„Tinder for video games” app successfully funded on Kickstarter
Ludocene can be described as „Tinder for video games” and is meant to pair you with games according to your interests. The Kickstarter has reached its goal.
What if there was an easier way to find new games? The Kickstarter for Ludocene wrapped up today after successfully reaching its funding goal. The pitch for this new mobile app is “Tinder but for video games.” Much like the popular dating apps, Ludocene is designed to pair you with games you might like. Add in the games you’ve liked or your gaming preferences, and the app will begin to recommend others. Swipe it away or add it to your interests. Could this end up being a useful way to sort through the clutter of the overpopulated gaming platforms like Steam?
Ludocene is a dating app for video games aimed at helping you sort through the clutter
The creators made sure to emphasize that this app does not use AI to pair you with games. From their Kickstarter page, “it uses rich human-researched data to build your catalog of games.” According to the page this has taken them five years of research and compilation to reach this point. Another option is to use a curated selection of experts. These are video game journalists, podcasters, and others that have been paid by the creators of Ludocene to make a profile that other users can then use to have suggestions tailored to that expert’s tastes.
The app is designed to be like a deckbuilding game. Collect cards of discovered video games that can be interacted with. Flip them around for a brief description and genre tags or tap the front image to play the game’s trailer. Thankfully, unlike some games, everyone is a winner here. The creators have uploaded a video to YouTube that shows how the app works. You start by creating your ultimate deck of great games, dragging cards into your collection. As you add, the app will start building a hand of recommendations for you. Throw in Balatro, and the app will start recommending other great deckbuilding rogue-likes, but add in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and the recommendations will begin to shift accordingly.
Ludocene’s Kickstarter campaign has ended, but you can still throw in a late pledge to get a desired reward. Anyone who throws in about $11 will get instant access to a prototype of the app that won’t be available to the general public until August. The app itself will be free, with the option to pay for a higher tier subscription. There are several other higher tier Kickstarter rewards as well. The team behind the app is independent, and does not plan to include adverts in the app. They aim to “ensure Ludocene stays in the hands of the community and grows to all it can be.” This is also why they have chosen to fund their project through Kickstarter rather than find a corporate backer.
This is an interesting idea, particularly for indie developers to get their games in front of more people. I couldn’t help but notice that many of the games featured in Ludocene’s videos are from indie devs. It will be interesting to see how this app works, if players start using it and adopting it, and how the indie community takes advantage of it. These days there are so many amazing games out there, just last month there were hundreds upon hundreds of demos available for upcoming indie games during Steam Next Fest and now gamers have Steam’s Spring Sale to contend with. This could end up being a great tool to help some people sort through all the overwhelming options.
