Simple and accessible clicker games have attracted about half a billion users worldwide. Trends point to a growing number of gamers in the next 10-20 years. Clickers are written in Python and Unity, in Android Studio and Scratch, Telegram, C++, with the involvement of AI. An engaging story, positive emotional tone, and reward anticipation (in-game and after listing) can be called "anchors" for the target audience. However, a respectable portion of clickers belong to scam projects: for example, out of 72 new projects launched in the previous 1-2 years, 24 (33.3%) have recently been labeled "scam".
How to make a fascinating clicker bot in Telegram, consider the design and tokenomics, without falling into the number of scammers - see Merehead's longread guide.
Graphics, sound design and Telegram bot
The start of a clicker is an idea corresponding to tone and spirit of the time, and the portrait of the target audience. You can come up with a scenario personally or taking an idea from old games in 2D-format. Drawing in raster graphics (pixel-art) in Photoshop do, outlining first outline and then filling the figure by methods of dithering. Getting carried away with gradients is not worth much, you have to consider how pleasant to the eye will be the image - clicker design is usually designed for someone who is tired or wants to rest.
Ready images in .psd format are sent to Unity. Arrays, scales of in-game currency, progress and level progression are separated parts of the graphics. Then you need to pick melodic sounds, on the basis that loud and aggressive, long melodies will sound disharmonious. Typically, you need up to 5-10 sounds, which are saved in .wav or MP3 format. To avoid annoying the gamer, it is preferable to set a default silence, a soft note or a short chord by placing a bell or megaphone in a prominent place.
The next step is to write the code - in JavaScript with the Node.js framework, in Python, C# or C++, PHP. To develop a bot in Telegram, you can also use the R language with the RStudio environment. When the bot is created in @BotFather - the confirmation of the correct launch will be a message with the alphanumeric name of the API token - we write the code in R (or another programming language), specifying the received token in the list of commands. Tags and markup in HTML are supplemented with images, stickers, animations and sounds. Setting up the scheduler and checking the scripts, commands and filters, alerts complete this part of the work.
Elements in the calculation part of the clicker business plan
Clicker chatbots and push notifications can be connected to SendPulse's multichannel platform, which has a CRM system for monetization and sales. Triggered and personalized notifications based on actions and events, adaptability for devices and integration via APIs together with A/B testing simplify IT work and analysis of results. Skills and capabilities in Telegram clicker are customized so that about 25-30% of boosters can be bought in the store for messenger currency - "stars", and the rest - for in-game assets.
Simple version of tap to earn game in Telegram assumes the passage of 50-100 levels, with the price of achieving the next step grows by the same 25-30%. In case of purchase for real money - by 10%. Payment in "stars" for bots is allowed through Telegram Stars, otherwise the clicker bot can be blocked. The Durger King bot is included in one of the options for buying "stars", each of which is valued at a rate of $0.013. Let's assume that the skill store has 8 types of tap pay increases, such that clicking on a character or screen adds 12 coins per level. If a gamer bets on financial investment, Telegram buys a lot more in-game coins for stars ($2.1 buys 250 or more coins). Clearly - a table with the results.
