Now, there’s no reward in this game, there’s no winner or loser, and there’s no endgame.

But luckily I don't have to argue this, because Raph Koster has already done the hard work for me: I'd argue, in fact, that a clicklet is not a game mechanic at all, it is a process of operant conditioning. And a clicklet is not optional: you can choose to crouch roll or not crouch roll in Zelda: Ocarina of Time while you travel across Hyrule field and it will not impact the game in any way. A clicklet is an atomic action: it always makes sense to shoot Space Invaders, but you do this through moving left or right, firing, not by clicking on the Space Invaders individually. The only resource a clicklet uses up is player attention: clicking to attack in Diablo is not a clicklet because it distinguishes which monster you spend time attacking. There's several key differences between a clicklet and other game mechanics.

I could not see any situation which warrants not shaking a tree when fruit is available. In Bunni, the clicklet is tree shaking, which allows you to collect fruit and other rewards. Zombies, the sunshine collection mechanic is a clicklet - some plants generate sunshine, which you must manually click on as it drifts across the screen in order to collect it. A clicklet is something you have to do within the game - clicking a location on the screen - for which there is no situation where it makes sense not to perform this action. Zombies, and is an example of what I'll refer to as clicklets. One mechanic in the game is very similar that in another casual game, Plants vs. If you enjoyed this, you may also want to try: Supreme Commander.')īut, praise for the game aside, Bunni has an excellent example of the moral quandries of game design. In fact, the only thing missing from the game was a click through advert for Starcraft: GotY edition. Later in the game you may want to do this, as it's a far easier way to upgrade resource types without having to bomb them. I'm not sure whether IEDs would have been an appropriate substitute).īunni has quite a subtle resource mechanic: flowers provide support for you units, but it is also possible to over farm resources if you have too many workers which balances the urge to rush them and requires you devote attention to getting the mix of worker and resource quantities right. I especially enjoyed the deer quest which happens about 20 minutes in, having had to deal with deer in the garden at home recently (The local council suggested I shoot them or, failing that, throw rocks at them.

You can play the game here, but I recommend you don't click through until after finishing this article, because you won't be back for an hour or two. I've finally played Dan Cook's Bunni Game: How We First Met - a horrendously addictive casual Flash RTS which he has blogged about as a part of his Flash Love Letters series.

Why wont bunni how we first met work