Clickopolis is, in essence, the mashup of an empire management game and incremental game. While the idea is by no means novel, Clickopolis aims to differentiate itself by delivering an engaging but deeply layered experience with loads of customization and an attractive UI & art style.
The player, at the start, is given info to fill in, including a leader for their civilization—each coming with unique abilities and traits that can influence how the game proceeds. Alongside this, they have their choice of starting Location, which also has different bonuses (the user can gain more Biome types in their Civilization based on their exploration & land).
Gameplay begins at the primordial click in the Ancient era, when the user chooses to gather food for their fledgling tribe. From there, they can increase their population and assign the new citizens to work on farms, increasing their food over time. If they have enough surplus food, they can choose to specialize citizens in other tasks, such as that of a Miner or Soldier. Quests are also available throughout the entire game for the player to achieve rewards for fulfilling certain objectives.
Soon, the player will be able to invest Research into different technologies. After unlocking Agriculture, all sorts of new technologies open up, each with different bonuses. Soon, this should give player access to new Resources, which also have different sorts of bonuses and applications. Mysiticism unlocks Faith which allows the user to choose the beliefs of their new religion, making them take into account which ones best fit their playstyle. Likewise, Poetics unlocks Culture which can flourish their empire with works of art and a plethora of bonuses. Late into this era, the Player should have the choice of building Wonders, which unlike Buildings, take a concrete amount of time to build and have a relatively good payoff plus Legacy points.
At around this point, the player has advanced into the Classical era, providing new bonuses into the generation of food and production, and unlocking even more possibilities. Around this point, the player begins to expand their land at a greater rate and meet new Nations as a result of this, giving them the option of conducting trade missions or war. Now, the influence the player has over their citizens and other Nations plays a greater role. As their economy advances, the user can take advantage of trade routes & deals, including a multiplayer marketplace. With more Nations in the fray, military strength and defense become more important—customizing one's military to the current threat & other conditions becomes important. (Note that military defeat does not mean the player "loses", it is just a mere setback.)
As the player's Empire reaches the Medieval era, Faith becomes more important and more faith-related bonuses appear. Between this era and the Renaissance, exploration becomes important for both proselytization and economic growth, often this coming in the form of colonialism. As a result, immigration / emigration factor in more into the empire's overall growth. Due to all the transportation of people and goods and poor science, plagues are more likely in this era.
At the Renaissance era, the player has the option of redeeming their Legacy points at the cost of resetting most of their data. They can redeem their legacy points for powerful bonuses in several categories or just a base +% for certain actions. Passing on their Legacy also allows them to unlock new leaders, traits, and starting bonuses when they replay the game. Alongside this, espionage becomes a more important element of gaining technology, military plans, or loot from opposing Nations. The arts start to flourish and more works of art can be unlocked, especially some that gain unbelievable amounts of value in the later eras.
The Enlightenment and Industrial eras are both pretty similar in that they introduce new resources, new techs and more bonuses to choose from. At the Industrial era, pollution should become a more significant problem for the player, but not as awful as it was in the Medieval era. Corporations become increasingly important for attaining new resources and more cash.
Modern and Atomic eras show exactly how powerful Corporations can become. Perhaps in response to pollution and degradation of resources, the player's citizens might take up more political causes than before, and have an influence on the government if the player's domestic influence isn't high enough. Likewise, Globalization & Mass Media can cause other Nations to exert greater influence on the player's civilization in they aren't careful. If the player has attained enough Faith, they will be able to found a Cult, which has power-ups that are pervasive throughout the game. (They can have multiple cults at once, based on the number of times they have Legacied).
The Information era unlocks the last major gameplay element: Robots. Robots are highly configurable, provided you have the necessary resources to build them, and can automate a wide range of tasks for you. In the same way your citizens were automatically assigned as farmers early-on, Robots can assign resources and help optimize your civilization. Though the player will soon max out on Technologies, there should be a wide number of other options to aim for, including of course, all the achievements the game has to offer. Of course, to unlock certain bonuses, the player will have to Legacy multiple games, increasing the game's playability over time.
The art of the game is largely "flat," which helps make things clear and doesn't give the game an overtly serious impression. Art for the game should reflect that, generally aiming for simple outlines. The exception for this is mostly with portraits of different leaders.
Music should change based on the different eras. Because each era takes a variable but still pretty lengthy amount of time, the music should be clearly loopable. Sound efects should be subtle where ever they happen to be.
The design of the game is likewise flat, and the UI is meant to be clear and communicative. Customizability is a huge aspect of the game and the UI should reflect that. Because there is so much data in the game, it needs to be filtered out, including giving the user to sort it out how they please. The experience would best be described is "comfy." It's the kind of game someone's going to play snuggled up in blankets watching reruns of Fraiser in an other tab.
Of course, this document doesn't get into the nitty gritty of any mechanics and new ideas are always welcome even if they end up contradicting what's said here. That's what the edit button is for.
Click for Glory!