| Score | Player is given a score on their performance. Often an integral part of gameplay, such as the main goal. | 1971 / 2023 | 15694 games |
| Media: Download | Full game legally distributed as digital download. | 1982 / 2023 | 14544 games |
| Proprietary license | Distributed under a license that witholds and/or restricts source code & rights granted by law, usually for commercial purposes & is almost always unique per game | 1970 / 2022 | 13325 games |
| Commercial | A notably commercial product despite copyrights (or lack thereof) and/or licensing agreements (or lack thereof) that many perceive as incompatible with commercial sales. | 1970 / 2022 | 12436 games |
| Extra lives | Player character has multiple "lives", that are basically how many tries a player has before a Game Over. | 1975 / 2023 | 9028 games |
| Available on Steam | Available on the digital distribution (and by extension social networking service) by Valve. | 1987 / 2023 | 8775 games |
| Ubuntu Linux | Comes with/Installs very simply on Ubuntu. | 1988 / 2022 | 7215 games |
| Indie | Developed without financial backing from large companies or non-private investors. Shares similar design philosophies as art games, but on gameplay rather than artistic value. Often self-published as well. | 1983 / 2022 | 5675 games |
| Planet Earth | All or part of the story takes place on Earth of the Sol star system. | 1970 / 2021 | 5259 games |
| Available on Itch.io | | 1983 / 2022 | 5071 games |
| Media: 5¼ inch floppy disk | Comes on one or more 5¼ inch magnetic floppy disks. | 1976 / 2022 | 4440 games |
| Word input | Player controls the game or part of the game by typing in text in some form. Could be simple commands or whole sentences. | 1970 / 2021 | 4415 games |
| Interactive fiction | A type of adventure game where the game world and player input is described using text. Such as "You are in a hallway. There is a key on the floor", ">get key", ">use silver key on door", ">turn valve", ">say hello", etc.. | 1971 / 2022 | 4382 games |
| Keyboard | Requires or supports any type of a keyboard type controller. | 1970 / 2022 | 4181 games |
| Naturalistic | Not necessarily realistic. Has nothing overtly fantastic, be it magical, paranormal, psychic, mystic, super powers, technomagic, nor magical technology. | 1970 / 2021 | 4163 games |
| Walking | Player can or must move about on foot, regardless of speed. | 1977 / 2021 | 4050 games |
| Grid | Uses a grid of any shape or type. | 1972 / 2023 | 3574 games |
| Console Classix | Available to play at Console Classix | 1977 / 2011 | 3511 games |
| Visual novel | Sug-genre of adventure games. Easily confusable with dating sims with which visual novels share their outward appearance, but the emphasis is on non-gamelike elements and the lack of use of statistics or other numerical data. | 1973 / 2023 | 3482 games |
| Traditional game | Video game adaptation of a traditional game. Also when uses real traditional gaming materials. | 1970 / 2023 | 3151 games |
| Magic | Features anything definitely magical or strange mystic powers. | 1974 / 2023 | 3113 games |
| Female protagonist | Player controls apparently female character. | 1974 / 2022 | 3078 games (12 characters) |
| Emulated on MAME | An Arcade games emulator available for almost any platform.
(clones and bootlegs are merged to the parent) | 1971 / 2016 | 3069 games |
| Monsters | Includes any kind of creatures with terrifying or otherwise horribly deformed/repulsive (monstrous) appearance, regardless if their personality matches this. Commonly assumed to be mindless savages. | 1974 / 2023 | 3059 games |
| Media: cassette tape | Comes on a magnetic audio tape. | 1975 / 2022 | 2947 games |
| UVL maintenance: Confusable | Any games that can be easily confused with another game by same or similar name on same or related platform. | 1970 / 2021 | 2897 games |
| Rectangular grid | Uses an ordinary grid of 4 sided convex shapes (rectangles, squares, etc.). | 1973 / 2023 | 2738 games |
| Future | Set in the future, as seen from the point of the game's release. | 1971 / 2022 | 2708 games |
| Mêlée weapons | Player can use non-projectile weapons which require both the user and the target to be in direct contact with them. | 1978 / 2022 | 2575 games |
| Time limit | Imposes a time limit on either the whole game or for each level. | 1971 / 2022 | 2525 games |
