Here is my contribution (a webapp, a.k.a. a website) http://lalo.li/lsd/ coded it years ago mostly drunk on an island in Thailand, I now like to play it again on my iPad with iPencil.
Great idea. I really enjoyed Angry Birds when it first came out and when my children asked about to install it on their devices I said this was fine. I couldn't find the original Angry Birds so installed Angry Birds 2. What an awful convoluted mess it was. Instead of a simple, fun physics-based game it's full of lives, spells, bad level design and in-app purchases.
I played the original to death "back in the day" so I'm really sad to hear that they went down this route. Probably also explains why nobody talks about Angry Birds anymore.
Top idea. Really really nice. I recently loaded up a blank Android phone with dozens and dozens of games, pretty much anything I could find for a 12h flight, only to realize most of them were an absolute horror show of IAPs and requiring internet connectivity for no apparent reason. So after you've grown this list (and it already looks amazing, excellent work!) maybe worthwhile considering to add an additional "works offline" flag, including the first start of the game. That would've been amazing to have. Either way — you've cracked the secret: make something people want (and saves them a lot of time).
This is a great idea that lots of people have requested, and it's easy to add technically, the problem is in the messaging. The only way I get feedback now is through the "add new game" form, and in that you can tell me the reason for adding the game. However, "works offline" is a nice bit of info rather than a reason to add the game, so I don't exactly know where to ask for that...
Honestly, I wouldn't mind ads if they weren't so obtrusive. a simple ad on a loading screen isn't the end of the world to me. What's annoying is trying to tap a tiny 'x', unskippable video ads, ads that try to fingerprint my device, ads that slow down my machine, ads with volume, time limiting play unless you buy an IAP (when there's no option for just buying unlimited time for a reasonable price)
I want game devs to be able to make a living, but there's a difference between game devs who responsibly put in monetization and game devs just trying to squeeze every last cent through deceit and manipulation.
I want devs to be able to make a living too, that's why I have ad-supported games on the list, as long as you can disable every single ad with a payment. What I hate is devs seeing me as a wallet to wring as much money out of as possible by preying on my addiction/impulses.
I echo the others here, Thanks! I have young kids and we let them use tablets on long trips, vacations, airplane rides. Finding games for them is impossible. They are too young to understand when characters, levels, items are locked. It seems like every 2 minutes they get stuck on some ad screen with a hidden X. I just want a game that when I pay $4, I get the full game. It doesn't even have to be a big, intensive game. My kids would be happy with a finger painting game, as long as all the colouring sheets and paint brushes are available.
I would like to build an app that's a series of games, that are all related. I want to use the freemium model, with a one-time payment. No ads, no subscriptions; once you pay, you own the entire game.
What's a better model for this? A single app with a one-time IAP; or two apps, where one is free with no ads or IAPs, but there's a link to a separate paid app with no IAPs?
It seems there's no way to distinguish easily when you're looking at the App Store whether IAP means a reasonable one time purchase for the full game, or a series of predatory IAPs. So having any IAP at all seems to turn off a lot of people. But I'm not sure two separate apps is the best approach either.
The App Store does list the possible IAPs on the page, so if I see "Full game unlock: $3.99" I'm fine with it. Others may look at "offers IAP" and be turned off< I'm afraid I can't speak for them, but the "demo with IAP unlock" seems like the best of both worlds to me.
> I would like to build an app that's a series of games, that are all related. I want to use the freemium model, with a one-time payment. No ads, no subscriptions; once you pay, you own the entire game.
That sounds a lot like old-school shareware. The free version was a full copy of the game that only included the first few minutes/hours of the missions/worlds/characters. Paying got you the whole thing.
Anecdata: I made a game like this (where enough functionality is playable to find out if you like it, and there's a one-time IAP to unlock the full game) and got a ton of complaints about it. All of them were about IAP generally, not the one in the game. I think people just see the IAP flag in the store and assume it'll be potions or gems or whatever.
