Browse Other groups
series
themes
entities
concepts
Amnesia Fortnight | Game jam held within Double Fine game studio to publicly test new game ideas. | list_altnotifications | 4 games | |
B-Daman (ビーダマン) | notifications | 1996 / 2005 | 8 games | |
Bionicle[bionicles] | A scifi/fantasy toy line from LEGO. | notifications | 2001 / 2007 | 12 games |
Hot Wheels | Brand of toy car, created by Mattel in 1968. | notifications | 1985 / 2013 | 32 games |
Strawberry Shortcake | notifications | 1977 / 2011 | 16 games | |
Tamagotchi (たまごっち;Tamagocchi;Tamagotch) | Handheld digital pet created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi and Aki Maita. It was first sold by Bandai in 1996 in Japan. Over 70,000,000 Tamagotchis have been sold world-wide as of 2008. | notifications | 1996 / 2013 | 17 games |
Tonka | American toy company most known for its signature toy trucks and construction equipment. | notifications | 1999 / 2006 | 4 games |
Transformers(トランスフォーマー) | notifications | 1984 / 2024 | 61 games (6 characters) |
A Technical Limitation in UVL | Used to denote when UVL's usability is hampered by technical limits. This tag can also be used in searches as a limited work-around in some cases. | notifications | 1977 / 2020 | 160 games |
African theme | Depicts African-like cultures, architecture, people, and such in some major way without necessarily being situated in Africa. | notifications | 1 game | |
After Earth(Earth-that-Was)[Earth that was] | Set in a time period after Earth (or whatever the homeworld of the protagonist's species is) has become uninhabitable, forgotten, or inaccessible. The people having escaped into space, another dimension/reality, or some other place. | notifications | 1985 / 2016 | 51 games |
Aging[ageing] | Characters, especially the protagonist, age over time and possibly die from it (eventually). | notifications | 1985 / 2020 | 47 games |
Alien abduction | notifications | 2000 / 2014 | 16 games | |
Alien blood | Aliens, monsters, and otherworldly creatures bleed something else than red blood. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 23 games |
Alien invasion | Features aliens invading Earth or the protagonist's planet of residence, airspace or space territory, or is generally a major theme or plot point. | notifications | 1978 / 2021 | 553 games |
Alien menace | Some form of alien being or beings serve as the prime antagonistic force. | notifications | 1980 / 2018 | 148 games |
Alien technology (Alien artefact) | Little if at all understood alien technology or technological artefact(s) function as a major plot device. | notifications | 1992 / 2017 | 40 games |
Alphabetic Letters or characters of a language | Characters of a language(s) or letters an alphabet(s) play an important role in the game (other than interface) | notifications | 1977 / 2014 | 95 games |
Alternate character fates | The fates of alternate character choices are somehow explored. | notifications | 1993 / 2009 | 6 games |
Alternate self[alternate selves] | Player encounters alternate versions of various characters, usually "what if" kind where some life turning event didn't occur for them or some other life turning event happened instead of the original. | notifications | 2004 / 2015 | 17 games |
AMBIGUOUS: Motion sensor | This can either refer to motion controller (a type of controller for the game) or a motion detector (a tool in-game). | 0 game | ||
American Sign Language | A non-verbal natural language originating in North America used and having multiple dialects there and around the world. | notifications | 1991 / 1992 | 2 games |
Amnesia (Memory loss) | Features amnesia (a sort of memory disruption or loss) as plot device or theme. | notifications | 1982 / 2023 | 249 games |
Ancient enemy (Ancient evil) | Deals with the return of some ancient evil or other terrible foe from long "forgotten" past. | notifications | 1987 / 2018 | 115 games |
Angular | Uses visual style that employs mainly straight lines and sharp angles. | notifications | 2013 / 2016 | 25 games |
Animal menace | Animals, of any time period or type (besides humans), provide the primary antagonistic force. | notifications | 1982 / 2012 | 2 games |
Anthropomorphism | Animals or objects are given human-like attributes, such as an expressive face, ability to speak, human-like emotions, etc. | notifications | 1983 / 2016 | 102 games |
Apocalyptic | Features an impending or on-going "apocalypse". | notifications | 1987 / 2024 | 110 games |
Army Men | notifications | 1995 / 2015 | 41 games | |
Art game (Art house game) | Created for the sake of the art, or whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience. | notifications | 1977 / 2019 | 84 games |
Artificial scanlines[Artificial interlacing] | Reproduces a certain type of retro look by introducing scanlines to the display, where every other line or column is dimmed or even completely blanked. | notifications | 2012 / 2020 | 18 games |
Artistic language | Constructed language with heavy or even sole emphasis on the aesthetic side, even going so far as lacking any real meaning beyond what it looks or sounds like. | notifications | 2001 / 2018 | 13 games |
Astrophysics (Newtonian physics) | Simulates astrophysics to some degree. | notifications | 1980 / 2024 | 37 games |
Atheist | Games where one or more of the authors with creative control was an Atheist and the game promotes the Atheism. | notifications | 1988 / 1998 | 2 games |
Atomic Age theme(Nuclear theme) | The atomic age features prominently as a theme, motif, or such with nuclear powered devices and facilities in broad use. | notifications | 1976 / 2015 | 13 games |
Auditory masking(Sound masking) | Auditory masking affects gameplay, such as environmental noise masking noise the player character makes and allowing them to be much more noisy than normal without detecting. | notifications | 2005 / 2017 | 8 games |
Augmented reality (AR;Enhanced reality) | Depicts augmented reality technology in use. | notifications | 2008 / 2015 | 20 games |
Aurorae (Auroras;Aurora;Aurora Borealis;Northern Lights;Aurora Australis;Southern Lights) | Features natural light displays in the sky caused by energy colliding with atmospheres and/or magnetospheres on earth or any other world. | notifications | 1 game | |
Award: Computer Games Magazine Game of the Year | 0 game | |||
Award: Game Tunnel Adventure Game of the Year | Game Tunnel Adventure Game of the Year is an award. | 0 game | ||
Award: Game Tunnel Game of the Year | Award: Game Tunnel Game of the Year. | 0 game | ||
Bananas | The yellow skinned fruit of the tree-like banana plant. The peels are a humors slipping hazard. They are stereotypically desired by larger primates. | notifications | 1982 / 2016 | 52 games |
Banned | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 19 games | |
Battle of Pelennor Fields | A major battle during the War of the Ring between the city of Minas Tirith & forces of Gondor & allies, and the forces of Sauron. | notifications | 1989 / 2001 | 10 games |
Belarusian Language | notifications | 2 games | ||
Bengali Language | notifications | 1996 / 1999 | 4 games | |
Bikini | notifications | 1983 / 2016 | 22 games | |
Biogrowth | Features growth of large unspecified non-plant biological mass that covers land, buildings and anything else. | notifications | 1998 / 2022 | 106 games |
Biological evolution | Evolution plays part in the gameplay. Likely in the form of biological adaptation (adjusting to environmental change), spontaneous changes (mutation), or guided evolution (more advanced beings prodding and poking or influence from higher power). | notifications | 1982 / 2015 | 39 games |
Bionicles | A variation of [gametag=lego]Lego[/gametag] toys. | notifications | 1 game | |
Biotechnology (Biomodification;Genetic engineering;Organic technology) | Features any of the various fields of manipulating organic entities, from transplants to genetic engineering, or the results thereof. | notifications | 1988 / 2022 | 87 games |
Bizarre events (Surreal events) | notifications | 2003 / 2007 | 2 games | |
Bizarre flora (Bizarre vegetation;Surreal flora) | Vegetation that is abnormal, bizarre, or otherwise surreal. | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 6 games |
Black Sheep | When 1 game of a series or a version of a game is widely perceived as far different from the others & thus inferior, even in cases of higher quality. Does not necessarily mean no-one likes the game, especially those unfamiliar with the predecessors. | notifications | 1986 / 2014 | 38 games |
Bleak(Grim)[cheerless;hopeless;grimdark] | Presents a bleak world for the player to explore, one that seems sad, hopeless, depressing, or otherwise where things are or go wrong all the time and getting them right is nigh impossible or come with heavy price. | notifications | 1992 / 2018 | 108 games |
Blocky | Designed to be very blocky in appearance, with heavy use of square/rectangle/cube shapes. Likely as an attempt to make the game seem older than it is and/or to reduce resources needed to produce graphics. | notifications | 2002 / 2019 | 118 games |
Blood & gore (Visceral;Graphic violence) | Displays unnecessarily large amounts of blood, gore and gibs. Including detailed wounds, mutilated bodies/corpses and other visceral scenes. As well as the very acts that produce them. | notifications | 1983 / 2022 | 526 games |
Blood motif (Blood theme) | notifications | 2005 / 2015 | 13 games | |
Bokmal Language | notifications | 1999 / 2004 | 6 games | |
BPjM/BPjS indexed | Indexed by Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien/Schriften, making the game difficult to obtain legally in Germany. | notifications | 1982 / 2009 | 54 games |
Braille Text | Information presented in Braille on screen or by using external hardware. | notifications | 1991 / 2006 | 3 games |
Branching story (Branching campaign) | The story branches off to two or more alternative lines, possibly merging at later time, giving increased replayability. | notifications | 1980 / 2022 | 58 games |
Breast fetishism (Mazophilia) | Caters to those who have sexual appeal to breasts, often of particular size (e.g. huge). | notifications | 2004 / 2016 | 18 games |
Brittle abilities (Brittle buffs) | Abilities (usually buffs) or similar that create an effect that has limited charges (until the ability is used again). Such as a attack buff that lasts for the next 3 hits, or defense buff that lasts for the next 2 hits. | notifications | 2009 / 2014 | 12 games |
Buddhist Faith | Games where one or more of the authors with creative control was Buddhist and the game promotes the Buddhist faith. | notifications | 1999 / 2017 | 3 games |
Bulky characters | All characters are depicted as excessively bulky/sturdy all around but not necessarily fat. | notifications | 1988 / 2013 | 21 games |
Bundled with hardware or peripherals | One or more releases of the game comes packaged with hardware or peripheral device(s). | notifications | 1972 / 2013 | 55 games |
Canadian English | notifications | 1984 / 1999 | 4 games | |
Canadian French | notifications | 4 games | ||
Cannibalism | Depicts cannibalism, the act of eating members of your own species. | notifications | 1985 / 2020 | 55 games |
Captured Resources (Raided Resources) | When 1 side of a conflict can capture a resource & is immediately able use it to counter attack or defend. | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 85 games |
Cardinal & ordinal navigation(Navigation via points of compass)[Intercardinal] | Navigation is accomplished by following cardinal (and/or their intermediate) directions or similar, not necessarily exact directions and may include non-compass directions such as "up" and "down". Not for fullblown compass-based navigation however. | notifications | 1980 / 2021 | 102 games |
Catholic Faith | Games where 1 or more of the authors with creative control was Catholic & the game promotes the Catholic faith directly, using symbolism, or allegory | notifications | 2000 / 2012 | 9 games |
Censored | Edited for content, received alternate promotion or restricted release, in some way other that what the author(s) intended. | notifications | 1981 / 2018 | 158 games |
Chase | The plot or gameplay is about a chase, usually in the form of police trying to catch some criminal. Regardless of which side of the chase the player is. | notifications | 1985 / 2009 | 42 games |
Christian faith | Games where one or more of the authors with creative control was Christian and the game promotes the Christian faith. | notifications | 1982 / 2017 | 354 games (8 characters) |
ChromaDepth 3D | ChromaDepth is a patented 3D technique that takes advantage of the different wavelengths of the visible light spectrum. | notifications | 1991 / 2009 | 8 games |
Chrysopoeia(Transmutation into gold) | Items are automatically or manually by the player (with no significant effort) converted into gold or other form of currency. | notifications | 1998 / 2005 | 8 games |
Cipher language (Substitution cipher) | Languages that are constructed simply by substituting characters but otherwise read as regular language the game is in. | notifications | 1990 / 2019 | 29 games |
Circadian cycle (Day/night cycle) | Day and night cycles on their own outside of plot, location, or triggered events, possibly influencing NPC activities accordingly. | notifications | 1979 / 2023 | 488 games |
Civil war | Involves any civil war, a war involving people of the same country fighting each other. | notifications | 1979 / 2016 | 89 games |
Clandestine (Covert operation;Black operation;Secret operation) | Involves activities that are kept in secret, concealed from the public eye and others, either because of their illegal or improper nature. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 149 games |
Class-restricted tasks(Job-restricted tasks)[Class-restricted quests;Class-restricted missions] | Includes tasks, quests, missions or such that are only available to a subset of classes or even just one. | notifications | 1 game | |
Claymation animation | Claymation is a type of stop-motion animation achieved with malleable (often plasticine clay) characters. | notifications | 1990 / 2015 | 84 games |
Clone technology[cloning technology;clones] | Features cloning technology or its products. | notifications | 1997 / 2016 | 34 games |
Cloth dyeing (Cloth coloring:Character coloring)[cloth dyes] | Player can color their clothes either when they're acquired, made and/or at any time later (whether or not this requires visit to a dye shop or similar). | notifications | 2001 / 2020 | 25 games |
Collapsing ceiling | Whole or parts of the ceiling fall down and injure or kill the protagonist and possibly others, commonly stalactites or icicles though occasionally whole blocks. | notifications | 1998 / 2014 | 9 games |
Color scheme: Blue | The color blue is used a lot. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 19 games |
Color scheme: Gray/Brown[Grey/Brown] | Heavily uses a gray/brown color scheme. Likely used to help make things look worn or dingy, also to make things seem more depressing. | notifications | 1993 / 2017 | 58 games |
Color scheme: Orange/Blue | Heavily uses a orange/blue color scheme/contrast. | notifications | 2008 / 2017 | 20 games |
Color scheme: Red | The color red is used a lot. | notifications | 2004 / 2018 | 23 games |
Color scheme: Yellow/Orange | Heavily uses a yellow/orange color scheme. | notifications | 1997 / 2013 | 8 games |
Color schemes[Colour schemes] | Any heavy uses of certain choice colors. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Columnar jointing | Geologic formation that to human eyes (living in western cultures at least) tends to look artificial despite being natural, often seen with igneous rocks forming polygonal prisms. | notifications | 2001 / 2019 | 78 games |
Combat stilettos[combat stiletto heels;combat heels;combat high heels] | Characters wear stiletto heels to places where they make absolutely no sense, especially combat. | notifications | 2002 / 2018 | 35 games |
Companion (Sidekick) | Player has a companion that helps them out where and when they can. | notifications | 1984 / 2020 | 231 games |
Company first game | Each company should have one of these. | notifications | 1980 / 2017 | 31 games |
Conditional hazards | Includes hazards that can be passed through without harm under certain conditions, such as edging slowly rather than running through them. | notifications | 1990 / 2011 | 6 games |
Console Classix | Available to play at Console Classix | notifications | 1977 / 2011 | 3513 games |
Consoleclassix-pending | Maintenance tag. Console Classix has purchased at least 1 cartridge of these games, they are just not digitally copied yet (usually due to technical reasons). | notifications | 1 game | |
Conspiracy | Features a conspiracy as a plot device or theme. | notifications | 1992 / 2020 | 62 games |
Contrasted(Burned graphics;Gamut clipped)[gamut clipping] | Uses heavily contrasting colors, making itself look brightly colorful but also dark at the same time. | notifications | 1988 / 2015 | 19 games |
Control points | Involves capture and control of certain points of interest, either as the primary or optional objective. | notifications | 1983 / 2018 | 49 games |
Coprophilia(Scat;Scatophilia) | Caters to people with coprophilia. An abnormal interest and pleasure in feces and defecation. | notifications | 2009 / 2010 | 2 games |
Cotton Crop | A sub/tropical shrub native to old & new worlds cultivated mainly for cloth made from fibrous cellulose that encases the seeds. | notifications | 1988 / 2013 | 4 games |
Created by a female author | It is rare a female has creative control of design, sometimes such are attributed to somewhat different games than those by male authors. | notifications | 1977 / 2019 | 272 games |
CRT Effects(Simulated CRT visuals) | Visuals simulate realistic, rare, or even imagined aspects of CRT displays. | notifications | 1992 / 2023 | 34 games |
Culture | Culture is part of the gameplay mechanics or is a major thematic element. | notifications | 2005 / 2013 | 7 games |
Curse (Cursed;Cursed protagonist) | The protagonist has been cursed and either bears it or is actively seeking to dispel it, or a curse otherwise plays a major role in gameplay or story. | notifications | 1978 / 2018 | 43 games |
Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) | Professional video game league. | notifications | 1 game | |
Damage modeling | Models the effects of damage on characters, vehicles and other things. | notifications | 1988 / 2020 | 35 games |
Dark (Perpetual night) | The environs are unusually dark, either because it's a perpetual night, you're stuck in a structure with limited light sources or anything else, forcing you to use any light source(s) you can find or cope with what little you can find in the env | notifications | 1973 / 2024 | 423 games |
Dark past[dark history] | A central location or character has past that's best left forgotten, but somehow comes back to haunt. Or this serves as a general theme. | notifications | 1993 / 2016 | 13 games |
Dark space | Outer space is realistically depicted as dark/black place instead of the usual colorful juice spill. | notifications | 1977 / 2019 | 193 games |
Darkness theme (Blackness)[The dark] | Uses darkness, shadows or similar lack of light as a thematic element. | notifications | 1996 / 2018 | 13 games |
Death of protagonist (Death of a main character) | One or more of the main characters die as part of the plot, especially in case of the protagonist. | notifications | 1988 / 2019 | 102 games |
Defunct (Shut down) | Games that are no longer playable, such as MMOs which have no official servers running anymore or ARGs with the outside of the game components long gone. | notifications | 1989 / 2017 | 68 games |
Dementia (Insanity;Madness) | Involves themes of dementia, madness and general insanity. Especially cases where the main character suffers or can suffer from this. | notifications | 1995 / 2017 | 45 games |
Demonic invasion | Demonic creatures have decided to invade our happy little reality en masse. | notifications | 1990 / 2021 | 107 games |
Demonic menace | One or more demons or other demonic beings serve as the main antagonistic force. | notifications | 1994 / 2020 | 47 games |
Desaturated[desaturation;faded;sepia] | Colors are tinted towards gray or are neutral-ish with each other. | notifications | 1999 / 2018 | 30 games |
Desolate(Lonely) | Player hardly meets anyone, people or animals. | notifications | 1995 / 2022 | 30 games |
Developed exclusively on the same platform as the target platform. | These games used no outside development system. Presumable all games are tested/tweaked, but not necessarily strictly exclusively [i]developed on[/i], their target platform. | notifications | 1978 / 2016 | 12 games |
Development Systems | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Dialect: Australian English dialects | Australian English is spoken or recognizably written in the game. | notifications | 1 game | |
Dialect: Southern American English (Southern Drawl) | Southern American English is spoken or recognizably written in the game. | notifications | 4 games | |
Dice | Includes dice or lots objects or polygons that land on a random side. | notifications | 1972 / 2017 | 237 games |
Dielect: Texas English | Texas English is spoken or recognizably written in the game. | notifications | 1984 / 2013 | 5 games |
Digitized Still Images (Live-action stills) | Real life images or a video frame have been scanned and made into textures, sprites, and/or images within the game. | notifications | 1983 / 2017 | 332 games |
Digitized video (Live action video) | Prerecorded video clips of [i]live action[/i] are rendered digital, in full or part, and displayed within the game. | notifications | 1990 / 2016 | 94 games |
Dilapidated (Worn;Decrepit) | Gives the impression of worn down and/or poorly (or not at all) maintained habitats and such. | notifications | 2003 / 2018 | 23 games |
Dingy[Decayed;Sullied;Tarnished;Soiled;Used;Rusted;Dirty] | Gives an image of dirty, rusted and old world in state of constant decay. | notifications | 1993 / 2018 | 63 games |
Direct Distribution | The game is sold directly from the developer/producer to the consumer. | notifications | 2009 / 2017 | 20 games |
Directional energy shields | Energy shields only cover a sector or limited area rather than providing all around protection. | notifications | 1991 / 2020 | 6 games |
Discolored blood (Discolored ichor) | For whatever reason, the blood of Humans and Earthborne animals is something else than red. | notifications | 1993 / 2013 | 22 games |
Discrimination | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 6 games | |
Disease (Illness;Sickness;Plague) | Affliction(s) caused by some disease(s) is part of gameplay. | notifications | 1971 / 2021 | 87 games |
Disposable keys(Single-use keys) | Keys are for the most part single use, disappearing into nothingness the moment they're used for anything. These also commonly work for any lock rather than one or more specific ones. | notifications | 1985 / 2017 | 39 games |
Disproportionate retribution(Disproportionate retaliation) | As part of the plot, someone or some people retaliate in disproportionate manner. Such as going genocidal in response to actions of a few people. | notifications | 1997 / 2019 | 9 games |
Divine champion(Hellish champion) | The protagonist is a champion of some deity or deities, or is otherwise a powerful divine/religious figure. | notifications | 1992 / 2012 | 14 games |
Divine Menace (Godly menace) | A god or divine being, or several, serve as the main antagonistic force. | notifications | 1995 / 2019 | 35 games |
Dreams (Dreaming;Dream theme) | Features dreams or dreaming as a significant theme. | notifications | 1985 / 2019 | 27 games |
Drugs | Drugs are or can be used. Especially cases of illegal and/or addictive drugs. Even more so if the player is actively involved. | notifications | 1979 / 2017 | 76 games |
Duplicate: Other Language: Hungarian | 0 game | |||
Dying | The protagonist is nearing death with each passing moment and must actively circumvent it or to finish their task before they run out of time. | notifications | 1985 / 2016 | 17 games |
Dystopian | Gives an image of society gone bad. Literally the opposite of what utopia would be. | notifications | 1982 / 2024 | 159 games |
Elements (Prime elements) | The old prime elements of fire, water, air and earth, or any other elements the used mythos has, feature prominently in the story or gameplay. | notifications | 1991 / 2015 | 15 games |
Energy shields (Protective force fields;Deflector shields) | Includes energy shields of one sort or another, especially when employed by the protagonist. | notifications | 1973 / 2020 | 228 games |
English Language | 0 game | |||
Entity versus Entity conflict (Man versus Man) | A narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face, and in many cases, the player also | notifications | 1981 / 2017 | 122 games |
Entity versus Invention conflict (Man versus Machine;Man versus Idea) | A narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face, and in many cases, the player also | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 25 games |
Entity versus Natural Order conflict (Man versus Nature;Man versus Physics;Man versus Logic;Man versus Emotion;Man versus Addiction) | A narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face, and in many cases, the player also | notifications | 1980 / 2019 | 89 games |
Entity versus Self conflict (Man versus his own limits) | A narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face, and in many cases, the player also | notifications | 1983 / 1984 | 3 games |
Entity versus Supernatural Entity conflict (Man versus supernatural;Man versus Fanciful;Man versus Alien) | A narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face. | notifications | 1980 / 2013 | 75 games |
Environmental hazards | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Ernesto Che Guevara (Che Guevara;El Che) | The worlds most famous revolutionary. An Argentine Marxist, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader. His stylized image has become an icon of Counterculture. | notifications | 1987 / 1988 | 2 games (1 characters) |
Erratic foreign language(Flavour foreign language) | Foreign words or sentences are thrown in the dialogue or writing seemingly randomly, or are used inexplicably with some things such as describing technology. | notifications | 1998 / 2014 | 25 games |
Ethnicity | Any tags relating to ethnicity. | list_alt | 0 game | |
European Portuguese Language | The Portuguese language as is written and spoken in Portugal. | notifications | 1996 / 2020 | 163 games |
Evil overlord[Evil genius] | A single person has somehow gained unswerving loyalty of numerous creatures and is causing trouble in the world. | notifications | 1982 / 2022 | 224 games |
Exoskeleton | Player character wears or can wear a powered exoskeleton short of piloted robots. | notifications | 2011 / 2017 | 9 games |
Expendable | The protagonist is treated as if their existence is unimportant, failure would either mean someone else is readily available to do their job or that even failure would accomplish enough. | notifications | 1998 / 2008 | 5 games |
Explained HUD | The presence of the HUD is more or less explained in-mythos. | notifications | 1983 / 2023 | 45 games |
Explained third-person perspective(Explained third-person camera) | Third-person perspective/camera is somehow explained within the mythos. | notifications | 1984 / 2018 | 8 games |
F.B.I. (Federal Bureau of Investigation) | An institution of the executive branch of government of the USA. Created to gain information on behalf of law enforcement & later given broader powers | notifications | 1988 / 2013 | 9 games |
Factual inaccuracy | notifications | 2007 / 2012 | 5 games | |
Failed project | Features a some kind of a failed project or undertaking as major recurring theme or element. | notifications | 2015 / 2016 | 10 games |
Faith | Faith is a major story element or part of the gameplay mechanics. | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 8 games |
Faiths and Religions | list_alt | 0 game | ||
False Credits (Alan Smithee) | Game where the [i]official[/i] credits are purposefully inaccurate for various reasons. | notifications | 1 game | |
False gods | Some things are worshipped, attributed, or otherwise recognized as gods by the populace, but player is given enough evidence to claim that they're not that. Regardless if anything is done about it. | notifications | 2001 / 2019 | 3 games |
Family theme(Family-centric plot) | The story revolves around family or uses family otherwise as thematic element. | notifications | 1979 / 2018 | 14 games |
Feelies required | Each playthrough, load, character creation [i]or[/i] savegame, requires consulting a chart, map, decoder wheel, word on a page in the manual, or additional game materials. | notifications | 1983 / 2021 | 158 games |
Fictional credits (Crazy credits;Humorous credits) | Sometimes humorous/fictional credits are used to add entertainment value to a game. Such as in-game characters being credited for their in-game roles | notifications | 1986 / 2008 | 7 games |
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (Fidel Castro) | Worlds 2nd most famous revolutionary. The only leader to ever make communisum work. He toppled the Batista dictatorship & ruled Cuba for over 50 years | notifications | 1987 / 1988 | 2 games (1 characters) |
Field promotion | Protagonist gains one or more field promotions, or equivalent of. | notifications | 1999 / 2009 | 12 games |
Fiery | Extensive use of flames/fire for visual effect. | notifications | 2011 / 2014 | 5 games |
Fisher-Price | Fisher-Price is a toy and baby gear company. They have licensed their name to games also. | notifications | 1988 / 1992 | 8 games |
Flashbacks | Involves flashbacks, interactive or not. | notifications | 1993 / 2020 | 33 games |
Flying city (Flying castle;Flying fortress)[floating city] | Features one or more flying, hovering, or otherwise suspended in air castles, cities, or similar large structures you'd normally expect to see firmly on ground. | notifications | 1999 / 2016 | 22 games |
Food theme | notifications | 1982 / 2022 | 117 games | |
Footbag (Foot Bag;Hacky Sack) | A squishy bag of sand or pellets designed to be maneuvered by head, elbow, knee, shoulder or a shoed foot into to air repeatedly for fun or sport. | notifications | 1987 / 1989 | 13 games |
Forbidden technology | Involves technology forbidden from being used in any capacity within the mythos. | notifications | 2 games | |
Forced aggro[taunting] | Players and/or some enemies can somehow force others (including other players) to attack themselves or others, usually via some taunting mechanic. Not applicable if players are immune to this. | notifications | 3 games | |
Forgotten past (Forgotten history) | notifications | 1998 / 2015 | 13 games | |
Fortune Telling | Predicting the future of someone for their benefit, often in exchange for money. Prophecy is often mistaken for Fortune Telling. | notifications | 1985 / 2016 | 21 games |
Fuel crisis (Oil crisis;Oil depletion) | Involves a fuel crisis crippling the world, with possibly the story's events being caused by it or otherwise related to it. | notifications | 1973 / 2014 | 20 games |
Fueled by Death (Fueled by Destruction) | These games depend on the phenomenon of time, fuel, or some other resource mysteriously harvested merely by destruction or death of enemies or items | notifications | 1981 / 2016 | 66 games |
Game show (Reality show) | Made-up game show. | notifications | 1986 / 2020 | 39 games |
Gameplay mechanic explained(Explained gameplay elements;In-mythos gameplay elements) | Some purely gameplay related mechanic is explained in-mythos. | notifications | 1981 / 2014 | 8 games |
Gang war | notifications | 2008 / 2020 | 9 games | |
Gas physics(Gas dynamics) | Gases move according to airflow or relative weight (lighter gases going up, heavier down), subvert each other, oversaturate, etc. | notifications | 1 game | |
Gender ratio discrepancy | Both genders are present, but the ratio between them is notably strange, such as single or only few females in otherwise all male cast (consisting of dozens or even hundreds). | notifications | 1997 / 2014 | 38 games |
Genetic memory (Racial memory) | Deals with the concept of genetic memory. | notifications | 1992 / 2012 | 10 games |
Geography | A knowledge of real world geography is needed to play. This is often associated with educational titles. | notifications | 1972 / 2014 | 57 games |
Georgian Language | notifications | 1996 / 1999 | 3 games | |
Gigeresque | Uses graphics similar to H. R. Giger's works. | notifications | 1988 / 2015 | 19 games |
Gloomy[Dark] | The art style is gloomy, dark but not in a way that obscures visibility. | notifications | 1991 / 2018 | 40 games |
Glow suits | Characters, especially the protagonist, wear suits, armor, clothes, or similar with glowy blibs or strips. | notifications | 2006 / 2014 | 48 games |
Glowing eyes | Characters and other creatures have inexplicably glowing or otherwise light emitting eyes, commonly either to show they're evil or powerful. | notifications | 1997 / 2020 | 94 games |
Glowing veins | Characters and other creatures have inexplicably glowing or otherwise light emitting veins, commonly to show something unnatural/supernatural flowing through them, such as a little too much magic. | notifications | 2004 / 2014 | 15 games |
Gold in any form | Be it currency, jewelry, dust, nuggets, ingots, bars, leaf, ore, or circuitry. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Gothic architecture | An architectural style that favors tall structures (columns, windows, etc.) that make humans feel small and insignificant. | notifications | 2002 / 2011 | 6 games |
Grand scale(Massive scale;Epic scale)[grand scope;massive scope;epic scope] | The scale of the events reach across the globe, galaxy, the universe, reality itself, or across multiple realities. | notifications | 1972 / 2017 | 154 games |
Growing protagonist | The main character is a child (or a baby) at the beginning, and grows, becoming adult during the game. | notifications | 1984 / 2021 | 55 games |
Gujarati Language | notifications | 1996 / 1999 | 3 games | |
Gum (Chewing Gum, Bubble Gum) | notifications | 1983 / 1984 | 4 games | |
Hammer and anvil NPC tactics(Enemies spawn behind) | NPC enemies use hammer and anvil tactics - where one force attacks from front while another comes from directly behind, cutting off the fallback route the player(s) originally came from (and presumably made safe) - or spawn in to seem like they do. | notifications | 1 game | |
Harem | The protagonist has multiple simultaneous long-term romantic and/or sexual relationships more or less openly. At bare minimum this involves 3 people besides the protagonist, though usually involves far more. | notifications | 2006 / 2015 | 5 games |
Hate groups(Extremist haters)[Ku Klux Klan;The Klan] | Features one or more hate groups that advocate and practice hostility and violence of some racial, ethnic, sexual, gender, or religious group. Likely bearing some similarities with Ku Klux Klan. | notifications | 2013 / 2015 | 5 games |
Health care | Has overarching theme of health care. | notifications | 1982 / 2018 | 45 games |
Heavy specularity(Glossy;Plastic) | Heavily uses graphics effects that gives almost everything a glossy, plastic appearance. Usually from overuse of certain kinds of specular lighting or bump mapping. Especially if there's complete lack of matte surfaces. | notifications | 2000 / 2015 | 19 games |
Hirelings (Hired characters) | Player can meet people or other beings they can hire to join them temporarily until they die, become incapacitated, or their contract ends. | notifications | 1975 / 2015 | 24 games |
Honorable foes[honourable foes] | Enemies refuse to attack from behind, together in groups, or in some other dishoronorable manner. | notifications | 2003 / 2014 | 5 games |
