ClickerCU
The Academic Home of Idle Game Design
ClickerCU is the first educational platform dedicated to the design, psychology, and mechanics of clicker and idle games. From exponential progress models to prestige resets and offline income, we break down what makes these games tick — and how you can build your own.
This is more than a blog. It's a living curriculum for anyone obsessed with progress bars.
Feature Spotlight
Why Idle Games Are So Addictive: Psychology Explained
Key topics:
- Active vs passive engagement
- Idle loops and anticipation theory
- False autonomy and control satisfaction
Why do players feel rewarded for simply watching numbers go up? We explore cognitive triggers behind idle gameplay: dopamine loops, perceived productivity, the illusion of exponential agency, and how time mechanics create psychological momentum.
We've deconstructed three legendary titles to understand what made them iconic:
Cookie Clicker
The blueprint
of clicker culture.
AdVenture Capitalist
The economics
of absurd scale.
Egg Inc.
Where idle mechanics meet simulation and storytelling.
Tutorials & Dev Tools
Learn to Build Your Own Idle Game
From beginner tutorials to intermediate systems engineering, these guides help you build clicker games from scratch.
Available tracks:
Unity Path:
Using coroutines, balance sheets, and UI updates
Godot Path:
GDScript-based resource trees and autosaves
Pure JS Path:
Build browser clickers with canvas + localStorage
Plus:
JSON-based upgrade system generators and balancing calculators
Community Forum Preview
Talk Loops with Like-Minded Minds
Our forum is where idle enthusiasts, students, and indie devs share prototypes, debug prestige chains, and analyze mechanics.
Sections include:
- Game critiques and mechanic breakdowns
- Code help and feedback
- Showcase your WIP clicker or spreadsheet models
- Ask professors (site admins) about game loops
About ClickerCU
Built by Designers. For Designers.
ClickerCU was created by a team of game designers, behavioral researchers, and math geeks who love watching progress bars grow. We believe idle games are a misunderstood genre - elegant in design, rich in psychology, and surprisingly deep in math.
This project is not sponsored, ad-funded, or gamified. It's a pure learning platform for systems thinkers and players who want to understand what's under the hood
Contact
Get in Touch
We welcome collaboration ideas, guest contributions, and feedback.
Email: info@clickercu.online
Support Hours: Monday-Friday, 10:00-18:00 CET
Social Links (for designer reference):