One way to do it for iOS/macOS would be to try to get it into Apple Arcade. I don't know what that takes, but all of the games in it are IAP-free and ad free. A monthly fee lets you play any of them. I assume they take a cut and distribute the remainder based on number of downloads/length of game play, but am not positive about that.
> I would like to build an app that's a series of games, that are all related
This reminds me of the Cloverfield series. It would be interesting if you didn't know the games are related at the start or if you know they're related but they're not necessarily the same format or storyline. They just happen to exist in the same world.
> I want to use the freemium model, with a one-time payment. No ads, no subscriptions; once you pay, you own the entire game.
Well, in 90s, this was called shareware. The limited version (i.e. first level/episode) was legal to copy/share between users and who paid got full version.
the obvious downside is to the consumer.
For apps with IAP, pricing is almost always confusing. You often have to dig through comments.
2, IAPs don't allow the family account to work. I love buying premium games and having them work on all our family's phones.
The Life Is Strange PC series does something similar. They release in episodes and you can choose to buy one ep, or the whole game upfront. I think they're pretty successful with it but I don't think it would be as successful in mobile games.
I built a site that’s adjacent to this idea (www.darkpattern.games). It catalogs the dark patterns found in mobile games. Premium currency and ads are two of them but there are many more. The idea is that you could educate yourself so the dark patterns have less power over you and also you can browse the site to find good games that don’t have dark patterns.
That's a pretty well done site, thanks for taking the time to make it.
I don't think that all 'dark patterns' are necessarily always bad, especially after seeing everything that made your list, as you have "Complete the Collection" as an example.
While I think that it can definitely be abused and does belong on the list, I do think collecting things can be part of the fun of games for people, and that's been in games pretty much since games moved from the arcades into the home consoles.
Like platform games are often 'Collectathons', and one of my favorite games of all time, Yoshi's Island on Super Nintendo, has 5 collectible flowers and 20 red coins (and you have to do it with full health at the end of the level) to get up to 100 points for every single level. One of the things I love to do in that game is try to get the full 100 points in as many levels as possible.
Another one is Badges, which is similar to Collections, but you're collecting the completion of goals instead. Personally I loved when Xbox 360 introduced Achievements, and I still wish the Switch offered them. When done right, it can leave a lasting demonstration of how much I enjoyed the game. Of course there's some stupid, grindy, super time consuming garbage that borderlines on player abuse for them, so I agree they qualify as a dark pattern, but I don't think they're inherently or always a bad thing and something game developers should always avoid if they want to make a game that wouldn't make the bad side of your list.
A lot of these dark patterns I do think are probably always annoying and a bad experience, though, like "Wait to Play".
Thank you for making this. I've used this site before while trying to explain to my friend how Mobile Legends gets kids hooked on gambling and is basically digital crack. That game might as well have used your site as a manual. It is fun though, but damn, the constant and never ending Skinner boxes, gambling, and dark patterns to suck out money and time are over the top. I think that game covers just about every single point on your site.
Haven't had time to look through the list, but this is exactly what I've been looking for. While I don't play mobile games myself, my (older) relatives do a lot, but since something like the 10th time a scam ad almost got my grandmother to lose 300€, I no longer install anything with ads on their devices. It took me almost an hour to find a bullshit-free solitaire game in the Play Store. It took exactly 3 seconds here.
Thanks, I'm glad you like it! I was expecting to have to curate this list myself and that people wouldn't submit much, but I've found a bunch of amazing games just by reviewing the submissions (including the Solitaire game you're talking about, if I'm not mistaken).
The curated list by android team used to be my goto to find some games, but it deteriorated into useless list.
All other top playstore list are garbage too. Finding anything good that isn't crippled by predatory practices is downright impossible. I don't mind paying for mobile games but this isn't as profitable as hook-line-sinker micro transaction model.
This is awesome, but I'm going to forget it exists, so: please take my email address and feed me notifications about when new games get added. (I might want to be notified immediately, weekly, or every N months.)
