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I built a prototype for discovering games by playing them — looking for honest feedback

A topic by Tuth created 20 days ago Views: 170 Replies: 6

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Hi everyone!

I've been working on an early prototype called GemOn, and I'd really appreciate some honest feedback.

The basic idea is to make discovering small games more interactive. Instead of only looking through screenshots, trailers, and descriptions, you can immediately try a small playable version of a game and then move on to discover another one.

Currently, GemOn is built around game jams. Developers can submit web-playable games to a jam, and players can explore and play the submissions directly in their browser.

The basic experience is:

Discover → Play → Save → Learn More → Next

The goal isn't to replace itch.io. It's meant to be another way for people to discover games and then find the full project if they're interested.

GemOn is still very early, so I'd especially like feedback on:

Do you immediately understand what GemOn is?
Is it easy to navigate and start playing something?
Does the idea of discovering games this way interest you?
Would you use something like this to discover games?
What feels confusing, unnecessary, or missing?

Try it here: https://gemon.vercel.app/

I'd genuinely appreciate criticism—even if you don't like the concept. I'm trying to figure out whether this is something worth continuing to develop and how it could be improved.

Thanks!

Screenshots

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redonihunter19 days ago (1 edit)

Do you immediately understand what GemOn is?

Yes. But I might not have understood what you wanted me to understand.

Is it easy to navigate and start playing something?

I did not try the external site.

Does the idea of discovering games this way interest you?

No.

Would you use something like this to discover games?

No.

What feels confusing, unnecessary, or missing?

The scope.

From a concept perspective, you want to make a playable trailershow. That will not work for many games on a technical level. Especially not for regular jam games. Creating the mini demo version would probably be the same work as creating the game itself for a lot of jam games. Do not forget the bug fixing.

Also, a lot of demo versions would just not work to show off the game in 5 minutes. Like, how do you do that for a visual novel? Sure, you can make a trailer, but reading the intro will maybe just not be interesting. One could just as well look at a well made project page. The project page itself is the thing that should present the game idea in a way that makes the game interesting. I think puzzle games and action games might be best suited for the approach. Other games might be better presented with a regular video trailer.

Binge scrolling actual small games, or dedicated mini demos might work. But the games and or demos should be held to a curated minimum standard. Else it will be just spam or sloppily submitted whole games, instead of specifically made small demo versions or jam versions.

(Whatever you do, you also want it to be better than just using /randomizer )

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Tuth18 days ago

First of all thank you for the honest feedback.

I understand your skepticism. At worst it requires more effort and harms the experience for certain jam games. At best it is a reskin of itch.io randomizer. I could say that the value is in future "plans" but that is not what the app currently is.

The goal behind the app is to make the process of discovering and playing new games as simple as possible. Instead of having to take the time to look for something interesting, a player can simply jump in and get started. Originally the idea was for games to be cut into simple 5 minute intervals that would make it easy for players to play, but as you said unless a developer happens to have a level or section of the game that is simple enough to play without the previous levels and happens to fit within the timespan, it is going to be difficult and time consuming to curate an experience just for a website.

I think you're right that project pages already help a lot with this situation. My issue with that is just the fact that you have to go on itch.io, decide what type of game you want to play, look for an interesting thumbnail, read about the game and controls, rather than jump in. In other words this is app is not meant to replace the current way of discovering games but offering an alternative.

I also agree with what you are saying about the game type playing an important role. I'm really considering removing the time limit (or giving developers the option to have a time limit) as players can easily go to the next game. Generally the more control the developer has over the experience of their game the better I think this app will work.

As for quality my plan is to make this app less of a randomizer and more of an algorithm. I am still working out the details but the idea is to have higher chances for games with good reception or not being discovered compared to games that have been discovered a lot but easily skipped/not liked. To preserve the randomness maybe the weighting will reset after a period of time and allow games a "second chance" for players.

I apologize if this does not fully answer your concerns. Like I said I am doing my best to not just pull a "trust me bro" and spam features that aren't remotely in the app yet. I'm just trying to make the experience a little better for new-coming game developers and players. Again thank you for your time and response.

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redonihunter18 days ago

You try to tackle a problem that a lot of people try to tackle.

Example /t/6817612/build-and-indie-game-discovery-and-suggestion-platform

But you put on your approach an additional thing. And that thing might be a restraint or an enhancement feature, with that "mini demo" approach.

A lot of games do not have a well crafted description page.

Most games do not have a trailer video.

Most games do not have a demo version. From the paid only games it is only 5%. (The free games usually do not bother at all, because of obvious reasons.)

So while this is a restraint in many different ways, this would actually work as an enhancement. It would sort out all the devs that can not or will not create a mini demo. But for that, participation would be an issue. Do developers want to participate on the platform with a mini demo version of their game. If you were a big platform and could basically promise a lot of views because of that, sure, there will be lots of willing participants.

Speaking of jams, you might tackle a seed population for your discovery system, by creating a jam with rules of having such a mini game or having a mini demo as an submission entry rule. Of course such a jam and your platform will face the same problem all new platforms face: How to get people to visit ;-)

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Tuth18 days ago

Maybe a good idea is to allow a "shorts" mode where games do have time limits, but it is not the only feature on the app, similar to YouTube having a normal and shorts mode.

You also mentioned a strong point, this app would be a lot more effective if there were already a lot of users. If developers knew this was being used a lot, it would be an investment to take the time to make a shorter experience. That means that there is potential for what already exists to be useful, but not at this point. The goal now is to focus on making the app relevant and useful today with 0 users.

As I said I'm trying to reduce as much friction in playing games as possible. Like you said this is a real problem people are trying to tackle, and my approach is to let people play and then decide vs deciding to play. Maybe it is the wrong way to look at it, but I appreciate your support and feedback. I'm doing my best to tweak the project to provide the best experience for both developers and players.

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ligoski18 days ago

Do you immediately understand what GemOn is?

I'm not sure, in a way the big game jams already does something similar, but I don't think people are usually willing to spend a few minutes in something like this often
Is it easy to navigate and start playing something?
I think the "info" and "next" button are basically hidden for someone like me, it took me a few seconds of actively searching the buttons to find

Does the idea of discovering games this way interest you?
somewhat, the best tool I found for this was the "indie" discovery that steam made, it worked great for like the first 10 games and then it just gets too repetitive
Would you use something like this to discover games?
not really, at least not in this format
What feels confusing, unnecessary, or missing?
maybe more simple games to get a better feel at this and filters

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Tuth18 days ago

Thanks for the feedback.

Basically the idea of this is to reduce the friction of finding a game to play and to just be able to play, whether full small games or short versions of big games before deciding to download/buy it.

The next and info buttons may be too small and not obvious. I was trying to make as much space for the game but I might have gotten carried away. Also I have not tested the sight on different screen sizes so that may have impacted the visibility.

As for the app itself, you bring up a good point which is that even if the app manages to allow players to cycle through multiple small games smoothly, there is still a chance the app will get repetitive. I understand that point and will look into making it actually enjoyable to play many different games/experiences. I may have spent too much time looking on how to make this than whether it should be made.

If you have any ideas or recommendations please let me know, but otherwise I'm grateful for your criticism. Thanks!

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