Loading Screen Simulator (2017)

+rep brings me back to the good ole days of my PS4

Better than Wardogs

Pretty straightforward. Loading Screen Simulator is a short game about waiting for a loading screen to complete. You don't necessarily have to wait for long. The game comes with upgrades that can either make the loading screen faster or funny in some way. There are a couple of bugs, but they don't necessarily impact gameplay.

GOTY 100/10

Loading Screen Simulator is a deliberately ridiculous take on one of the most mundane experiences associated with computers: waiting for a progress bar to finish. Instead of treating loading as an inconvenience separating the player from the actual game, the entire experience revolves around it. Developed and published by CakeEaterGames, this is essentially a compact clicker game built around repetition, incremental advancement, and self-aware comedy. Its premise is immediately understandable, and much of its charm comes from refusing to pretend that it is anything more elaborate than an interactive joke stretched into a functional progression system. The gameplay follows the classic incremental formula. Clicking generates points, those points are spent to improve progression, and the process repeats as the player gradually becomes more efficient. There is something strangely satisfying about watching a deliberately slow beginning evolve into faster advancement. It taps into the same psychological appeal found in many clickers, where increasing numbers and improved efficiency become rewarding even when the player's actions remain extremely simple. There are few complicated decisio…

Loading Screen Simulator is one of those games where the joke is basically the entire game, but I think it works better than it has any right to. The idea is that I am stuck watching a loading screen, except instead of actually waiting for something to happen, I can click the screen to earn points and use those points to make the loading process go faster. It turns the most boring part of using a computer into a tiny incremental game, which is such a stupid idea that I actually find it pretty funny. The main loop is extremely simple. I click, earn points, spend those points and watch the loading speed improve. As the numbers get bigger, I can buy upgrades that make the process faster, so eventually I am not really waiting around in the same way I was at the beginning. I like how the game makes fun of clicker games at the same time as it is being one. There is something amusing about deliberately playing a game where my entire objective is to make a fake loading screen finish. The presentation is also part of the joke. I get different loading messages and screens that make the whole thing feel like I am waiting for something that probably does not exist. The music by Kevin MacLeod…