Besides that, some minor nitpicks:
- Infinite scrolling would be very nice to have
- The ability to sort the columns by clicking the headers (eg, reviews) might be useful
- I have some, uh, really old devices here that I continue to use. One is on Android 5. There are probably only like 4 people out there that will appreciate seeing a game's minimum Android version, but they'll really appreciate it
- I kind of think surfacing screenshots or description info might be interesting, but that's probably because I'm on 256k slowed internet right now and am loathe to click links (lol) but want to compare/get more info about each game
Also: something interesting is going on with the rating filtering. If I type in "4.8" and select Free under Android, I see 3 items; trying "4.7" gets me a total of 6 4.8-rated items.
> please take my email address and feed me notifications about when new games get added
Hmm, that might be a bit spammy, do you have an RSS reader? Maybe I could add a feed.
> Infinite scrolling would be very nice to have
I had something similar before but people complained that they lost their place when clicking on apps to go to the store. Maybe that's fine now that they open in a new tab, I'll rethink that.
> The ability to sort the columns by clicking the headers (eg, reviews) might be useful
Yep, that's something I removed when I added the filtering system and that I need to add back, thanks.
> something interesting is going on with the rating filtering. If I type in "4.8" and select Free under Android, I see 3 items
I'm always amazed how many sites like this make wild assumptions about the domain knowledege of all the people that might come across the site. I think "IAP" is "in-app purchases", but just make that clear. And a better statement about what constitutes "bullshit" and whis is the correct definition would help a lot.
Also, why not also include mobile web games like 2048?
I would request you to consider web apps as well. I tried submitting http://arcadejack.com but no luck. Here is what I had entered as comment: "Consider this no-bullshit math game to help kids practice math. Free, no iap, no login. Everything is stored locally."
Edit: Still super early in dev and pin for "grown up" tab is 1222
Thanks for making this, really. Phone games seem to be a sort of gateway drug for video games and it's a shame that most of them are so laden with microtransactions and attention-hacks. Anything that can steer people away from heroin-adjacent mobile games toward games with substance is a great product in my book. Nice job.
Thank you! I got fed up and made this the other day, after playing Head Ball 2 which is basically "Crack cocaine: the mobile game" in how predatory and insidious it is.
I think it would make a fascinating study on how mobile gaming turned into this, when PC and console gaming (while suffering from some of this) is still viable for people who just want to buy a game and play it without shenanigans.
Sometimes I hate that I can give only one upvote to a story.
Back when the iPad 1 was new, I was actually playing games on mine. Then everything turned into a mess of IAP bullshit and now I don't even look at mobile game releases any more. Hopefully this site will help me find something to play.
I'll throw in one I made for myself and never really showed to anyone. It's a clone of Unblock Me/Rush Hour, but with no ads and undo+redo support. It's only a website since I don't want to bother with app stores (I just save the page to my home screen).
The puzzle variety isn't great, my generation method sorta sucks. I had started to build an exhaustive generator after reading Michael Fogleman's article[1] on it, but haven't finished.
Any reason why the Genre filter field is a text input rather than a dropdown? I went to look at the Genres available to see which ones I might like but the only way I can see to do this is by scrolling through the pages to look at the available options.
Yes, Apple games can belong in multiple genres and it was easier to do it this way, but I'm probably going to make it a dropdown since it's more usable.
I feel this is a google/apple problem.
They need to celebrate and advertise premium games more. Instead, we're stuck in a world where most games are fremium with tons of ads or IAPs, or subscriptions..... It sucks to be a gamer.
I've seen some games that are on both Switch and Android. The Android one has ridiculous IAPs, and Switch is a one-time purchase. I get that it isn't the developer's fault. Premium games don't sell well on Android. But it sucks none the less.
Remember how Angry birds and Cut the Rope used to be good? Now they're a disgrace, full of video ads. And for most of them you cannot pay a single fee to remove.
