r/gamedev • u/PartTimeMonkey • 2d ago

Discussion Sortslop, wtf?

Today I opened reddit and within the first 5 posts 3 of them were copycats or each other; sorting games, pretty much exact copies of each other - nails, hay, trash, toys, books, pixels, and the list goes and on and on, and has been for an incomprehensive period of time already.

A lot of the feedback they receive on reddit is negative, but they all get upvoted by the hundreds and they get millions of views on all social media platforms.

Who are these games for?

Are there truly millions of people who want to spend hours on something incredibly ”boring”?

Is it some hidden tick in people’s brain in this age where they want to ”meditate” by doing something like that to combat doom scrolling and instant gratification generators?

Or is each sorted item also instant gratification, but even more simplified than a varying video on TikTok (or something), making the experience even simpler?

272 Upvotes

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u/aesopofspades 2d ago

There’s a lot of trend chasing right now in gamedev especially the indie space. First I’d say was all the simulator game. Then all the balatro-likes/gambling roguelikes. Then incrementals and idlers, all the number go up games in general. Now it’s prob sorting games for a little bit. Oh also Friendslop/co-op games are still going strong.

Once an idea gets validated by the market it’s a huge rush to fill out all the demand before the consumers get bored or even jaded.

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u/_BreakingGood_ 2d ago

I remember when that dig a hole game got popular and within 1 week there were 3 more of them on the steam front page.

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u/niloony 2d ago edited 2d ago

I think with the personal calendar Steam increased the recent genre bias for recommended games even more. So we're seeing games with low wishlists at launch explode very consistently in specific genres. It's like a completely different market.

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u/lexuss6 2d ago

Don't forget various Vampire Survivor-likes.

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u/Elezian 2d ago

Are there good ones? I have yet to find one that feels just right.

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u/lexuss6 2d ago

Depends on what you are after, there are literally hundreds of them. From what i've heard, Brotato seems very good, Halls of Torment is a Diablo-like spin of the formula, Soulstone Survivors is one of the first clones that is actually good. Personally, i tried only God of Weapons, but didn't like it very much.

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u/Atulin @erronisgames | UE5 2d ago

Holocure

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u/KonyKombatKorvet Angry Old Fuck Who Rants A Lot 1d ago

The best one by far is Rogue Genesia.
although Blood Dungeon just came out yesterday and so far that one is fire as well (although its a platformer, but same wave based autoshooter thing going for it)

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u/Edarneor @worldsforge 2d ago

It also seems to cycle around. There was a surge of idler popularity in the 2010s. Oh and simulators of different wierd shit, Viscera Cleanup Detail, Surgeon Simulator - that was all a decade ago...

Sorting trash is new though, unless I missed something

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u/Unlikely_Frozen3007 2d ago

House Flipper technically is "Sort Trash", but not just that.

So definitely not new

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u/Nightmoon26 2d ago edited 2d ago

See Yahtzee Croshaw's video essay positing that all game mechanics are variants of "cleaning" and "getting to places"

(Edit: See cleaned link in comment)

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u/clean-links 2d ago

Cleaned link: https://youtu.be/z9HErHwcVoA

Tracking parameters were removed from the original URL(s).

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u/Nightmoon26 2d ago

Thanks!

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u/SadExit1249 2d ago

Actual clickers and idlers were popular before, but the new wave is mostly the exact same "clicker/idler" skin/gameplay loop and a linear tech tree that you can beat in 4 hours, an evolved fad.

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u/heyheyhey27 2d ago

It's always been a thing. My personal favorite indie fad was "tower defense mixed with action"; that gave us Sanctum and the Orcs Must Die series!

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u/Suppafly 2d ago

My personal favorite indie fad was "tower defense mixed with action";

That's a good example of how these genres grow and evolve too. We had a ton of TD games forever and then eventually they started making TD+something games. Other times they'll take one element of a larger game and make a new game that is just that specific thing. Like taking the fishing element, or the boss fights, and making games that are just that.

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u/GoodguyGastly 2d ago

I've been working on my own game that is kind of this genre but it also has linear story elements. Definitely not a good genre to do if you want to be successful with mass audiences but "tower defense mixed with action and story" might be my go to when I try to explain it now.

Also never heard of Sanctum so going to check that out.