Horse game | Doesn't just have horses, the game is solely about them. | notifications | 1980 / 2014 | 75 games |
Hourglass figures | Characters, though mainly females, have consistently a hourglass figure. | notifications | 1 game | |
Human experiments (Experiments on sentients) | Involves humans or other sentient creatures unwillingly being subjected to experiments. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 82 games |
Human menace | Humans in general function as the main antagonistic force. | notifications | 1984 / 2013 | 10 games |
Humanity | Humanity (not as species) plays a part in the game's story or is part of the game mechanics in some manner. | notifications | 2000 / 2018 | 14 games |
Hunted | Player is hunted by someone or something for a significant portion of the game. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 33 games |
Hydrologic cycle(Water cycle) | Continuous water movement on planet surfaces, subsurface, & atmosphere as it changes liquid, vapor, & ice states (water/clouds/snow) is simulated. | notifications | 2001 / 2014 | 5 games |
Hypothermia | Simulates effects of hypothermia in some manner. | notifications | 2002 / 2018 | 24 games |
IGF finalist nominee | notifications | 1999 / 2015 | 48 games | |
Immortality | Features immortality as a concept, theme or plot point. | notifications | 1992 / 2019 | 9 games |
Implants | Player can install cybernetic, biological or mechanical implants to themselves that somehow improve their performance by various means. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 34 games |
In development | Not yet properly published/released, but is still in active development, or was when the game entry was last updated. | notifications | 2009 / 2022 | 451 games |
In-built traps | Traps built right into the structures, often the structures themselves contributing as traps. | notifications | 1985 / 2018 | 111 games |
Incest | Features incest, sexual and/or romantic relationships between close biological relatives, though in some instances stepfamily can also be considered. | notifications | 1996 / 2017 | 17 games |
Inconsistent style | The art style is inconsistent within the game, either on purpose, by lack of or poor art direction, or lack of resources. | notifications | 1992 / 2016 | 10 games |
Independence war | Features any factual or fictitious war of independence. | notifications | 1994 / 2014 | 10 games |
Industrial theme | notifications | 2006 / 2014 | 8 games | |
Inept veteran (Incapable veteran;Inexperienced veteran) | The protagonist is presented as a veteran, but they're surprisingly inept despite this. | notifications | 1988 / 2021 | 81 games |
Injuries | Getting wounded has much broader effects beyond simple loss of health points. | notifications | 1988 / 2020 | 103 games |
Insectoid menace | Insects, spiders, or other insect-like beings function as the main antagonistic force. | notifications | 1982 / 2014 | 26 games |
Insectoid theme | Involves insects or insectoids as central thematic element. | notifications | 1978 / 2017 | 43 games |
Intentionally bad(Bad on purpose) | Has been made intentionally bad in some manner. Such as by mimicking B-movies. | notifications | 2003 / 2014 | 12 games |
Invention versus Invention conflict (Machine versus Machine) | A non-classic narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face. | notifications | 1 game | |
Irish Language (Gaeilge Language) | notifications | 1996 / 2013 | 6 games | |
Jewish | Games where one or more of the authors with creative control was Jewish and the game promotes the Jewish faith. | notifications | 1 game | |
Judaism Faith | Games where one or more of the authors with creative control practiced Judaism & the game promotes Judaism directly, using symbolism, or allegory. | notifications | 1982 / 2006 | 16 games (6 characters) |
Kabuki Visuals (歌舞伎) | Has visuals inspired by Kabuki theatre. Sing. Dance. Skill. | notifications | 1 game | |
Kannada Language | notifications | 1996 / 1999 | 3 games | |
Koei best (光栄ベスト) | Re-released japanese games published by Koei, sold for ¥2,800 (Saturn, PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2) or ¥3,800 (PlayStation 2). | notifications | 1995 / 2006 | 11 games |
Language content: Insignificant | For games that give no instructions, significant story, nor any critical language based information; they can be intuitively operated without knowledge of any language. | notifications | 1972 / 2022 | 2024 games |
Language: Chiquitistani | notifications | 2007 / 2008 | 3 games | |
Last hope | The protagonist (and possibly a small group of allies, friends, or coworkers) is presented as the last hope to prevent - or last one(s) capable of preventing - some great disaster. | notifications | 1992 / 2016 | 14 games |
Last official game for the platform | The last game, or games if published on the same day, sold in retail outlets for a retired platform in the last region sold. Often these are the best ones. | notifications | 1984 / 2008 | 33 games |
Latvian Language | notifications | 1996 / 2010 | 4 games | |
Law vs Good | Plays with ideas of law, lawfulness, and following the rules being opposed to what is good. Especially if those laws themselves are impartial or even seemingly good themselves. | notifications | 1987 / 2019 | 26 games |
Lego | Based on any Lego products, be it their bricks, other pieces you construct things from, or anything else they've made up. | notifications | 1995 / 2023 | 202 games |
Lethal objects | Objects that collide with the player character, environment or enemies and do a fair bit of damage, possibly even killing anyone they collide with. Commonly encountered as large boulders rolling down a hill. | notifications | 1981 / 2016 | 95 games |
Level equalization(Level matching) | Going with too high level character to a lower level mission or similar causes the character to be temporarily de-leveled or otherwise nerfed. Or in reverse where too low level character gets temporarily level boosted or buffed for high level mission. | notifications | 2013 / 2015 | 2 games |
Levelless RPG | Despite being an RPG, no level system is present to gauge the relative power of the characters and monsters. Usually these are purely skill-based. | notifications | 1985 / 2014 | 23 games |
Liberated | A formally proprietary game officially released as open-source, freeware, and/or at no cost. | notifications | 1989 / 1991 | 4 games |
License change | The license by which the game is available has changed since release, such as formerly commercial game becoming freeware or open source, or formerly free game becoming commercial/proprietary. | notifications | 1980 / 2019 | 347 games |
License: Cross-platform | Single purchase from at least one official vendor entitles customer to copies on multiple platforms. | notifications | 1998 / 2019 | 319 games |
License: Multiple copies | Buying the game from [i]anywhere[/i] gives 2 or more copies of it. | notifications | 1986 / 2013 | 13 games |
Light | Uses light as a central thematic element or motif. Not necessarily dealing with darkness in any similar manner. | notifications | 2015 / 2016 | 3 games |
Limited shop stock | Shops have limited number of items available that the player may want to purchase in large quantities, such as restoratives or ammo. | notifications | 1997 / 2015 | 6 games |
Liquid physics (Liquid dynamics)[Water dynamics;Water physics] | Liquids and semi-solid substances (such as water, acid, lava, mud, etc.) flow, pool, and otherwise dynamically interacts with the world. | notifications | 1991 / 2020 | 37 games |
Lolicon (Lolita complex;Lolikon;Rorikon;ロリコン) | notifications | 1983 / 2015 | 10 games | |
Low poly | Polygons of the 3D meshes are consistently clearly distinguishable without effort on resolution and display size the game was aimed for for vast majority of objects. Mostly of interest for games where this is not to deal with hardware limitations. | notifications | 2011 / 2020 | 19 games |
Lowtech Future | Though set significantly in the future there is a notable lack or inavailability of new futuristic technology. | notifications | 1982 / 2015 | 18 games |
Magazine (Printed media) | Distributed in a magazine or other printed media, typically as a type-in program. | notifications | 1980 / 1995 | 288 games |
Magic: Common | Magic is depicted as common, everyday thing. Either everyone can use it without problems or magical artefacts are so widespread it's hard to distinguish who actually has aptitude with it or not. | notifications | 2011 / 2014 | 4 games |
Maiden voyage | A new vehicle or such is put into use for the first time, often in a desperate try for it to change the tide of a losing war. | notifications | 1999 / 2017 | 10 games |
Major League Gaming (MLG) | A North American professional videogame league. | notifications | 2001 / 2011 | 16 games |
Malay Language | notifications | 1996 / 2010 | 4 games | |
Malayalam Language | notifications | 1996 / 1999 | 4 games | |
Meaningful title | The game's title is somehow meaningful within the game's context. | notifications | 1988 / 2018 | 20 games |
Mechanical transformation(Self-reconfiguring vehicle;Self-reconfiguring robot) | Features vehicles, robots or such self-reconfiguring from one form to something completely different. | notifications | 1985 / 2018 | 58 games |
Media | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Megacorporations (Corporatocracy) | Features conglomerates so powerful that they can ignore law, have armed forces of their own and even function as "nations" onto themselves. Often depicted as evil and devoid of morals. | notifications | 1988 / 2019 | 153 games |
Methodist Denomination | Games where one or more of the authors with creative control was Methodist and the game promotes Methodisms directly, using symbolism, or allegory. | notifications | 1 game | |
Mind control | The story or gameplay features some type of control over the minds of others, whether done by the protagonist(s), their allies, their enemies or someone or something else. | notifications | 1985 / 2019 | 104 games |
Minecarts | Minecarts serve as a vehicle, container, and/or a manipulateble object. Often for fast subterranean travel involving jumps & split-second track switching | notifications | 1991 / 2019 | 59 games |
Minions (Underlings) | Player has or can have any number of underlings at her beck and call. | notifications | 1975 / 2016 | 59 games |
Monochromatic[monochrome] | Uses only shades of single color. | notifications | 2016 / 2017 | 6 games |
Monster friend[monstrous friend] | Whatever the fairly normal protagonist (for a video game character) has, is a (usually giant) monster or similar being. | notifications | 1999 / 2016 | 8 games |
Mormon Faith | Games where one or more of the authors with creative control was Mormon and the game promotes the Mormon faith directly, using symbolism, or allegory. | notifications | 1988 / 2007 | 4 games |
Morse Code | The game uses Morse Code to communicate information either between characters or between the game and player(s) | notifications | 1984 / 2016 | 22 games |
Mr.T (Laurence Tureaud) | Features Mr. T, a popular 80s toughguy personality. Known for wearing copious amounts of gold, a mohawk hairdo and growling 'I pity the Fool.' | notifications | 1982 / 2019 | 16 games |
Multiple players can share a single copy of the game. | notifications | 2000 / 2021 | 6 games | |
Multiple players each have a copy of the game. | Normal and uninteresting unless this is refers to an optional mode for a game that also has at least one mode where players share a single media. | notifications | 2006 / 2008 | 2 games |
Multiple players must use multiple copies of the game. | notifications | 1 game | ||
Muslim Faith | Games where one or more of the authors with creative control was Muslim and the game promotes the Muslim faith. | 1 game | ||
Mutagen | Features a mutagenic substance or agent that causes massive and rapid mutations, often turning whoever comes in contact with it into monsters. | notifications | 1993 / 2023 | 57 games |
Myth magnet | The protagonist is a perplexing magnet for mythical things, often gaining a large number of legendary or mythic artefacts over the course of the game. | notifications | 1998 / 2017 | 22 games |
Nano technology (Nanites;Nanorobotics;Nanofabrication;Nanolithography;Nanobots) | Features nano technology or its products. | notifications | 1997 / 2017 | 57 games |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration | USA's government run space program. Despite advancing many sciences, including videogames, it is most famous for moon landings & space shuttles. | notifications | 1972 / 2011 | 23 games |
Natural disaster | Depicts a major natural disaster or events immediately caused by it. | notifications | 1981 / 2013 | 23 games |
Natural disasters | Earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, meteor strikes, and all other kinds of natural disasters come to make your life difficult. | notifications | 1978 / 2015 | 91 games |
Natural hazards | The player must face wind, cold and other natural hazards. | notifications | 1980 / 2015 | 23 games |
Natural languages | Any tags relating to natural languages. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Natural versus Invention conflict (Nature versus Machine) | A non-classic narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face. | notifications | 1982 / 2011 | 17 games |
Natural versus Natural conflict (Nature versus Nature) | A non-classic narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face. | notifications | 1982 / 2014 | 16 games |
Nature theme | Nature serves as a major thematic element. | notifications | 1997 / 2019 | 40 games |
Navigation | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Neo-medieval | notifications | 3 games | ||
Neon (Glowing) | Gives the impression of things in the game world being made of lit neon sign tubes, or like materials. Dark backgrounds enhance the effect. | notifications | 2006 / 2021 | 133 games |
Nintendo Selects (Player's Choice) | [b]Nintendo Selects[/b], formerly known as [b]Player's Choice[/b] before 2011, is a marketing label utilized by Nintendo to promote video games on Nintendo game consoles which have sold many copies. | notifications | 1989 / 2023 | 116 games |
No saves | Player has no permanent game progress saves of any kind. | notifications | 1978 / 2021 | 144 games |
No UPC (No EAN;No GTIN;No JAN) | Product does not have a UPC, EAN, JAN, or GTIN compliant barcode despite a release year suggesting it should. But it may have some other barcode. | notifications | 1990 / 2008 | 6 games |
Nonsense (Nonsensical;Bizarre) | What you do, what you're required to do, what is actually happening, what works and what doesn't, etc. don't exactly make much sense when viewed by an outsider. But not in a way to make this surreal experience. | notifications | 1987 / 2015 | 37 games |
Nostalgia[pre-game nostalgia] | Protagonist talks about or generally refers to events before the start of the game somewhat frequently, especially when these are not relevant to the plot but rather as a way to establish the protagonist as a person. | notifications | 1 game | |
Not on Console Classix | Not available to play at Console Classix | notifications | 1983 / 2016 | 1006 games |
NPC stamina | NPCs suffer from the effects of having stamina meter or similar much like the player does. | notifications | 2 games | |
Nuclear solution[nuclear option] | Nuclear detonation is provided as The Only solution to some problem, even if it's easy to find others if one would just look away from the nukes. | notifications | 1983 / 2017 | 13 games |
Obscured protagonist dialog(Non-specific protagonist dialog) | A variant of silent protagonist where the protagonist does not appear to say anything, but other character dialogue goes as if they had, such as responding to things that player never heard said by the protagonist. | notifications | 2005 / 2017 | 13 games |
Observer(Spectator) | Player (character) is aware of an observer to their actions, other than a counselor, mission command, tactical officer, or similar that is expected to function as such. | notifications | 1998 / 2015 | 19 games |
OBSOLETE: Humor | Flag the games as `humorous´ instead. | notifications | 2008 / 2019 | 6 games |
Occitan Language | notifications | 1996 / 1999 | 4 games | |
Odd rulers (Odd gods) | The rulers, gods, or similar have decidedly strange perceptions on their responsibilities or things that their underlings should do for them (or are just plain odd in general). | notifications | 2000 / 2018 | 6 games |
One of a kind | The protagonist is the only one of his/her kind, there's no others like him/her. | notifications | 1999 / 2018 | 23 games |
One of many | The protagonist is one of many on a single side, whether or not the others actually manage to do anything useful. | notifications | 2001 / 2015 | 37 games |
Organic theme (Biological theme) | Uses organic design or otherwise depicts organic themes prominently. | notifications | 1986 / 2022 | 35 games |
Organized crime (Criminal organizations;Criminal syndicates) | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 80 games | |
Other compatibility issues | Game has various compatibility issues not covered by other compatibility tags. | notifications | 1 game | |
Other Language: A computer language | This tag is not indicating the source code of the game. Rather it indicates one of the languages used in the game is in fact a computer language. | notifications | 1979 / 2021 | 36 games |
Other Language: Afrikaans | notifications | 2003 / 2017 | 11 games | |
Other Language: Albanian | notifications | 1996 / 1999 | 4 games | |
Other Language: American English (US English) | (nearly always) Only in cases when available in a variety of distinct English variations. | notifications | 1981 / 2017 | 31 games |
Other Language: Amharic | notifications | 2 games | ||
Other Language: Arabic (الْعَرَبيّة;al-ʿarabiyyah;عَرَبيْ;ʿarabī) | notifications | 1987 / 2023 | 94 games | |
Other Language: Azerbaijani (Azeri Turkish) | notifications | 3 games | ||
Other Language: BASIC (computer language) | This tag is not indicating the source code of the game. Rather it indicates one of the languages used in the game is in fact BASIC. | notifications | 1982 / 1983 | 7 games |
Other Language: Basque (Euskara) | notifications | 1996 / 2013 | 10 games | |
Other Language: Bosnian | notifications | 1996 / 2005 | 2 games | |
Other Language: Brazilian Portuguese | notifications | 1992 / 2023 | 492 games | |
Other Language: British English (UK English) | Nearly always applies in cases when the game is available in a variety of distinct English variations. | notifications | 1981 / 2017 | 46 games |
Other language: Bulgarian (български език;Bălgarski) | notifications | 1996 / 2020 | 75 games | |
Other Language: Cantonese (粵語;粤语;廣東話;广东话;廣州話;廣府話;广州话;广府话;白話) | notifications | 1 game | ||
Other language: Castellano (Castilian) | Spanish spoken in the Castile region. | notifications | 1992 / 2019 | 26 games |
Other Language: Catalan (catalán;català;Valencian) | Spanish dialect. | notifications | 1995 / 2017 | 36 games |
Other Language: Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ;Tsalagi Gawonihisdi) | notifications | 1 game | ||
Other Language: Croatian (hrvatski jezik) | notifications | 1996 / 2013 | 11 games | |
Other Language: Dzongkha (རྫོང་ཁ;rdzong-kha;Jong-kă;Ngalopkha) | The national language of Bhutan. Notable for Microsoft's attempt to internationally rename it as if they had the authority too. | notifications | 2 games | |
Other Language: Early Modern English | ie: Ye (pronounced Thee /ðiː/), Thou, thy, thine. Early Modern English, sometimes mistaken for Shakespearian or so called 'King James English' which are subsets & mixtures of it. | notifications | 1986 / 2020 | 4 games |
Other Language: Esperanto | notifications | 1980 / 2014 | 9 games | |
Other Language: Estonian (eesti keel) | notifications | 1996 / 2013 | 22 games | |
Other Language: Farsi (Persian;فارسی;پارسی) | notifications | 1996 / 2010 | 8 games | |
Other Language: Flemish (Vlaams) | 1 game | |||
Other Language: Galician (galego) | notifications | 1996 / 2017 | 10 games | |
Other Language: Greek (Ελληνικά;Ellìniká;Hellenic) | notifications | 1988 / 2020 | 116 games | |
Other language: Hindi (हिन्दी) | notifications | 1996 / 2011 | 8 games | |
Other Language: Hungarian (Magyar;magyar nyelv) | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 216 games | |
Other Language: Icelandic (íslenska)[Islandic] | notifications | 1995 / 2010 | 9 games | |
Other Language: Indonesian | notifications | 1988 / 2021 | 15 games | |
Other Language: Kongo (Kikongo) | notifications | 4 games | ||
Other Language: Latin (lingua Latīna) | notifications | 1984 / 2017 | 22 games | |
Other language: Latin American Spanish | notifications | 2 games | ||
Other Language: Leet (31337;1337;l33t;leetspeek;l33tspeak;l33t5p34k;1337speak;13375p34k) | notifications | 1993 / 2002 | 5 games | |
Other Language: Lithuanian (lietuvių kalba) | notifications | 1993 / 2013 | 14 games | |
Other Language: Macedonian (македонски јазик;makedonski jazik) | notifications | 1996 / 2004 | 5 games | |
Other Language: Mandarin Chinese (官話;官话;guānhuà) | notifications | 1998 / 2008 | 7 games | |
Other Language: Northern Sami (Sámegiella;Davvisámegiella;Davvisámi;Davvisaami;Lappish;Lapp) | notifications | 1996 / 2010 | 2 games | |
Other Language: Norwegian (Norse;Norsk) | notifications | 1979 / 2020 | 193 games | |
Other Language: Redneck | notifications | 4 games | ||
Other Language: Romanian (limba română) | notifications | 1996 / 2020 | 88 games | |
Other Language: Serbian (српски језик;srpski jezik) | notifications | 1996 / 2013 | 12 games | |
Other Language: Simplified Chinese text (简化字;简体字) | A new set of Chinese characters designed to be less complex than the originals. Some include phonetic info, some are unchanged. Less popular than [url=/groups/info/langchinesetrad]異體字[/url]. | notifications | 1996 / 2023 | 380 games |
Other Language: Slovak (slovenčina;slovenský jazyk) | notifications | 1987 / 2020 | 36 games | |
Other Language: Slovenian | notifications | 1996 / 2015 | 14 games | |
Other Language: Svenska | 0 game | |||
Other Language: Swedish | notifications | 1989 / 2015 | 3 games | |
Other Language: Swiss-German (Deutschschweiz) | notifications | 1 game | ||
Other Language: Taiwanese (臺灣話;臺語) | Language derived from Min Nan Chinese. | notifications | 1989 / 2010 | 11 games |
Other Language: Taiwanese Chinese | notifications | 1999 / 2013 | 5 games | |
Other Language: Taiwanese Mandarin (台灣國語;台灣華語) | National language of Taiwan spoken practically by all. | notifications | 2001 / 2005 | 2 games |
Other language: Tamil (தமிழ்) | notifications | 1996 / 2003 | 4 games | |
Other Language: Thai (ภาษาไทย;phasa thai) | notifications | 1996 / 2023 | 86 games | |
Other Language: Traditional Chinese text (異體字;Chinese complex characters;繁體字;Chinese old characters;老字;全體字) | A set of original Chinese characters that are more complex than the new [url=/groups/info/langchinesesimpl]simplified Chinese characters[/url]. 異體字 is more widely used among Chinese speakers. | notifications | 1997 / 2023 | 192 games |
Other Language: Turkish (Türkçe) | notifications | 1995 / 2023 | 216 games | |
Other Language: Ukrainian | notifications | 1996 / 2020 | 110 games | |
Other language: Vetnamese(Tiếng Việt) | notifications | 1996 / 2021 | 16 games | |
Other language: Walloon (Walon) | notifications | 1996 / 1999 | 4 games | |
Outbreak (Epidemic;Pandemic) | Features a major disease or viral outbreak. Or something that causes similar results. | notifications | 1972 / 2019 | 120 games |
Over the top(Outrageous;Overdramatic)[over-the-top] | Frequently overdoes the drama, action, or anything else to a point where what happens is ludicrous. | notifications | 2003 / 2020 | 24 games |
Pachisi Variant | Any game that s not Pachisi but based on it or being fellow variant including Caupur, Chaupar, Chaupur, Chausar, Ludo, Sorry, Parcheesi, Trouble, & Twenty-Five | notifications | 1988 / 1992 | 14 games |
Pacific Digital Video (PacDV) | PacDV is an award winning documenter production company that provides some free digital content on their site for use in other people's projects. | notifications | 4 games | |
Pack-in (Bundled with system) | Officially packaged with or built-in to the consoles or the operating systems. | notifications | 1972 / 2015 | 178 games |
Papercraft visuals | notifications | 2001 / 2015 | 12 games | |
Partners In Rhyme | Uses content provided by PIR. | notifications | 4 games | |
Penalty imposed for harming non-combatants | Penalizes player(s) if they in any way harm players or game characters who are not fighting against the protagonist(s). | notifications | 1979 / 2017 | 55 games |
Permanent metamorphosis (Permanent shapechange;Permanent transformation) | Features a character experiencing a non-reversible metamorphosis into something else, especially when this happens to a main character. | notifications | 1994 / 2015 | 38 games |
Persistent weather | Some unusual (fog, rain, high wind, storm, etc.) weather phenomena persist far longer than it naturally should or is otherwise somehow ever present. | notifications | 1999 / 2010 | 7 games |
Personal protection | Any tags describing things the player character can use to protect themselves or are protected with. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Pixelated | Intentionally runs with pixel doubling, tripling, or something - such as the graphics are designed to look like it - that brings out the pixels to visible levels as they used to be in old games. | notifications | 1986 / 2024 | 535 games |
Planet looters | A group, faction, organization, whole species, or something that strip mines planets of their minerals, biological matter, and anything else there might be worth taking. Often with complete disregard for who or what lives on those planets. | notifications | 1997 / 2016 | 34 games |
Player teasing | notifications | 2005 / 2017 | 6 games | |
PlayStation Home | Somehow interacts with the PlayStation Home, such as providing additional objects for use in it. | notifications | 1 game | |
Podophilia (Foot fetishism) | Includes or caters to people with foot fetishism; a pronounced sexual interest in feet. It is one of the most common fetishes known to history. | notifications | 1 game | |
Power armor [exoskeleton] | Player character wears or can wear a power armor or powered exoskeleton short of piloted robots. | notifications | 1984 / 2023 | 205 games |
Precognition | Precognition plays an important part in the story. | notifications | 2004 / 2005 | 4 games |
Precursors (Those who came before) | The story involves people - or some remains of them - that existed long, long ago. | notifications | 1992 / 2024 | 54 games |
Prejudice | notifications | 2007 / 2017 | 16 games | |
Prétendre (Rebranded) | A game that is retooled or merely renamed in order that it be marketed as a belonging to a totally unrelated series of games. | notifications | 1982 / 2008 | 27 games |
Propaganda | The protagonist is subjected to and possibly subjects others to significant quantity of propaganda. | notifications | 1985 / 2016 | 22 games |
Property damage penalty(Collateral damage penalty) | Player is penalized for damaging random property. | notifications | 1994 / 2014 | 15 games |
Psychedelic Visuals | Metaphysical, surreal, kaleidoscopic, fractal, paisley, extremely contrasting, detail stylization, morphic, phosphenes, spiral, concentrics, diffractions, entoptic, untypography, hand-letter, and/or warped visuals | notifications | 1990 / 2019 | 20 games |
Psychic technology(Psitech) | Includes devices, machinery and whatever else that is powered by or otherwise interacts with psychic powers. | notifications | 1998 / 2015 | 14 games |
Punjabi Language | notifications | 1996 / 1999 | 3 games | |
Quantum physics (Quantum mechanics;Quantum technology) | Features the use of quantum mechanics, fictional or factual. | notifications | 1997 / 2017 | 8 games |
Radioactive glow (Nuclear glow)[radiation glow] | Radioactive or irradiated substances, things or creatures glow. Commonly green, but occasionally orange. | notifications | 1998 / 2020 | 23 games |
Rampage(Running amok;Going postal)[serial killing;mass murder;mass destruction] | Plot involves the protagonist going on a rampage, killing spree, mass murder, bout of mass violence or destruction, or something similar. | notifications | 1981 / 2011 | 62 games |
Rampant crime | Crime is extremely common within the depicted setting, with the police (if such even exists to begin with) or equivalent woefully undermanned and under-equipped to deal with it or is even working for the bigger criminals. | notifications | 1992 / 2020 | 20 games |
Rape(Non-consensual intercourse;Rape fantasy)[non-con sex] | Depicts non-consensual intercourse; possibly with the player character partaking in it, fighting against it, or simply witnessing it. | notifications | 1986 / 2019 | 41 games |
Rapid promotions | Protagonist gains several promotions over the course of the game, possibly on the field. | notifications | 1999 / 2008 | 5 games |
Real crisis | Based on a real crisis, either one that passed, is on-going or is predicted to happen in near future. | notifications | 1986 / 2011 | 13 games |
Realistic shotguns(Medium range shotguns) | Instead of being glorified melee weapons that has effective range of only about 15 meters if even that, in these games they actually are closer to reality with effective range of 30 to 50 meters with shot ammo and up to 70 meters with slug ammo. | notifications | 1996 / 2016 | 37 games |
Recalled (Replaced) | Pulled out from retail stores, usually due to severe bugs or other issues in the release that somehow passed through without notice. Later put back in in slightly altered form. | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 7 games |
Recycled title(Re-used title) | Re-uses title of an older game in the same series without being a remake of it. | notifications | 2008 / 2017 | 27 games |
Redeemed from Steam | This game can be upgraded from a steam provided service to a fully owned game. | notifications | 1 game | |
Resistance movement(Rebellion;Freedom fighters;Insurgency) | A resistance or similar movement is taking place during the story, possibly with the player helping or fighting it. | notifications | 1983 / 2020 | 181 games |
Resource crisis | Involves a resource crisis crippling the world, with possibly the story's events being caused by it or otherwise related to it. | notifications | 1983 / 2013 | 22 games |
Restorative gluttony(Potion gluttony;Potion addiction;Restorative addiction) | Promotes gameplay where player stocks their inventory full of restorative items and constantly consumes them during normal play. These restoratives are usually also easily found as regular loot from enemies. | notifications | 1996 / 2021 | 43 games |
Rotoscoping | Used rotoscoping in production. | notifications | 1984 / 2014 | 52 games |
Savior | The protagonist is recognized by people as someone who will save them from one thing or another, before they do the saving. | notifications | 1993 / 2015 | 12 games |
Science | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Screaming | Player hears screaming fairly frequently throughout the game. Can be part of comedic effect, but also found in more darker games as means of unnerving the player. | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 2 games |
Seasons | Seasons change and somehow affect gameplay. | notifications | 1992 / 2020 | 34 games |
Secret society (Secret organization) | The story involves one or more secret society or similar entity. | notifications | 1984 / 2018 | 47 games |
Semaphore | Distant visual communication using two angles and contrasting colors to encode information. Single or dual color flags & gloved hands are common media | notifications | 1989 / 1998 | 4 games |
Semi-barriers | Includes barriers of one form or another that block some things while letting others pass that player must interact with in this capacity, such as metal grids that allow you to pick and place items but deny attacking, throwing, or moving through them. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 2 games |
Semi-seamless | The game world is seamless except for instances where it makes sense, such as when transitioning between planets, cities, or other large locales that are not logically connected. As in, there's no gameplay of any kind involved between the locations. | notifications | 1 game | |
Sentient artefact (Sentient weapon) | Includes at least one item that expresses sentience to a degree, commonly by talking to the wielder and possibly people around them. | notifications | 1993 / 2019 | 82 games |
Sentient structure(Sentient building)[Haunted house;Sentient house] | Features one or more structures such as houses, monoliths, castles, etc. that express sentience, self-awareness, and such. Usually with the ability to talk to their residents and people near them. | notifications | 2006 / 2014 | 5 games |
Separate Language Versions | At least one language preference requires a separate package or version rather than having a single version of the game. | notifications | 2008 / 2013 | 5 games |
Seventh-day Adventist Church | Games where 1 or more of the authors with creative control was member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church & the game promotes its faith directly, using symbolism, or allegory. | 6 games | ||
Shinto religion | Games where one or more of the authors with creative control was involved in Shinto and the game promotes Shinto directly, or using symbolism, or allegory | notifications | 1986 / 2018 | 25 games |
Simulated trust | notifications | 2002 / 2017 | 9 games | |
Single gender | Only one gender is present among all significant participating characters (allies, foes, and neutrals with exception of bystanders and possibly cutscene only characters). | notifications | 1993 / 2017 | 91 games |
Single gender allies | Both genders are present, but all of your immediate allies (such as team members) are of the same gender with no variation. | notifications | 2010 / 2015 | 2 games |
Single gender opposition | Both genders are present, but all of your opponents are of the same gender with no variation. | notifications | 1996 / 2020 | 41 games |
Singled out | Even with multiple equally worthy targets running around, your enemies target the character you're in control much more fervently, even exclusively. | notifications | 2000 / 2017 | 17 games |
Situations | Tags describing the situation, such as a catastrophe, getting lost, work incident, war, etc. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Slobbery (Wet and slimy) | Gives off an unusually wet/slimy impression, especially if the various characters (or even places) drool, ooze or otherwise secrete liquids or slime a lot. | notifications | 1993 / 2014 | 27 games |
Slovene Language | notifications | 2 games | ||
Snowball items(Snowballing equipment) | Includes items/equipment that become more powerful as they're used, usually up to a point. | notifications | 2009 / 2014 | 3 games |
Solo mission | The protagonist is sent to do their job alone. No-one else is there to do the stuff they're supposed to. | notifications | 1988 / 2020 | 98 games |
Solo project (Single author) | Created fully (code, design, art, sounds, music, etc.) by single person. | notifications | 1983 / 2016 | 46 games |
Souls | Souls of the dead or living play a part, either as a theme or game mechanic. | notifications | 1999 / 2017 | 35 games |
Source Code lost, misplaced, or destroyed. | Usually accidental, sometimes thoughtlessly, to often maliciously. In some cases it may be recoverable or reconstructed through reverse engineering. | notifications | 1973 / 2014 | 29 games |
Speech: African | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in some native African tongue. | notifications | 3 games | |
Speech: Afrikaans | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Afrikaans. | notifications | 1 game | |