Level
Coins
«Stars» Telegram
Cost of Telegram "Stars" in USD
Number of in-game coins per level (per click)
Number of in-game coins per level when purchasing for Stars (per click)
1
100
160
2,1
12
250
2
130
176
2,3
24
500
3
169
194
2,5
36
750
4
220
213
2,8
48
1000
5
286
234
3,0
60
1250
6
371
258
3,3
72
1500
7
483
283
3,7
84
1750
8
627
312
4,1
96
2000
9
816
343
4,5
108
2250
10
1060
377
4,9
120
2500
11
1379
415
5,4
132
2750
12
1792
456
5,9
144
3000
13
2330
502
6,5
156
3250
14
3029
552
7,2
168
3500
15
3937
608
7,9
180
3750
16
5119
668
8,7
192
4000
17
6654
735
9,6
204
4250
18
8650
809
10,5
216
4500
19
11246
890
11,6
228
4750
20
14619
979
12,7
240
5000
21
19005
1076
14,0
252
5250
22
24706
1184
15,4
264
5500
23
32118
1302
16,9
276
5750
24
41754
1433
18,6
288
6000
25
54280
1576
20,5
300
6250
26
70564
1734
22,5
312
6500
27
91733
1907
24,8
324
6750
28
119253
2098
27,3
336
7000
29
155029
2307
30,0
348
7250
30
201538
2538
33,0
360
7500
31
262000
2792
36,3
372
7750
32
340599
3071
39,9
384
8000
33
442779
3378
43,9
396
8250
34
575613
3716
48,3
408
8500
35
748297
4088
53,1
420
8750
36
972786
4496
58,5
432
9000
37
1264622
4946
64,3
444
9250
38
1644008
5441
70,7
456
9500
39
2137211
5985
77,8
468
9750
40
2778374
6583
85,6
480
10000
41
3611886
7241
94,1
492
10250
42
4695452
7966
103,6
504
10500
43
6104088
8762
113,9
516
10750
44
7935315
9638
125,3
528
11000
45
10315909
10602
137,8
540
11250
46
13410682
11662
151,6
552
11500
47
17433886
12829
166,8
564
11750
48
22664052
14112
183,5
576
12000
49
29463268
15523
201,8
588
12250
50
38302248
17075
222,0
600
12500
Total
165976074
186225
2421
4800 (for 8 skills)
25000 (2 skills)
The total result is that for 166 million in-game coins, pumped to the maximum, for one click the participant will get no more than 600 units to the base level on one option. If such skills are 8, it will provide a total credit of 4800 coins per click and for such a reward it will be necessary to spend ≈ 1.3 billion.
In case of the paid option of passing (for crypto or fiat) when making $4842 (372.5 thousand "Stars" Telegram) the price of one tap will reach 25 thousand units of game currency, as the growth of the price tag will be three times slower. Imagine that the clicker will interest half a million gamers and 20% of them become regulars. From this number, 10-15% of people will choose paid features. Thus, at the first or second stage of the life cycle (a year or two), from paying customers will be able to attract $72 million, provided the full purchase of all the possibilities of character upgrade.
Skinner boxes, exponential growth and "plateaus"
Minimalistic design and incremental mechanics, simplified planning strategy and the ability to withdraw in-game tokens, exchanging them for TON, ETC and other cryptocurrencies - that is what significantly distinguishes the clicker project with a well-thought-out life cycle. Several unrelated segments (like Skinner boxes connected to a single network) form a series of goals and objectives that require assets and resources.
A drive to explore is inherent in every human being: hidden task elements stimulate autonomous player growth and excite entrepreneurial spirit. Linear growth is not as interesting as exponential or with accumulation. However, in any situation, the one who contributes real money (fiat or cryptocurrency) is always in a better growth situation than the one who tries to pass levels by wasting time. The more parameters involved in the clicker model, the more expensive p2e game development price is, reaching the level of $40-80k.
Extra opportunities for gamers to earn money by subscribing to Telegram channels, connecting to bots of clicker-partners, using the function of mining expand the possibilities of income growth at the expense of in-game assets. Scenarios where the upgrade rate is drastically reduced in comparison with the profit (coefficient 1.5-2.5 and more), increase the waiting time and repel CA. Once the game's lifecycle has reached a "plateau", it makes sense to reset to zero with the provision of bonuses and multiplying achievements or selling them. For this reason, listing and the ability to exchange earned TON for other types of cryptocurrency like ETH via verified smart contracts in Trust Wallet on DEX exchanges is so important.
Notcoin in the Explore ecosystem is the reward for playing the game
Notcoin Community launch in Telegram is another step into the world of Web3. The attracted 17-million community confirmed the success of NOT token monetization. The projects launched through it are growing - Notcoin Clicker and Lost Dogs Co, which is gaining momentum with legends for every day, are examples of this. Rewards in the form of NOT tokens are distributed among participants and the higher the level (a unit of bronze turns into a thousand at the gold level and 5000 at the platinum level), the bigger the reward. Invited Premium owners with friends receive multiplied rewards. Not Pixel will soon pass through the prism of the Explore ecosystem with a natural battle of pixels (colors).
