Cow Clicker
A satirical Facebook game where players click a cow once per timer.
Where Cow Clicker comes up2 episodes and tests
GCreator of Game Maker's Toolkit, game designer and video essayist testThe History of Every Video Game Genre
Gcreator of Game Maker's Toolkit testThe 100 Games That Taught Me Game Design- 1Satirize FarmVilleIan Bogost built it in 2010
- 2Strip loop to rewardClick a cow every six hours
- 3Players get hookedMore than 50,000 players
- 4Genre takes off9,000+ Steam games tagged incremental
From Ian Bogost on Cow Clicker
What was said about Cow Clicker
Cow Clicker mocked Facebook games and still hooked tens of thousands of players. Ian Bogost made it in 2010 as a joke about FarmVille. Players click a cow once every six hours, and it picked up more than 50,000 players.
It was a satire of shallow, addictive Facebook games, built as a passive loop reduced to its bare reward. One source says only that thousands got hooked; the other gives the 50,000 figure.
Stripping a loop to its bare reward exposed a strong core and started a genre. Cow Clicker and Progress Quest were both satires that reduced a game type to a passive, shallow loop. Both became hugely popular and spawned Cookie Clicker, AdVenture Capitalist and the incremental genre, with more than 9,000 games tagged incremental on Steam.
The lesson is to strip a product to its core to see what hooks people. As the source puts it: "Not bad for a genre that started as a joke."
The History of Every Video Game Genre
It satirized shallow, addictive Facebook games but picked up more than 50,000 players. Along with Progress Quest it spawned the incremental genre, with over 9,000 games tagged on Steam.
Cow Clicker mocked Facebook games and still hooked tens of thousands of players. Ian Bogost made it in 2010 as a joke about FarmVille. Players click a cow once every six hours, and it picked up more than 50,000 players.
It was a satire of shallow, addictive Facebook games, built as a passive loop reduced to its bare reward. One source says only that thousands got hooked; the other gives the 50,000 figure.
Stripping a loop to its bare reward exposed a strong core and started a genre. Cow Clicker and Progress Quest were both satires that reduced a game type to a passive, shallow loop. Both became hugely popular and spawned Cookie Clicker, AdVenture Capitalist and the incremental genre, with more than 9,000 games tagged incremental on Steam.
The lesson is to strip a product to its core to see what hooks people. As the source puts it: "Not bad for a genre that started as a joke."
The 100 Games That Taught Me Game Design
Ian Bogost made it in 2010 as a joke about FarmVille. You click a cow once every six hours, and thousands of players got hooked.
Cow Clicker mocked Facebook games and still hooked tens of thousands of players. Ian Bogost made it in 2010 as a joke about FarmVille. Players click a cow once every six hours, and it picked up more than 50,000 players.
It was a satire of shallow, addictive Facebook games, built as a passive loop reduced to its bare reward. One source says only that thousands got hooked; the other gives the 50,000 figure.
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