Cross-Platform Paperclips: What happens when a "clicker" game becomes a "tapper" game?

Although most of us have probably played the free browser-based version of Universal Paperclips, the game is also available, for two dollars, on both iOS and Android. While the price discrepancy between the browser version and mobile versions is an interesting topic for discussion, I would like to primarily draw attention to how a mobile interface changes the experience of playing the game.

The functional, visual, and even mechanical aspects of Universal Paperclips is largely unchanged between its mobile and browser-based iterations, but the primary way in which the player interacts with the game interface is fundamentally altered. Most browser-based players would interact with the game by moving a virtual cursor across a 2D space using a physical computer mouse, and physically pressing a button on this mouse to trigger an input. Mobile players, on the other hand, typically wouldn't be using an external accessory, such as a mouse, to navigate the interface of Universal Paperclips; as such, they would primarily interact with the interface using touch-screen controls. Right or left-clicking a mouse offers particular haptic feedback, as well as a quite satisfying audible “click” sound— this sort of feedback is not replicated when playing the game off of a mobile phone. It is arguable that the physical feedback that clicking a mouse offers contributes to the addictive nature of Universal Paperclips, and of “clicker” games. If this is true, then perhaps the thematic goals of Universal Paperclips, are somewhat compromised in the mobile environment.

Given the disparity between the size of a phone screen and a computer screen (as well as the disparity between mouse-based and touchscreen-based controls), the size of buttons and the way in which the interface is partitioned is changed between the versions. The mobile version of the game has various tabs that the player can switch between to interact with the various modules in the interface— in the browser-based version all of these controls are displayed on the same screen at once. This difference in how the game presents information to the player can result in browser-based players being able to get a more holistic view of their game-state, whereas mobile players may be more inclined to focus on specific modules throughout their gameplay experience.

A major component of Universal Paperclips, and incremental games in general is the ability to “run the game in the background,” an ability that allows the player to multitask on other activities while still making progress within the game. This aspect of multi-tasking is very possible and is implicitly an inherent component to playing the game through a (desktop) browser— as players would also be able to take advantage of the wide range of functionality that a personal computer offers. However, the act of multi-tasking is very different on a mobile phone. While mobile phones have increasingly grown in functionality, I would argue that they are not yet as functional as most personal computers— additionally the method in which they are used as devices are fundamentally different. Players may be more inclined to leave Universal Paperclips running in a background tab of their browser while, for example, writing a blog post about Universal Paperclips, but players may not be as inclined to do the same on a mobile phone, especially when extraneous variables, such as battery-life and the physical environments in which one uses their phone, are taken into consideration. However, the inherently mobile nature of mobile games may complicate this notion quite a bit; in some way this causes the mobile experience to offer something that the browser-based experience cannot.

However, I must admit that I haven’t played Universal Paperclips on a mobile phone. I am interesting in hearing if any of you did play the mobile version of the game, and whether your experience of the game was impacted by the change in platform.