The reward for a correctly guessed version is a certain amount of NOT. Of course, the cryptocurrency's exchange rate fluctuates, and if in early June it reached almost $0.029 per unit, there were situations when it fell below the $0.009 level, with volatility within a 3-fold difference. Therefore, tying cryptocurrency to gaming tokens should be done with an eye on USDT, taking into account long- and medium-term trends.
Yumify: a $100+k development clicker
Yumify is the new name of YesCoin project. The nice thing is that the clicker is neither slow, nor does it require constant tapping - as they like to say, it has a friendly and humanistic gameplay. The roadmap of the project that changed its name from YesCoin to Yumify is as follows: after the beta-testing ended in June 2024, the project is being run-in with the analysis of CA and rates.
Let's try to visualize the mechanics of Yumify. In 46 minutes with the energy recovery level of 2 units per second, coin capacity (multitab) of 5500, a full cycle of in-game currency is completed and the accumulation stops. It is possible to speed up the recovery time twice when the assets reach 20 thousand. The next levels of improvement - buying a booster at the set of 200, 400 and 600 K coins with further growth. The automatic mode of asset accumulation is started when the participant gains 2 million coins and buys this improvement.
Now a bit of a breakdown of the numbers in the game:
When 7000 units of energy divided by 6 units/sec recovery speed = we get 1167s of time to gain a full supply of in-game coins. That's ~20 minutes.
Regular daily multiple logins for 12 hours (3 times in 60 minutes) - 36 times x 7000 = 252k points.
When we divide the cost of the booster that speeds up asset accumulation time by the koins accumulated in a day, at a recovery rate of 7 units/sec, we get the equation: (1100 K)/(252 K)~4.5 days
If you buy a booster for 2 million points (this will take ~8 days to do with a daily accumulation of 252 K), every other coin will be automatically farmed. At level II, the same process will happen with all coins accumulated after the vault is full.
Merehead team explains in detail the mechanics and aspects of the clicker, being aware of how to create P2E games. We show the parameters of the set of in-game assets without taking into account the daily Turbo & Rechardge boosters (2 kinds and 3 attempts), which increase the power and energy recovery rate by times. For the basic improvement of boosters, points (within 300K - 3 million) are mined from the Earn category (subsections Quests, Battles & Tasks).
In the fall, the Yumify app will start running a wallet, launching tokens and NFT. From 2025, the second season with tokenization will begin. The project looks promising, even though the prospects are vague for now.
The developers and partners of the startup promise that the project will be a connection of Web2 and Web3. Such a clicker with development and support, attracting up to a million active gamers at I-II stages costs ~ $100-200K. The income is mostly provided by advertising campaigns of proven distributors and cryptocurrency companies, not by gamers.
ZigZag World Simple Clicker Review
Now let's see what a relatively simple clicker bot looks like using the example of ZigZag with a price tag of up to $20,000. In order to connect to the game, you need to log into Telegram, launch the bot, select a planet and play. As you acquire (tap) in-game coins, your character's level grows and its appearance changes. The design features - lack of aggression, cuteness of the character, similar to the hamster from Hamster Kombat script. Clicker's status in the list of new Telegram games is labeled "On Verification," so the scam is not confirmed. The 2024 roadmap includes a listing and airdrop, without which a decent taproom can't attract many participants.
You can increase the number of in-game coins you receive by buying feature packs in the store for in-game coins or "stars". Coins, meanwhile, can be earned not only by tapping on the iOS or Android screen, but also in the Tasks section (go to a channel or group, subscribe to them (unsubscribing will not affect the number of coins), watch ads, invite friends). Receiving coins and energy must be balanced - if there is a shortage of energy, the participant will not be able to gain assets.