Speech: Chinese (Mandarin;Cantonese) | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Chinese. | notifications | 2011 / 2013 | 6 games |
Speech: Farsi(Persian;فارسی;پارسی) | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Farsi. | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 2 games |
Speech: Finnish | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Finnish. | notifications | 3 games | |
Speech: French | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in French. | notifications | 2006 / 2009 | 11 games |
Speech: German | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in German. | notifications | 1989 / 2014 | 20 games |
Speech: Gibberish(Gibberish voice-overs)[Nonsense] | The characters speak gibberish. Ranging from randomly ordered "alien" or "foreign" words that repeat over and over again or utter gibberish that has no clear traits of any language besides sounding vaguely speech-like. | notifications | 1988 / 2018 | 56 games |
Speech: Italian | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Italian. | notifications | 2006 / 2011 | 5 games |
Speech: Japanese | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Japanese. | notifications | 2008 / 2014 | 11 games |
Speech: Korean | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Korean. | notifications | 2007 / 2010 | 3 games |
Speech: Russian | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Russian. | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 12 games |
Speech: Slavic | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in some Slavic tongue. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 8 games |
Speech: Spanish | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Spanish. | notifications | 2005 / 2011 | 9 games |
Speech: Swedish | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in Swedish. | notifications | 1 game | |
Spouse protagonist(Espoused protagonist;Married protagonist) | The protagonist is currently married, engaged, or in similar arrangement with another. | notifications | 1987 / 2023 | 34 games |
Stained Glass | The game world is visual presented as if it were stained glass. | notifications | 3 games | |
Stalemate War | Deals with battles or war that ended with no clear victor. | notifications | 1982 / 2009 | 12 games |
Story time span | Any tags related to how long time span a story covers. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Stranded | The protagonist is stranded in some remote and/or unknown place where he/she has no immediate or even known possible way back home. | notifications | 1981 / 2019 | 252 games |
Streamer scarf(Streamer cloak) | The protagonist wears a scarf that is abnormally visible and long, dragging behind them like a flowing streamer. Or anything that acts as a long fabric that flow with the character like long speed lines in comics. | notifications | 2002 / 2019 | 11 games |
Structural damage | Location-based damage on vehicles, usually involves disabling and even completely destroying specific components. | notifications | 1985 / 2015 | 23 games |
Sued by Tim Langdell | Games that have suffered due to legal threats from Tim Langdell (CEO and founder of Edge Games), usually involving his claims of trademark ownership for anything with the word "Edge" in it. | notifications | 1995 / 2016 | 25 games |
Suicide | Some character(s) may or will commit suicide, especially in case of the protagonist. | notifications | 2001 / 2024 | 51 games |
Super powers | Features non-specific super powers wielded by the player or others. | notifications | 1989 / 2018 | 57 games |
Supernatural Entity versus Natural conflict (Supernatural versus Nature;Fanciful versus Nature) | A non-classic narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face. | notifications | 1982 / 2015 | 4 games |
Supernatural Entity versus Supernatural Entity conflict (Fanciful versus Fanciful) | A non-classic narrative concept and key to the plot of the game. It is the conflict that the protagonist of the game must face. | notifications | 1980 / 2016 | 10 games |
Suppression (Oppression) | The people are being suppressed or oppressed in one manner or another. | notifications | 1984 / 2016 | 63 games |
Surface variations | Surfaces have variations in their properties, such as friction. | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 9 games |
Tattoos | Characters bear tattoos, can get them done for them, and otherwise are unusually visible. | notifications | 1999 / 2014 | 20 games |
Taxes (Tribute;Protection money) | Includes a government, private or criminal organization that collects a portion of assets supposedly for the benefit of those whom give the funds | notifications | 1980 / 2023 | 163 games |
Technomagic (Technology-based magic) | Technology is used to produce effects you'd expect to see in fantasy setting from magic. | notifications | 1988 / 2020 | 58 games |
Teleportation (Particle transportation) | Characters can dematerialize items or themselves in one place and rematerialize elsewhere without actual movement to that location. Regardless if this is by magical, scientific or completely made-up means. | notifications | 1974 / 2023 | 316 games |
Terraforming | Involves turning a planet's ecosystem to be more suitable to the protagonist's needs. | notifications | 1985 / 2017 | 22 games |
The Sierra Network (The ImaginatioN Network;INN) | TSN was created by Sierra On-Line & later renamed INN. It was a precursor to the online games & communities that followed but never itself succeeded. | notifications | 1993 / 1995 | 3 games |
The Unchosen One | There's a Chosen One, but you aren't him/her/it. | notifications | 1999 / 2002 | 2 games |
Throw anything | Player can throw (almost) anything, especially if it can be held. So any weapons, tools, etc. the player may use can also be thrown, usually with enough force to hurt or damage something with them. | notifications | 1991 / 2022 | 55 games |
Time | Any time related tags. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Time paradox | notifications | 1989 / 2018 | 17 games | |
Time span: Days | The story covers several days of time. | notifications | 1989 / 2017 | 29 games |
Time span: Hours | The story covers only some hours of time. | notifications | 1984 / 2013 | 5 games |
Time span: Months | The story covers several months of time. | notifications | 2006 / 2013 | 6 games |
Time theme | Time serves as a major plot or thematic element. | notifications | 1989 / 2018 | 22 games |
Title | Any and all title related tags. | list_alt | 0 game | |
To-do: verify existence | This is UVL maintenance tag, used to mark games that someone is fairly certain they don't really exist. These games were likely entered through scripted mass add from 3rd party source, explaining such errors. | notifications | 1975 / 2019 | 487 games |
Too Popular to be published | Sometimes a game is so good that marketing geniuses decide it would be way to popular if published. Thus hindering sales of their mediocre games. | notifications | 1984 / 2016 | 12 games |
Total destructibility | Games where there is no such thing as indestructible object, place or thing. Leveling the playfield into something completely unrecognizable from its original state is what happens here. | notifications | 2015 / 2017 | 6 games |
Total Entertainment Network (TEN) | Uses the subscription-based TEN matchmaking service. Was in operation from 1996-09 till 1999-10. Overthrown by free services, like Battle.net. | notifications | 1996 / 2014 | 8 games |
Traffic | Player encounters significant traffic that more or less interferes with what they must do. | notifications | 1979 / 2020 | 195 games |
Trails(Footprints;Tracks) | Characters and vehicles leave trails, which can be used to track them. | notifications | 1997 / 2016 | 4 games |
Trampolines (Springboards) | Objects, surfaces or merely areas where if the player character jumps repeatedly, they reach higher with each jump. | notifications | 1984 / 2018 | 26 games |
Transgender protagonist | The protagonist considers themselves to be the opposite or other gender they had at birth. It is not necessary for them to dress or surgically alter themselves towards that gender for them to be this, nor to behave in stereotypically effeminate/masculine | notifications | 1988 / 2014 | 3 games |
Transgenders | People who have either changed their gender they had at birth, or consider themselves (as in, their gender role) to be opposite or other than they biologically are (which genitalia they have). | notifications | 1988 / 2016 | 21 games |
Transparent Solids | Visual style where solid objects that one would expect to be opaque are instead transparent. This can be by intended design or due to limitations. | notifications | 1974 / 2013 | 2 games |
True myths (Real myths) | Things that pretty much everyone thinks are myths are actually true/real. | notifications | 2000 / 2019 | 15 games |
Unaligned enemies | Player encounters character that are not aligned with them or their actual opponents, but still engage any that draw their ire. | notifications | 1 game | |
Uncertain reality(Real unreality;Real dreams) | What is real and what isn't real is blurred so much that it is difficult to distinguish the truth, especially when what is clearly unreal affecting something that is clearly real. | notifications | 2013 / 2018 | 11 games |
Undead menace | Some form of undead being or beings serve as the prime opposing force. | notifications | 1986 / 2016 | 59 games |
Unfinished | Has various pieces of content that obviously should lead to something but upon farther exploration, examination, and so forth don't produce any notable results. This does not necessarily mean the game is unplayable or impossible to beat. | notifications | 1999 / 2012 | 7 games |
Unification | The plot generally involves the unification of all known (local) tribes/nations, such as unification of island nations, all nations in a continent, all in same planet, or even so far as all in same galaxy or universe. | notifications | 1981 / 2015 | 54 games |
Uniform fetishism | notifications | 1 game | ||
Unique Roses | Some type of rose not fully covered by existing tags is literally [i]or symbolically[/i] present. | notifications | 1988 / 2010 | 44 games |
Unity by force | Story involves some faction trying to "unite" people by force, exterminating anyone who doesn't see eye to eye with their vision. Usually marching in with armed forces and then demanding people to submit to their rule. | notifications | 1997 / 2013 | 10 games |
Unnoticed by normals (Invisible to normals;Ignorant masses;Gullible masses) | Certain abnormalities go strangely unnoticed by normal people, either them not noticing them at all, or anything abnormal about them simply does not register to their senses or intellect. | notifications | 2006 / 2018 | 14 games |
Unrestricted violence | Player is free to hurt and kill [i]anyone[/i], from random pedestrians to puppies. | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 105 games |
Urophilia(Urolagnia;Watersports) | Caters to people with urophilia. | notifications | 1 game | |
UVL Maintenance: Linux Spiele & Games | a 1000 game collection for Linux on 2 CDs published in 2000 by More Software. Tag to be deleted from all when entries are complete. | notifications | 2 games | |
UVL Maintenance: Multiplayer Info is incomplete | Multiplayer Info is incomplete or missing entirely | notifications | 1 game | |
UVL: A higher quality image should be sought | These entries have low quality images. Better ones might be obtainable. Otherwise this tag reminds editors to return when/if better images are possible | notifications | 1973 / 2018 | 221 games |
UVL: Clarification needed | This is maintenance tag. | 0 game | ||
UVL: Corrupted text | Entries that have corrupted text somewhere in them (not articles, though). | notifications | 1 game | |
UVL: Delete Request | If not really sure the game has to be deleted (for being duplicate, non-game, availability on platform being questionable, etc.) | notifications | 1976 / 2013 | 33 games |
UVL: English Translation Needed | Game entry contains non-English in need of a translation, or has an English translation in need of improvement. | notifications | 1 game | |
UVL: Fan invented title listed (Fan translated title) | Has fan invented title listed. This is no translation, abbreviation or such, but completely unrelated title often used of the game by their fans. Also any titles of the game as it appears on other platforms as adopted by fans to the target platform. | notifications | 1981 / 2016 | 71 games |
UVL: Fan translated title listed | Either listed by fan translated title, has fan translated title as one of the alternate titles or uses a translated title from another product (even if correct). | notifications | 1983 / 2017 | 190 games |
UVL: Gallery cleanup task | Game entries that have excessive number of images that do not contribute to describing the game, such as fanservice shots or others that do not expand on what the game is actually like. | notifications | 2004 / 2008 | 5 games |
UVL: Image editing needed | The images available to the editor, or the ones already added do need some external photo-editing. (cropping, image quality enhancement, etc) | notifications | 1990 / 1997 | 38 games |
UVL: Improper tag | Any tags that provide information that should be available in some other manner, these likely exist due to nothing better being available. | list_alt | 0 game | |
UVL: Includes commonly used misspelled title | notifications | 1978 / 2016 | 42 games | |
UVL: Incomplete description | Though the game shows a description icon, it is extremely incomplete; often having just 1 or 2 tidbits such as number of players or a catalog number. | notifications | 1977 / 2015 | 201 games |
UVL: Insignificant tags | Includes info on tags that do apply to the game, but are so insignificant in their role of defining the game that adding them would only produce poor search results for users. | notifications | 1 game | |
UVL: Maintenance | Anything that need additional non-trivial work, such as renaming, splitting, merging, verifying obscure info, etc. | list_alt | 0 game | |
UVL: Missing game relations | This is a maintenance tag for games that are known to be missing game relations (likely described in an article in the game entry). | notifications | 1993 / 2006 | 26 games |
UVL: Missing images | Has some images, but there are known gamestates or events that could be beneficial to have additionally among the images. Such as title screens, screens of specific game modes or "windows", and so forth. | notifications | 1977 / 2016 | 692 games |
UVL: Missing media | Missing info (tags) on any media or is known to be for others not yet listed. | notifications | 1980 / 2015 | 333 games |
UVL: Original title missing | Has either localized titles, fan translated and/or romanized titles listed but the name the game was originally released under is not listed (usually titles written in non-latin characters). | notifications | 1983 / 2016 | 228 games |
UVL: Platform/Operating System Limitation | Temporarily used in cases where a game is listed in a [i][b]completely[/b] unrelated[/i] platform until it is decided how the platform should be handled. | notifications | 1970 / 2016 | 358 games |
UVL: Romanization missing | Has non-roman title listed or is known to have been released under one, but no romanized title is listed or given romanization is only partial. | notifications | 1983 / 2006 | 14 games |
UVL: Search help title | Includes a title intended to help with inexact search queries, such as omitted or changed special symbols, problems with used typeface, etc. | notifications | 1982 / 2024 | 301 games |
UVL: Technical Error with Tags | corrupted text/invalid characters in the tags are causing problems. | 0 game | ||
UVL: Temporary Tags | The tags of this game entry has should be examined and revised later. | notifications | 1 game | |
Vague terms | Any tags that exist to clarify and redirect to better tags. None of these should actually have any games in them. | list_alt | 0 game | |
VAGUE: Auto combat | This can either mean car combat or automatic/automated combat. | 0 game | ||
Vandalism | Player can or must damage or otherwise ruin the property of others. | notifications | 2005 / 2010 | 5 games |
VCR effects(VHS effects) | notifications | 2009 / 2016 | 6 games | |
Vehicle painting (Vehicle coloring) | Player can color their vehicle(s) either when they're acquired and/or at any time later (whether or not this requires visit to a paintshop or similar). | notifications | 2004 / 2020 | 20 games |
Vibrant(High vibrance)[High digital vibrance] | Uses unnaturally pure and bright colors, or artificially produces the appearance of such by having added bloom effect to them. Effect is similar to (but not the same as) increasing saturation. | notifications | 1988 / 2018 | 71 games |
Video game theme | Video games about video games. The plot of the game is based around video games, or the main protagonist is a video games platform, etc... | notifications | 1992 / 2017 | 36 games |
Virtual social network(Simulated social network)[Virtual social networking;Simulated social networking] | Involves interacting with a virtual social network of some sort that. | notifications | 2013 / 2014 | 6 games |
Visible Grid | Notable shows a grid even for a game that is not grid based. | notifications | 1983 / 2013 | 3 games |
Visible LASERs | Non-weapon grade LASERs are peculiarly visible to normal human sight. | notifications | 1978 / 2020 | 87 games |
Vision modes (View modes;Sight modes) | Includes different view modes that convey different or additional information not otherwise available. | notifications | 1995 / 2015 | 31 games |
Visions | The protagonist experiences visions of another place and time. | notifications | 2004 / 2020 | 31 games |
Voice-overs (Talkie;Voice acted;Digitized Speech) | Includes digitized speech. | notifications | 1978 / 2024 | 467 games |
Walking simulator | A descriptive fake genre adopted by players for games that involve excessive amounts of walking between scenes where any action happens. | notifications | 1983 / 2020 | 60 games |
War of aggression(War of conquest) | The side of the war the player is on depicts a war with intent of conquering or subjugating, rather than for self-defense. | notifications | 1 game | |
Watercolor | Has the look of a watercolor painting. | notifications | 1 game | |
Weather effects | Weather plays a role that affects gameplay besides creating mood or limiting visibility. | notifications | 1977 / 2022 | 84 games |
Weather theme | Weather serves as a major thematic element. | notifications | 1980 / 2011 | 7 games |
Well of Souls | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 12 games | |
What if | A non-canon spin-off where something is changed, hence the name "what if". | notifications | 1996 / 2020 | 3 games |
Whispers[whispering] | Player character hears unexplainable whispering, chanting or other voices. | notifications | 1999 / 2015 | 45 games |
WiiWare | Distributed through the Wii Shop Channel for play on the Wii. | notifications | 2008 / 2013 | 258 games |
Wildfire (Fire spreading;Fire dynamics;Dynamic combustion) | Fire dynamically spreads, burns and is extinguished with the presence or absence of appropriate materials and environmental conditions. | notifications | 1977 / 2020 | 46 games |
Withdrawn from market (Pulled off or removed from market) | Completely removed from market for one reason or another, no replacements or altered versions were made available later on. | notifications | 1990 / 2021 | 22 games |
WON.net (World Opponent Network) | Sierra's online game service that was shutdown in 2004. | notifications | 1998 / 2003 | 6 games |
Work of art based plot | Plot centers on a uniquely valuable work of art such as a painting or sculpture. It is often missing, stolen, or the protagonist intends to steel it. | notifications | 1983 / 1985 | 3 games |
World Cyber Games (Cyber Games Festival) | International professional e-sports event. | notifications | 1998 / 2016 | 38 games |
World war | Features any world war where majority of the known nations or military powers join in a war or several around the same time, whether factual, fictional or hypothetical. | notifications | 1978 / 2017 | 407 games |
Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM)[XBLA;Xbox Live Arcade;XBLIG;Xbox Live Indie Games] | Distributed through Xbox Live Marketplace. | notifications | 2005 / 2020 | 325 games |
Yo-yo | notifications | 1987 / 2010 | 5 games | |
Zulu language (isiZulu) | 1 game |
3D map | The map is shown as a 3D projection, possibly with free roaming camera, allowing better spatial understanding of (multilayered) areas than a 2D map would. | notifications | 1995 / 2020 | 47 games |
Accelerators | Objects, surfaces or merely areas that accelerate or otherwise boost player character and possibly other objects and characters in some direction off them forcibly. | notifications | 1995 / 2011 | 8 games |
Acid | notifications | 1990 / 2015 | 23 games | |
Acorns (Oak Nuts) | Acorns of the Oak tree are featured in gameplay or story. | notifications | 2 games | |
Airlocks | Includes door pairs that can be only open one at a time, such as an airlock. Often incorporating pressurisation, scanning and decontamination capabilities. Pseudo-puzzles in games where these are unexpected and both doors need to be manually operated. | notifications | 1999 / 2017 | 50 games |
Alarmers | Includes people, creatures, devices and other things that can raise an alarm or attract other creatures/people or such to the location. | notifications | 1983 / 2018 | 74 games |
Alcohol drinks | Alcoholic drinks is present in the game. | notifications | 1983 / 2020 | 168 games |
Alien flora | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 12 games | |
Ancient machines (Ancient technology) | Machines or other technology that has laid unused for thousands of years yet are still more or less operational. | notifications | 2008 / 2017 | 18 games |
Announcer | notifications | 1975 / 2014 | 36 games | |
Apples | A fruit know for it's red color but comes others. Has a variety of religious/symbolic meanings most famously the 'Forbidden Fruit' | notifications | 1978 / 2016 | 99 games |
Armor patches(Armor shards;Armor pickups) | Player can pick up small objects that improve their armor like health pickups, without replacing anything but simply enhancing what's already worn. | notifications | 1997 / 2017 | 9 games |
Asteroids (Comets) | Features inanimate (but usually in motion) space debris that threaten to collide with important things that need protecting. | notifications | 1977 / 2019 | 150 games |
Attractors(Gravity wells) | Objects or characters that attract other objects or characters toward themselves, especially when the protagonist or some gameplay central thing is attracted by them. | notifications | 1984 / 2014 | 4 games |
Auto-closing doors | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 11 games | |
Automatic doors | Includes doors that automatically open when approached and close when no-one's near them anymore. | notifications | 1997 / 2015 | 34 games |
Available on Desura | Available on Desura, a digital distribution network & game development community. | notifications | 1995 / 2017 | 1165 games |
Available on Direct2drive(D2D) | A digital distribution method offering PC videogames via direct download. | notifications | 2008 / 2011 | 9 games |
Available on DLsite.com | Available from DLsite.com digital distribution, mainly a source of indie games and other products. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 22 games |
Available on Epic Games Store | Available on the digital distribution by Epic Games. | notifications | 2008 / 2022 | 84 games |
Available on Gameolith | A digital distribution service for Linux games. | notifications | 2003 / 2015 | 61 games |
Available on Gamersgate | Available on the digital distribution by Gamersgate. | notifications | 1998 / 2017 | 21 games |
Available on GOG.com (Good Old Games) | Available from GOG.com digital distribution. | notifications | 1982 / 2022 | 1413 games |
Available on Itch.io | notifications | 1983 / 2023 | 5074 games | |
Available on Mac Games Store | Available on the Mac Games Store digital distribution service. | notifications | 1 game | |
Available on MangaGamer[MangaGamer.com] | Available on the MangaGamer digital distribution service. | notifications | 2015 / 2016 | 14 games |
Available on Playism | Available on Playism digital distribution that focuses on indie PC games. | notifications | 2011 / 2013 | 3 games |
Available on Steam | Available on the digital distribution (and by extension social networking service) by Valve. | notifications | 1984 / 2024 | 8888 games |
Available on the Humble Store | notifications | 2010 / 2019 | 210 games | |
Available on Windows Store | Available from Windows Store digital distribution for Windows 8/RT or newer. | notifications | 2013 / 2016 | 2 games |
Available via Humble Widget | notifications | 2010 / 2019 | 282 games | |
Balance beams(Rope walking) | A walkable beam used in artistic gymnastics or anything that works like such, such a rope that is walked upon. | notifications | 2008 / 2018 | 21 games |
Balls | 0 game | |||
Berries | 0 game | |||
Bestiary | Player has access to bestiary of one sort or another, describing the various opponents they face. | notifications | 1 game | |
Black market | Player deals with black market. | notifications | 1981 / 2014 | 18 games |
Black Pearls (Black Tahitian Pearls) | Comparatively rare black pearls from the Tahitian black pearl oyster (Pinctada margaritifera). Were much rarer before production of cultured pearls. | notifications | 1985 / 2018 | 73 games |
Black Roses | Black roses are literally or symbolically present. Traditionally they have negative meanings; Death, hate, farewell. But also rejuvenation or rebirth. | notifications | 1989 / 2014 | 24 games |
Blackberries | An edible aggregate fruit that grows on blackberry shrubs & turns from green to red to deep red (black) when ripe. | notifications | 2 games | |
Blood Moon[Bloodmoon] | A phenomena where the moon appears reddish due to lunar eclipse, often given prophetic, supernatural, or general bad omen traits. | notifications | 2000 / 2018 | 19 games |
Bloopers(Outtakes;Gag reel) | notifications | 3 games | ||
Blue Roses | Blue roses are literally [i]or symbolically[/i] present. Traditionally symbolize unattainable via natural means (impossible), mystery, love at 1st sight, or royalty | notifications | 1988 / 2013 | 19 games |
Body armor | notifications | 1980 / 2022 | 434 games | |
Books | Player encounters numerous books they can read, most are likely just fillers for the background mythos - such as history, novels, encyclopedias, etc. - though some may be of actual value, directly or indirectly. | notifications | 1988 / 2018 | 70 games |
Boosters(Enhancers)[amplifiers] | Devices, buildings, etc. that increase the performance of other things attached to or near them. | notifications | 1992 / 2017 | 24 games |
Briefcases | Often used to hide questionable or extremely valuable objects in fiction, such as drugs, money/gold, weapon components, and so forth. | notifications | 2004 / 2008 | 4 games |
bsdgames package (bsdgames-nonfree) | Part of the bsdgames package common to many BSD and *NIX distributions. Note that included games vary slightly per system. | notifications | 1979 / 2003 | 53 games |
Cage transport(Coffin transport) | Cages, coffins, iron maidens, or such are used as transportation mechanisms with whoever using them needing to go inside them. | notifications | 2002 / 2018 | 11 games |
Carrots | An editable orange taproot. Famous as a favorite of rabbits. It is actually more nutritious when cooked. | notifications | 1983 / 2013 | 15 games |
Cartoon bones | A symmetric femur bone that is inaccurate to its real counterpart. Often used as representation of Any bone thus you can find unusual number of these on corpses, skeletons, and such. | notifications | 1987 / 2016 | 19 games |
Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) | Deals with the CIA, an USA government run civilian (as in, non-military) intelligence agency. | notifications | 1990 / 2015 | 17 games |
Chasms (Fissures;Rifts) | Player encounters expansive chasms. | notifications | 1992 / 2017 | 34 games |
Cheese | Game includes cheese. | notifications | 1981 / 2012 | 36 games |
Cherries | A small spherical fruit with a distinctively long stem. Commonly shown red & in stem attached pairs. It comes in other colors and numbers as well. | notifications | 1981 / 2016 | 76 games |
Chestnuts | An editable nut from the Chestnut tree. Tends to stink when munched raw. Many prefer it baked or roasted. | notifications | 2007 / 2009 | 3 games |
Clothing | notifications | 1982 / 2019 | 90 games | |
Coconuts | Coconuts are actually nuts. They are seed of fruit of widespread but beach dwelling coconut palm tree. Often a falling or thrown hazards in videogames | notifications | 1980 / 2009 | 23 games |
Coffins | Player encounters numerous coffins. | notifications | 2004 / 2018 | 14 games |
Color guides[colour guides] | Specific colors are used to guide attention, such as red for destructibles, bright white or green for the right direction to go and so forth. | notifications | 1 game | |
Companies | Companies that aren't directly involved with games. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Concealed doors | Player encounters door, hatches, or similar openings that are indistinguishable from the rest of the environment. | notifications | 1996 / 2015 | 5 games |
Containers(Chests;Drawers;Boxes;Barrels) | Includes containers - usually chests - that can be opened and possibly closed as well with items taken out and stored in them. Only for the variety found in the environment, not for carried on person kind unless they're the same. | notifications | 1981 / 2024 | 280 games |
Contraband | Player has to deal with contraband, other than smuggling such themselves. | notifications | 1999 / 2021 | 20 games |
Contrails (Condensation trails;Vapour trails) | Simulates or otherwise depicts contrails or similar phenomena. | notifications | 2009 / 2014 | 13 games |
Cosgrove Hall Films | Based on the creations of the Cosgrove Hall animation studio. | notifications | 1989 / 2008 | 35 games |
Counselor (Instructor;Operations officer) | Player has one or more characters almost constantly nattering what they should be doing or how to do it. | notifications | 1992 / 2020 | 97 games |
Crates | Surprisingly common object in video games. | notifications | 1990 / 2020 | 106 games |
Crepuscular rays (Sunbeams;God rays;Light shafts)[lightrays;sunrays] | Simulates light rays seen at edges of light and dark areas of air, essentially caused by light scattering from air particles. | notifications | 2002 / 2016 | 69 games |
Crimson Roses | Crimson roses are literally or symbolically present. Traditionally they symbolize mourning. | notifications | 1999 / 2006 | 4 games |
Crop circles | Features crop circles or other similar inexplicable shapes. Commonly associated with extra terrestrial beings and UFOs. | notifications | 1999 / 2008 | 11 games |
Crushers | Falling chunks of ceiling, large machinery, a massive trap, or something else that crushes anyone who has the misfortune of getting in their way, usually killing them (almost) instantly. | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 16 games |
Crystals | Crystals of one sort or another appear prominently. | notifications | 1992 / 2018 | 108 games |
Cursed items | Items that are somehow cursed. Commonly can't be removed without dispelling the curse and impart other detrimental effects. | notifications | 1983 / 2019 | 19 games |
Custom treaties | Player can create customized agreements with factions, people, or such. | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 4 games |
Dakar Rally(Paris-Dakar Rally;The Dakar) | Annual rally raid, since 1979, originally held from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal (now in South America). | notifications | 1985 / 2003 | 27 games |
Deadly decor(Spiky decor;Spikes everywhere) | Locations are riddled with deadly decor that hurts or instantly kills the player character if bumped with. Usually inexplicable spikes found at floors, walls, and ceilings. Especially when their presence makes no sense. | notifications | 1981 / 2021 | 241 games |
Death pits (Bottomless pits) | Includes pits where once you fall, you're never coming back. Either you die during the fall, hitting the bottom or there's just no way out of them and the game doesn't have the grace to call it a game over. | notifications | 1984 / 2022 | 286 games |
Def Jam | notifications | 2003 / 2010 | 11 games | |
Detectors (Security cameras) | Includes devices, creatures, or some other things that serve the purpose of detecting something and summoning something more appropriate to deal with them. | notifications | 1999 / 2018 | 13 games |
Diaries (Journals;Logbooks;Audiologs) | Player can find several diaries or similar recordings of past events that reveal all or part of what had transpired, often revealing surprisingly useful info compared to what one would expect from such. | notifications | 1994 / 2020 | 221 games |
Dimensional portals (Planegates;Planar gates)[dimensional gates] | Includes gateways between dimensions or planes of existence. | notifications | 1993 / 2015 | 21 games |
Disappearing platforms (Disappearing floor;Crumbling floor) | Features floor or other platforms that disappear and possibly re-appear for one reason or other (commonly from being stepped on). | notifications | 1983 / 2021 | 211 games |
Discouraged term: Blood | Due to blood being very common thing in games, some other terms should be used instead. | notifications | 1983 / 2018 | 56 games |
Disguised triggers(Disguised buttons;Disguised levers) | Includes buttons, levers or other triggers that are disguised to appear as natural part of the environment, such as a book lever in a bookshelf, a push button stone on a stonewall, lever sconce, and so forth. | notifications | 1988 / 2022 | 38 games |
Display devices (Monitors;Screens) | Player encounters display devices or other similar things that show other parts of the game world in (semi) real-time, commonly displays linked to security cameras. | notifications | 2002 / 2012 | 5 games |
Distributors | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Doors (Gates)[Portcullis;Portcullises] | A simple piece of a structure that opens and closes, often comes with a locking mechanism. | notifications | 1981 / 2023 | 944 games |
Drone (Satellite;Bot) | Player has one or more drone ships, robots, or other similar entities running about aiding them in whatever task they're at. | notifications | 1983 / 2024 | 75 games |
Drop platforms (Pass-through platforms)[drop-through platforms] | Platforms that support characters on them, but can be passed through when wanted (dropping down or jumping up through them). | notifications | 1984 / 2018 | 69 games |
Dust motes (Space dust;Plankton) | Dust motes or similar float about in the air, sea, or space. Usually they try to impart a sense of motion in places where seeing it otherwise might not be so clear, or simply for atmosphere. | notifications | 1994 / 2015 | 25 games |
Encyclopedia(Codex)[encyclopaedia] | Includes some form of in-game encyclopedia that explains pretty much everything worth explaining and some more. | notifications | 1992 / 2020 | 64 games |
Energy distribution (Electric distribution network;Wiring;Power conduits) | Player needs to establish and maintain energy distribution in some manner. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 71 games |
Energy pickups(Mana pickups;Spell point pickups) | Includes items that restore all or part of the player character's energy upon picking up, activation or touching. These can't be stored in inventory even if such exists. | notifications | 1997 / 2015 | 17 games |
Energy recharging items(Mana recharging items) | Player can carry about items that recharge their energy reserves when they feel it necessary. | notifications | 1993 / 2023 | 153 games |
