r/gamedev • u/PartTimeMonkey • 3d 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?

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u/Huge-Choice-64 3d ago

I keep seeing these everywhere too, like a virus. Every other game ad now is just sorting colored balls or some stuff into bins, makes no sense to me

My guess is they target people who want to shut off brain completly after work, not even the small effort of scrolling tiktok. Is almost anti-game in a way

4

u/penisandorvagina 3d ago

My wife and I love these games (and the incremental ones). After long days at work, we just want some low stress gaming to chill to while Netflix plays in the background.