#game discovery

[videogamingnews]

The core of Thrum.gg is not another list but a conversation. The platform does not pose as a search engine. It poses as a friend in your chat.

When choice becomes noise

[videogamingnews]

The games market will hit $188.9B in 2025, yet most developers struggle with visibility, rising costs, and broken discovery. Here’s why.

The Industry Grows. Your Chances Shrink. Game Publishing in 2025

[pixelpoppers]

Here's how I know game discovery is broken: there's a picross superhero dating sim out now and I had no idea it was coming.

[playistic]

Core Mobile creates hub for mobile game discovery

Mobile game and app discovery is still a painful topic for developers. The crowded app marketplaces lack simple ways to sort through the content and clones. So Core Mobile is launching an app on iOS and Android today to address mobile game discovery. The app serves as a hub for mobile game content, and the […] https://goo.gl/sSyWTZ #Playistic

[sharkpunchhq]

Why are game icons terrible for discovery?

Once you go past the obvious crushes and clashes, it is actually very difficult to find new interesting games on the app stores. It’s becoming a common complaint even for casual gamers: I always keep stumbling upon the same top games. Finding good games that are a little off the beaten path takes too much work and often leads to disappointments. 

One of the game discovery challenges that we are trying to solve with Playfield is the lack of direct access to visual game content in the stores. Icons are still the main way that games are represented. Yes, once you click on an icon you get to see some screenshots (and maybe a video with lots of cinematics and 3 seconds of gameplay), but that’s a lot of work just to get a first impression.

Game icons are made with the only goal in mind: maximizing clicks. They are shiny eye candy. They are not a useful way to discover a game. At the very best they are an abstract artistic representation of the game. More often than not, they are misleading. What you want to see when you are looking for a good game is real gameplay. Screenshots and video of actual gameplay are the best way to communicate how a game looks, works and feels when you actually play it.

At Playfield we are trying to make visual gameplay content the primary discovery mechanism. We put screenshots and videos front and center so you can decide at a glance which games look interesting and which not. We think this is the most natural way to discover new and upcoming games.

To their credit, Google, Apple and some of the other app stores have started to give some prominence to screenshots and video content of games. However, all these visual content it still mostly hidden away behind icons. Icons are a arguably a decent way of representing apps that you already know and use frequently. However,  they have no place as the discovery mechanism for games in the app stores. This is by no means a new problem. Just think of game icons as the new cover art from game packaging.

Direct access to game content as a way to find new games is just one of the things we are trying at Playfield. We believe game discovery hasn't changed in many years and needs to be shaken up. If you are tired of the same games, we invite you to subscribe to the Playfield newsletter. We are are working on a few exciting ideas.

[pangamea]

Here's a little sneak preview of our upcoming mobile app for visual game discovery - more info at http://pangamea.com

[pangamea]

Tinder for game discovery

Swipe left and right bits of actual gameplay. Give it a spin at http://pangamea.com

[playistic]

Facebook unleashes game discovery feature for the iPad

Facebook says 70% of users of its iPad app have played a Facebook-connected game in the last three months. http://goo.gl/GworxI #Playistic