Energy shield projectors(Energy shield emitters;Shield domes;Force field projectors) | Includes shielding systems that protect a large area with the force field instead of just whatever has the emitter. | notifications | 2007 / 2013 | 8 games |
Energy stations(Mana stations) | Player can find devices, locations or other things where they can repeatedly recharge their energy reserves. | notifications | 1994 / 2023 | 40 games |
Eruptions | Violent eruptions of some harmful substance (e.g. lava, steam, acid, ...) provide an environmental hazard. | notifications | 2007 / 2020 | 27 games |
Estate(Stronghold;Base) | Player owns or can own a household of one form or another where they have a number of retainers that do the protagonist's bidding. | notifications | 2000 / 2018 | 18 games |
Explosive environmental objects | Includes objects that cause an explosion or expulsion of some harmful material upon being sufficiently damaged. These are [i]very[/i] likely red and barrel-shaped. | notifications | 1989 / 2023 | 279 games |
Facebook Connect | Has integrated support for interacting with Facebook, likely to automatically publish somehow significant actions in-game. | notifications | 2006 / 2014 | 23 games |
Factions | There are multiple factions, organizations, nations or such that have more or less impact on the actual story. | notifications | 1999 / 2021 | 50 games |
Fake surfaces(Fake platforms;Illusory surfaces)[quicksand] | Surfaces or other platforms that are not as tangible as they give the impression of. | notifications | 1988 / 2016 | 9 games |
Fictional element (Fictional material;Fictional substance) | A fictional element or other substance is central to the plot, gameplay or has otherwise very dominant presence. | notifications | 1992 / 2023 | 87 games |
Fire suppression(Fire suppression systems) | Player can or must employ fire suppression systems. | notifications | 1977 / 2014 | 27 games |
Fireflies | Tiny little flying insects that emit light or any other beings indistinguishable from them (such as faeries/pixies could exist as just tiny flying points of light, thus indistinguishable from fireflies). | notifications | 2004 / 2017 | 15 games |
Flammable gas | Gaseous matter that is explosive or otherwise can be made dangerous under certain circumstances. | notifications | 2008 / 2020 | 2 games |
Flash cards(Memory cards;NAND) | Features memory cards slotted to other devices as generic removable data storage. Appearing since 1994 and growing in popularity since with latest models hardly the size of a fingernail. | notifications | 1 game | |
Flying islands (Floating continents)[flying continents;floating islands] | Features islands/continents that fly, hover, or otherwise are suspended in air. | notifications | 1997 / 2020 | 120 games |
Force fields (Energy barriers) | notifications | 1997 / 2018 | 53 games | |
Found maps | Player must find maps to have access to them, rather than having some inexplicable map inbuilt. | notifications | 1986 / 2019 | 23 games |
Foundations | Player must deal with building foundations for structures or similar. | notifications | 1992 / 2016 | 19 games |
Fruits | notifications | 1983 / 2014 | 23 games | |
Fungi (Mushrooms) | notifications | 1982 / 2021 | 36 games | |
GamerSafe | Supports GamerSafe to a degree, such as having saves stored online, public achievements, micro-transactions, etc. Requires login at GamerSafe, though some games may be playable without such (with the additional features unavailable). | notifications | 1 game | |
Games Republic | Available for digital distribution and shown on the Games Republic store front. | notifications | 2008 / 2019 | 110 games |
Garden gnomes | Statues of small, stout humanoids with pointy red hats, white beards, and rosy cheeks. Variably targets of pranks, vandalism, strange conspiracy theories, and other things. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 21 games |
Garlic | A notably pungent plant, or especially its bulb, that is used for culinary, medicinal, magical, or super natural purposes. | notifications | 1979 / 2018 | 84 games |
Gems (Gemstones;Precious stones)[diamonds;jewels] | notifications | 1981 / 2015 | 89 games | |
Geoglyphs | 0 game | |||
Geysers | A generally extremely dangerous volcanic eruption of burning hot water or steam. | notifications | 2002 / 2016 | 8 games |
Giant fungi (Giant mushrooms) | Player more or less frequently encounters gigantic fungi, often to the degree that it's a forest made out of them. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 34 games |
Giant machine | Involves some gigantic machine that is not a robot (or mecha) nor a factory or is otherwise not described better with something else. | notifications | 6 games | |
Gibs | notifications | 1990 / 2020 | 181 games | |
Gold bags | Bags of gold coins, raw gold ore or such. Strangely often in a plain brown bag, or one with dollar symbol on it even if it's not of said currency. | notifications | 3 games | |
Gold bars (Gold ingots) | Gold that has been melted down and shaped into similar sized bars. Presumed to be purified to one degree or another. | notifications | 1981 / 2013 | 45 games |
Gold dust | When dirt (or rock) containing gold is is processed to separate the gold, impure but mostly gold granules that result are called gold dust. | notifications | 2000 / 2004 | 3 games |
Gold nuggets | Naturally occurring gold chunks. Often found or panned from rivers where erosion has moved them. Sometimes panned from dirt out of mines or hillsides. | notifications | 1983 / 2016 | 24 games |
GPGnet | notifications | 2007 / 2008 | 3 games | |
Greatest hits | PS1, PS2 and PSP budget range in the US. | notifications | 1995 / 2021 | 66 games |
Half-pipe | 1 structure of 2 opposing quarter-cylindrical ramps for bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, or other vehicles to launch into the air & preform tricks. | notifications | 1987 / 1989 | 13 games |
Hazmat suit | Protagonist wears or can wear a hazmat suit. | notifications | 1998 / 2013 | 27 games |
Health pickups (Health power-ups) | Includes items that restore all or part of the player character's health upon picking up, activation or touching. These can't be stored in inventory even if such exists. | notifications | 1985 / 2020 | 352 games |
Hearts | Central pieces of blood circulation in organic beings, often symbolizing vitality, life or even the soul. | notifications | 1990 / 2015 | 24 games |
Heat haze (Heat distortion) | notifications | 2005 / 2015 | 24 games | |
Herbs | notifications | 2001 / 2014 | 9 games | |
Horizontal bars (High bars)[Uneven bars] | A bar used generally in artistic gymnastics. | notifications | 2006 / 2014 | 21 games |
Human cannonball (Unit cannon) | Characters, vehicles, etc. are shot a great distance via a cannon, catapult, or other similar device as an unconventional means of transportation. | notifications | 2009 / 2014 | 10 games |
Humble Bundle | Series of time limited sales of packs of cross-platform, DRM-free games where customers set their own price and distribute it to the developers, Humble Store, or some charity as they want. | notifications | 2001 / 2020 | 327 games |
Illusionary walls (Illusory walls;Fake walls) | Includes walls that aren't really there. | notifications | 1988 / 2021 | 44 games |
Indie Fund | Indie Fund investment was utilised in the marketing of these games. | notifications | 2011 / 2014 | 16 games |
Intel Extreme Masters(IEM) | An international electronic sports league owned by Turtle Entertainment and sponsored by the namesake Intel. | notifications | 2000 / 2016 | 11 games |
Interactive triggers (Buttons;Levers;Switches) | Player encounters trigger mechanisms they can or must interact with, usually in form of push buttons or turning levers/valves. | notifications | 1990 / 2023 | 240 games |
Invasive plant species (Alien weed) | Anything that behaves like an invasive species (such as weeds) but also noticeably changing the area as it spreads, overwhelming native forms of life. | notifications | 2003 / 2015 | 4 games |
Invisible platforms | Platforms that normally are normally undetectable. Some may become visible under certain circumstances and others may even be intangible unless something is done to or near them. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 24 games |
Itch.to | Available on the digital distribution service known as Itch.to. | 0 game | ||
Joke items | Items that are completely useless or do something bizarre even for the mythos. Commonly treated as non-canon, easter eggs, or similar. Some may simply be references to other works of fiction. | notifications | 1985 / 2020 | 56 games |
Jump pads(Bouncers;Springs;Catapults) | Objects, surfaces or merely areas that bounce the player and possibly other objects and characters off them forcibly high in the air, often used to reach otherwise inaccessible locations. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 109 games |
Jumping puzzles(Platformer puzzles) | Includes jumping puzzles, puzzles where player tries to find the correct route to target via jumping (platforming). | notifications | 1984 / 2013 | 9 games |
Juniper Berries | Actually a fleshy seed cone rather than a berry. Used as a spice for game meats, sauerkraut, gin, & other European foods. Some species are toxic. | notifications | 2 games | |
KGB(КГБ;Комитет государственной безопасности;Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti) | Deals with KGB, the internal security, intelligence and secret police of the Soviet Union. | notifications | 1990 / 2010 | 7 games |
Knights Templar (Military order) | Features the Knights Templar or any other religiously driven military orders; Knights Templar is the most well/widely known military order and often used as synonym for them. | notifications | 1992 / 2014 | 19 games |
KRI award (Russian Game Developer's Conference award;Конференция Разработчиков Игр award;КРИ award)[Konferencziya Razrabotchikov Igr] | Received an award the at any of the Russian Game Developer's Conferences (Конференция Разработчиков Игр). | notifications | 2003 / 2015 | 4 games |
Ladders (Ropes;Vines;Grid fences;Rappelling;Abseiling) | Anything used to climb up or down a vertical surface, regardless what it looks like, or how or even if it's attached to anything. | notifications | 1980 / 2020 | 1617 games |
Lava[magma] | An environmental hazard, though may have actual uses or dynamics outside of the initial danger it poses. | notifications | 1984 / 2023 | 112 games |
LEGO Group | Anything created by the LEGO Group. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Lettuce | Featured in gameplay or story. The leafy green. Eaten raw or sometimes cooked. The basis for many salads. | notifications | 2 games | |
Light bridges | Bridges or similar platforms that are formed of light or other supposedly intangible form of energy. | notifications | 1986 / 2020 | 30 games |
Logic gates | The most basic element of binary (boolean) computing, can be used with enough effort to construct actual processors inside virtual worlds. | notifications | 1982 / 2016 | 36 games |
Luggage(Backpacks;Bags;Sacks;Pouches;Boxes) | Besides whatever basic inventory space the player has, they can also have additional pouches, bags, backpacks, boxes, etc. that can be used for storing items. | notifications | 1992 / 2020 | 38 games |
M&M's Candies | notifications | 2000 / 2009 | 7 games | |
Mac App Store | Available on the Mac App Store. | notifications | 2014 / 2016 | 2 games |
Mafia(Cosa Nostra) | A crime organization of Italian/Sicilian origin which has also established in America. | notifications | 1989 / 2020 | 16 games |
Magic carpets[flying carpets] | notifications | 1984 / 2016 | 30 games | |
Magic circles (Summoning circles) | Drawn circles involved in ritual magic, often inscribed with various geometric shapes and runes. | notifications | 1994 / 2015 | 11 games |
Magic ingredients (Spell ingredients;Spell components) | Magic spells require the use of special ingredients that may or may not themselves be of magical nature. | notifications | 1986 / 2016 | 12 games |
Magic jewellery[magic jewelry] | Rings, neclaces, ear rings, etc. that have magic or magic-like powers associated with them. | notifications | 1 game | |
Mahjong tiles[Mah Jongg tiles] | notifications | 1985 / 2016 | 16 games | |
Mannequins | notifications | 2005 / 2017 | 7 games | |
Marbles | notifications | 1998 / 2008 | 25 games | |
Masks | Masks appear in unusual numbers or in unusually important status. | notifications | 2011 / 2017 | 10 games |
Meteoroids (Meteors) | "Sand to boulder sized extraterrestrial matter" | notifications | 1984 / 2015 | 12 games |
Mirrors | An object with a specularly reflective surface is featured in gameplay. | notifications | 1979 / 1985 | 10 games |
Moai Figures | Game features Moai figures. | notifications | 1983 / 2019 | 221 games |
Mobile energy shields | Includes mobile energy shield emitters that provide shielding to others besides themselves. | notifications | 1991 / 2020 | 8 games |
Modular vehicles | Certain or all vehicles' functionality can be extended or altered by use of modular components. | notifications | 2011 / 2013 | 2 games |
Money bags | Light colored plain canvas or cloth bags with a large contrasted currency symbol printed on them to comically reveal to all exactly what is inside. | notifications | 1982 / 2017 | 55 games |
Monkey bars | Includes monkey bars or any other structures or objects that are used in similar fashion, such as piping or ropes. | notifications | 1984 / 2019 | 84 games |
Moving platforms (Floating platforms) | Features inexplicable platforms - that either float or are attached to some background machinery - which move up and down, left and right, and the player is required to jump from one to the other. | notifications | 1982 / 2023 | 300 games |
Multiple Rocket Launchers[multiple launch rocket systems] | Vehicles or towed weapon systems that deliver a barrage of unguided rockets. | notifications | 1999 / 2014 | 12 games |
Mutant plants | Plants that have mutated to a point at which they're barely or not at all recognizable. | notifications | 2010 / 2011 | 5 games |
National Security Agency(NSA) | Deals with the NSA, an intelligence organization. Part of the executive branch of the U.S.A. government. | notifications | 1996 / 2011 | 13 games |
Necklaces (Pendants)[amulets] | Any form of neck ornaments. | notifications | 2010 / 2011 | 3 games |
News | Player has access to some in-world/mythos news service that reports more or less relevant news, possibly reports of their past deeds, events they participated in or upcoming events they may be interested in participating in. | notifications | 2000 / 2016 | 39 games |
Nikola Tesla | Nikola Tesla makes an appearance or the game deals with his creations, especially if this involves his scientifically less accepted ideas. | notifications | 2010 / 2015 | 11 games |
Nordic Game Program | Funded by a grant from the Nordic Game Program. | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 18 games |
NPC generators (Monster generators) | An object that keeps on spawning NPCs until destroyed. | notifications | 1985 / 2018 | 163 games |
Nuts | Hard shelled fruits are featured in gameplay or story. Edible seeds of high oil content are often defined nuts despite the scientific inaccuracy of it | notifications | 1985 / 2009 | 4 games |
One-way passages | Includes passages, doorways, teleporters, etc. that can be only traversed in one direction no matter what. | notifications | 1982 / 2009 | 7 games |
Online ranking (Online highscores;Leaderboards) | Uses online ranking/highscore lists. | notifications | 2004 / 2017 | 127 games |
Orbital weapons[orbital weaponry] | Either satellites or spacecraft providing weapon support from space (planet's orbit) to planet surface. | notifications | 1995 / 2020 | 38 games |
Paper charms(Paper talismans;Ofuda;御札;お札)[o-fuda] | An item associated with Shinto (ofuda), Taoism (fu), and Hinduism (sutra). Usually seen as part of "traditional" Japanese magic especially when Onmyouji are involved, with common uses in exorcism and warding. | notifications | 2003 / 2016 | 12 games |
Pet (Pet system) | The protagonist has or can have (usually one) animal companion that is not an integral part of the story or gameplay. | notifications | 1989 / 2019 | 40 games |
Phlebotinum (Unobtainium;Handwavium;Eludium;Wishalloy) | Involves an exceedingly rare, valuable or inexplicable substance (or possibly device) that often has so many (often unpredictable) uses that everyone wants it, and it's (of course) important for the plot. | notifications | 1995 / 2023 | 38 games |
Pink Roses | Pink roses are literally [i]or symbolically[/i] present. Traditionally symbolize gratitude. Also grace, elegance, admiration and/or fun. | notifications | 1998 / 2006 | 5 games |
Planetary defense weapons | Weapon systems installed on the surface of planets or similar stellar bodies that are intended to defend against threats from space before they reach the atmosphere. | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 4 games |
PlayStation Store (PlayStation Network;PSN) | Distributed through PS network's store. | notifications | 2000 / 2020 | 269 games |
Polycubes | Gameplay involves polycubes, shapes formed of one or more equal cubes joined face to face. | notifications | 1995 / 2014 | 8 games |
Polyhedrons | Depicts polyhedrons prominently or in large quantities, or they're somehow relevant to the plot. | notifications | 1 game | |
Polyominos | Gameplay involves polyominos, two-dimensional polygons made out of squares whose faces line up. | notifications | 1980 / 2014 | 19 games |
Portals | Includes portals of some sort, used for rapid transportation from one place to another. Often these have the outer appearance of door frames with fancy light show. | notifications | 1988 / 2022 | 163 games |
Potions (Vials) | notifications | 1980 / 2023 | 320 games | |
Power-ups | Includes various inexplicable objects that instantly increase the protagonist's power, temporarily or permanently. | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 675 games |
Pressure plates[pressure pads] | Floor plates, pads, or such that react to sufficient weight pressing down on them (such as the player character, random objects, NPCs, vehicles, or anything else). | notifications | 1990 / 2023 | 159 games |
Private Military Companies(PMCs;Private Military Contractors) | notifications | 1995 / 2016 | 72 games | |
Pumpkin | Some are lanterns, a character's head, coaches pulled by horses, explosives, mistaken for a vegetables, talk, chucked more & farther than other fruit. | notifications | 1983 / 2019 | 56 games |
Purple Roses | Purple roses are literally or symbolically present. Traditionally associated with enchantment, desire, or caution. | notifications | 1995 / 2003 | 3 games |
Quicksand | Any surfaces that slowly sink anything on them deeper and deeper until finally suffocating them, though not necessarily lethal if too shallow. This is applicable regardless if it's sand or not, as long as it behaves the same. Not for realistic quicks | notifications | 1991 / 2016 | 16 games |
Radar jammers | Any devices, structures, or such that deny radar or similar information to be gathered, commonly making things invisible to radars, but not blocking detection by plain sight or such methods. | notifications | 2007 / 2013 | 7 games |
Radar scramblers | Any devices, structures, or such that distort information gained by using radars or similar devices. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 8 games |
Radishes | Editable pungent peppery taproot. The whole plant is editable. Some species are best cooked due to toughness. Commonly red varieties are seen. | notifications | 2 games | |
Ramparts (Bulwarks;Barriers;Defensive walls;Fences) | notifications | 1990 / 2017 | 64 games | |
Recall portal (Town portal;Recall teleport;Teleport home) | Includes an ability, item, or other such that teleports the protagonist back to their home or nearest safe haven, such as the nearest friendly habitat. | notifications | 1989 / 2021 | 96 games |
Recipes, blueprints & schematics | Instructions how to cook, build, or otherwise craft certain objects can be found. | notifications | 2006 / 2017 | 12 games |
Red China(People's Republic of China;PRC;Communist China;中华人民共和国;Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó) | Deals with the nation known as People's Republic of China but not necessary the region known as mainland China. | notifications | 2 games | |
Red Roses | Red roses are literally or symbolically present. Traditionally they symbolize passionate, romantic love. | notifications | 1988 / 2019 | 49 games |
Road signs(Traffic signs;Guide posts)[fingerposts] | Player encounters usable (as in, useful) road signs or other direction guides. | notifications | 2002 / 2023 | 26 games |
Rose Bushes (Rose Trees;Rose Shrubs;Rose Vines) | A shrub known for its beautiful rose flowers & sharp thorns. | notifications | 1991 / 2009 | 5 games |
Roses | Literally present flowers of the rosebush, often red, valued for their beauty, fragrance, as a food ingredient, & for romantic connotations. | notifications | 1985 / 2016 | 131 games |
Rotating platforms | Includes platforms that rotate somehow, either by themselves or with applied force. Often the rotating either forces timing or it must be otherwise taken into actual use, especially in games involving physics. | notifications | 2009 / 2013 | 17 games |
Rubber ducks | A floating generally yellow-billed yellow duck which is a popular bath toy in western culture is present in these games. | notifications | 2012 / 2013 | 4 games |
Rube Goldberg machine (Roland Emett things;Storm P machines;Pythagorean devices;Jean Tinguely sculpture;Heath Robinson machine) | An overly complicated device to accomplish a simple task in an entertaining and/or satirical manner. | notifications | 1985 / 2018 | 25 games |
Sacrificial lamb(One for all) | Includes an animal or a person to be sacrificed for the good of all others. | notifications | 2001 / 2019 | 4 games |
Safe pits(Teleport pits;Retry pits)[safety pits] | Pits that teleport or otherwise move the player back to a safe location, usually nearby their last on-ground location. | notifications | 2008 / 2017 | 22 games |
Saguaro Cactus | A large tree-sized cactus & iconic symbol of the american southwest. | notifications | 1978 / 2016 | 6 games |
Sai | A dagger-like weapon of Okinawan origin used in certain martial arts. | notifications | 1989 / 2013 | 57 games |
Scents (Smells) | notifications | 2000 / 2010 | 6 games | |
Scrolls (Spell scrolls) | notifications | 1982 / 2021 | 55 games | |
Seeds | Gameplay or story features plant seeds. | notifications | 1991 / 2016 | 14 games |
Skeleton key | Includes a key that will open any lock, usually named skeleton key and is shaped like a skeleton, skull, or bone. | notifications | 1986 / 2016 | 39 games |
Slitherine PBEM(Slitherine PBEM++) | Uses Slitherine's proprietary online service. | notifications | 1 game | |
Smokes (Tobacco;Cigars;Cigarettes) | Smokes or similar recreational inhalants, taken by burning the substance and inhaling the smoke, are present. | notifications | 1979 / 2019 | 72 games |
Social networks | Any third-party social networks supported internally by games. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Soul jar(Phylactery) | Phylacteries or similar supernatural objects that preserve a part of a being (such as their heart or even their actual soul) that makes them effectively immortal, requiring the destruction of the phylactery before the being itself can be truly killed. | notifications | 1996 / 2021 | 37 games |
Soundtrack available(OST) | The soundtrack is available for acquisition separately. | notifications | 2013 / 2017 | 31 games |
Soviet Union (USSR;Union of Soviet Socialist Republics;Союз Советских Социалистических Республик;Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik;CCCP;SSSR) | Deals with USSR, a single party socialist state existent 1922–1991. Associated with Russia, the most populous country within. One of the Cold War superpowers. | notifications | 1978 / 2017 | 45 games |
Space suit (E.V.A. suit)[EVA suit] | The protagonist is equipped with or can wear a space suit of one form or another. | notifications | 1985 / 2021 | 39 games |
Spacelanes (Wormholes;Warp conduits;Hyperspace gate networks) | Either natural (e.g. wormholes, subspace conduits, etc.) or artificial (e.g. jump gate network) lanes between major stellar phenomena, commonly star systems, employed to accomplish FTL travel. | notifications | 1990 / 2021 | 53 games |
Speaking stones(Speaking statues) | Certain stones, boulders, or other innocuous inanimate objects like statues have the startling ability to speak, even if they can't do much anything else. | notifications | 2005 / 2015 | 11 games |
Spetsnaz(Спецназ;Войска специального назначения) | Deals with Spetsnaz, an umbrella term used to refer to any Russian special forces. | notifications | 2005 / 2016 | 17 games |
Splatter (Blood splatter;Ichor splatter) | Creatures excessively splatter bodily fluids, blood or other vital fluids, when wounded, crushed, mutilated or otherwise harmed. | notifications | 1986 / 2020 | 644 games |
Spring guns | notifications | 2010 / 2015 | 5 games | |
Stage magic | Depicts stage magic in one form or another. | notifications | 1988 / 2008 | 4 games |
Standing stones (Megaliths;Orthostats;Liths) | Including any formations of standing stones, such as a stone circle or row. | notifications | 1986 / 2017 | 17 games |
Stash(Stash)[Bank] | Player character has a "stash" of some sort where they can store excess items for later. This stash automatically moves with the player character though is often only accessible from a town or similar safe locale. | notifications | 1988 / 2021 | 95 games |
Stealth field projectors (Cloaking field projectors) | Any devices, structures, or such that project a stealth field around themselves, thus cloaking anything within sufficient proximity to them, or that cloak distant objects. | notifications | 2007 / 2008 | 4 games |
Steam Workshop | A distribution system for user-created content on Steam. | notifications | 2007 / 2017 | 47 games |
Stepping stones | Any sparsely spaced footing, regardless if they're actually stones, that player usually jumps from one to the other while aiming their jumps carefully. | notifications | 1982 / 2014 | 26 games |
Stockpiles (Warehouses;Silos;Storehouses) | Player can construct stockpiles or similar to store excess or currently unused goods. | notifications | 1997 / 2018 | 36 games |
Structure supports | Structures require supports to stay up, making destruction of the supports the fastest way to lose whole buildings. | notifications | 1979 / 2020 | 34 games |
Subtitles | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Super prototype | Features a prototype version of some technology that is far superior to actual later production models. Usually these include a design flaw or some other unwanted feature that was removed from the later models explaining the change. | notifications | 1993 / 2016 | 12 games |
Superalloy (Supermetal) | Includes an alloy, metal, or other material that if anyone had the choice, they would make almost everything out of it. | notifications | 1996 / 2015 | 15 games |
Supply stations | Includes locations, devices, characters or other objects that can be used repeatedly to resupply on fuel, ammo, consumables, etc. Often without actually selecting or even telling them (activating them) you want to be resupplied. Completely for free. | notifications | 2002 / 2015 | 28 games |
SWAT(Special Weapons And Tactics) | Deals with the SWAT, a counter-terrorist unit of the police in the USA. | notifications | 1986 / 2013 | 14 games |
Syringes(Syrettes) | Tubular containers with needle attached to them, usually used to administer drugs intravenously or to extract blood or other liquids from a body. | notifications | 2003 / 2017 | 19 games |
Teens (Teenagers) | Includes human [i]children[/i] 13–17 (possibly 18–19) years of age. Or children of other sentient creatures obviously in the same condition if not age | notifications | 1989 / 2012 | 54 games |
Teleporters | Includes fixed devices or locations that teleport the player and anyone else to some other location. | notifications | 1981 / 2023 | 202 games |
Tesla coils | notifications | 1996 / 2018 | 23 games | |
Thoroughfares (Rails;Routes;Paths;Trails;Roads;Streets;Highways;Waterways) | Includes any kind of thoroughfare that serves as something more than scenery. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 60 games |
Tower of Babel | A tower built for humanity's glory, to reach Heaven, or other (often vain) purpose. Usually inviting the wrath of the local god, gods, or equivalent beings of power. | notifications | 2001 / 2012 | 8 games |
Tracers | Includes tracer ammo, or other similar things that produce traces the player player can use. | notifications | 2005 / 2016 | 31 games |
Traffic signal system | Player can create and manage a traffic signal system of some sort. | notifications | 2004 / 2016 | 10 games |
Transcripts | Player has access to written record of what was said previously. | notifications | 2013 / 2014 | 3 games |
Traps | Player can encounter traps of one sort or another. | notifications | 1982 / 2019 | 155 games |
Trash (Unusable junk) | Player can find, collect and fiddle with large number of items that have no use what so ever. | notifications | 1989 / 2015 | 58 games |
Trees | Features trees [b][i]as more that mere scenery[/i][/b]. They play a significant part in gameplay or story. | notifications | 1981 / 2021 | 107 games |
Triad(Tong)[triads;tongs] | A type of crime organization of Chinese origin, with its American counterpart the Tong. | notifications | 2000 / 2012 | 28 games |
Tripwires | notifications | 2008 / 2016 | 20 games | |
Twitch integration(TwitchTV) | Has integrated support for interacting with Twitch.tv, likely to trivially stream gameplay there and possibly integration with Twitch community interaction. | notifications | 2011 / 2017 | 19 games |
Twitter integration | Has integrated support for interacting with Twitter, likely to automatically publish somehow significant actions in-game. | notifications | 2009 / 2016 | 19 games |
Tyrant (Dictator) | Involves an oppressive ruler that bends, abolishes, ignores, and makes laws for (seemingly) personal benefit or amusement. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 30 games |
Ubi.com account | Requires account at Ubi.com for online multiplayer, and possibly for even offline singleplayer. | notifications | 2005 / 2014 | 26 games |
Ultimate hits | PS1 and PS2 budget range in the NTSC-J regions. | notifications | 1997 / 2019 | 15 games |
Unusual currency | notifications | 1997 / 2015 | 19 games | |
UVL: Distributors | Includes info on distributors. | notifications | 1 game | |
Vending machines | More or less functional vending machines that provide usable items for usually small amounts of money. | notifications | 1993 / 2013 | 4 games |
Ventilation (Air distribution) | Player needs to establish and maintain ventilation in some manner. Not including air cooling or similar, this is more for replenishing breathable gases. | notifications | 2003 / 2019 | 8 games |
VHS tapes | notifications | 1 game | ||
Wads of cash | A bunch of banknotes strapped together to form a compact pile of presumably set number of specific bills for easy management of large sums of money. | notifications | 2005 / 2016 | 14 games |
Waste management | Player needs to establish and maintain waste management in some manner. | notifications | 1991 / 2019 | 10 games |
Water distribution (Water supply network) | Player needs to establish and maintain water distribution in some manner. | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 25 games |
Waterfalls | A natural wall of water. Characterized by water continuously falling down a significant distance and in excessive quantities, usually a sign of more exotic locations and often used to hide caves or other things beyond. | notifications | 1986 / 2016 | 45 games |
Whirlwinds[cyclones] | A vortex of wind, likely harmless to humans and similarly large creatures, but may throw about objects and smaller animals. | notifications | 1 game | |
White Roses | White roses are literally or symbolically present. Traditionally they symbolize purity & true love (pure love) | notifications | 1988 / 2006 | 10 games |
Windmills | Stationary machines that translate the force of the wind [b]directly[/b] into rotational motion. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 27 games |
World championship(World Cup) | Involves any world championship/cup event. | notifications | 1970 / 2022 | 254 games |
World core (Planet core;Center of the Earth) | Involves the world's core somehow, as destination, location, a plot object, or such. | notifications | 1988 / 2016 | 20 games |
World tree(Yggdrasil;Irminsul) | A colossal tree that supports the heavens, the world itself (the ground essentially), or any number of other things. | notifications | 1987 / 2016 | 18 games |
Wreckage | Destroyed vehicles, buildings and such leave wrecks that block movement and whatever else. Usually these can be salvaged for resources or used as cover. | notifications | 1997 / 2016 | 33 games |
Yellow Roses | Yellow roses are literally [i]or symbolically[/i] present. Traditionally they symbolize joy & friendship. | notifications | 1988 / 2004 | 8 games |
Yggdrasil | Refers to "Yggdrasil", an immense tree that is central in Norse cosmology. | notifications | 1997 / 2017 | 18 games |
YouTube | Has integrated support for interacting with YouTube, likely to trivially submit gameplay videos there. | notifications | 2008 / 2012 | 7 games |
YuPlay | Requires login at YuPlay service. | notifications | 2013 / 2014 | 2 games |
Zip-lines | A cable, rope or such mounted on an incline commonly with a pulley or something else that does its job. Allows rapid one-way transit. | notifications | 2008 / 2019 | 54 games |
3+ factions(Three way conflict)[3 or more factions] | There are 3 or more factions actively participating in the depicted conflict and aren't allied with each other. | notifications | 1985 / 2020 | 145 games |
3D printing(Additive manufactring) | Type of object construction where they're produced by layering the raw materials in place instead of constructing them piece by piece and assembling. | notifications | 1997 / 2018 | 12 games |
Abilities, spells, skills, etc. | Any tags referring to abilities and such in general without being restricted to certain sub-type (e.g. magic) or something plain or commonplace (e.g. locomotion). | list_alt | 0 game | |
Ability charges(Spell charges;Skill charges;Multi-charge spells;Multi-charge abilities) | Certain abilities, skills, spells, or such stack up 2 or more charges that replenish over time after being used, allowing multiple rapid uses of the ability before it enters actual cooldown where it can't be used at all. | notifications | 2009 / 2018 | 10 games |
Ability criticals(Spell criticals) | Abilities, spells, or similar can get "critical hits" much like basic attacks. | notifications | 2003 / 2015 | 16 games |
Ability ranks(Skill ranks;Spell ranks) | Abilities, skills, spells, etc. have ranks besides just saying you can do it or not. | notifications | 2006 / 2016 | 6 games |
Abnormal limbs | Player has to deal with strange non-human limbs. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 5 games |
Accidental discharge | Characters can accidentally fire their weapons, such as from shock (pain, electric, etc.) | notifications | 2003 / 2004 | 2 games |
Accused of plagiarism | notifications | 1 game | ||
Acrostic text | A type of writing where each first letter, syllable or word of each line or paragraph forms out a hidden message. | notifications | 3 games | |
Action system[Action points] | A time-keeping system where available time is split into number of actions the characters can perform per turn, usually limited to 2 actions: such as move&attack or long/double move, and some special cases taking both actions. | notifications | 1986 / 2018 | 38 games |