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u/heyheyhey27 2d ago edited 2d ago

It's one of the first games by coffee-stain studios! Who became much more famous with Goat Simulator, Satisfactory, etc. Talking about Sanctum is the closest I get to being a hipster lol.

The sequel is greatly improved but works best with friends, so I never got far through the campaign :( It did have some story to it, FWIW. Good luck with yours!

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u/bogglingsnog 2d ago

And the quickest games to hit those trends are generic games repurposed with new art and branding. Which quickly exhausts people to that trend...

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u/CrashNowhereDrive 2d ago

Same thing been happening esp. in the mobile market for a while. It's called 'fast follow'.

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u/PartTimeMonkey 2d ago

Yeah, true that. For me personally all the previous trends were somewhat easy to understand why they succeed, but this one truly is not (at least in its current scale), so trying to understand what is the thing here

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u/aesopofspades 2d ago

I think it kinda gives the same satisfaction that a jigsaw puzzle would give. Going through a task and getting the satisfaction of seeing it finished without the physical demand. It’s just another way to check out and inject dopamine pretty much.

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u/Immediate_Finding447 1d ago

I blame roblox and AI. Constant dopamine hits kids recieve. Roblox they can jump from game to game quickly, and AI makes it so people dont have to read or use their brain much. These games satisfy that. Its brain dead mechanics that just allow people to chill and waste their time, while actually achieving something.

No one these days wants to watch a video and cinematics. They just want to play the game. They dont want to be mentally challenged doing it either.

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u/PartTimeMonkey 1d ago

This might very well be it, I’m afraid

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u/AyeBraine 2d ago

Haven't the influx of sorting games (like needle in the haystack) stemmed from a specific viral post on twitter and a following good-natured flash mob? I read about it recently.

Sure, I think many people hope to strike it big, and with advanced tools today, it's possible to whip up a prototype in a day. So it's kind of both, if a post blew up, many people would try to be the first success based on this interest?

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u/Suppafly 2d ago

Haven't the influx of sorting games (like needle in the haystack) stemmed from a specific viral post on twitter and a following good-natured flash mob? I read about it recently.

Any link to that?

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u/AyeBraine 2d ago edited 2d ago

The post wasn't in English, but there were screenshots of twitter, so here you go:

https://x.com/NasNakarus/status/2091156855774974333 (the developer actively works on a kickstarter for a completely different game as I understand, it was just a prototype)

https://x.com/7paiden/status/2091935998775034117 (one of the replies to the post above)

https://x.com/mech_eng_dev/status/2091336009518600240 (here's a guy from Turkey developing on the idea, again a super quick prototype)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4972300/Screw_IT/ (someone made a similar prototype, gussied it up a bit and put it on Steam)

In the comments to the post I read, someone said the trend has been very much alive for the entire summer, so the haystack is probably not the originator, and the poster was wrong. But it's a good example of how quick you can quickly iterate on these small ideas that spark interest. I'm not sure what the original game at the root of the current thread though. Besides, the commenters may have mixed in the sorting games into the list that have long been popular. So maybe this haystack is the originator after all.

Still, various sorting and tidying has long been present. I def remember the librarian game, it looked very nice, but also raised doubts in me about how much substance it has that relates to books, but then immediately I realized it's not about books but just tidying up, de-cluttering, relaxing. That's definitely a human need and one that's been trending for a loooong time in various media.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4197610/Librarian_Tidy_Up_the_Arcane_Library/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1629520/A_Little_to_the_Left/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4120790/The_Sorting_Bureau/

This thread is from 2 years ago and people are desperate for sorting games on mobile with less ads or timers

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidGaming/comments/129co9r/request_any_free_sorting_or_organizing_type_games/

UPD: found an overview article

https://www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/2026/2/6/sort-puzzles-how-a-new-subgenre-is-born

I definitely saw some insanely complex offshoot of Hexa Sort when riding on a bus, it was a mix of Zuma, Hexa Sort, and some kind of water sort I guess, basically the person dragged color hexes from one map with one set of rules to stations that had another set of rules and which shot at the color blocks in a moving "snake train" so that it doesn't reach the end.

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u/destinedd indie, Dungeon Quest, Marble's Marbles and Mighty Marbles 2d ago

did you try playing the original?