The Top 100 list includes gamers who have managed to accumulate from 5 to 190 billion coins. For guessing the daily combo (or finding) provides a reward of 10 million coins. While the base value of the tap reward is 1 coin, as levels increase, it is possible to achieve a reward of 400+ coins for a single tap on the screen even on the first day of play. The leaderboard overview shows that the first 11 positions are occupied by developers with 40-190 billion coins. On the 20th position the player has 15 billion coins, on the 30th - 10, 40th and 50th - within 7 and 7.7 billion.
A player who receives 400 coins for one tap can click 140 thousand coins per minute (345 taps per minute or 5.8 times per second). Accordingly, an hour of continuous tapping on the screen with the pad of your finger (if your muscles can withstand it and you don't get bored with the process) will bring up to 8.4 million coins. It's ridiculous: it turns out that with a reward of 1000 coins per tap, a participant must tap for 14 thousand 493 minutes (242 hours or 20 days of 12 hours each) in order to enter the bottom of the top 100 with 5 billion coins. It will take 38 times as much time (more than a year around the clock) to tap 190 billion coins (1st place).
Implementation of incremental clicker model in Scratch
The essence of the incremental model of play is that it eliminates losses and penalties in the way of downgrades, injuries, or virtual "death". Cascading with advanced prototyping simplifies iterations and allows you to launch a complete product in MVP format. It minimizes complexity, so it's easier to test and update. The psychological element of the clicker is the lack of need to think and ponder. Analogize the situation - come after work or a busy day, sit on the couch and pet the cat. The cat is purring, your hand is walking on its fur, and your mind is blissfully thoughtless.
This is the same principle of clickers. In Scratch, in a few minutes, knowing the basic algorithm of commands, you can create a simple tapping game like a ball flying into a basket or hitting the walls. Externally, nothing complicated - connecting simple blocks, aligning them to the coordinates of the abscissa and ordinate axes, adding a few unobtrusive sounds - and the basis of the tapping game is ready. In-game coins and simple meme coins, linking to a cryptocurrency like TON or ETC, thinking about life strategy - this is already working out the parameters of tokenomics clicker. The finished application is attached to a Telegram bot.
It's important for the community to develop and grow in order to take its rightful place in the complex hierarchy of clicker games. For this purpose, they create channels with comments, groups for free communication. Solid projects make a website with contacts, news and press releases. The final stage of the project after the launch and growth of CA is listing and airdrop. Numerical indicators of financing are calculated so that the expected income does not depend entirely on the number of gamers and does not represent a pyramid scheme.
How to avoid getting into scam projects
Scamers are distinguished by a few key nuances. For example, Kuroro Ranch, which launched over 2 years ago, has never been listed. Despite having an AirDrop section and the ability to connect a TON wallet, the token selling for $2 doesn't inspire confidence. Here, the developer's anonymity is to blame, as well as the lack of information about the expected reward at the end of the season. Ton Boost clicker resembles a pyramid scheme, as there is no monetization and Airdrop deadline specified, and the price on the Geckoterminal crypto exchange is such that 739 tokens can be bought for $1.
Externally, the quality package of Taptether clicker is attractive - a solid link to USDT, stablecoins, but the % rate of 100-300% initially alarmed. The result - stop payments from 22.07.2024. Hexn with 3 million users got a scam rating due to lack of listing, roadmap and airdrop reports. Similar flaws sent Vrooomy Io, Potus click presidential election simulator, First Grow and other tappals like space clicker Era Of Explorers to this category.
At the stage of clicker deployment, it is important to monitor errors and respond to complaints. There are situations when a player's results are halved by tapping with 3-4 fingers: there was a million, now it's 500 thousand. Such errors must be prevented, otherwise the participant will not see the point of pumping levels to the maximum if the achievements are periodically reduced by 10-50%. Inquisitive gamers will start looking for information about the reasons for this, find content about the theory of Berres Skinner and realize that their desire to accumulate is cleverly used, "cheating" by zeroing a large share of honestly tapped 3-5 fingers assets.