Active ragdoll physics | Characters that are ragdolled maintain some degree of control and are still able to perform certain actions. | notifications | 2014 / 2017 | 3 games |
Active reload(Reload: Sped) | Reloading can be sped up under certain circumstances, such as by repeatedly hitting reload button or hitting it at a specific time. | notifications | 2005 / 2018 | 30 games |
Active/Passive detectors | Distinguishes between active and passive detectors, where active ones usually give more information but also reveal your location, while passive ones give less or even no information but do not reveal your location. Especially if these are toggleable. | notifications | 2000 / 2013 | 6 games |
Actual death | In the course of the game a player is shown an actual death that happened in reality, or gets to cause an actual death during the game. | notifications | 1998 / 2013 | 6 games |
Adaptive audio(Adaptive sound effects) | Sound effects change depending on what's going on, especially if this includes sound effects for the user interface or such. | notifications | 3 games | |
Addiction (Simulated addiction) | The protagonist - and possibly other characters - may get addicted to one or more substances. | notifications | 2008 / 2015 | 17 games |
Aerial warfare | Player commands some military air force(s). | notifications | 1975 / 2016 | 91 games |
Aerokinesis (Air manipulation;Air magic) | Player character can control and/or generate air or other gaseous substances to some degree, regardless of how or why. | notifications | 2000 / 2018 | 8 games |
Aim sway (Weapon sway) | Aim sways or otherwise wanders around a bit on its own. | notifications | 2006 / 2012 | 4 games |
Air bursting | Simulates or imitates the effects of detonating explosive devices mid air instead of after they hit or penetrate a target (or hit ground or other non-target). | notifications | 3 games | |
Alert states(Alert postures;Alert levels) | Player can control alert state, such as blue, green, yellow, red alert/condition. | notifications | 2003 / 2004 | 2 games |
All for one(Inverted sacrificial lamb) | Inversion of sacrificial lamb where all is sacrificed for the good of the "lamb" instead of the lamb being sacrificed for the good of all. | notifications | 2008 / 2014 | 5 games |
Allergies(Hypersensitivity disorders)[allergy] | Simulates allergies to a degree. | notifications | 1996 / 2015 | 2 games |
Alone (Alone against the world;Hostile world) | Player never meets any friendly or even neutral people during the game/story. | notifications | 1981 / 2022 | 431 games |
Alpha strike[alpha striking] | The act of deploying all weapons or similar to a single target simultaneously. | notifications | 1995 / 2013 | 18 games |
Altered states | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Alternating protagonist | The protagonist changes between chapters or other events completely outside of player's control. | notifications | 1986 / 2018 | 200 games |
Ambient temperature | Player interacts with environmental heat and/or cold. | notifications | 1987 / 2020 | 43 games |
AMBIGUOUS: Action Points | This can either refer to `time units´ or `action system´. | notifications | 3 games | |
Ambiguous: BMX(Bicycle motocross) | BMX alone doesn't signify much and is used to refer to either Freestyle BMX or BMX Racing depending on context. | notifications | 1 game | |
Ammo regeneration | Ammunition regenerates or otherwise is produced out of thin air as time goes by effectively providing player unlimited ammo. | notifications | 2012 / 2019 | 5 games |
Amnesia Fortnight #1 | First edition of Double Fine's game jam | notifications | 1 game | |
Amnesia Fortnight #2 | 2nd edition of Double Fine's Game Jam | notifications | 1 game | |
Amnesia Fortnight #3 | 3rd edition of Double Fine's game jam | notifications | 1 game | |
Amnesia Fortnight #4 (Amnesia Fortnight 2012) | The 4th edition of Double Fine's game jam. | 2012 / 2014 | 5 games | |
Animal torture | Depicts intentional torture of animals. | notifications | 3 games | |
Animated characters | Characters are animated rather than set of static images. Should be used only if unusual, such as games where they're normally static (visual novels, for example). | notifications | 3 games | |
Animated scenes | Includes animated scenes. Should be used only if unusual, such as games normally composed of static images like visual novels. | notifications | 1 game | |
Anomalies | Strange abnormal occurrences that have no (clear) explanation within the mythos. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 17 games |
Antagonist awareness (Clairvoyant antagonist) | The antagonist expresses awareness of the protagonist's actions, location, etc. Often taunting them from afar somehow. | notifications | 1982 / 2017 | 44 games |
Anti-epilepsy[anti-epileptic] | Includes option for or is advertised as epileptic friendly or designed as such. Such as by slowing down or completely removing any flickering or rapid contrast changes the game may have by design. | notifications | 2011 / 2013 | 9 games |
Anti-humanitarian warfare | Any depictions of warfare involving things banned by international humanitarian laws, such as by Geneva and Hague conventions. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Anti-Utopian | Seemingly utopian but at the cost or result of fatal flaw(s) such as oppression, exclusion, lies or suffering, that when shown, reveals a false utopia | notifications | 1 game | |
Anticipatory facing | Turrets, characters, and others face a direction automatically they think they're most useful to do so before the need for it. Likely direction from where the first targets appeared in previous confrontation. | notifications | 2009 / 2010 | 2 games |
Anxiety (Fear) | Simulates anxiety and its effects on the player character, their friends and/or minions. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 37 games |
Arcane technology[supernatural tech;magic tech] | Includes devices, machinery and whatever else that interacts with the supernatural. | notifications | 2003 / 2015 | 6 games |
Armor experience(Clothing experience) | Rather than the character wearing an armor becoming more practiced and skilled in using it, the armor itself gains power through its use. | notifications | 2 games | |
Army of One [One Man Army] | The protagonist deals death as if they were a whole army company. Especially if the opponents treat them as such. | notifications | 1989 / 2021 | 147 games |
Art shift | During play the art [i]style[/i] changes significantly for whatever reason. | notifications | 2004 / 2015 | 10 games |
Asphyxiation(Oxygen;Drowning;Suffocation) | Player has to deal with asphyxiation or limited supply of whatever substance they require for breathing (such as oxygen). Including situations that remove or supplant the breathable substance, such as drowning, vacuum, gases, etc. | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 189 games |
Asymmetric factions (Unique factions) | The factions have asymmetric gameplay. | notifications | 1980 / 2017 | 113 games |
Asymmetric non-irregular grid | The shapes in the grid are asymmetric but not irregular. | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 2 games |
Attack/defense adjust | Characters' attack/defense values can be adjusted on the fly, usually shifting points from attack to defense and back. | notifications | 1994 / 2015 | 8 games |
Attacking[attacks] | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Attribute drain(Stat drain) | Player may lose character attributes (strength, intelligence, agility, etc.) or similar statistics temporarily or permanently. | notifications | 3 games | |
Attribute-based equipment | Items, even trivial ones, can't be used unless you meet certain basic and often quite arbitrary attribute limitations. | notifications | 1996 / 2021 | 60 games |
Auctions (Auction house)[auctioning] | Player (character) has access to auction style trading, commonly between other players where they place items for sale and designate minimum price and time how long the auction is open, possibly with a buyout price as well. | notifications | 1977 / 2012 | 18 games |
Audio | Any tags relating to audio, sound effects, and such. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Auras[aurae] | Fields surrounding characters or other creatures with varying effects which are often limited to friendly or hostile creatures. | notifications | 2000 / 2021 | 27 games |
Auto-move(Autocruise) | Allows somehow to automatically move somewhere, such as toggle for walk forward. | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 7 games |
Automap (Automatic mapping) | Automatic world mapping is included, either by default or by some additional in-game device. | notifications | 1979 / 2023 | 488 games |
Automated exploration | Exploration (mapping, revealing fog of war shrouded regions, etc.) happens automatically or player can initiate automatic exploration by designating explorers. | notifications | 2001 / 2015 | 10 games |
Autosave points (Checkpoints) | Automatically saves the game progress at certain locations or when certain events occur. | notifications | 1992 / 2022 | 550 games |
Available in a Box | With the onset of ubiquitous digital distribution. It is becoming notable for a boxed version of a game to be sold. | notifications | 1981 / 2022 | 186 games |
Ballistics (Projectile physics;Bullet physics;Bullet drop) | Models projectile physics by allowing them to bounce off and penetrate certain materials as well as drop due to gravity, possibly including effects of wind and others. | notifications | 1983 / 2018 | 231 games |
Bank service | Includes a bank-like institution or service to which you can store wealth and/or items for safekeeping. | notifications | 1974 / 2010 | 13 games |
Based on real events | Advertises being based on real events, whether this is true or not however might be different. | notifications | 1986 / 2016 | 2 games |
Battle aura (Power glow) | Characters gain an aura, a halo, or a generic glow whenever they're preparing, charging or simply holding ready their powers, be those of martial fighting, magic or science. | notifications | 1988 / 2011 | 7 games |
Best Seller Series | A budget re-release line of presumably best seller games. | notifications | 1996 / 2021 | 35 games |
Beyond comprehension | A notable part of the plot involves a Thing that is beyond comprehension, so alien that your mind reels from the truth and shows only some vague approximation of what it truly is. Often an extra-dimensional entity of incomprehensible complexity. | notifications | 1998 / 2011 | 5 games |
Bilingual dialogue | Two or more characters speak multiple languages between each other understanding each other seemingly perfectly. Likely done for comedy if the other language lacks subtitles. | notifications | 2000 / 2015 | 12 games |
Binary logic | Plays with the concept of binary logic, where things have only two alternatives with nothing in between. Commonly involves extremists who think you're either with them or against them. | 0 game | ||
Binaural tones(Binaural beats) | Uses binaural tones/beats in supposed attempt to affect the player's consciousness. | 2010 / 2012 | 0 game | |
Bioluminescence | Player encounters numerous light emitting flora and fauna. | notifications | 2001 / 2018 | 78 games |
Blackout(Power outage;Power failure;Power blackout) | Simulates blackouts, where parts or the entire electrical network has its power cut off for one reason or another. | notifications | 2 games | |
Bleeding (Hemorrhaging)[Haemorrhaging] | Protagonist and other characters may get severe wounds that bleed profusely, eventually leading to the character's death if not taken care of. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 50 games |
Blind acquisitions(Blind purchases) | Player is presented with purchases or other acquisitions where they're not told what that thing actually does (and this is not limited to any sort of gambling). | notifications | 2005 / 2016 | 15 games |
Blinding | Player can be virtually blinded (e.g. whole screen turning white), losing visual feedback completely or near completely, forcing them to function by memory of the area or by audio cues rather than sight. | notifications | 2005 / 2014 | 2 games |
Blindness(Blind theme) | Uses blindness as a theme, gameplay mechanic, or such. Not necessarily playable by actual blind person. | notifications | 1996 / 2015 | 5 games |
Blood magic | Depicts magic powered by blood of either the caster or others be they willing or not. Often depicted as evil magic much like necromancy. | notifications | 2005 / 2015 | 21 games |
Bloodless | Despite characters getting shot, stabbed, or otherwise mutilated, there's no blood. | notifications | 1975 / 2019 | 98 games |
Bloodmist (Blood clouds) | So excessive blood splatter that it appears as large-ish mist or cloud-like phenomena (especially if pointedly created as a slowly evaporating cloud). | notifications | 2007 / 2017 | 9 games |
Boss arenas | Constrained areas from where players usually can't escape before the boss is defeated. Mostly of interest when the game otherwise does not constrain itself to small areas. | notifications | 2001 / 2023 | 55 games |
Breadcrumbs | Displays or otherwise indicates the route player has taken so far or possibly what's already been explored. | notifications | 2012 / 2016 | 2 games |
Break meter(Poise;Posture;Stability) | Involves a secondary meter, hidden or not, that when broken makes opponents more vulnerable, either causing more damage, stunning them, making them vulnerable to special attacks, or something along those lines. | notifications | 2009 / 2019 | 29 games |
Breakable doors[Destructible doors] | Doors in games are commonly indestructible, here they are not. | notifications | 1983 / 2023 | 99 games |
Breeding | Simulates procreation to a degree, with animals, characters, etc. creating offspring outside of players control. | notifications | 1991 / 2018 | 38 games |
Brownout | Simulates brownouts, where efficiency of various electrical systems is reduced as the energy supply is insufficient or capped. | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 6 games |
Budget ranges | Any re-release budget ranges. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Builders | Building anything requires people, robots or such that build them. | notifications | 1994 / 2020 | 134 games |
Burning | Things, especially characters and other creatures, catch on fire and burn for a time. | notifications | 1982 / 2019 | 139 games |
Buy as Upgrade | Player can or must purchase a standalone game as an upgrade to a standalone product already purchased. (Do not use for DLC or add-ons.) | notifications | 1 game | |
Cairo Pentagonal Tiling Grid (4-Fold Pentille Tiling) | A tiling pattern made of bilaterally but not radially (pentaradially) symmetrical pentagons. Or, hexagons made of 4 pentagons. | notifications | 1 game | |
Calendric time[Calendar time] | Progress of time is tracked by weekdays, months and years or other similar counting methods. | notifications | 1988 / 2015 | 33 games |
Canada Media Fund(CMF;Fonds des médias du Canada;FMC) | CMF has provided funding for the game, a form of equity investment that can in some instances be bought out. | notifications | 2012 / 2017 | 21 games |
Card game elements | Any tags referring to concepts originally or only relating to card games. Not including card games themselves. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Carnographic(Gorn) | There isn't simply some instances of gore, splatter, and graphic violence, but they're rather (almost) a constant. | notifications | 2002 / 2022 | 39 games |
Carry capacity: Slots | Carry capacity is limited by the number of available slots. Some items may take more than one slot and some items may be stacked within single slot. | notifications | 1983 / 2023 | 273 games |
Carry capacity: Type(Category) | Carry capacity is limited per item type. | notifications | 2013 / 2023 | 6 games |
Carry capacity: Weight | Carry capacity is limited by the weight of the items. | notifications | 1979 / 2021 | 92 games |
Changing environment | The environment changes over time [i]on its own[/i] outside of player interaction with it and outside of changes invoked by plot. | notifications | 2011 / 2012 | 5 games |
Character advancement: Negative effects(Flaws) | Character advancement also adds negative effects on top of the normal positive ones. | notifications | 3 games | |
Character background | Player can designate a background for their character which essentially covers what they were prior to the beginning of the game or prior to entering training in their chosen profession. | notifications | 2003 / 2015 | 14 games |
Character creation | Player creates one or more characters to play with, from defining their physical and mental attributes to what skills they have. | notifications | 1981 / 2024 | 334 games |
Character linked class | Classes are linked to specific characters. Usually each notable character having a class completely customized for them to a point where anything class-restricted names the character rather than their class. | notifications | 2001 / 2019 | 3 games |
Charged jump | Player can charge up the jump power to control how far or high they jump. | notifications | 1990 / 2017 | 23 games |
Chatter | The protagonist and/or their friends randomly chat with themselves or others, occasionally pointing out their observations about the environment, people they see, and other things. | notifications | 1995 / 2016 | 16 games |
Cheap death | In the depicted mythos, death is not an insurmountable obstacle. There exists technology, magic, or something else that makes returning to life somewhat trivial. Regardless if this is readily available to all (protagonist usually has easy access to it). | notifications | 1995 / 2019 | 66 games |
Chemical elements[periodic table] | Deals with chemical elements somehow, either as part of the gameplay or as a thematic element. | notifications | 5 games | |
Chosen one (Champion) | The protagonist is chosen by someone of authority, such as a ruler, to do something important alone for whatever reason. | notifications | 1985 / 2021 | 177 games |
Chromatic aberration | Simulates the distortion effect of a flawed camera lens where colors separate visibly. | notifications | 2012 / 2020 | 72 games |
Cinematic inconsistencies(Cutscene inconsistencies) | Cinematics have content that is inconsistent with in-game content. | notifications | 2005 / 2013 | 8 games |
Class linked gender | Character gender is linked to their chosen class. | notifications | 1996 / 2021 | 53 games |
Class-based | Characters are defined by their class template that dictates what they can do and how they progress. | notifications | 1981 / 2023 | 760 games |
Class-based equipment (Class restricted equipment) | All or certain (specialist) items, tools and such can't be used at all unless the character is of certain class. | notifications | 1990 / 2023 | 149 games |
Clone conundrum | Deals with the various issues such as human rights, who is who, etc. associated with clones of people, especially if they share each others memories and personalities. | notifications | 2000 / 2015 | 17 games |
Closed beta(Founder's program)[Early Access] | Employed a closed beta phase at some point, allowing some people to play the unfinished game for a time before release. Either limited number beta keys involved and/or invite only. Includes things like Early Access. | notifications | 2013 / 2019 | 29 games |
Closed economy | There's a finite amount of actual money in the game world. So if someone hoards it all up, no-one can get any except by getting it from the one who hoarded it. | notifications | 1979 / 2013 | 8 games |
Collapse depth(Crush depth) | Simulates collapse depth, the depth at which a submersible's hull will collapse and rupture due to pressure. Especially if this varies with submersibles. | notifications | 2010 / 2018 | 9 games |
Collapsible environment | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 4 games | |
Colonialism(New World) | Involves discovery and settling of new continents, worlds, or such. Such as in progress establishment of settlements in such a place. | notifications | 1971 / 2021 | 33 games |
Color-coding[Color coding] | Any tags dealing with the strange habit of designers to color-code various elements in a way that makes them immediately distinguishable as something based on their coloration. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Combat auto loot | During or after combat all (revealed/known) loot is automatically collected for the player without any input from them. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 32 games |
Comic book cutscenes (Graphic novel cutscenes) | Cutscenes are delivered in comic or graphic novel format. | notifications | 2001 / 2015 | 25 games |
Commodore Max branded | These game were originally made for the Commodore Max. 100% compatible with the Commodore 64. | notifications | 1 game | |
Conditional realism | Any tags that are only conditionally realistic. Which usually means the depiction you find in games isn't realistic, but the concept itself isn't unrealistic. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Conductive water | Water conducts electricity and likely has gameplay related to this. | notifications | 1996 / 2020 | 12 games |
Conflicting goals(Mutually exclusive goals) | Player is given multiple overall goals that conflict with each other and can not be accomplished together. | notifications | 1 game | |
Consensus time(Time moves only as you do) | Time moves only when everyone agrees it does. Usually revolving around the player character being the only one who does not constantly agree to it and thus time moves only when the player character agrees with the rest. | notifications | 6 games | |
Constructions | Tags related to buildings and other structures. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Consumables | Any tags related to so called consumables. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Contagions | Anything that is spread passively by those infected by it, often by touch or proximity. | notifications | 2009 / 2016 | 5 games |
Contextual movement(Contextual mobility) | Player character moves differently by choice depending on what they are on or what they're near of. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 6 games |
Controllable helplessness | Player can control the protagonist even in seemingly hopeless or helpless situation, regardless if the player can actually improve the situation. | notifications | 1983 / 2018 | 113 games |
Controller reference(Controller allusion) | One or more of the game's titles (redundantly) references, directly or indirectly, the controller they're for or meant to be played with. | notifications | 2010 / 2017 | 16 games |
Corporate warfare | Depicts corporations warring against other corporations. | notifications | 1993 / 2015 | 24 games |
Correct Release Date | The entered release date is correct despite what stated in screenshots and other media. | notifications | 1980 / 2015 | 3 games |
Corrupted terms | Any tags that refer to something the meaning of which has been corrupted since their heyday. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Cover system: Automatic(Autocover;Automatic cover usage)[auto-cover;auto cover] | Player characters will automatically take cover if not told to do otherwise. | notifications | 2006 / 2017 | 5 games |
Cover system: Contextual | Player character will change movement and positioning based on context to use cover or pop out of cover without specifically doing so from secondary actions, such as peeking around a corner when one tries to aim a gun. | notifications | 2009 / 2013 | 4 games |
Crafting tools | Some or all crafting requires tools (other than those provided by potential worksites) to perform the job. | notifications | 2009 / 2012 | 6 games |
Crafting worksites[crafting sites] | Some or all crafting involves finding (or creating) a location where the things can be crafted, such as a workbench or tool set, or you can build one yourself. | notifications | 2003 / 2023 | 45 games |
Crafting: Jewelry | notifications | 1 game | ||
Crafting: Restoratives | Player can craft healing or other restorative items or objects. | notifications | 2012 / 2013 | 2 games |
Crashing(Harmful collisions) | Characters, vehicles, etc. an collide harmfully with the environment. | notifications | 2011 / 2018 | 3 games |
Creative subtitles | Subtitles are used in creative manner, such as involving some kind of animation or unusual placement, to reflect the contents, the context, or the way they relate to everything. | notifications | 2014 / 2017 | 5 games |
Creature familiarity(Enemy familiarity) | Characters gain bonuses or extra actions to dealing with creatures they're more familiar with. | notifications | 2013 / 2016 | 2 games |
Cross-map triggers(Cross-level triggers) | Some triggers in one map cause changes in another, such as a control room in one map changing the state of a drawbridge in another. | notifications | 1995 / 2008 | 3 games |
Cross-region accounts(Cross-server accounts) | Accounts work on multiple disparate regions. Requires clear regioning of the game, such as to North American and European servers. | notifications | 1 game | |
Crouchjump | Players can jump higher by crouching at the height of the jump. | notifications | 1998 / 2013 | 8 games |
Crowdfunded(Crowd financed)[Crowdsourced] | Any game project that used crowd funding. | notifications | 2008 / 2022 | 600 games |
Cryokinesis (Ice magic) | Player character can control and/or generate ice/cold to some degree, regardless of how or why. | notifications | 1995 / 2021 | 29 games |
Cuneiform Language | 0 game | |||
Currency (money) | Uses consistent abstract medium of exchange such as coins of intrinsic or fiat value, government or bank issued notes, credit, or an abundant consistent commodity | notifications | 1970 / 2022 | 736 games |
Cutscene incompetence(Cinematic incompetence) | During one or more cutscenes characters, especially the protagonist, display excessive incompetence that they according to all other evidence should not fall victim of. | notifications | 2004 / 2015 | 6 games |
Daily challenges | Each day the game generates one or more challenges for players to tackle, usually with online leaderboard that resets or cycles with each day. In some instances these have limited tries per player. | notifications | 2012 / 2017 | 13 games |
Damage | Any tags relating to how damage is dealt, modeled, or other effects it has including types and any interactions with things. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Damage drop-off(Damage falloff;Damage reduction at range)[Damage fall-off;Damage dropoff] | Damage lowers with distance. | notifications | 2003 / 2017 | 16 games |
Damage types, resistances and invulnerabilities | Damage is split into various types that may or may not be unrelated to each other, providing the basics of damage type resistance and immunity/invulnerability. | notifications | 1985 / 2021 | 170 games |
Dark choices | Player is made to choose between two or more options where each and every one of them are clearly the bad choice. Thus there's no real lesser of two evils, but rather one evil or another, or extremely drastic measure over an utterly foolhardy one. | notifications | 2012 / 2013 | 3 games |
Dated events | Certain events happen on specific in-mythos dates like 18th of February or every second Sunday of August. | notifications | 1988 / 2015 | 14 games |
Day-one DLC[day one DLC;day 1 DLC] | Separately purchasable DLC was made available on release. | notifications | 2009 / 2017 | 39 games |
Dead on display | Dead people are or have been put on display, either for intimidation, reverence, or some other reason instead of left to be, buried, or cremated. | notifications | 2008 / 2019 | 19 games |
Deadly sides | Going past the left or right side of the screen or scene causes death or other loss condition. | notifications | 1995 / 2017 | 46 games |
Deaf friendly | Either conveys no vital information via sounds or provides closed captioning for them. | notifications | 2014 / 2022 | 4 games |
Decensored | Originally censored but later updated to remove the censoring. | notifications | 2009 / 2013 | 3 games |
Defenseless | The protagonist lacks any direct method to protect themselves, mainly the lack of any capability to fight off anything that attacks them. This forces player to run away or otherwise evade enemies rather than fight them. | notifications | 1979 / 2022 | 79 games |
Degrees of Success(DoS) | Rolls to succeed, challenge vs skill comparisons, etc. don't have a hard threshold of success and failure but have multiple grades ranging from failure to partial success to full success, possibly padded with catastrophic failure and exceptional success. | notifications | 3 games | |
Delayed release | Released notable time period after the game was finished. Possibly to avoid competition with other titles. | notifications | 2008 / 2012 | 9 games |
DELETE | notifications | 1 game | ||
DELETE: Dupe of GCOS | 0 game | |||
Demo save import | Player can import saves from demo version of the game into the full game in one manner or another, whether this is automatic or requires player to manually do something (except hacking or similar). | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 5 games |
Depth fog (Ambient fog;Cull fog) | Uses a depth fog or similar effect, either to simulate fog or to hide rendering cut-off point. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 46 games |
Desperate power | Some characters (especially if protagonist) gain more power (in any form) as they become more wounded, beaten down, or otherwise nearing defeat. | notifications | 1992 / 2013 | 19 games |
Destructible environment | The environment can be destroyed in a more or less limited fashion, but often leaving the base level structure intact. | notifications | 1984 / 2023 | 376 games |
Destructible items | Items that the player can pick up and use, place in their inventory and so forth can be destroyed while lying about. | notifications | 1991 / 2015 | 41 games |
Development styles | list_altnotifications | 2000 / 2015 | 8 games | |
Dialog: Actions(Physical actions) | Dialog occasionally includes physical actions as options, regardless if this actually is any different from spoken actions. | notifications | 1986 / 2015 | 9 games |
Dialog: Time limit | Player has limited time to choose their responses and possibly perform other actions during them, before some default choice is selected or even one not available otherwise. | notifications | 2005 / 2016 | 20 games |
Dialogue log | Player has access to a log of past dialog content. | notifications | 1 game | |
Dice physics[physics dice] | Dice are rolled by simulating physics of them rolling around and landing one way or another instead of directly reading RNG output. | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 11 games |
Dice pool | Results of rolls are determined by rolling multiple dice simultaneously, either summing up the dice, counting dice that break a threshold, or some other method. | notifications | 1992 / 2016 | 18 games |
Dice pool: Variable[Variable dice pool] | Uses dice pool where the number of dice can change depending on circumstances. | notifications | 2009 / 2016 | 8 games |
Dice reroll | Players and possible NPCs can at times opt to reroll. | notifications | 2015 / 2016 | 8 games |
Diet choice | Player has choice of what the protagonist can or is willing to eat. | notifications | 1 game | |
Dimensional travel (Planar travel) | Involves traveling between dimensions or planes of existence, whether this is voluntarily or not. | notifications | 1988 / 2024 | 143 games |
Disc-locked content(On-disc DLC) | Separately purchasable DLC content is delivered on the game's original release disc. | notifications | 4 games | |
Distorted hearing(Impaired hearing)[audio] | Something can cause the protagonist's hearing to get distorted or otherwise impaired. Especially cases where the hearing is always distorted | notifications | 2004 / 2020 | 24 games |
Distorted vision(Impaired vision) | Something can cause the protagonist's vision to get distorted or otherwise impaired. Especially cases where the vision is always distorted | notifications | 1994 / 2020 | 220 games |
Disturbed nature | Nature, its laws and the natural order of things have been somehow disturbed, broken, or altered in the depicted scenario. | notifications | 2005 / 2016 | 9 games |
Divine absence(Absent gods;Dead gods) | God or gods are missing, dead, abandoned the world, or just unresponsive to the mortals, and this is causing problems in the world. | notifications | 2005 / 2013 | 16 games |
Dolly zoom(Vertigo effect) | Originally a photographing technique that involves the depth of an image to change so the scene stretches while the focal element seems unchanged. Accomplished by adjusting focal length while moving the camera away or towards the focal object. | notifications | 2001 / 2016 | 18 games |
Dominion (Area of Influence;Sphere of Influence)[AOI;SOI] | Gameplay involves dealing with areas of influence or similar regions that indicate how far and wide one has some form of influence. | notifications | 1993 / 2017 | 47 games |
Doomclock(Doomsday Clock) | Features some kind of doomclock that ticks either with time or certain events forward towards the end. | notifications | 2011 / 2019 | 15 games |
Double life(Secret identity) | The protagonist leads a double life. | notifications | 1 game | |
Drunkenness | Character in the game have the option to drink alcoholic drinks until drunk. | notifications | 1983 / 2020 | 19 games |
Dynasty | Deals with a line of rulers that come from the same family/bloodline. | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 2 games |
Earthquake (Quake) | Player experiences one or more quakes and potentially their aftershocks. | notifications | 1984 / 2020 | 56 games |
Economic Decline | The player must deal with a widespread situation of economic decline. | notifications | 1 game | |
Economy | Any tags relating to economy simulation. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Ecosystems (Biomes) | Simulates multiple disparate ecosystems to a degree. | notifications | 2011 / 2023 | 24 games |
Educational content: Culture | notifications | 1986 / 2016 | 10 games | |
Elastic surfaces | Player encounters and must deal with elastic surfaces of any kind. | notifications | 2011 / 2015 | 9 games |
Electrical conduction | Simulates electrical conduction. | notifications | 1 game | |
Electrokinesis | Player character can control and/or generate electricity to some degree, regardless of how or why. | notifications | 1994 / 2021 | 52 games |
Elevation | Elevation has effects on gameplay besides Line-of-Sight. | notifications | 2000 / 2017 | 20 games |
Elevator battle | A fairly simple scene where player is attacked during an elevator ride somehow. Commonly involves an open elevator of some sorts at a side of a building or a freight elevator. | notifications | 1995 / 2019 | 43 games |
Enemy parity(NPC parity) | Enemies use much of the same systems player does. This is especially of interest for systems-driven games or similar where player can learn about the systems by observing enemies. | notifications | 2002 / 2018 | 16 games |
Enemy power up on death(Enemy powerup on defeat) | Your opponents power up when you are defeated, such as gaining a level or some other buff that makes them harder to defeat the next time you encounter them. | notifications | 5 games | |
Enemy route indicator | Somehow displays the route your opponents will take. | notifications | 2010 / 2015 | 6 games |
Energy regeneration: Slow | Energy regenerates so slowly it's hardly of any use when you run out and need more. | notifications | 1992 / 2021 | 10 games |
Energy regeneration: Stunted | Energy regeneration works only up to a point (such as restoring a partial segment to full but not beyond it, or up to a certain percentage of full energy), never fully restoring it. | notifications | 2012 / 2016 | 2 games |
