Could a dating app for games help smaller developers?

“A lot of video games, little time”, was not more honest.

Nearly 19000 titles were broadcast on the computer game store in 2024 – about 360 per week.

There are positive ways to consider this.

The tools are easier and easier to use, the barriers that prevent entry are less, self -spread is easier and ideas are not short in display.

But for developers, “discovery” – obtaining your new release – has noticed – It was not more challenging In a scene controlled by movies and games online such as Fortnite and Call of Duty.

It is also difficult for potential customers to find them, with recommendations often dictated by the search engine and store algorithms.

But Ludocene – described as a “dating video game” hopes to change this.

Gaming journalist Andy Robertson, the man behind the project, says the goal is to help people find “those that escaped.”

“In any specific year, there are a lot of games and some will rise to the top, and they will be lucky or will be great enough to condense this noise,” he says to BBC Newsbeat.

“But there are a lot of great games that get a kind of burial and loss in this pickled.”

Ludocene looks itself like a game – each address is represented in its database with a card with a trailer on one side and more information on the contrary.

The “dating application” element comes from users who are fun to keep suggestions or get rid of them, and slowly build a set of recommended titles.

Ludocene entries are chosen by a selection of well-known gaming experts-journalists, eggs and other characters.

Her manufacturers say that manually selected suggestions give you a better chance to find high -quality titles outside the main current.

And Andy says: “And we hope we will not just hope to get the famous games that everyone plays, but this type of strange little game that will be the perfect match for you only,” says Andy.

One of the experts participating in Ludocene is the veteran journalist at the American Games, Brian Christnet.

He prepared Kotaku and Polygon games, and led the video games covered in Rolling Stone and Variety, and now runs a consulting company.

He says that there is a “perfect storm to not know what he plays” thanks to relying on improving the search engine (SEO) and automatic algorithms.

“There are a lot of things,” he says.

“Books, comedy, movies, music and video games are very difficult to discover what you might like and you may miss some hidden gemstones.”

A lot has been written about workers’ demobilization and studio closure in the video game industry, but Brian indicates this Several web sites and magazines are also closed.

“So you have this ascending tide of new games that come out and then the number of people covering video games decreases,” he says.

Brian believes that Ludocene has partially cared for people because he fills this space for people looking for more detailed and enlightened recommendations.

He says: “The presence of an approach that helps you discover things that give you a better feeling whether you will like it allows you to invest your money, and for me, most importantly, your time in the things you really enjoy.”

It seems that Ludocene has hit a tendon with a gaming community.

It is currently a preliminary model, but it exceeded its goal of 26,000 pounds in Kickstarter four days before the deadline and intended to launch it completely as a web application in August.

Independent developer Judy Azhar, the founder of the Studio Teazelcat games, says she believes the project looks “really exciting” in general.

“We hope to find the things that current algorithms lose – high -quality games that you did not get marketing at launch or media coverage,” she says.

But it has some frequency about the mechanics of dating applications.

“It is a bilateral criticism in one direction,” she says.

“Anxiety there, if you ignore a specific game, will this cut a full set of other games that the algorithm considers similar?

“Therefore, a lot depends on the quality of the algorithm in determining similar games and what the player might enjoy by interacting with.”

Judy says she has some concerns about the team’s ability to keep pace with the pace of new versions and make sure that its recommendations are varied.

“How fast is the update or is equipped, you can make this data set to make it really effective?” She says.

However, Jodie is pleased that the application will be free to use it when it is launched, and says this will make people “more likely to try it to invest in it.”

Andy admits that keeping the database update will be a challenge.

He is also a founder Family Games DatabaseWhich adds about two games a day.

Ludocene is expected to happen more quickly because it needs less data for each input.

He says that the presence of experts on the plane helps to determine “blind spots”, and strike the goal of collective financing means that the project will have time to build its database before the launch.

Supports can experience full application early and any money collected over the target goes towards building additional features.

Andy hopes that the project, which focuses on Ende, will eventually help highlight the “emotional projects” that are often made by teams or young individuals.

“The idea is that it is a kind of stadium leveling,” he says.

“Just a person as a fan leader to say that diversity in games is really important.”

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