choose components for a computer and build them to save money.  It also had aspects of ergonomics and time management.  These are other topics I would like to cover, although I feel making smaller more modular apps will be more effective.

The main question that led me down this development path was “how would I generate the currency for purchasing these computer components?” I researched different types of monetary systems in games and discovered the Incremental Clicker genre.  Personally, I had never played a game like this before and found it interesting.  The fact that the gameplay is based completely around clicking a single button was so simple.  A couple great examples are the Universal Paperclips by Frank Lantz and Cow Clicker by Ian Bogost.  I will be referring to Ian Bogost quite a bit through my write-ups because I am currently reading his book, Persuasive Games, and I find his motives for making games much like my own.

I was lucky enough to find a great tutorial series on SkillShare, which walked me through the most difficult code.  After programming a few simple games I’ve learned that simple gameplay is actually much more involved than it seems.  I reused the menu system and voxel-style office I had made for my Cube-Space prototype and after a long weekend of development, I had an incremental clicker clicker.  The idea to make a game about CryptoCurrency happened at this time.   I previously had been involved in CryptoCurrency and thought the extreme volatile nature of the currency was exciting.  Well, at least until the market crashed and I lost a lot of money.  I thought that this theme would be edgy and really speak to my audience.  I could also possibly persuade them to not make the same mistake I did.

Another small break-through I had with this project was actually building a WebGL version ready for mobile.  I’ve learned that mixing 3D elements into UI designs is much more difficult and further research will be needed to make this prototype ready for publishing.

I would also like to add some features to make the game more enjoyable and involving.  First, I would like to make the sum of the purchased computers equal to the amount received while mining.  I feel this will be a good incentive to continue clicking when you have a good income generating automatically.

Secondly, I would like to add some extra visuals to the game.  I feel each computer should have a distinct look, stats and description.  Also, in the background of the frame with the duck I would like to add a dummy graph that shows the market value.

Finally, a save function would be ideal.  While beta testing this game I had some friends pretty upset after accumulating billions of Bilcoins and closing their browser, losing the entirety of their fortune.  Although, not having a save option might make the game more realistic because you never know when your CryptoCurrency is just going to disappear.  A lesson I’ve learned the hard way.

Crypto Duck was inspired by other incremental clickers like Cow Clicker and Paperclips.  I found similarities not just in the mechanics of the game but also the conceptualization. Ian Bogost the creator of Cow Clicker states:

“Satire these days risks becoming mere conceptual art. The idea of the “cow clicker” arose almost involuntarily” Bogost [1]

I feel that the Crypto Duck theme of CryptoCurrency was an afterthought.  Development was a way of reusing the art assets I had originally made for the UI system of Cube-space, my original thesis artifact I pivoted from.  Scott Rogers  states in his book, Level up: The Guide to Great Video Game Design.

“If something doesn’t work, throw it out. Don’t be precious with your ideas. They’re a dime a dozen.  But when you do throw something out, have a back up plan” Rogers -pg459 [2]

My back up plan was that I reused the art assets and in a way made  a meme of the original Cube-Space project. I simplified the game to one screen and related it to the cultural idea of cryptocurrency.

“Cryptocurrencies affect the economic, political, cultural, and social life of humankind.”  Worldfinancialreview.Com stated.[3]

I believe this technology is here to stay and if used correctly has potential to save a business money.  Due to:

“Traditional banks charge fees for transfers, they even can refuse to give you money. Cryptocurrencies, however, can be transferred from person to person without intermediaries and without restrictions on your account.” [4]

I should probably end this discussion here because I am going off topic.  Please give Crypto Duck a try, the mobile version should be released early 2021.

“So much clicking but it’s worth it.  I like how I can pretend to understand cryptocurrency and ‘mine’ heaps of it!  Not to mention the epic fleet of computers I get to brag about…”

“CryptoDuck is clickin’ fun!  One thing that can be added is maybe a feature to upgrade your mine button?  Sometimes it’s nice to upgrade what you got until you can afford to buy something hella fancy (:”

“Super addicting clicker game, start mining bilcoin now!”

Citations:

[1] Cow Clicker. (2010, July 21). Bogost.Com http://bogost.com/writing/blog/cow_clicker_1/

[2] Rogers, S. (2014). Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design (2nd ed.). Wiley.

[3] Just a moment… (n.d.). Https://Worldfinancialreview.Com. https://worldfinancialreview.com/the-influence-of-cryptocurrency-on-the-world-economy/

[4] What are the benefits of cryptocurrencies for the society. (n.d.). Https://Www.Daviescoin.Io. https://www.daviescoin.io/blog/what-are-the-benefits-of-cryptocurrencies-for-the-society