8.8 /10 1 Votes
9/10 Steam Developer(s) Playsaurus Initial release date 6 August 2014 Mode Single-player video game | 4.4/5 Kongregate 4.4/5 Google Play Publisher(s) Playsaurus Genre Incremental game | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date(s) Browser
WW: 2014
Microsoft Windows, OS X
WW: May 13, 2015
Mobile Devices
WW: Aug 20 2015 Platforms Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Web browser, Macintosh operating systems Similar Browser games, Other games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Clicker Heroes is an idle game developed by Playsaurus, originally released in 2014 for browsers and for mobile devices in 2015. It is a spinoff of Playsaurus's earlier Cloudstone, using many graphics from that game.
Contents
Clicker Heroes is free-to-play, with micro-transactions to buy a premium "rubies" currency. Micro-transactions are not required to progress through the game; they were added some time into the game's life, and there are multiple gameplay mechanics centered around getting the premium currency in-game.
Gameplay
In Clicker Heroes, the player clicks on the enemy on the right of the screen to damage it and eventually kill it. Once killed, it will drop gold (which can change depending on the level the player is at and if the enemy is a boss) which can be used to upgrade and purchase characters. The game is similar to Cookie Clicker in the sense that, once the characters are unlocked they will do the player's job for them and increase the total damage per second the player does. The game runs without the player needing to do anything.
The goal is to obtain a currency called "hero souls", which is used to buy powerful heroes called Ancients. Every fifth and tenth floor (level) is a boss floor. Starting from floor 105, bosses have an initial 25% chance to be primal, which means they drop hero souls once killed. Every hundredth floor has a guaranteed primal boss, with the first ten being unique monsters not encountered elsewhere. Additional, for every 2000 hero levels (total) the player will receive one hero soul. The collected hero souls are not immediately available. The player must buy the hero Amenhotep and buy his ability called 'Ascension'. Clicking this ability will cause the player to 'ascend', which resets the game and makes the previously collected hero souls available to be spent on Ancients. Ancients are permanent, meaning that even though the player has to hire and level all the regular heroes again, the Ancients with their powerful bonuses will remain. So every time the player ascends and buys Ancients the game will be a bit easier, meaning the player can reach a higher level before having to ascend again.
Release
In August 2014, it was released onto Kongregate, and in September 2014, it was released onto Armor Games. It was later released onto the online distribution platform, Steam in May 2015 for Microsoft Windows and OS X. It was also released for iOS and Android on Aug 20 2015. Version 1.0 was released in June 2016 and included a feature called "transcendence". When a player transcends: they will keep their ancient souls (received by transcending), rubies, outsiders, lifetime achievements, mercenaries and clans but will lose everything else including gilds, hero souls, relics, ancients, and zone progress.
Sequel
Playsaurus continues to update the game, and they are also working on a Clicker Heroes II. It appears to reintroduce elements of Cloudstone.
Recently, Gravity hired Playsaurus to develop a Ragnarok Online-themed version of Clicker Heroes, titled Ragnarok Clicker.
Reception
Clicker Heroes received very positive reception from critics and from the gaming community; with the game reaching Steam's top 10 most played games, peaking at 56,768 players in-game on 26 May 2015. Clicker Heroes' popularity on Steam initiated the release of other incremental games on the service.
Kotaku's Nathan Grayson said the game "[is a] perfect office space distraction". Eurogamer writer, Christian Donlan said the game was his "gaming secret" and was very addictive in its own way. Forbes writer Paul Tassi said if the game gained traction in the mobile market, it could become the top mobile game of 2015.