Some games like Churchill Solitaire require you to pay $5 for the game, but then it doesn't unlock all of the campaign, you have to pay $1 for every 25 after that, then you have to pay to UNDO A MOVE or even get a hint. Then daily games are another $5 a month. So much BS even if you want to buy the game.
Would you be open to adding other Genre's of applications in there? iPad has no built in Calculater application and it has been a beyond infuriating experience simply finding a non-bullshit one without any adds or anything.
One of our main design principles is to charge a fair price and never do any ads, tracking or IAP's. The idea is to be contrary to the vast swathes of crap that is out there...
Its awesome to see kitten game[0] on here! I had no idea it was released as an app. For stuff like this, I'll buy it even if I never plan to play it on the device, to support the creator for the time I've spent on the free version.
[+] [-] franze|6 years ago|reply
Github: https://github.com/franzenzenhofer/lsd (Warning: a single, dependency less CoffeeScript source file)
[+] [-] tomclive|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SmellyGeekBoy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jmuhlich|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mittermayr|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mangoman|6 years ago|reply
I want game devs to be able to make a living, but there's a difference between game devs who responsibly put in monetization and game devs just trying to squeeze every last cent through deceit and manipulation.
[+] [-] stavros|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wtetzner|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tripzilch|6 years ago|reply
pretty sure they all do ...
[+] [-] giarc|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] japhyr|6 years ago|reply
What's a better model for this? A single app with a one-time IAP; or two apps, where one is free with no ads or IAPs, but there's a link to a separate paid app with no IAPs?
It seems there's no way to distinguish easily when you're looking at the App Store whether IAP means a reasonable one time purchase for the full game, or a series of predatory IAPs. So having any IAP at all seems to turn off a lot of people. But I'm not sure two separate apps is the best approach either.
[+] [-] stavros|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] idclip|6 years ago|reply
Which is actually awesome.
My first games were Quake, and Quake2. I enjoyed shilling out the cash just once. Bought expansions as budget allowed and was always excited to.
More power to you honestly.
Edit: duck ads.
[+] [-] fbmac|6 years ago|reply
I'll ignore anything that is shown to have any IAP.
[+] [-] slumdev|6 years ago|reply
That sounds a lot like old-school shareware. The free version was a full copy of the game that only included the first few minutes/hours of the missions/worlds/characters. Paying got you the whole thing.
[+] [-] mundo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thewebcount|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mavsman|6 years ago|reply
This reminds me of the Cloverfield series. It would be interesting if you didn't know the games are related at the start or if you know they're related but they're not necessarily the same format or storyline. They just happen to exist in the same world.
[+] [-] zajio1am|6 years ago|reply
Well, in 90s, this was called shareware. The limited version (i.e. first level/episode) was legal to copy/share between users and who paid got full version.
[+] [-] awill|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nubb|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] offsky|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cableshaft|6 years ago|reply
I don't think that all 'dark patterns' are necessarily always bad, especially after seeing everything that made your list, as you have "Complete the Collection" as an example.
While I think that it can definitely be abused and does belong on the list, I do think collecting things can be part of the fun of games for people, and that's been in games pretty much since games moved from the arcades into the home consoles.
Like platform games are often 'Collectathons', and one of my favorite games of all time, Yoshi's Island on Super Nintendo, has 5 collectible flowers and 20 red coins (and you have to do it with full health at the end of the level) to get up to 100 points for every single level. One of the things I love to do in that game is try to get the full 100 points in as many levels as possible.
Another one is Badges, which is similar to Collections, but you're collecting the completion of goals instead. Personally I loved when Xbox 360 introduced Achievements, and I still wish the Switch offered them. When done right, it can leave a lasting demonstration of how much I enjoyed the game. Of course there's some stupid, grindy, super time consuming garbage that borderlines on player abuse for them, so I agree they qualify as a dark pattern, but I don't think they're inherently or always a bad thing and something game developers should always avoid if they want to make a game that wouldn't make the bad side of your list.