Energy regeneration(Mana regeneration) | Energy used by magic, electric devices, special skills or other things automatically regenerates over time. | notifications | 1994 / 2021 | 209 games |
Energy upkeep reserve (Mana upkeep;Magic point upkeep) | Magics or other energy consuming actions may require a portion of your maximum energy to be set aside as upkeep for as long as that magic or action remains. | notifications | 2006 / 2016 | 8 games |
Enlarging protagonist(Growing protagonist) | The main character increases in size, beyond what is normal for them (that is, not including growing back to their original size after being shrunk). | notifications | 1982 / 2018 | 13 games |
Epic powers | The protagonist possesses powers that are epic in scale, affecting colossal things such as whole worlds or even farther. Mostly of interest when normal scale is much smaller. | notifications | 2008 / 2012 | 6 games |
Epileptic Visuals | More than most, these games pose a higher risk of seizures due to flashing, specific contrasting patterns, or other known visual factors. | notifications | 1986 / 2017 | 4 games |
Equipment abilities(Equipment actions) | Characters gain new abilities or actions with new items that do not explicitly need that item to do or should be doable with other equipment as much. | notifications | 2013 / 2017 | 8 games |
Equipment experience | Rather than the character using some kind of equipment becoming more practiced and skilled in using it, the equipment itself gains power through its use. | notifications | 2000 / 2015 | 12 games |
Erosion | Simulates erosion, natural elements moving away solids to another location (e.g. river moving sediment downstream), to a degree. | notifications | 2011 / 2012 | 3 games |
Eternal fires | You've just entered a location that hasn't been visited in ages (if ever) by intelligent creatures, yet you find torches, fireplaces, and such happily burning as if someone had just switched and lighted them all for your pleasure. | notifications | 2010 / 2017 | 10 games |
Event log(Activity log) | Has a log of recent events player can peruse. | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 25 games |
Evil genius (Evil wizard;Evil intellectual)[Mad scientist;Mad wizard;Insane scientist;Insane wizard] | A single - presumably highly intellectual - person is causing trouble in the world. | notifications | 1985 / 2017 | 49 games |
Executive meddling | Lead designers, writers, or such have voiced their displeasure at executive meddling with their vision, usually in form of marketing people requiring something be changed in a game to better sell it. | notifications | 1 game | |
Exile (Banishment) | Plot deals with exile/banishment. | notifications | 2012 / 2013 | 3 games |
Experience | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Experience: Attack | Experience is gained simply by attacking, regardless if this defeats the opponent or possibly even causes any harm. | notifications | 1988 / 2014 | 5 games |
Experience: Deeds (Quests;Missions;Tasks;Objectives) | Experience is gained by doing various deeds, such as completing or progressing missions, tasks, quests, or other objectives. | notifications | 1979 / 2022 | 239 games |
Experience: Defense[Defence] | Experience is gained by defending oneself, even if this is just being hurt and taking hits otherwise with no active attempt. | notifications | 1988 / 2014 | 5 games |
Experience: Drops | Experience is awarded from collecting dropped experience nuggets. | notifications | 2008 / 2016 | 16 games |
Experience: Encounters | Player character(s) gain experience from resolving encounters, whatever those may be and whatever they may involve. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 2 games |
Experience: Exploration | Experience is awarded for exploration, finding or visiting new (possibly hidden) locations or location markers. | notifications | 1979 / 2015 | 15 games |
Experience: Killing-Blow Bonus | In addition to a base experience system, more experience is awarded to a character that delivers a killing blow. | notifications | 1989 / 2020 | 3 games |
Experience: Kills/Defeats (Murder;Slaughter;Destruction;Defeats) | Experience is awarded for killing, destroying or otherwise defeating things, usually living creatures. | notifications | 1978 / 2022 | 864 games |
Experience: Level match | New characters that join your team have their experience adjusted to match yours, making it unnecessary for you to prioritize getting them into your team early on for reasons of avoiding xp grind. | notifications | 1998 / 2017 | 29 games |
Experience: Literal (Character advancement: Literal experience;Learn by doing) | Experience (and thus advancement) is gained by literally doing what you want to get better at, meaning you get better at swimming by swimming, get more accurate with guns by shooting with them, get better at preparing food by cooking, etc. | notifications | 1984 / 2018 | 128 games |
Experience: Lockpicking | Experience is awarded for opening locks without the proper key, be it door, chest, or other locks. | notifications | 1998 / 2014 | 18 games |
Experience: Method / Style | Experience is awarded based on the method, manner, or style of doing something. | notifications | 2011 / 2016 | 15 games |
Experience: None | Experience points do not exist despite being an RPG or having a character advancement system. | notifications | 1985 / 2020 | 32 games |
Experience: Objects | Experience is awarded from collecting certain objects or using certain items (e.g. potion of experience). | notifications | 1985 / 2020 | 123 games |
Experience: Other | Experience is gained from an unusual activity or source. | notifications | 1988 / 2015 | 20 games |
Experience: Passive(Idle;Time) | Experience is gained passively for doing nothing at all, or alternatively from aging. | notifications | 1 game | |
Experience: Plot progress (Game progress) | Experience or other advancement points are awarded for progressing through the plot/game. | notifications | 1984 / 2019 | 36 games |
Experience: Shared | Any experience gained in a group is shared between all members of the group regardless of participation in what prompted the gain. | notifications | 1988 / 2021 | 78 games |
Experience: Tenuously Literal | Experience/advancement gained by activity tenuously connected or entirely disconnected to the skill that is improved. Dog bites increase max speed. Apply poison to knifes to gain max strength. Move silently to improve left-hand attacks. | notifications | 1 game | |
Experience: Trading | Experience is awarded from trading and related activities. | notifications | 2002 / 2007 | 2 games |
Experience: Undefined | Source of experience gain is unknown or otherwise undefined. | notifications | 1991 / 2019 | 47 games |
Experimental technology (Prototype technology) | Depicts experimental or prototype technology in practical use. | notifications | 1992 / 2017 | 47 games |
Exploding criticals | Criticals can crit. Essentially a system that tests if you do a critical and if successful, it tests it again. | notifications | 1 game | |
Explored indicator | Somehow shows what places you've already explored (fully or not) or been to. Mainly when this is not otherwise indicated, such as via automap. | notifications | 1 game | |
Exponential costs | Cost of buying more of the same thing increases with each one you already have of it. | notifications | 2009 / 2012 | 2 games |
Extermination war(Extinction war) | Plot involves a war or such where one side of the conflict primarily aims to fully exterminate a race or species. | notifications | 1998 / 2016 | 8 games |
External documentation | Most of the game documentation is only available in sources external to the game package and runtime. Such as tutorial or other information only available on a website when the game is played without a browser. | notifications | 2011 / 2014 | 4 games |
External notification | Offers notification services through external systems, such as e-mail or SMS. | notifications | 2009 / 2010 | 2 games |
Fake crash(Fake BSOD) | Pretends the computer, console, or such has crashed, displaying more or less convincing error screen, such as BSOD for Windows, kernel panic screen for Linux, and so forth. | notifications | 2002 / 2016 | 5 games |
Falloff death | Falling out of the play field results in death. As opposed to transitioning to a different area. This can coexist. | notifications | 1983 / 2013 | 11 games |
False advertising(Misleading advertising)[False advertizing;Misleading advertizing] | Promotional material for the game near or post release show things that are not in the game or use other advertising material not present in the game in similar form. Or otherwise use misleading advertising. | notifications | 1992 / 2013 | 7 games |
False Hints | The game is purposefully designed with a source of hints within the game that gives outright false information. Lies, basically. | notifications | 1987 / 2014 | 6 games |
False history | History as you know it is a lie. | notifications | 2007 / 2011 | 11 games |
Falsehoods | A collection of specific occurrences of non-truth. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Fame (Infamy;Recognition;Notoriety) | Player is assigned a score that tells how famous they are, how likely people are to have heard of you and know of your deeds. | notifications | 1987 / 2015 | 26 games |
Famicom Disk Fax | Famicom Disk System games featuring the ability to send in your high scores via fax for the chance to win prizes. The game usually came on blue disks. | notifications | 1987 / 1988 | 4 games |
Family project | Development team has only members of the same family, whether this is immediate, extended, in-laws or such. | notifications | 2006 / 2015 | 9 games |
Fan translated | Has a translation to one or more other languages available as provided by fans of the game rather than anything official (though may be approved [but not supported] officially). | notifications | 1998 / 2011 | 7 games |
Fateless | Deals with people who have no fate unlike everyone else or at least most others. Likely only the protagonist (or the protagonist's kind if it's somehow different) is said to be this. | notifications | 1995 / 2017 | 16 games |
Fatigue | Characters suffer from extended periods exertion or staying awake, ranging from simple fatigue to more drastic ailments. Usually fixed by a good night's rest. | notifications | 1982 / 2018 | 62 games |
Feather fall | Includes a limited use device, ability, spell, or such that allows the protagonist to fall from great heights without fear of dying or injuring themselves from the drop. | notifications | 1996 / 2015 | 4 games |
Feedback(Impact;Sense of weight) | Any concepts that relate to sense of weight, impact, or general feedback to player character's physical actions. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Financial and business models | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Finite ammo | Ammo even for the starter weapon can run out. This tag is mostly useful if unusual, such as for scrolling shooters. | notifications | 1978 / 2022 | 59 games |
First-party title[First-party game] | Developed by platform manufacturer's own development studio or produced&published by the platform manufacturer for it. Explicitly platform exclusive except in cases where same platform manufacturer has multiple active platforms. | notifications | 1981 / 2018 | 214 games |
Flanking | Somehow simulates the benefits of flanking, such as giving bonuses to hit chance, greater chance of lethally wounding, etc. | notifications | 2004 / 2018 | 25 games |
Flat damage reduction(Flat damage soak) | The combat mechanics involve flat damage reduction, which reduces the incoming damage by flat amount rather than proportional (e.g. 10 points instead of 10%). This makes certain weak attacks have absolutely no effect. | notifications | 2001 / 2017 | 12 games |
Flat space (Two-dimensional space) | Space, despite its lack of any limitations on movement and positioning, is depicted as a flat expanse of nothing. | notifications | 2000 / 2017 | 43 games |
Flower motif | notifications | 2004 / 2006 | 3 games | |
Follow in someone's footsteps[follow in the footsteps of someone] | Plot involves someone following in the footsteps of another, usually someone's descendant following the footsteps of their parents/ancestors. Also including attempts to avoid doing exactly that. | notifications | 2003 / 2014 | 6 games |
Font options | Player is given options for fonts, such as size, style, and possibly coloration and other visual decoration such as backgrounds. | notifications | 2016 / 2022 | 4 games |
Forced berserking | Some characters, possibly the protagonist, can cause others to go berserk, attacking friend and foe without distinction. | notifications | 2012 / 2016 | 6 games |
Forced polymorph(Forced shapechange)[baleful polymorph] | Some beings in the setting can force others to take some other form. Commonly lasts only a short while. | notifications | 1985 / 2022 | 48 games |
Forced suicide | Involves someone or something forcing another to commit suicide by any means, be it mind control, intimidation, or such. | notifications | 2001 / 2017 | 6 games |
Forced teleport | Player character(s) or NPCs can forcibly teleport other non-friendly characters elsewhere. | notifications | 2010 / 2013 | 8 games |
Former vaporware | Was considered vaporware for a long time but came out eventually anyway. | notifications | 2003 / 2020 | 22 games |
Fractionals[fractions;decimals;irrational numbers;real numbers] | Player deals with fractional numbers to some degree instead of or in addition to plain integers. | notifications | 2000 / 2014 | 11 games |
Free slicing(Freeform cutting) | Allows slicing characters and/or objects as the player wishes instead of along predefined cutting points. | notifications | 2010 / 2017 | 14 games |
Freeze frames | Uses freeze frames, pausing the scene completely for a moment, likely panning the camera around some subject of interest. | notifications | 2013 / 2017 | 4 games |
Freezing | Things, especially characters and other creatures, can be frozen to a degree. | notifications | 1995 / 2016 | 25 games |
Friendly Fire | Player can attack their own side purposefully or by accident or be attacked themself in similar manner. | notifications | 1979 / 2018 | 228 games |
Friendly hostiles | You can encounter enemies, that are clearly marked as enemies to be defeated, such as targetable with appropriate markers, yet you can interact with them like with friendly NPCs. | notifications | 1 game | |
Full voice-overs | Every conceivable bit that could be spoken out loud, is. | notifications | 1995 / 2015 | 12 games |
Fully refunded expenses | Cancelling a purchase, or selling something back, gives money and any resources back in full. | notifications | 2013 / 2014 | 2 games |
Fusion mode(Fusion dance;Fusion super mode) | Two or more characters somehow fuse their powers for even greater power. Usually involves only one character remaining behind with the others merging together or disappearing until the end of the fusion. | notifications | 1994 / 2021 | 9 games |
G-force induced Loss Of Consciousness(G-LOC) | Simulates G-LOC in some manner. | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 7 games |
Game mode developer discrepancy | Not all game modes were made by the same developer. This often leads to the game modes being very different from each other. | notifications | 2006 / 2020 | 8 games |
Game mode discrepancy | There are differences for same thing depending in which game mode you encounter or use it. For example shotgun might be instant kill at close range for singleplayer nide while it does not do so in multiplayer. | notifications | 2010 / 2015 | 6 games |
Gameplay innovation | Games that really started something new. | notifications | 1971 / 2017 | 126 games |
Gas hazards(Aerosol hazards) | Includes areas where dangerous gases are present, whether these cause direct damage, asphyxiation, poisoning, or some other effects. This also includes aerosols, spores, and other similar and similarly dealt with hazards. | notifications | 2003 / 2016 | 14 games |
Gender bender | Character gender is altered at some point of the game, possibly permanently. | notifications | 1985 / 2017 | 24 games |
Gender choice | Player can choose the gender of the main character. | notifications | 1974 / 2022 | 1115 games |
Gender effects | Player's gender choice has more gameplay effects than whatever is seen in character creation. Such as completely different dialog trees, actions not available to the other gender, NPCs behaving differently, etc. | notifications | 2012 / 2016 | 5 games |
Gender-neutral (Androgynous protagonist;Ambiguous gender) | The protagonist's gender can't be determined, there is no protagonist, or otherwise does not make assumptions about player (character) gender or similar. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 86 games |
Generational | Player controls several passing generations of people. | notifications | 2009 / 2018 | 12 games |
Generic pickups | Various pickups have as little detail attached to them as there can be even though what they contribute to is not treated in similar manner. Such as if weapons use different kinds of ammo, but there's only one kind of ammo pickup that fills any of th | notifications | 2 games | |
Geokinesis (Earth manipulation;Earth magic)[lithokinesis;geomancy] | Player character can control and/or generate earth, soil and related things to some degree, regardless of how or why. | notifications | 2000 / 2012 | 8 games |
Ghosted motion | Movement of some things, such as certain characters or actions can have the character or the action have one or more ghost of itself (or slow motion blur trails) move slightly before or after the actual thing. | notifications | 1998 / 2015 | 9 games |
Glare | Simulates glare to some degree, making it difficult to see in presence of a bright light. | notifications | 2001 / 2011 | 4 games |
Glitch visuals | The visual design includes glitches occurring in varying frequency and severity, regardless if these have any meaning or function outside of the visual design. | notifications | 2005 / 2017 | 47 games |
Global organization | Involves an organization that works in all corners of the world (or even all corners of the universe if it's in space age). | notifications | 1994 / 2014 | 18 games |
Global Positioning System | Player is either constantly aware of their position in the world or can trivially ascertain it, such as by opening their map. | notifications | 1999 / 2010 | 4 games |
Gradual expenses(Partial expenses) | Expenses are charged as needed in small bits when possible, such as paying for individual materials to build the end product as needed rather than the end product itself. Or player can put small parts of the total payment in at a time. | notifications | 2007 / 2014 | 5 games |
Grant funded[grant funding;grant-funded;grant-funding] | Received funding in form of a grant from some organization or government. | notifications | 2010 / 2020 | 24 games |
Gratuitous titillation(Borderline erotica) | Borderline erotica without actually pushing over certain boundaries to be such. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 11 games |
Gray choices(Ambiguous choices)[grey choices] | Player is made to choose between two or more options in which none seem better or worse than the other or are vague on their effects, especially when all options are bad. | notifications | 2008 / 2016 | 30 games |
Grid | Uses a grid of any shape or type. | notifications | 1972 / 2023 | 3587 games |
Grid of Wang Tiles | Four right triangles form a square arranged in a standard square grid. | notifications | 2 games | |
Grid-Extradimensional | Any grid using more than 3 dimensions. | notifications | 1 game | |
Gridless | Does not use a grid where one is to be expected. In strategy and war games for instance. | notifications | 1992 / 2019 | 27 games |
Ground effect | Simulates the aerodynamic concept known as ground effect that gives aircraft increased lift and reduced drag near fixed surfaces. | notifications | 1 game | |
Group (Squad-based;Party-based) | Player is part of a group and can issue some form of instructions to (or, in some instances, assume full control of) the other members. | notifications | 1975 / 2023 | 1175 games |
Group leader (Squad leader;Party leader) | Player has direct control of only the leader, with little indirect control of the the others. | notifications | 1996 / 2016 | 72 games |
Guerrilla (Guerrilla warfare) | notifications | 2008 / 2016 | 8 games | |
Guild (Trade union;Labor union;Labor organization) | An association of craftsmen in a particular trade working towards common goals. | notifications | 1991 / 2018 | 25 games |
Hallucinations (Delusions) | Player character experiences hallucinations of varying severity. | notifications | 1988 / 2019 | 55 games |
Hammerspace(Malletspace) | Player character stores abnormally large objects in their pockets or other luggage that should NOT be able to hide them, especially if such pull-out-of-pocket action is shown. | notifications | 1988 / 2018 | 49 games |
Healing items | Player can carry about healing items and use them when necessary. | notifications | 1980 / 2023 | 724 games |
Healing stations (Health stations;Medical stations) | Player can find stations, devices, characters, or other objects that can be used repeatedly to heal wounds and possibly other ailments. | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 189 games |
Health buffer(Temporary hitpoints) | Player can gain a secondary health bar that is depleted before the actual health is ever touched, this can exist in form of temporary hitpoints, armor, shields, or pretty much anything but functions the same. | notifications | 1995 / 2021 | 95 games |
Health regeneration | The protagonist regenerates health automatically over time. | notifications | 1982 / 2022 | 531 games |
Health regeneration: Activity Levels | Activities offer several rates of regen (even to none), ie: combat (slowest), combat-ready, running, walking, standing, sitting, lying down (fastest). | notifications | 1 game | |
Health regeneration: Slow | Health regenerates so slowly it won't save you even if you get a few moments of peace. Requires long downtime between battles to help at all. | notifications | 1991 / 2021 | 40 games |
Health regeneration: Stunted | Health regeneration works only up to a point (such as restoring a partial segment to full but not beyond it, or up to a certain percentage of full health), never fully restoring it. | notifications | 2001 / 2017 | 54 games |
Heat transfer | Heat transfers, seeking thermal equilibrium. Especially if player interacts with this somehow. | notifications | 1987 / 2020 | 6 games |
Held jump | Jump height is dependant on how long the jump button is pressed, but this is not pre-charged, jump starts (near) immediately upon pressing jump button and drop starts soon after releasing it or reaching maximum height. | notifications | 2015 / 2016 | 3 games |
Hexagonal grid | Uses grid of 6 sided convex shapes. | notifications | 1976 / 2024 | 780 games |
Hold/tap toggle | Has option to toggle the need to repeatedly tap a control to just holding it in place. | notifications | 2018 / 2022 | 4 games |
Home(House owning) | Player has or can have a home of some sort with attached activities, though may only serve minimally as a stash and/or diegetic information display of things like achievements and other inconsequential bits. | notifications | 1983 / 2019 | 75 games |
HUD malfunctioning | The HUD may occasionally malfunction, usually when it is explained (e.g. hi-tech visor or cybernetic eye with info feeds) and thus can be (temporarily) damaged. | notifications | 2008 / 2013 | 14 games |
Human resources(Human cattle) | Humans (or anything equivalent sentient species or protagonist's own species) are treated as rather literal resources, harvested for spare (body) parts or other materials or used as whole as components in something. | notifications | 1997 / 2015 | 19 games |
Humanism | Deals with humanism, philosophical and ethical ideas that value humanity as individuals and as a collective. | notifications | 3 games | |
Humanity's wake[after humanity;after humans] | Events after the end of the human species. | notifications | 1988 / 2015 | 29 games |
Humidity | Simulates humidity and its effects to a degree. | notifications | 2011 / 2012 | 3 games |
Hunger(Starvation)[starving;malnutrition] | Player must keep their characters and/or minions fed with solid or semisolid sources of nutrition lest they suffer starvation and possibly death. | notifications | 1974 / 2023 | 506 games |
Hydrokinesis(Water manipulation;Water magic) | Player character can control and/or generate water or other liquids to some degree, regardless of how or why. | notifications | 2010 / 2015 | 12 games |
Hygiene (Cleanliness) | Simulates hygiene to a degree, possibly having effects on social interactions, health, or some other things. | notifications | 2001 / 2021 | 16 games |
Hypermuscles (Muscular hypertrophy) | Involves characters with abnormally prominent musculature. Realistically these are either very dedicated bodybuilders (who also possibly - but not necessarily - ingest certain nutrients), or people with muscular hypertrophy. | notifications | 2003 / 2016 | 22 games |
Hyperthermia(Heatstroke) | Simulates effects of hyperthermia in some manner, including things like excessive sweating, heatstrokes, and anything else. | notifications | 1 game | |
Ignored vandalism | NPCs pointedly ignore the protagonist's vandalism (or never hold him/her accountable for it) as they go about stealing from them, destroying their property, and otherwise terrorizing short of directly mugging and/or killing the people themselves. | notifications | 2012 / 2017 | 5 games |
Ill-equipped | You start out your quest to save the universe with a stick, or the near equivalent of. | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 126 games |
Immobile | Player does not control movement from place to place – nor is moved by the game itself – despite the game type usually including that. Not including level selection or similar. | notifications | 2007 / 2014 | 7 games |
Impact angle | Simulates the effects of impact angle, such as penetrating with direct hits, scraping at medium angle, and glancing/ricocheting at extreme angle. | notifications | 2003 / 2016 | 13 games |
Impact shock | Getting hit, shot, or such can send the player character/vehicle reeling, shaking, staggering, or such, messing up with aim, micro stunning and/or other things. | notifications | 1 game | |
Imperfect healing | Any immediate healing the player can use can not accomplish perfect results. | notifications | 1992 / 2018 | 9 games |
Impossible geometry (Impossible objects;Undecidable figures;Impossible figures;Impossible architecture) | Somehow deals with impossible geometry. | notifications | 1996 / 2014 | 13 games |
In-genre gameplay innovation | Innovates in some significant way within a genre, but not in a way that is notable for other types of games. Generally involves breaking out of the mold that other games establish for the genre. | notifications | 1981 / 2015 | 10 games |
Incarnated Divine Beings (Incarnated Angels; Incarnated Demons; Incarnated Deities) | Features unearthly divine spirits housed in earthly bodies. (vulnerable earthly bodies, not just in appearance only) | notifications | 1982 / 2018 | 74 games |
Incomplete multiplayer information | Is known to have multiplayer but lacks details on it. | notifications | 1 game | |
Inconclusive ending | The ending leaves the original or biggest issue unsolved without having made it a non-issue or without a proper sequel hook. | notifications | 2001 / 2017 | 5 games |
Indigenous Residents (Natives) | Interaction with (or avoidance of) indigenous residents effects gameplay. | notifications | 1981 / 2000 | 11 games |
Infestation | Deals with the presence of abnormally large quantity of parasites, rodents, aliens or other pests that normally wouldn't be expected to be in the presented location(s). | notifications | 1997 / 2011 | 11 games |
Infinite resources[Unlimited resources;Endless resources] | As long as you have access to a source of a resource, you can collect from it indefinitely or resources regenerate indefinitely after being depleted. | notifications | 1995 / 2019 | 35 games |
Infinite shop stock(Endless shop stock) | Shops and similar sources of things have infinite stock, never running out of items or other supposedly finite things. | 0 game | ||
Information | Any tags referring to information player is given. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Information warfare | notifications | 4 games | ||
Instant killers | Regardless of how many hit points the player character has, there are still things out there that can kill them outright. | notifications | 1991 / 2018 | 104 games |
Intentionally broken | Game is broken on purpose, such as bugs discovered (or added) before release, being left unfixed, without time or budget limitations. Sometimes to cover up lack of promised features. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 3 games |
Interactive dialogues | Includes dialogues where the player has some control over the course they take. | notifications | 1985 / 2024 | 324 games |
Interest income | Player gains income through interest, usually by depositing wealth in a bank, giving out loans, or some such. | notifications | 1974 / 2014 | 21 games |
Interface puzzle | Learning to operate the game interface is one of the goals of the game. | notifications | 1 game | |
Internal vision | Player can see the insides (organs, skeletons, etc.) of characters, vehicles, etc. without having to open them up. So far used mostly to graphically depict how people are hurt by various attacks. | notifications | 2011 / 2015 | 15 games |
Invasion | The plot involves hostile invasion of territory in some manner, such as as part of war of aggression. | notifications | 1982 / 2024 | 29 games |
Inventory | Player has an item storage of unspecified capacity they can access. | notifications | 1979 / 2023 | 1763 games |
Inverse time(Reverse time;Backwards time) | Time is inverted with the game starting from the end of the story and progresses towards the beginning, and not simply by taking events out of chronological order but rather everything happens in reverse order. | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 5 games |
Investors (Financiers) | Gameplay involves investors funding your project(s). With player primarily trying to keep the investors satisfied with you and thus keep funding the project(s). May involve trying to find (additional) investors. | notifications | 1981 / 2014 | 16 games |
Invincibility frames(Invulnerability frames)[iframes] | Employs moments of invincibility tied to certain animation frames, such as certain dodges. This tag is only when the iframes aren't specified better with something else. | notifications | 2009 / 2022 | 27 games |
Involuntary actions | The protagonist may suddenly decide to do something that is not what the player commanded them to do, whether or not this was voluntary for the protagonist either. Only when this happens out of scripted events (cutscenes). | notifications | 1992 / 2018 | 10 games |
Irregular grid | A 2D space of irregular or arbitrary divisions used as if it were a regular grid. Divisions such as divided territories (but not settlements) on a map | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 210 games |
ISC License | A simplified BSD & MIT amalgamation. Effectively grants credit to & simultaneously absolves the author of all issues of morality created by their work | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 2 games |
Item charges | Includes items with multiple depletable charges/uses, when these are distinguishable from item stacks. | notifications | 2010 / 2018 | 18 games |
Item comparison | Offers easy way to compare two or more items, usually by displaying them side-by-side and possibly highlighting differences. | notifications | 2011 / 2020 | 27 games |
Item pickup: Global | There's no range limits to where you can pick-up items. This may however be limited to drops by enemies ("loose items") and not things placed in the environment. | notifications | 2007 / 2014 | 7 games |
Item pickup: Stash excess | Upon trying to pick up items you can't store in your inventory, the new item is stored in your stash automatically. | notifications | 1 game | |
Item recharging | Depletable charges/uses from certain items can be replenished without buying the item again. Such as filling an empty bottle. Even if such items have only one use, as long as the depleted item can be recharged. | notifications | 2010 / 2018 | 18 games |
Item sets | Includes item sets that when used together impart additional bonuses or effects. | notifications | 2000 / 2021 | 43 games |
Job system | A variant of class system where characters can freely (no limit how many times) swap between classes (jobs), retaining pretty much everything they had in them. Although mostly the currently selected job is actually usable. | notifications | 2002 / 2019 | 23 games |
Jukebox | Offers some way to play all or most music/songs of the game as player sees fit. | notifications | 1995 / 2014 | 5 games |
Junk inventory(Autosell inventory;Quick sell inventory) | Player can designate items as junk that still keeps them in the inventory but removes them from normal browsing, usually with the purpose of quick selling all items marked as such and speed up inventory management. | notifications | 2011 / 2016 | 14 games |
Karma (Alignment;Reputation) | Player character's deeds affect the manner in which they're known, regardless of how well or far. | notifications | 1985 / 2023 | 122 games |
Keycodes (Key sequences;Access codes;Passwords) | Player is required to locate keycodes - and possibly to fill in missing characters in them - to gain access to something. | notifications | 1987 / 2019 | 53 games |
Konami the best | Re-released japanese games published by Konami in Japan. | notifications | 1 game | |
Land warfare | notifications | 1975 / 2018 | 133 games | |
Language: Pictographic | Language such as speech or writing is represented through the use of pictographs. | notifications | 1989 / 2015 | 13 games |
Last of a kind | The protagonist is one of the last or [i]the[/i] last representative of a kind. | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 11 games |
Latent ability (Latent power;Potential)[latent abilities;latent powers;dormant powers] | The protagonist has potential for something great and may or may not know of it before it rears its ugly head. | notifications | 2004 / 2009 | 5 games |
Lego genetics | Gene manipulation works by injecting specific traits like hairyness, extra alien arm, horse leg, etc. specific things to other beings. | notifications | 2000 / 2015 | 5 games |
Lens flare (Diffraction spike) | A visual artefact seen in photography, video recording, telescopes, and others where lenses are used. That said, human eye sees the effect quite differently than what cameras and such do, but the camera variety is often used regardless. | notifications | 1999 / 2016 | 23 games |
Level drain | Player may lose levels or other measure of character progress, temporarily or permanently. | notifications | 1985 / 2009 | 18 games |
Level timer(Play timer) | Includes a timer for how long you've taken to play through a level. May be shown during play, likely to aid speedrunners than anything actually tangible for the game itself. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 3 games |
Level-based equipment | Items, even trivial ones, can't be used unless the player character has reached a specific character level. | notifications | 1992 / 2016 | 77 games |
License GNU Affero General Public License | Distributed under the GNU Affero license. Free to use for any purpose, study, improve, & redistribute. Not free to restrict. Network use requires full compliance | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 11 games |
