Cookie Clicker and Trimps are award winners of the genre, but what are the other contenders to round out the Top 10 Addictive Browser Game category?
I have two nominees myself, but I admit neither has the complexity of those two (or Sandcastle Builder):
Groundhog Life, a Kongregate game that, while not updated in the last 6 months, still has a certain draw. It’s relative simplicity is comforting when I just want something that doesn’t take a lot of attention (once you get a few “groundhogs” under your belt). Granted, there isn’t a lot of depth, but I keep coming back to it.
Talibri, a new independent “RPG” multi-player game that just moved to beta a couple weeks ago. It is very active in development, with a main developer who has a real job in medical robotics (IIRC), yet still finds time to work on this thing seemingly 12 hours a day. You can gather materials, craft, or fight monsters, or any combination. You can let it run AFK all day, or be very active; it’s rather free-form. Guilds are coming soon.
And in the crass commercial category: Animation Throwdown, which exhibits all the things we hate in a commercial product…yet I have played it every single day for well over a year.