The 1-Bit Clicker Jam was a game jam that challenged developers to create an idle game or clicker using 1-bit. The only input had to be the mouse control and the game needed 8-bit or chiptune sounds. I was able to play and record all of the games entered into this jam in my video compilation series. Below are a few of my favorites, in no particular order.

City Clickers is a really in depth city management game where you must spend your funds, earn money, and build up your entire town! You take a plot of land and start building your town on it. Buildings need to be placed adjacent to roads, so you will need to plan out what you are doing well. You start with a limited amount of money to spend on your town. Constructing buildings, shops, and roads has an upfront cost, but some of the structures, such as shops and factories, will generate an income. Other buildings, like water towers, the roads you build, and parks, have a financial upkeep. You must balance the income you have and the expenses of the town, while otherwise meeting the demands of the town. As your town grows, the demands will change, and you will be required to continue to meet those too. If, at any point, you run out of money, you can take out a loan, but beware though as you will need to pay it back later. The ‘clicker’ part of City Clicker comes when you build the buildings. You get to click the construction icon over and over to create the buildings in your town.

Fairy Song is a simply wonderful free roaming game full of surprises and secrets to discover. You take control of a fairy who is able to fly around this large world, checking out various structures, and interacting with little puzzles. Flying around is very fun, the world and the colors change when you explore. You can stumble upon loads of different buildings, rooms that are fit for wizards, and even little graves! There are other mythical creatures that are hanging out here and there, getting on with their lives. If you spy some areas you can’t quite get to or some objects to interact with, you can try to figure out how to get to new places. There are ropes that can be pulled out and buttons to push that will lower walls. Sometimes you can even find items to collect and take with you on your adventure. Fairy Song is a relaxing game, perfect for a rainy day.

Hit The Motherlode is a mining management game where you are starting your own mining company with your kobold mining partner Omicron. You both had stumbled into a new cave, uncharted, filled with a huge supply of gems. You both figured you could extract profit from this mine quickly but also ethically. You both are trying to spread the wealth, so you are hiring more people (when you can afford it) to help you mine. When you hire a person, you get to see their name and their pronoun, as well as the amount they have earned so far on the miners page. You also get to hear about the lives of these people from Omicron. These little stories and comments from Omicron make all the difference when it comes to sticking around and mining along with everyone else in your company. You can also purchase upgrades for the company which will make mining faster, but employing new people and hearing about their lives is my favorite part of this addictive clicker.

Regent is a super interesting city management game where you are creating a new town for adventurers. You have a variety of buildings that you can create - each produce different things and others require energy. Most of these buildings also require people to use them! You can place tents for people to sleep in, mines for miners to work in, windmills to produce energy and for farmers to operate, as well as towers to defend your town from the creatures that come out in the night. During the day, different adventurers show up, telling you their story and looking for a job. If you hire someone with experience in farming to work on a farm, you get a bonus on that farm, while if you hire that same farmer to work in the mines, it may cost you. You will need to be strategic of the people you hire and for what. At night, settlers will not appear, and you will instead have to fight back against monsters coming to take your money and break your buildings. You can set up towers that will fight back as well, but you will also need to tap them away. During the night, you can click on the moon timer to make the sun rise faster. This town can become quite big, with a huge area to look after, but it is very fun managing tents and hiring people to come work for you!

The Voyager’s Trail has you attempting to make a journey across the sea to an island. You have a crew, like any respectable captain, which you do have to take care of. These people require food and water to survive the journey, but you must also make it to an island in a timely matter. This forces you to paddle when you can, but to pick the right times to collect water and fish. You can collect water by staying under rain clouds, collecting the rainwater on your boat. For food, you can fish at any point, but fishing does take time. To fish, you have to click and hold while a percentage builds up. Once you hit 100 percent, you get a fish. Some areas, which are shown by loads of bugs above the water, attracting the fish to the surface. Here, you will be able to fish faster. If you start to run out of either of these resources, your crew might die as their needs are not met. Your goal is to still get to the islands, but will you be able to make it with all of your crew? I really enjoyed fishing and collecting water vs rowing fast to get closer the land. There isn’t a place that says how close you are to this island, so you will need to guess!

Penguin Clicker is a cute clicker that has you getting as much fish as you can collect to sell for money, in order to create a huge castle on the iceberg. You are the king penguin, so you sit in your tower, clicking on the ocean to collect fish. You can sell the fish to gain money, which will then allow you to hire various animals and buildings for your piece of ice. Penguins will collect more fish for you, as will seals (though they do not like igloos), fishing boats, and grumpy polar bears. Igloos give you cash directly. All of this money has one goal - to increase the size of the castle. As you fill up your iceberg with animals, it starts really collecting fish! You can even spin around this world, seeing it from different angles. I really enjoyed the little story at the start as well as all of the adorable animals I could place on my island.

Just Ego. is an emotional clicker that tells the story of a person who is now in limbo. You control that person, trapped on a platform. You are only able to move around in that area and shoot the other enemies that fade into existence. Your shots sometimes miss the ghosts, but this is part of the game, as you tell the story. You will need to move around to read all of the story and attempt to balance reading and surviving, which will eventually become too challenging and cause you to die. This game does have a deeper story about your death and about your family when you were alive. It is a very emotional tale that is well worth reading, if you are able to survive long enough to really get into it.

#1BitClickerJam #CityClickers #FairySong #HitTheMotherlode #Regent #TheVoyagersTrail #PenguinClicker #JustEgo