License-postfreedom | Released under a Free or Open Source license but later became proprietary. Any current copyright holder can do this to a FSF/OSI licensed code. | notifications | 2000 / 2010 | 4 games |
License: BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution license) | Distributed under the BSD license. | notifications | 1991 / 2016 | 69 games |
License: Choice of licenses | Authors of these games have specified multiple licenses that users and other developers may select at their option. | 1 game | ||
License: Common Development and Distribution License | Based on the MPL & SPL. Not GPL compatible [b]by design[/b]. Open Source & Free Software. | notifications | 1 game | |
License: Contradictory | A subset of [url=/groups/info/license-vague]License: Vague[/url]. License or copying information contains conflicting terms. ie: '$5 Freeware' or 'Public Domain but no commercial use', etc... | notifications | 1988 / 2021 | 19 games |
License: Creative Commons | A license primarily intended for artistic products such as graphic art, stories, etc. | notifications | 1997 / 2020 | 139 games |
License: Eclipse Public License | Distributed under the EPL license. | notifications | 1 game | |
License: Freely Redistributable Source / Freely Redistributable Software | FRS was before Free Software, GPL & Open Source were systematically legally defined. "S" stood for "software" (binaries only) or "source". | notifications | 1 game | |
License: GNU GPL 1 or 2 (GNU General Public License) | Distributed under the GNU GPL license (ver. 1 or 2). Free to use for any purpose, study, improve, and redistribute. Not free to restrict said freedoms | notifications | 1983 / 2021 | 1334 games |
License: GNU GPL version 3 | Distributed under the GNU GPL Version 3 license. Which includes clauses allowing fundamentally different uses & restrictions not existent in GPL 1 & 2 | notifications | 1994 / 2021 | 207 games |
License: Illegal Aspects | Compliance with one or more aspects of the licensing terms of the software are a violation of law either by the copyright holder and/or the end user. | notifications | 1987 / 2021 | 2 games |
License: Lesser GNU Public License | Licensed under the terms of the LGPL. Intended to apply to code libraries that [b]can[/b] be mixed with code under licenses incompatible with GPL | notifications | 1987 / 2017 | 42 games |
License: Microsoft Public License | Available under Microsoft's least restrictive license. It is OSI and FSF approved but not compatible with the GNU GPL. | notifications | 1 game | |
License: MIT / X11 / PFSL / ISC / Expat | Distributed under the MIT license, X11 license, ISC license, or any other license that meets the standards of a Permissive Free Software License. | list_altnotifications | 1983 / 2016 | 84 games |
License: Mozilla Public License | Distributed under the Mozilla Public License. MPL is based on the modified BSD license & the GNU General Public License, having elements of both. | notifications | 2006 / 2020 | 20 games |
License: New BSD (3-clause BSD;Simplified BSD License) | The BSD license with the advertising clause. Source & binary are redistributable & derivitivible, but must retain copyright & license & 'no endorsement' by original author | notifications | 2006 / 2017 | 12 games |
License: Open Software License 3.0 | An OSI approved license designed for developers. | 1 game | ||
License: PNG/ZLIB | Distributed under the PNG/ZLIB license. | notifications | 2000 / 2017 | 25 games |
License: Public Domain | Copyright holders have formally and irreparably relinquished all rights to these games. No one owns it, nor can it be owned ever again (in theory). | notifications | 1979 / 2020 | 208 games |
License: Yawaraka | Simular to the BSD License | notifications | 2006 / 2007 | 3 games |
Life powered(Cast from hit points) | Some actions, abilities, attacks, etc. are powered by draining away the player character's life (hit points). | notifications | 1990 / 2017 | 22 games |
Limited capacity | Carry capacity is limited in more ways than the quantity of ammo you can carry. | notifications | 1981 / 2023 | 636 games |
Limited darkness[partial darkness] | Includes significant quantity of dark locations or periods of darkness, prompting the use of light sources or vision enhancers, but not so much as to be called universally dark. | notifications | 1983 / 2023 | 370 games |
Live actors | Some or all characters are acted by real people or animals (not just voice acted). May be limited to cutscenes, videos, or similar. | notifications | 1990 / 2017 | 187 games |
Load recap | During loading a game the current goals or recent events are recapped to remind the player what they were supposed to be doing next. | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 9 games |
Loans(Debts) | Player can take out loans and thus going into debt, or possibly even give them out and gaining additional income via debt interest. | notifications | 1982 / 2016 | 27 games |
Locational health (Multiple health pools) | Each individual part that can be damaged has its own health, lowering the health of individual part may lead to death, the part tearing off, crippling it, or simply reduced performance with it. | notifications | 1988 / 2018 | 58 games |
Locomotion(Movement) | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Login rewards(Daily rewards) | Player is rewarded for the simple action of logging in or launching the game, usually limited to once per day and sometimes given increasing rewards for consecutive days logged in. | notifications | 2012 / 2021 | 5 games |
Long range warfare | Warfare at such range that discerning enemies from friendlies and/or neutrals is (extremely) difficult. | notifications | 2006 / 2013 | 6 games |
Loose Grip | A protagonists hands (prehensile members) can slip or ungrasp completely do to some not readily seen cause such as fatigue and/or a physical force. | notifications | 1 game | |
Loot: Random (Random item drops) | NPCs drop semi-random items when they're enough hurt. | notifications | 1982 / 2021 | 197 games |
Lost equipment | Player loses all or at least the most vital equipment at some point in the game. | notifications | 1987 / 2020 | 103 games |
Lost powers (Lost levels;Lost abilities) | The protagonist has lost or loses her powers, abilities, skills, spells, etc. intangible that make them presumably great and powerful. A notable part of the story is either spent reclaiming them or coping in their absence. | notifications | 1991 / 2017 | 39 games |
Lost technology (Forgotten technology) | Involves technology for which the means or knowledge to produce them has been lost with no hope of recovering (e.g. due to a global catastrophe). This technology usually far exceeds the capabilities of tech the people now create. | notifications | 1993 / 2015 | 12 games |
Low violence mode(No blood mode) | Has an option to reduce the violent content, such as lowering or completely removing the amount of blood shown. | notifications | 1 game | |
Loyalty | Simulates loyalty and its effects on the friends and/or followers. | notifications | 1 game | |
Loyalty program(Loyalty pricing) | Gives extra benefits or better price for people who own previous titles from the same publisher/developer. Usually in form of a notable discount. | notifications | 1 game | |
Lying | Player is given the choice to willingly dispense false information, obscure the truth, or possibly withhold critical information (when such action is harmful to others). | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 4 games |
Machine civilization (Robot civilization;Machine culture;Robot culture)[Machine civilisation] | Features a machine civilization of some sort. Not just a mass of automatons, but an actual civilization created and run by more or less sentient artificial beings. | notifications | 1984 / 2024 | 60 games |
Magazine cover gift | First released (usually for free) as a cover-disc or cover-tape in magazines. | notifications | 1983 / 1995 | 528 games |
Magic (Mystic powers) | Features anything definitely magical or strange mystic powers. | notifications | 1974 / 2024 | 3118 games |
Magic fail(Spell fail)[magic failure;spell failure;spell fail chance] | Magic can fail, either by chance or other reasons besides targets resisting or being immune to it. | notifications | 1989 / 2019 | 21 games |
Magic is science (Scientific magic;Natural magic) | Magic is depicted as scientifically studied and quantified concept with predictable results. | notifications | 2003 / 2010 | 6 games |
Magic: Innate (Thought) | Magic is invoked by thought or simply by "doing magic" (like breathing or circulating blood). Magic user performs no perceivable actions to do magic. | notifications | 1995 / 2012 | 8 games |
Magic: Rare(Low magic)[rare magic] | Magic exists but is very uncommon, extremely difficult, relatively limited in power, and/or reserved for a select few. Tolkienian magic for example. | notifications | 1979 / 2016 | 28 games |
Magic: Sigils(Runic)[runes;symbols;symbolic;sigillary] | Magic is invoked by sigils of power, usually drawn by the magic user when needed or activating previously drawn sigils somehow. | notifications | 1992 / 2014 | 30 games |
Magic: Somatic | Magic is invoked by visible bodily movement, gestures, dancing, or anything else similar except for spoken words. | notifications | 1992 / 2017 | 45 games |
Magic: Verbal (Singing;Chanting;Vocalizing)[sung;chanted;vocalized;spoken] | Magic is invoked by speaking, singing, shouting, or otherwise vocalizing gibberish or words of power or similar. | notifications | 1986 / 2017 | 32 games |
Mail (Postal service;Internal email) | Player has access to mail service, either for sending and receiving textual messages or actual in-game items like in postal service. Commonly exists for communication between players who aren't on-line at the same time. | notifications | 2004 / 2009 | 4 games |
Mail order | Player can purchase certain items, goods, services, etc. that are delivered to them at a later date, as if by mail order (whether literally or figuratively). | notifications | 1986 / 2015 | 3 games |
Maintained jump | Player maintains the upward motion of the jump with the jump button held and releases it at any time to start the downward part of the jump. In other words, higher jump with longer press of the jump button, but they start immediately upon pressing it. | notifications | 2011 / 2016 | 21 games |
Maintenance Tag: Unknown Requirements for OS | Precise operating system, system software, system ROM, BIOS versions, or similar system requirements, are currently unknown & should be added | notifications | 1986 / 2020 | 112 games |
Malfeatures | Any tags describing a feature that is usually viewed as plain negative or even as bugs (despite lacking the usual requirement of being an error in code). | list_alt | 0 game | |
Malfunctioning(Duds;Unreliable tools;Jamming) | Tools, vehicles, and whatever else have a possibility to malfunction under certain conditions, though usually only when they become too worn down. | notifications | 1978 / 2018 | 55 games |
Mana burn (Energy feedback) | An overload or literal burning of energy that harms whoever has it. Commonly has little to no effect on regular people. | notifications | 1994 / 2021 | 49 games |
Mandatory loss | Player is given a fight they're meant to lose. | notifications | 1986 / 2019 | 31 games |
Mandatory recipes & blueprints | Player can not craft, cook, build, or such anything they don't have the recipe, blueprint, or similar instructions for even if they know how what is required and how to do it otherwise, such as from previous playthroughs. | notifications | 2006 / 2015 | 8 games |
Market failure (Financial failure) | Failed to cover its development costs or produce enough profit to even partially fund subsequent projects. | notifications | 1981 / 2014 | 18 games |
Market preview | Player has access to information about prices, demands, and such for far away markets, allowing easier way to plan what to trade and where. | notifications | 1999 / 2021 | 14 games |
Martial law | Martial law is in place within the depicted setting. | notifications | 2011 / 2020 | 6 games |
Mass murder | Depicts or is about mass killing of non-combatants. | notifications | 1997 / 2015 | 7 games |
Match-locked characters(Match-locked vehicles) | Characters, vehicles, etc. are locked in game matches until the end of the match, unusable in new matches even if player leaves the match early (e.g. leaving a last man standing match early after their own death). | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 6 games |
Matchmaking Rating(MMR;Elo rating system) | Uses any kind of matchmaking rating system to calculate relative skill of players, usually to match relatively similarly skilled people against each other in multiplayer. May use variables besides those signifying skill to match people. | notifications | 1998 / 2016 | 66 games |
Measurement options[Measurement system choices;System of units choices] | Player has choice between measurement systems, such as between metric and imperial. | notifications | 1 game | |
Melee impact(Hit impact) | Melee strikes actually impact with opponents, swings stopping (possibly with haptic feedback and/or slight screenshake accompanying it) when they meet hard enough resistance instead of passing through like air. | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 3 games |
Meta Consequences | The choices, actions or lack of action [i]made by the player[/i] have non-obvious consequences outside of the game. | notifications | 1 game | |
Meta interface | Besides the normal interface you work with to play the game, it also simulates a different interface within itself for the player. | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 7 games |
Metahumor(Meta-jokes) | Jokes about jokes. | 0 game | ||
Microgrid | Uses grid-size that is significantly smaller than most entities placed on that grid, most notably the player character and other creatures. | notifications | 1990 / 2015 | 16 games |
Mind upload(Brain upload;Consciousness upload)[Soul upload] | Deals with consciousness of a person copied into fully artificial system and continuing to function relatively in similar manner to the original in that artificial system. | notifications | 2001 / 2017 | 26 games |
Minigames | Includes minigames on the side or in the main game, but these are only small diversion rather than what the game is about. | notifications | 1982 / 2023 | 202 games |
Minimum damage(Guaranteed minimum damage) | Harmful effects are guaranteed to do at least some amount of damage, however insignificant, regardless of damage nullifying features on the target of the effect. | notifications | 1985 / 2010 | 4 games |
Minimum range | Some things need to be at least at a certain minimum distance before they can be used at all, or are incapable of doing anything below that distance. Such as artillery not being able to fire in the first 50 meters around it. | notifications | 1998 / 2016 | 21 games |
Minion permadeath(Minion permaloss)[minion permanent death;minion permanent loss] | Minions, troops, etc. when they die off, you have no immediate ways to regain someone with similar skillset or traits, possibly even never as they may have been unique individuals. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 63 games |
Minion, unit & structure statistics | Provides statistics on the performance of individual minions, underlings, structures, etc. | notifications | 2011 / 2014 | 7 games |
Misfortune | Plot involves events spiraling out of control, with any success usually proving to be a failure or simply invoking greater dangers/threats. The protagonists are likely to suffer from despondency eventually. | notifications | 2010 / 2011 | 6 games |
Misleading choices | Player is given choices that lead to something completely different than they were about. | notifications | 1997 / 2014 | 2 games |
Misleading title screen | Title screen of the game is misleading somehow, such as having false information or some crucial information is missing. | notifications | 1 game | |
Mixed license | Distributed under mixed licensing. | notifications | 2 games | |
Mixed reality | Two or more distinct types of reality are mixed together. | notifications | 1988 / 1991 | 7 games |
Mixed time(Mixed time-keeping) | Mixes two or more methods of time-keeping simultaneously, such as turn-based and real-time. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 5 games |
Modular structures | Structures are modularly built from variety of pieces. | notifications | 2011 / 2015 | 2 games |
Moon phases | Simulates moon phases to a degree with noticeable effect one way or another. | notifications | 2006 / 2015 | 5 games |
Moral choices | The player is presented with moral choices which may stray the story or side-story to different directions. A common tool for character building in RPGs. | notifications | 1997 / 2017 | 55 games |
Morale(Simulated morale)[simmorale] | Simulates the effects of morale on any creatures, especially the player's troops and the main character(s). | notifications | 1981 / 2018 | 90 games |
More Genders | Game includes genders other than Male and Female. | notifications | 1 game | |
Multi-classing | Class-based system where player can select multiple classes, though usually limited to 2 or 3. This often limits the development of the primary class. | notifications | 1989 / 2022 | 39 games |
Multi-function abilities | Same ability, skill or spell can be used to do large number of different things. | notifications | 2 games | |
Multi-purpose resource | Features one ore more resources that are used for 2 completely unrelated purposes, for example bullets being also used as money. | notifications | 1999 / 2015 | 9 games |
Multi-stage abilities(Combo abilities) | Includes abilities, spells, skills, or other actions that pass through multiple stages, changing what they do with each use. Usually resets after a short while if not triggered again. | notifications | 2009 / 2014 | 3 games |
Multinational organization | Depicts a multinational organization, group, or similar where people from different nations work together towards common goal(s). | notifications | 1991 / 2016 | 36 games |
Multiplayer: Defunct(Shut down) | Multiplayer service of the game was shutdown. Unless the game offers direct connection option, this means multiplayer is completely unavailable. | notifications | 1 game | |
Multiplayer: Gun Game | A multiplayer mode where scoring (e.g. killing other players) gradualy improves the player's weapon, usually by swapping it to a more powerful one. | notifications | 2000 / 2015 | 31 games |
Multiplayer: Leagues | Multiplayer is split into leagues. Usually for the purpose of splitting ranked multiplayer community into segments of roughly equal skill with some kind of gating to higher and lower leagues. | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 4 games |
Multiplayer: Looking for Group(Looking for more) | Includes an inbuilt feature to look for other people to play with outside of matchmaking. | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 12 games |
Multiplayer: NPC allies | One or more of the included multiplayer modes includes NPC allies regardless if bot-replacements for humans are possible. Usually less powerful individuals that provide a constant push and action in the games even if the players themselves do nothing. | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 27 games |
Multiplayer: Pre-game commitment | Player has to commit to a significant choice, such as character/class or loadout before entering a game where they can discuss the overall plan with the other allied players. | notifications | 2011 / 2015 | 8 games |
Multiplayer: Private | Has one or more options of private games, such as password lock, friends only, group/clan only, etc. | notifications | 2011 / 2019 | 23 games |
Multiplayer: Quick join(Instant action) | Offers quick join or instant action option which finds a game that has free player slots and connects to that without much thought given to it. Usually favoring more populous games but ignores relative skill level of players (no matchmaking). | notifications | 1 game | |
Multiple calendars[multicalendar] | Dates, years, etc. are given using multiple calendars instead of just one. | notifications | 3 games | |
Multiple currencies | Uses more than one incompatible but perhaps exchangeable currency systems. | notifications | 1995 / 2015 | 7 games |
Multiple experience pools (Multiple types of experience) | Player can gain more than one type of experience, usually split by activity type. | notifications | 1985 / 2018 | 40 games |
Multiple narrators[multinarrator] | notifications | 6 games | ||
Multispecies organization | Depicts a multispecies organization, group, or similar where people from different species work together towards common goal(s). | notifications | 2007 / 2012 | 8 games |
Mundane dangers | The protagonist is hurt or even killed by very mundane things that shouldn't really hurt anyone. Fatal allergy to something being one of the most realistic instances of this. | notifications | 2000 / 2014 | 14 games |
Murder penalty | Killing anyone, possibly limited to people, imposes a penalty of some sort. | notifications | 5 games | |
Naturalistic (Mundane;No Magic) | Not necessarily realistic. Has nothing overtly fantastic, be it magical, paranormal, psychic, mystic, super powers, technomagic, nor magical technology. | notifications | 1970 / 2023 | 4136 games |
Nature simulation | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Naval warfare | Player commands some military naval force(s). | notifications | 1974 / 2020 | 174 games |
Necessary evil (Lesser evil) | Plot involves someone notable performing "evil" deeds because of necessity for them to achieve certain "good" goals. | notifications | 2003 / 2016 | 8 games |
Negative wealth(Negative capital) | Player can have negative wealth where their usable wealth goes below zero. | notifications | 4 games | |
No agenda(No motives) | The reason why the protagonist is doing what they're doing is not revealed for a good portion of the game if at all. | notifications | 2011 / 2018 | 22 games |
No Amazon Standard Identification Number (NO ASIN) | Not yet listed (or has been deleted) from amazon.com. This is a maintenance tag. | notifications | 1981 / 2012 | 41 games |
No boss arenas | Gameplay is not limited to carefully constrained area during boss fights, letting player to go anywhere they wish, possibly as a result allowing fleeing a boss battle without failing it. | notifications | 2011 / 2015 | 2 games |
No cooldowns | There are no cooldowns on abilities or items to be used again, allowing them to be used extremely rapidly regardless of what they do. | notifications | 1 game | |
No deck building | Despite being a collectible card game or card battle game, player can not build custom decks. | notifications | 2009 / 2012 | 10 games |
No fantastic recovery | Averts a common trope in popular fiction where recovery from disfiguring wounds, forced polymorph, or such, does not produce perfect or near perfect recovery, leaving the person at least partially and quite noticeably disfigured. | notifications | 2009 / 2012 | 2 games |
No generic enemies | Every enemy you encounter is unique, with possible exception with animals and similar but anything that could be a person is unique. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 6 games |
No HP system(No health point system)[no hit point system] | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 2 games | |
No pause menu(No in-game menu pause) | Opening the base in-game menu (usually opened with start button, esc key, etc.) does not pause the game. | notifications | 1 game | |
No platform license | Published without license on a platform that normally requires such. May have as such involved reverse engineering the platform itself. | notifications | 1990 / 1991 | 4 games |
No Resale | The company providing the game has attempted to prevent subsequent transfer of ownership. | notifications | 1993 / 2015 | 2 games |
No shop restocking | Shops and other sources from which you can buy things never restock, eventually indefinitely running out of things to sell. | notifications | 2006 / 2014 | 5 games |
No squad health | Squads or similar groups of units don't have shared or generic health that covers all members of the squad but instead tracks each individual squad member individually. Only if this is unusual (e.g. most strategy games). | notifications | 1 game | |
No stray fire(No stray bullets) | It is impossible to cause stray fire (as in, hit something other than the one targeted), excluding anything that is defined as affecting an area, capable of overpenetration, or similar. | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 12 games |
No voice-overs | There are no voice overs despite being recent enough that such are commonplace and made by developer/publisher who should've been able to fund such part of development. | 0 game | ||
No-one left behind[none left behind] | Plays with the concept of leaving no-one behind, endangering oneself and possibly others just for the sake of not leaving anyone. Often foolhardy and/or excessively heroic. | notifications | 1993 / 2013 | 16 games |
Noise indicator | Includes an indicator for how much noise you're making, possibly complemented with inclusion of how much your environment is making noise. | notifications | 1999 / 2017 | 20 games |
Non-choices(False choices) | Player is given options to choose from but same thing happens regardless of what the choice was, even when this is a series of choices. | notifications | 2001 / 2016 | 13 games |
Non-Euclidean geometry | notifications | 2011 / 2013 | 4 games | |
Non-standard colors[non-standard colours] | Uses non-standard coloring schemes for objects and elements. | notifications | 1994 / 2006 | 6 games |
Non-working age[retirement;children] | Characters exist sapping resources but being in non-working age where they either are too young or too old to actually work, creating a buffer of needs with no (immediate) benefits in return. | notifications | 2009 / 2016 | 5 games |
Noodle incident | References one or more significant events, possibly multiple times, but never actually shows or explains what they were. | notifications | 2004 / 2013 | 3 games |
NPC ammo | NPCs have limited ammo supplies like player instead of usual unlimited. | notifications | 1998 / 2014 | 5 games |
NPC anxiety (NPC fear) | Simulates anxiety and fear on NPCs to some degree. | notifications | 1994 / 2013 | 27 games |
NPC asphyxiation(Oxygen;Drowning) | NCPs have issues with asphyxiation in certain situations, such as drowning, being exposed to vacuum, oxygen supplanting gases, fire depleting oxygen, etc. | notifications | 2006 / 2014 | 13 games |
NPC body dragging | NPCs purposefully relocate unconscious or dead characters. | notifications | 1997 / 2015 | 8 games |
NPC disarming | NPCs can somehow disarm the protagonist and others. | notifications | 2010 / 2014 | 7 games |
NPC environmental vulnerability | NPCs are vulnerable to environmental hazards, such as traps, open fires, and such the same as players are. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 12 games |
NPC fleeing(Enemy fleeing) | Under certain circumstances some or all enemy NPCs will try to flee from the player character. Usually not including wild animals or similar that can be expected to do so regardless of anything, especially not if this is limited to them. | notifications | 1995 / 2021 | 25 games |
NPC last known position behavior(NPC last seen position behavior)[last known location] | NPCs behavior is partially dictated by last known positions of certain things, such as where they last saw the protagonist or an enemy. Possibly firing blindly into brush with presumed enemy is or going to scout it out long after the enemy has departed. | notifications | 2009 / 2017 | 29 games |
NPC map crossing(NPC level crossing) | Some or all NPCs (can) cross over area load boundaries (screens, maps, levels, sectors, or whatever the game partitions the game world with), not being stuck in some area just because it requires level load to go over there. | notifications | 2016 / 2017 | 2 games |
NPC mercy | NPCs can show mercy, such as stopping attacking you if you're clearly losing & are willing to acquiesce to conditions (ie: leave & never return). | notifications | 1 game | |
NPC reinforcements | NPCs can call in reinforcements from outside of the play area or outside of the immediate vicinity. | notifications | 1 game | |
NPC reloading | NPCs need to reload their weapons as much as the player does, giving somewhat predictable pauses in their firing other than random stops as well as visible/audible feedback of it. | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 5 games |
NPC schedules | NPCs follow certain schedules, regardless if they're static or dynamic, such as going to sleep at night, eating dinner, working for most of the day, spending free time during evening, etc. | notifications | 1982 / 2018 | 66 games |
NPC stunning | NPCs can stun the player character for any amount of time. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 19 games |
NPC suppressive fire | NPCs employ suppressive fire tactics, firing in an area (even if they know they're guaranteed to not hit anyone) where they know or suspect enemies to be in to deny them chance to relocate or return fire. | notifications | 2009 / 2014 | 5 games |
NPC UI interaction[NPC user interface interaction;NPC 4th wall interaction] | Certain NPCs interact with player's user interface, such as messing up with player's user interface, using said interface, or interfering with its use. | notifications | 2015 / 2017 | 5 games |
NPC world change awareness | NPCs are aware of something changing in the world, for example they will notice a door is closed when it wasn't earlier, an item is somewhere where it wasn't before, etc. Specifically when they weren't observing the change. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 9 games |
Object Components | Objects/Weapons have multiple components that can be substituted and may or may not have other uses. | notifications | 1 game | |
Object imprinting (Psychic imprinting;Empathic imprinting) | Objects, mainly tools, gain traits of the person using them or the place they're stored in. | 0 game | ||
Objective indicator (Task indicator) | Shows where the current objective is located in one way or another. | notifications | 1990 / 2023 | 329 games |
Odd nature | Nature and the laws of nature behave strangely in comparison to reality, but the depicted natives see nothing strange about it. | notifications | 3 games | |
Offscene death | Going off scene in any direction (falling down, going off the sides, jumping at the top, etc.) causes death or other loss condition. | notifications | 1991 / 2013 | 4 games |
Old faith(Old religion;Old gods)[Old deities] | Deals with an older faith, its beliefs, or its gods. Usually something that was supplanted by the depicted current major religion some time ago. | notifications | 1998 / 2020 | 13 games |
Old skool surveillance(Visibly flawed surveillance) | Surveillance system that clearly leaves holes in what they're surveying. Often with security cameras that show their view cones and move about in predictable patterns that leave holes through which the player can slip by. | notifications | 1999 / 2016 | 42 games |
On hold | Any project that has entered the vague state of being "on hold". Often result of financial problems with developer or publisher/producer as resources are allocated elsewhere until they get enough capital to continue the projects. | notifications | 1987 / 2015 | 16 games |
Online pass | Required the use of an online pass. Such as separately purchased online subscription, a serial key delivered along with the retail game, or some other method that limits the availability of online gaming to new purchases of the game. | notifications | 2011 / 2012 | 4 games |
Open beta | Employed an open beta phase at some point, allowing anyone to play the unfinished game for free for a time before release. Usually in hopes of stomping out all remaining technical issues but possibly also for marketing. | notifications | 2001 / 2018 | 33 games |
Optional running commentary | Supplemental commentary material by the creators that plays or can be read at various locations explaining how or why they did things as they are. | notifications | 2001 / 2022 | 41 games |
Optional tasks(Side quests;Optional objectives;Secondary objectives) | Player has optional tasks they may perform for one reason or another. | notifications | 1982 / 2023 | 402 games |
Orbital drops | Troops, vehicles, supplies, etc. are dropped from orbit to surface as-is without aid of drop pods or drop ships. | notifications | 2009 / 2011 | 6 games |
Out-of-place characters | Characters that appear very out of place, such as the mailman of a nearby village delivering mail in some buried city you just unearthed. | notifications | 2005 / 2016 | 13 games |
Out-of-turn actions (Reactions)[Reaction fire] | Characters can perform certain actions outside of their own turn. | notifications | 1992 / 2016 | 49 games |
Over-exposition | Explains everything in almost technical detail, especially if this is by characters who shouldn't know or care about such minute details for everything, not to mention not care to explain it all to someone asking about it all. | notifications | 1994 / 2015 | 5 games |
Overburdening[overloading] | Character, vehicle, etc. load weight is somehow part of gameplay besides as a limit for how much you can carry. The effects of overburdening can start to happen as early as at 20% of total capacity or only after going over 100%. | notifications | 1995 / 2020 | 46 games |
Overdraw discard | Drawing more than certain number of cards or such causes the new ones to be discarded. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 4 games |
Overkill | Defeating opponents can be overdone and is rewarded with some more spectacular death/defeat sequence than normal. Often results only in gibbing of the subjects, or turning them into explosions of gore, even when such makes no sense. | notifications | 1994 / 2020 | 95 games |
Overloading[overburdening] | Character, vehicle, etc. maximum load weight, volume, or such can be exceeded. Usually leaves the thing immobile, but still gives the option, possibly to allow using super-heavy equipment on the spot or make inventory management easier. | notifications | 1995 / 2015 | 10 games |
Overpenetration (Penetrating projectiles;Piercing projectiles) | Certain projectiles can pass through multiple targets. | notifications | 1990 / 2017 | 72 games |
Overtime(Extra time) | A time extension to prevent a tie/draw from happening or to let some currently contested thing get settled. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 10 games |
Pain (Simulated pain) | Getting hit, falling significant heights, being electrocuted, etc. cause the subjected character (especially in case of the protagonist) to reel in pain or otherwise temporarily becoming incapacitated. | notifications | 1994 / 2021 | 54 games |
Panspermia | A theory involving the transportation of life from planet to planet. | notifications | 1 game | |
Paper doll(Visible equipment) | Uses paper doll like inventory and equipment system with the chosen equipment reflected in-game outside of the paper doll manager. | notifications | 1995 / 2021 | 51 games |
Passage on demand[Scenery on demand;Scenery as you go] | A passage, area, or similar forms around you as needed (and often disappearing as you move away from it). Commonly a passage over a chasm. | notifications | 1990 / 2016 | 17 games |
Past characters(Previous characters;Old characters)[meet old characters;meet previous characters] | Player gets to meet old player characters, their graves, or some other remains of them. | notifications | 1985 / 2014 | 10 games |
