This clicker game lets you take over the world with paper clips

Universal Paperclips is an incremental game that starts out in a humble factory and ends somewhere after the fall of humanity. Like most titles in the category — which folks also call “idle” or “clicker games” — it’s all about the numbers as you buy wire, churn out paper clips, and amass enough wealth for what’s essentially a hostile takeover of the entire planet. It’s a free web game.

Game designer Frank Lantz created Universal Paperclips as a solo project. He’s an industry vet who’s the director of the New York University Game Center. Previously, he was the director of game design at Gamelab, the studio that developed the hit game Diner Dash. He also founded Area/Code, a social game studio that Zynga acquired in 2011.