If you’ve ever been addicted to a social game that involves gaining levels by repeatedly clicking on “finish quest” buttons, you’ve got to try Progress Wars. Progress Wars is Jakob Skierning’s new parody game that allows you to repeatedly click on a button to finish quests and gain levels… but that’s all there is to it.
While social games like Mafia Wars tend to allow us to live out the fantasy of being a kingpin mobster, the truth is that a lot of the action consists of clicking through task bars. This game is a parody of that, and the various quest names are hilarious, and include “fish for thugs” or “roundhouse drop kick a tanker”. Jakob works for a company called Substance Labs , and likely created this to demonstrate that social games involve a lot of clicking.
Having worked in the console game industry for years, I know a lot of game designers who were extremely critical of games like Mafia Wars or Sorority Life, where quests are engaged by just clicking through a button, and no real action or gameplay took place. That said, as time passed, we understood the role of the games to be extremely casual diversions and perhaps exactly what the audience wanted. The big question is: if someone made a Mafia Wars where instead of clicking a button, you were able to actually engage in the Mafia gunfight, would the same number of players be able to enjoy it casually? Perhaps the mass audience would be less inclined to play, but the hardcore players would love it more. Maybe if the game had an option to either skip battles or play them, you could hit both audiences.
In any case, check out the game, and be warned that it’s very difficult once you get to level 15 or so, because each click gives you less experience. Do you have what it takes to be a Progress War kingpin?
The graphics are great but the game only has one image!
