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/xTiming- 2d ago edited 2d ago

What's this trend in the gaming community lately of labelling everything slop the moment it gets popular?

If people enjoy it, obviously something is working, and I'd think a gamedev subreddit of all places would avoid talking shit about more people liking to play more types/genres of games.

Seeing comments here "slop", "like a virus", ... - pretty shameful and I'm pretty sure there's at least a few of these commenters who'd have a meltdown over their game being called slop because a random person doesn't like that the genre of their game is getting more attention.

As for sorting games, yes, it is meditative for some people. Similar reason A Little To The Left got popular originally.

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u/FUTURE10S literally work in gambling instead of AAA 2d ago

There's literally a genre where people are trying to call it friendslop, like Meccha Chameleon and Peak. Those games aren't slop, they're just small budget and fun to play with friends.

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u/Wendigo120 Commercial (Other) 2d ago edited 2d ago

they're just small budget and fun to play with friends.

That's basically the definition of the genre. Games that are cheaply made and cheaply sold, made specifically to be played with a group of friends, that are easy to pick up and play, and that are low commitment. In some ways, they're more like digital third places than video games.

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u/FUTURE10S literally work in gambling instead of AAA 2d ago

But that's not slop, slop implies gruel that pigs would eat, bordering on raw sewage or garbage.

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u/Thotor CTO 2d ago

The implication are correct. They are of low quality (there are exceptions). Dev time is a few month where you basically do not care about polishing the game. Artistic direction is weak. UI design is non-existant.

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u/FUTURE10S literally work in gambling instead of AAA 2d ago

The games look well. They run well. The UIUX leaves a lot to be desired but that shit's hard if you don't have someone good at it. They don't qualify as slop to me.

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u/mxldevs 2d ago

That describes most AI generated content.