A lot of these dark patterns I do think are probably always annoying and a bad experience, though, like "Wait to Play".
[+] [-] grawprog|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] franga2000|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] me_me_me|6 years ago|reply
All other top playstore list are garbage too. Finding anything good that isn't crippled by predatory practices is downright impossible. I don't mind paying for mobile games but this isn't as profitable as hook-line-sinker micro transaction model.
I will give this list a go back home.
[+] [-] Krssst|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Farbklex|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exikyut|6 years ago|reply
Besides that, some minor nitpicks:
- Infinite scrolling would be very nice to have
- The ability to sort the columns by clicking the headers (eg, reviews) might be useful
- I have some, uh, really old devices here that I continue to use. One is on Android 5. There are probably only like 4 people out there that will appreciate seeing a game's minimum Android version, but they'll really appreciate it
- I kind of think surfacing screenshots or description info might be interesting, but that's probably because I'm on 256k slowed internet right now and am loathe to click links (lol) but want to compare/get more info about each game
Also: something interesting is going on with the rating filtering. If I type in "4.8" and select Free under Android, I see 3 items; trying "4.7" gets me a total of 6 4.8-rated items.
[+] [-] stavros|6 years ago|reply
> please take my email address and feed me notifications about when new games get added
Hmm, that might be a bit spammy, do you have an RSS reader? Maybe I could add a feed.
> Infinite scrolling would be very nice to have
I had something similar before but people complained that they lost their place when clicking on apps to go to the store. Maybe that's fine now that they open in a new tab, I'll rethink that.
> The ability to sort the columns by clicking the headers (eg, reviews) might be useful
Yep, that's something I removed when I added the filtering system and that I need to add back, thanks.
> something interesting is going on with the rating filtering. If I type in "4.8" and select Free under Android, I see 3 items
Hmm, that's odd. I will investigate, thanks!
[+] [-] givinguflac|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevage|6 years ago|reply
I'm always amazed how many sites like this make wild assumptions about the domain knowledege of all the people that might come across the site. I think "IAP" is "in-app purchases", but just make that clear. And a better statement about what constitutes "bullshit" and whis is the correct definition would help a lot.
Also, why not also include mobile web games like 2048?
[+] [-] StavrosK|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] riantogo|6 years ago|reply
Edit: Still super early in dev and pin for "grown up" tab is 1222
[+] [-] mattcdrake|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ansible|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nottorp|6 years ago|reply
Back when the iPad 1 was new, I was actually playing games on mine. Then everything turned into a mess of IAP bullshit and now I don't even look at mobile game releases any more. Hopefully this site will help me find something to play.
[+] [-] zwegner|6 years ago|reply
I'll throw in one I made for myself and never really showed to anyone. It's a clone of Unblock Me/Rush Hour, but with no ads and undo+redo support. It's only a website since I don't want to bother with app stores (I just save the page to my home screen).
https://zwegner.github.io/slidey-blocky-thingy/base.html
The puzzle variety isn't great, my generation method sorta sucks. I had started to build an exhaustive generator after reading Michael Fogleman's article[1] on it, but haven't finished.
https://www.michaelfogleman.com/rush/
[+] [-] severine|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aphit|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] awill|6 years ago|reply
I've seen some games that are on both Switch and Android. The Android one has ridiculous IAPs, and Switch is a one-time purchase. I get that it isn't the developer's fault. Premium games don't sell well on Android. But it sucks none the less.
Remember how Angry birds and Cut the Rope used to be good? Now they're a disgrace, full of video ads. And for most of them you cannot pay a single fee to remove.
[+] [-] thebigspacefuck|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] farisjarrah|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] splatcollision|6 years ago|reply
One of our main design principles is to charge a fair price and never do any ads, tracking or IAP's. The idea is to be contrary to the vast swathes of crap that is out there...
[+] [-] csours|6 years ago|reply
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nuclearuni...