Clicksy
efficiency
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In the tall grass beside the boards, if you listen carefully, you'll hear a small, bright chirp-chirp-chirp. That is Clicksy, a green cricket with long, twitching antennae and a tiny notepad he carries everywhere. Every time a player clicks, Clicksy makes a little mark on his notepad with one leg.
Clicksy counts clicks. Every single one.
"Not to scold anybody," he says quickly, whenever someone looks worried. "Just to measure. You can't get better at something you don't measure."
The two hares that Bevvy had helped came hopping over to Clicksy the very next day. They had a new question.
"Bevvy showed us how hard each board is," said the first hare. "My board needed at least forty clicks. My friend's needed at least fifty-five. But we still want to know: which of us played better?"
Clicksy chirped with delight. "That's my favourite question! And now that you have Bevvy's number, it's easy."
He flipped his notepad to a clean page. "First, how many clicks did you each actually use?"
"Forty," said the first hare.
"Sixty," said the second.
"Now," said Clicksy, "take the board's fewest clicks and divide it by the clicks you used. That's your efficiency. It tells you how close you came to perfect, on your own board."
He scratched out the sums with his leg. "First hare: the board needed forty, and you used forty. Forty divided by forty is one. That's a perfect score: every single click did real work."
The first hare beamed.
"Second hare: your board needed fifty-five, and you used sixty. Fifty-five divided by sixty is a little less than one. Very close! Only a few of your clicks were wasted."
The second hare's ears perked up. "Only a few? I thought I did way worse!"
"You did great," chirped Clicksy. "See how this works? Efficiency is fair on any board. A big hard board and a small easy board can be compared, because each one is measured against its own fewest clicks. It doesn't matter that your board was harder. You're only being measured against what your board needed."
"What counts as a wasted click?" asked the first hare.
Clicksy's antennae twitched. "Clicking a square that was already going to open for free. Flagging a mine you didn't need to flag. Opening a square that a single chord could have opened with its neighbours. Every click that didn't move you closer to clearing the board." He tapped his notepad. "Your score can even go above one, if you use a clever move called a chord that opens many squares at once. But that's Chordy's story."
Then Clicksy said the most important part.
"Your efficiency is for you. Try to beat your own best, not somebody else's. That way it's always about getting better, never about feeling small."
Clicksy feels most like Clicksy when a player finishes a board, checks the notepad, and discovers they wasted fewer clicks than last time. It is a light, springy, hopping-up-and-down feeling, like landing a jump you've been practising all week.
You have a bit of Clicksy in you whenever you measure yourself fairly and kindly. After your next board, find your efficiency, and say it the way he does: "Clicksy divides the fewest clicks by the clicks you took."
Then see if you can beat your own best.
Hear it as an audio drama
A short play starring Clicksy, from Sweep League. Different voices, same idea. Listen any time after you read.
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Read the drama script
- Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and Sweep League — this is Clicksy, in chapter 1 of the Sweep League cast.
- Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
- Narrator: In the tall grass, Clicksy the cricket made a tiny mark in his notepad for every click.
- Clicksy: Not to scold anybody! Just to measure.
- Hare: My board needed forty clicks and I used forty. My friend's needed fifty-five, and he used sixty. Who played better?
- Clicksy: My favourite question! Divide the board's fewest clicks by the clicks you actually used. That's your efficiency.
- Narrator: Forty divided by forty is one. Fifty-five divided by sixty is a little over nine tenths.
- Second Hare: Only a few wasted clicks? I thought I did way worse!
- Clicksy: You did great! Efficiency measures you against what your own board needed. A hard board and an easy one can finally be compared fairly.
- Hare: Can it go above one?
- Clicksy: With a good chord, it can. But that's Chordy's story.
- Clicksy: And your efficiency is a mirror, not a medal. Beat your own best, never somebody else's.
- Narrator: Divide the fewest clicks by the clicks you took. That's Clicksy's whole idea.
- Narrator: You've been listening to a Spark and Anvil chapter, written by the Spark and Anvil writing team for ages 9 to 14.
- Narrator: Apps stay free forever.
- Narrator: Curriculum aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.
- Narrator: Released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for educational reuse. Visit Spark and Anvil for the full transcript.
The Sweep League ensemble
Clicksy is one of the friends in Sweep League. Each friend shows you one idea by how they act; meet them all and you have the whole subject.
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Surefoot
only steps where she is SURE; asks which square the numbers prove
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Bevvy
A bee who knows the fewest clicks a board could take - its 3BV
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Oddsley
An owl who weighs every arrangement the numbers allow - the exact odds of a mine
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Chordy
A crab who opens a whole ring of squares at once when a number's mines are all flagged
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Floody
A duck who knows a zero opens its whole empty region in one go
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Knowsley
A red panda who knows every board can be solved by knowing, never by guessing
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Rewinda
A squirrel who checks a run by re-playing every move, never by trusting it
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Samesby
A penguin who knows a race code gives both racers exactly the same board
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Sumsy
A hamster who knows the total number of mines shapes the odds of every hidden square
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Tickwell
A hare who knows your speed is shown only AFTER you finish, never while you play