Past creations(Previous creations;Old creations) | Player can find their old creations, their remains or ruins, or some derivatives of them [i]in new playthroughs[/i]. | 0 game | ||
Patents | Any concepts that are patented somewhere in the world. Unlike other concepts these are worth having even if just one game would be in it. | list_alt | 1997 / 2008 | 0 game |
Pawn | The protagonist is used or otherwise manoeuvred without their (initial) knowledge towards goals they may not agree with. | notifications | 1999 / 2015 | 39 games |
Pay-once MMO[Buy to play] | MMOs for which you only pay once after which it's playable like any other game with no need to pay subscription if one even exists. Pay-once bit does not extend to expansions or possible microtransactions. | notifications | 2005 / 2019 | 15 games |
Penetrating explosions(Passthrough explosions) | Explosions pass through matter that is not destroyed or moved by them, causing harm to things that should've been safe. In other words, explosions ignore indestructible level geometry and other things that should shield from them. | notifications | 1997 / 2014 | 7 games |
People resources(People harvesting;Organ harvesting)[Human resources;Human harvesting] | People (humans or whatever constitutes the setting's sentients or equivalent) are harvested in their entirety or some part of them, and not for their ability to do work as themselves. | notifications | 1992 / 2020 | 53 games |
Per-character relations | Relations are tracked per-character in addition to or instead of overall or per-faction. | notifications | 1975 / 2017 | 50 games |
Percentage damage(%health damage) | Some attacks or sources of damage cause it as percentage of the target's current or maximum health. | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 7 games |
Periodic autosaves (Timed autosaves) | Game progress is periodically (usually every 5 to 15 minutes) saved without any action from the player needed. | notifications | 1996 / 2019 | 84 games |
Periodic calamities(Periodic natural disasters) | Certain kind of calamities, such as natural disasters, periodically threaten the player on fairly regular basis, especially if these are as predictably common as night and day cycle. | notifications | 2008 / 2017 | 6 games |
Periodic dangers(Circadian dangers;Daily dangers) | Includes dangers (such as enemies) that are only present during a certain period of a day, such as the night. | notifications | 1998 / 2023 | 47 games |
Permanent level drain | Level drain when it occurs is permanent and does not restore with time or have any simple restoration mechanics. | notifications | 1985 / 2009 | 18 games |
Permeable environmental materials(Porous environmental materials) | Some environmental materials are permeable, letting liquid and/or gas pass through them while blocking passage otherwise. | notifications | 3 games | |
Persistent minions (Persistent units)[permanent minions;permanent units] | Minions or similar stick around with the player across missions, maps, etc. However, this does not mean they can not be lost. Should only be used when unusual, such as in strategy games. | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 98 games |
Personal quest | The protagonist is trying to achieve something they themself decided to do for themself. | notifications | 1992 / 2015 | 55 games |
Perspective-based reality | Reality changes according to how (from what direction, or even possibly through what) or what specifically you look at. | notifications | 2007 / 2014 | 9 games |
Phase transitions | Simulates matter phase (solid, liquid, gas, and plasma) transitions to some degree. | notifications | 2009 / 2019 | 14 games |
Photo Mode | The ability to pause the game and take screenshots moving the camera around and eventually altering other elements. | notifications | 2005 / 2020 | 76 games |
Physical magic(Contact magic) | Features physical magic, where magic is performed purely by touching things and/or enhancing ones own body or traits. | notifications | 2007 / 2020 | 2 games |
Picture-in-picture(PiP) | notifications | 1990 / 2017 | 20 games | |
Place swap(Position swap)[swap places;swap positions] | Player can swap positions with willing or neutral characters, possibly even with hostile ones. | notifications | 1994 / 2013 | 8 games |
Planetary destruction | Whole planets, moons or other immense astral bodies can be destroyed. | notifications | 1988 / 2015 | 17 games |
Platform best seller | According to VGChartz Pack-in games should not be considered | notifications | 1982 / 2011 | 17 games |
Platform reference(Platform allusion) | One or more of the game's titles (redundantly) references, directly or indirectly, the platform they're for. Not including fan titles. | notifications | 1978 / 2017 | 550 games |
Platinum range (Essentials range) | PlayStation (from PS1 to PS4, including handhelds) budget range in the PAL regions that attained 400,000 worldwide in Europe on the first six months. Later renamed to "Essentials" for PSP in 2010 and PlayStation 3 in 2012. | notifications | 1994 / 2011 | 205 games |
Player comparison | Offers comparison of how the player performed in comparison to other players. Possibly plain statistics or what choices they made across gameplay. | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 10 games |
Player profiling | Collects information about the player - usually anything related to playing habits, success, preferences, and such - and sends it to the developer/publisher. Commonly anonymous. | notifications | 1 game | |
Player taunting | Player specifically is taunted, mocked, ridiculed, etc. | notifications | 1983 / 2022 | 11 games |
Point of no return | Player is told at one or more points that proceeding will prevent them from returning, possibly causing active quests to be cancelled/abandoned, etc. Usually when player is about to start game ending mission or cause large status change to the game world. | notifications | 2012 / 2017 | 17 games |
Pollution | Player has to deal with pollution outside of plain hygiene and waste management. | notifications | 1973 / 2016 | 11 games |
Poor item grip | Characters (especially player characters) can lose either randomly or due to certain circumstances grip on items they're holding in their hands. Not cases of intentionally causing loss of grip (e.g. disarming). | notifications | 2013 / 2016 | 9 games |
Post-credits scene[Post-end credits scene] | notifications | 1993 / 2020 | 29 games | |
Post-release name change(Post-release rename) | At some point [i]after[/i] initial publishing, these games officially had their names changed without it being a separate release in different territory. Usually online-only releases. | notifications | 1999 / 2012 | 11 games |
Post-release states | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Power flicker | Insufficient energy output/production causes devices, buildings, and others to flicker back and forth between operational and inoperative state. | notifications | 2007 / 2010 | 4 games |
Power negation (Power dampening;Power nullification;Silencing) | Player character can somehow negate powers (such as magic) of others, or be subjected to such themselves. | notifications | 2003 / 2018 | 12 games |
Pre-combat | Player has action choices before actual combat begins that affect it in some significant manner, either before combat mode starts or as part of setup phase for combat mode (the latter only when this includes something that can't be done otherwise mid-comb | notifications | 7 games | |
Pre-order bonus | Pre-ordering the game gives the player free day 1 DLC content or other in-game goodies (such as things normally acquired via microtransactions). | notifications | 2013 / 2016 | 11 games |
Pre-release states | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Pregnancy | Deals with pregnancy in some manner. | notifications | 2017 / 2020 | 2 games |
Prehensile hair | notifications | 1992 / 2018 | 59 games | |
Premature task completion(Premature quest completion) | Player can complete quests or other such tasks before actually acquiring said tasks. | notifications | 1998 / 2017 | 17 games |
Price info (Value info) | Just by looking at things you get info on their approximate value, average price, last known price, or similar without having to remember it yourself or visit a shop to see what they really offer for it. | notifications | 2005 / 2014 | 23 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 | notifications | 1970 / 2024 | 13324 games |
Protagonist does everything | For some obscure reason, the protagonist is called out to do every single thing, even though most of it falls out of their job description, area of expertise, or even common sense. Especially if actual specialists are easily reachable in the situations. | notifications | 1984 / 2010 | 8 games |
Pseudo-rape(Agonophilia) | Either acted out rape or simply the non-con partner "warming up to the idea" after a while. Mostly seen in erotic fiction as a type of rape where the non-con partner actually likes it (possibly after the fact) and wants to be the victim again. | notifications | 1 game | |
Pseudo-real | Makes false claims on the events happening being real or even being happening Right Now. | notifications | 1999 / 2014 | 4 games |
Psychological Theory | Above average knowledge of psychology and/or psychological theory plays an important role in gameplay. | notifications | 1 game | |
Puppet animation(Modular animation) | Individual pieces (pieces of clothing, possibly smaller pieces of the body, whatever they hold, etc. not just limbs) of characters are animated as separate entities. | notifications | 2004 / 2017 | 37 games |
Pyrokinesis (Fire manipulation;Fire magic) | Player character can control and/or generate fire to some degree, regardless of how or why. | notifications | 1994 / 2021 | 71 games |
Pyrrhic victory | As part of the major events in the overall game (story), there's a victory achieved at such loss the winners might as well count it as a loss. | notifications | 1999 / 2008 | 16 games |
Quick turn(180° turn) | Includes a shortcut to quickly do a 180 degree turn. | notifications | 2013 / 2015 | 3 games |
Race choice (Ethnic group choice) | Player can choose the race of the main character. | notifications | 1981 / 2015 | 31 games |
Radiation (Radioactivity) | Player has to deal with radioactivity and radiation poisoning. | notifications | 1977 / 2018 | 49 games |
Radio tap | For some obscure reason, the player can hear the enemy's radio chatter. | notifications | 1998 / 2013 | 26 games |
Rage meter(Bloodlust;Focus;Adrenaline) | Player gains "rage" or some other vague power from beating up their opponents or doing something else significant, which in turn (briefly) unlocks more powerful moves, additional bonuses or enables other actions/features such as activation of super mode. | notifications | 2002 / 2018 | 144 games |
Rampant creation | Something artificial escapes quarantine, gets broken and functions inappropriately, or does their job too well. | notifications | 2 games | |
Random gender | Player character is assigned gender randomly. | notifications | 2012 / 2013 | 2 games |
Random NPC health | NPC health is randomly chosen whenever they're generated/spawned rather than having a static one. | notifications | 1 game | |
Random protagonist | The protagonist is either randomly chosen from a set of them or randomly generated with little to no player control. | notifications | 2012 / 2018 | 7 games |
Random start gear | Starting equipment is randomized. | notifications | 2012 / 2018 | 6 games |
Random starting equipment(Random starting gear) | The equipment player starts with is randomized. | notifications | 2012 / 2016 | 9 games |
Randomized keycodes(Randomized passcodes) | Keycodes or such are randomized between playthroughs, forcing players to actually find or figure them out instead of relying on walkthroughs or memory of previous playthrough and skipping content. | notifications | 2015 / 2016 | 2 games |
Ranked multiplayer(Multiplayer: Ranked) | notifications | 2009 / 2017 | 25 games | |
Rare concepts | Any tags that describe concepts that are rarely or barely ever seen, and not just because of tagging not being thorough. | list_alt | 2000 / 2003 | 0 game |
Re-animated dead(Revived dead) | Any kind of re-animated dead and not just supernatural undead. Including resurrected and similar entities. | 0 game | ||
Reactive narrator | The narrator reacts to various things the player does or sees instead of only relaying pre-scripted exposition. | notifications | 2011 / 2016 | 5 games |
Real clock | Shows actual time of day for the player instead of in-game time of day (which may actually be the same). | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 7 games |
Recoil | Simulates recoil to some degree, throwing aim off target rather than usual bullet dispersion increasing for a moment or simply nothing at all. | notifications | 1997 / 2017 | 59 games |
Recrafting (Reforging;Recooking;Rebaking)[cyclic crafting] | Some crafted or otherwise player created items can be used as "ingredients" for other things they may craft. | notifications | 1 game | |
Rectangular grid (Square grid;rectgrid) | Uses an ordinary grid of 4 sided convex shapes (rectangles, squares, etc.). | notifications | 1973 / 2023 | 2747 games |
Refillable liquid containers | Liquid containers can be refilled instead of disappearing into the ether completely upon use. | notifications | 2002 / 2018 | 13 games |
Reflected deeds[Wendigos] | The actions one takes are reflected upon their physical appearance, such as making evildoers look monstrous to reflect their inner monstrosity. | notifications | 2003 / 2016 | 18 games |
Region locked | Can only be played on a console with specific region code, an OS installation with specific region selected, or activated online while connected from specific kind of IP address. | notifications | 2007 / 2013 | 6 games |
Reincarnation(transmigrationofthesoul;metempsychosis;rebirth) | The soul and/or spirit lives again in a newborn body after the death of its old one. | notifications | 2001 / 2015 | 4 games |
Reload: Conditional | Reloading can only be performed when certain conditions are met. | notifications | 1978 / 2016 | 3 games |
Reload: Passive | Reloading happens even when the thing isn't held out, continuing as the player swaps to other weapons or tools. | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 4 games |
Reload: Phased(Pauseable) | Reload works in phases or is pauseable. In both cases reloading can be interrupted but is not reset/cancelled entirely but rather continues either exactly or nearly where you left off. | notifications | 1984 / 2012 | 2 games |
Rental service | Certain services, people, tools, or such can be rented for a limited time. | notifications | 2008 / 2015 | 7 games |
Repair limit | Things with durability can only be repaired a limited number of times. | notifications | 3 games | |
Reputation | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Resource industry | Deals with any industry producing basic resources, such as food, minerals, oil, and so forth. | notifications | 1979 / 2015 | 34 games |
Resource respawning | Resources one might forage, mine, cut down, etc. respawn occasionally even if it makes no sense. | notifications | 2016 / 2018 | 2 games |
Resting reset(Reset on rest) | Resting or similar activity resets the world fully or partially. | notifications | 2009 / 2019 | 32 games |
Result estimation[estimated result] | Shows estimated result of actions before you take them. | notifications | 2006 / 2015 | 4 games |
Revisited locales | Certain locations are revisited for some reason. | notifications | 1990 / 2015 | 8 games |
Rise to power (Rise to rulership;Rise to supremacy) | Deals with the protagonist's, a group's they work for, or some secondary character's (that the protagonist works with) ascension to power. | notifications | 2010 / 2015 | 6 games |
Rock-Paper-Scissors Mechanics | Gameplay mechanics includes some RPS-like component, which is at its core: X counters Y, Y counters Z, and Z counters X. | notifications | 1996 / 2019 | 44 games |
Roller coaster battle(Train battle;Minecart battle;Tram battle) | A high-speed battle scene usually in open train, tram, or minecart where player is conveyed through route often similar to roller coaster ride as they fight off attackers. | notifications | 1 game | |
Rotting (Spoiling food) | Organic substances, especially those used for food, eventually rot and spoil. | notifications | 1985 / 2018 | 53 games |
Route indicator (Route calculation) | Player is given a full or almost full route to follow rather than some hotspots or the final destination alone, similar to GPS route calculation. | notifications | 2009 / 2020 | 33 games |
Rumors | Player can hear a variety of rumors. Regardless if any of them are even remotely true. | notifications | 1998 / 2016 | 6 games |
Russian Roulette | Traditionally played with a revolver pistol. This tag refers to principle of players taking turns choosing actions that risk elimination from a game or round by death of the player. | notifications | 1978 / 2014 | 5 games |
S-rank[S rank;SSS-rank;SSS rank] | Uses ranking system that goes from (usually) F to A and then to S, possibly even to SSS beyond that. | notifications | 2001 / 2018 | 11 games |
Safe powers (Safe magic) | Magic and such powers are perfectly safe for the user (and possibly allies) despite appearing extremely dangerous. Such as being able to toss explosive fireballs, rain acid, and summon tornadoes at their own feet without being affected by them themselves. | notifications | 2001 / 2016 | 36 games |
Safe zone (Safe haven;Weapons free zone) | Includes one or more areas where the player character can not attack or be attacked by anyone. Enforced either by changed game mechanics or the player character simply refuses to attack. | notifications | 1982 / 2021 | 92 games |
Sand sea(Sand is water) | Sand behaves like water when convenient, such as animals/monsters swimming around in it or people sailing on the sand with ships. | notifications | 1993 / 2019 | 11 games |
Sanitation | list_alt | 0 game | ||
Satakore (サタコレ) | Satakore means "Saturn collection". Satakore games are japanese Saturn games re-released and sold for ¥2,800. | notifications | 1994 / 1998 | 67 games |
Save anywhere (Location free saves;Unbound saves) | Allows saving the game progress at any point regardless of location with few if any limitations (such as no saving during combat). | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 527 games |
Save on exit (Quit save) | Saves or offers to save game progress when player exits the game. | notifications | 1983 / 2021 | 149 games |
Save points | Allows saving manually at specific locations, such as certain safe rooms or on level change. | notifications | 1982 / 2021 | 374 games |
Scatter indicator (Dispersion indicator) | Shows the possible area or locations in which something will land, such as the possible area where a thrown grenade would fall. Visualizes an area where something will land rather than its exact position. | notifications | 2006 / 2016 | 7 games |
Scenic | The scenery has received extreme attention to detail and depth, and player has numerous chances to admire it. | notifications | 1989 / 2019 | 83 games |
Scientific notation | Uses scientific notation to express very large or small numbers instead of plain numbers. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 2 games |
Score loss | Some things can cause player to lose score (negative score change) rather than simply not gain more of it. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 12 games |
Scrapbook Visuals (Cutouts; Cutout Graphics) | Visuals include photographs, pieces of photographs, shapes cut from a flat objects, and/or items that appear to have been flattened. | notifications | 2007 / 2017 | 3 games |
Screen noise(Analog video noise;Video white noise) | Simulates analog video noise, usually seen as random interference all over the screen that at extreme end is just rapidly changing black and white dots ("snow") all over the screen. | notifications | 1 game | |
Second wind | Characters may, after exerting themselves for a while, suddenly become re-invigorated, regaining all or part of their health, energy, stamina, or such (or all of them). | notifications | 2009 / 2019 | 15 games |
Secondary classes(Trade classes) | Includes secondary classes that are practicable outside of primary classes and do not count for multiclassing or sub-classing with primary classes, usually exist in form of crafting/exploration/solo-oriented classes in MMOs. | notifications | 2009 / 2014 | 2 games |
Secondary conflict | A conflict that occurs at around the same time as the one you're dealing with. The secondary one may be completely unrelated to you, your goals, or such, but it significantly affects how you can go about doing your thing. | notifications | 1992 / 2015 | 17 games |
Segmented health | Player character's health is divided into segments. | notifications | 2005 / 2014 | 14 games |
Self-correcting reality | Reality, time, etc. doesn't like being tampered with and thus tries to correct itself or sends its minions to do this if it can't do it on its own. | notifications | 2001 / 2016 | 9 games |
Semi-automatic map | Map is automatically filled in but only when player prompts it, such as activating a sonar mapping tool, entering a cartography mode where the character fills in a handdrawn map, or some other thing. | notifications | 1991 / 2012 | 7 games |
Seniority choice(Age choice;Maturity choice) | Player has choice of how old the character is, affecting story or gameplay. | notifications | 2014 / 2016 | 4 games |
Series change | Non-spin-off games that change the direction of a series. | notifications | 1996 / 2011 | 12 games |
Series name drop (Series name change) | Bears no outward connection to the series they belong to because the series name was changed or removed altogether. | notifications | 1995 / 2014 | 14 games |
Settlement minigame | Settlement, village, or such management as a minigame, side activity, or such without being a proper city-building or colony sim hybrid. | notifications | 2002 / 2016 | 5 games |
Shadowless | Does not employ any form of shadow projection even though such should be visible. | notifications | 1 game | |
Shared vision | Characters share vision, so if one sees an enemy (or some other thing of interest), the others see them too, giving vision beyond obstacles. | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 4 games |
Shield regeneration (Energy shield regeneration) | Energy shields automatically restore themselves to full power over time. | notifications | 1991 / 2019 | 60 games |
Shock material | Any tags describing content that is likely included only for the shock value attached to it. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Shop restocking | Shops and other sources from which you buy things restock their supplies occasionally. Requires they can run out of items for a while but not indefinitely (except in case of unique items). | notifications | 1997 / 2014 | 2 games |
Shortcut opening | A notable component of the exploration is opening or otherwise enabling shortcuts back to where you were were before, easing traversal back and forth the new areas you are exploring and the old ones and not just for single use kind. | notifications | 2009 / 2018 | 21 games |
Shrapnel | The shockwave of explosions is not the only danger they pose. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 7 games |
Shrinking protagonist | The main character decreases in size, to something smaller than their normal (that is, not including shrinking back to their normal size after being enlarged). | notifications | 1982 / 2018 | 39 games |
Sidegrades | The alternative to upgrades, where equipment are not direct upgrades to others but instead have strengths and weaknesses compared to each other, leading to equipment choice to be either based on what you're dealing with and/or your playstyle. | notifications | 2013 / 2014 | 3 games |
Simon Says | Much of the story or gameplay revolves around doing exactly what you're told, or somehow interacting with that expectation. | notifications | 1977 / 2017 | 18 games |
Simulated insanity | Simulates insanity in one form or another. | notifications | 2002 / 2016 | 31 games |
Simulated law | Any tags referring to simulation of law or similar concepts. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Sir Typhil's Tale | Takes place in the shared universe of Sir Typhil's Tale created by Stand Off Software | notifications | 6 games | |
Skill-based equipment | Items, even trivial ones, can't be used unless you meet certain basic and occasionally somewhat arbitrary skill limitations (e.g. need 15 points in electronics skill to use voltage meter). | notifications | 1999 / 2016 | 22 games |
Slippery surfaces (Slick surfaces)[Ice;Grease;Icy surfaces;Greasy surfaces;Oily surfaces] | Player encounters and must deal with slippery surfaces of any kind (anything that is notably lacking in friction). | notifications | 1987 / 2020 | 45 games |
Slow explosions(Slow-motion explosions) | Explosions take relatively long time to go through compared to real explosions which are near instantaneous. Likely depicted as slowly expanding fireball. | notifications | 1997 / 2000 | 3 games |
Social decline (Moral decline;Social degeneration) | Deals with social/moral decline in some manner, usually as a response to some catastrophe. | notifications | 2012 / 2017 | 8 games |
Soft ability cap | Abilities, skills, spels, etc. have a soft cap on their ranks which can be circumvented in some manner, such as gaining bonuses to ranks from external sources. | notifications | 2015 / 2016 | 4 games |
Sound cues(Auditory cues) | Sound is used as the [u]only[/u] method for finding or realizing something is there, or as the only cue for something for the player to react or act to. Excluding music and sound oriented games where this is expected to be the norm. | notifications | 1977 / 2016 | 15 games |
Space friction | Spacecraft are required to be in constant acceleration to maintain speed. | notifications | 1987 / 2017 | 18 games |
Space warfare | notifications | 1982 / 2016 | 12 games | |
Sparse music | Music is played only in some rare circumstances, otherwise staying silent for most of the game. | notifications | 2011 / 2018 | 5 games |
Spatial logic (Spatial puzzle) | Requires spatial-temporal reasoning. Visual, mental, actual manipulation of shapes/objects that have at least rudimentary realistic spacial relations. | notifications | 1975 / 2022 | 460 games |
Spawn protection | Employs some form of protection to prevent the player character dying soon after spawning in, such as the spawn happening only in safezones where enemies can't enter nor attack, or there's a brief invulnerability timer after spawning. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 8 games |
Specicide (Xenocide) | Player can somehow cause the extinction of a whole species. | notifications | 1985 / 2016 | 8 games |
Species choice | Player can choose the species of the main character. | notifications | 1983 / 2019 | 165 games |
Species penalty(Race penalty;Species skill restrictions;Species class restrictions) | Certain species, sub-races, or such can't ever become as proficient in some skill (or class) as another, no matter what. Or gets other significant penalties that no other get (to such degree). | notifications | 1998 / 2021 | 20 games |
Species uplift[uplifted species] | The story somehow deals with species uplift, either the process, as a goal or past occurrence of such. | notifications | 1992 / 2024 | 41 games |
Species-restricted tasks(Race-restricted tasks)[Species-restricted quests;Species-restricted missions] | Includes tasks, quests, missions or such that are only available to a subset of species/races or even just one. | notifications | 1 game | |
Speech: Artistic language | The characters speak some constructed language made purely for its artistic value (to sound cool). | notifications | 1 game | |
Speech: Inuit(Greenlandic;Inuinnaqtun;Inuktitut;Inupiatun;Inupiat;Inuvialuktun) | Despite the release locale and set language, some or all of the voice overs are in some Inuit tongue. | notifications | 2014 / 2016 | 5 games |
Speed limits | Player must observe appropriate speed limits when driving or otherwise moving around in public locations. | notifications | 1999 / 2011 | 6 games |
Speed of sound | Simulates speed of sound, thus you can see lightning striking, explosions, people lifting their hands to their mouth to shout, gunshots and their effects in distance long before you actually hear them. | notifications | 1 game | |
Spell chance | Spells, abilities, etc. have a chance to not trigger at all when used. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 2 games |
Spheroid world | Instead of regular flat surface of some unspecified size, the world is depicted as a sphere-like mass in-game. | notifications | 1991 / 2017 | 41 games |
Split currency | Wealth is split into several types of cash of differing value. | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 13 games |
Spoiler tags[includes spoiler tags] | Includes non-obvious spoiler tags – as in, things that normally aren't spoilers but are in the context of the game – and/or an article describing them. | notifications | 1983 / 2017 | 38 games |
Spreading vegetation[plant reproduction] | Plants, fungi, etc. reproduce and spread where suitable conditions are present. | notifications | 2005 / 2023 | 23 games |
Staining (Dirtying) | Characters get stained by splattering blood, pillowing dust, or just water clings to them and their clothing. | notifications | 2003 / 2019 | 22 games |
Stamina (Endurance) | Simulates character's ability to continuously perform strenuous physical activity such as running, carrying heavy objects and so on, draining the character's stamina and eventually preventing farther work-out before resting. | notifications | 1993 / 2023 | 226 games |
Standby power(Phantom load) | Simulates standby power, where devices constantly drain (small amount of) power even when not in use while connected to an electric network or power supply such as a battery. | notifications | 2015 / 2016 | 4 games |
Status effects | notifications | 1987 / 2023 | 159 games | |
Status effects: Stacking | Some or all status effects stack on their intensity/effect as opposed to only one instance of the status effect being allowed. Specifically status effects stacking with themselves, not with other unrelated status effects. | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 2 games |
Steam Trading | Supports Steam Trading which allows players to trade in-game items and such between players ignoring game boundaries in terms of what is tradeable for what (though usability is still likely restricted to the particular games). | notifications | 2007 / 2013 | 10 games |
Sticky surfaces | Player encounters and must deal with sticky surfaces of any kind. | notifications | 3 games | |
Stock art | Uses stock visual art of one type or another, usually seen with smaller developers using assets provided by their game making tool or acquired from other free or stock sources. | notifications | 2009 / 2014 | 3 games |
Stock sounds (Stock sound effects) | Employs stock sounds, possibly remastered to fit better into the game experience. | notifications | 1995 / 2011 | 6 games |
Stop-motion animation | Uses digitized stop-motion images. | notifications | 1995 / 2013 | 19 games |
Store exclusive | Exclusive to specific store on a platform. | notifications | 1 game | |
Stormtrooper effect | Characters, beings, or such claimed or otherwise supposed to be extremely skilled at something show excessive incompetence when needing to use it against the protagonist. | notifications | 1991 / 2008 | 9 games |
Story: Dispersed | Story/plot is delivered via scattered pieces, usually diaries, newspaper cutouts, reports, recordings, and other such things. Most of which require player to examine them to get any of it. | notifications | 1999 / 2014 | 4 games |
Stray fire(Stray bullets) | Missed shots can actually hit something. | notifications | 1994 / 2015 | 23 games |
Structure relocation (Building relocation) | Most or even all structures can be relocated somehow. | notifications | 1998 / 2015 | 14 games |
Structure synergy | Placing certain types of structures near each other or connecting them somehow provides additional benefits, other than building X provides increased efficiency to connected/nearby buildings. Includes orchards, animal dwellings, and others as well. | notifications | 2013 / 2017 | 2 games |
Stumbling (Tripping) | Player character and others can stumble, trip over, or such from poor maneuvering. | notifications | 2005 / 2020 | 24 games |
Stupid evil | Evil for sake of evil, especially when that evil is actually more detrimental to the evil person, such as killing people who are helping them or required for certain things. | notifications | 1998 / 2016 | 26 games |
Style bonus | Player gains bonuses (to score, cash, experience, whatever) for doing things stylishly or otherwise in more interesting ways. | notifications | 2011 / 2018 | 18 games |
Subspecies choice(Race choice) | Player has choice of subspecies (non-ethnic race). | notifications | 3 games | |
Succession | Deals with succession, passing the mantle of something on to next person. Especially if this happens repeatedly for the same thing. | notifications | 2012 / 2019 | 2 games |
Sudden sentience (Sudden self-awareness;Unexpected sentience) | Something that shouldn't have sentience (self-aware and dictating its own actions) suddenly finds itself to have that. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 8 games |
Super Science | A variation of science fiction or even weird science where extremely high tech equipment and/or understanding of them is limited to very few people, even one person. The technology is usually not distributed/sold to public for some unexplained reason. | notifications | 1992 / 2014 | 18 games |
Superhuman powers (Superhuman abilities) | This is for tags describing powers, abilities, or technology or some other thing that produces such effects that are clearly superhuman and can't be defined properly otherwise. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Supernatural disaster | Depicts a major supernatural disaster or events immediately caused by it. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 5 games |
Supply and demand | Simulates supply and demand mechanics in economics, with selling price of items rising as the items become more scarce, and buying price lowering as they become more abundant. | notifications | 1977 / 2021 | 24 games |
Sweeping strikes (Cleaving) | Single melee strike can hit multiple targets. | notifications | 1995 / 2016 | 33 games |
Symmetric factions (Identical factions) | The factions have symmetric gameplay. | notifications | 1992 / 2013 | 20 games |
Synergy | Any tags referring to some kind of synergy, where two or more things together provide a greater effect. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Tag team | A type of team fight where only one character is actively controlled while the other waits nearby to be switched over (keeping fighting 1v1). In some instances both can act simultaneously (2v2 or even 2v1). | notifications | 1984 / 2013 | 20 games |
Tangible foes[Tangible enemes] | Enemies block movement just by being there. | notifications | 4 games | |
Target lead indicator | A simple computer aiming aid model which calculates the direction you need to shoot at to hit the target at their current movement vector. | notifications | 2002 / 2016 | 15 games |
Targeted jump | A method of precise jumping in otherwise imprecise system. Player somehow targets where to jump. | notifications | 1984 / 2016 | 8 games |
Task failure(Quest failure) | Failing non-plot critical tasks does not allow repeat attempts. Besides denying task reward, this will also block progress in task chains. | notifications | 1984 / 2015 | 17 games |
Task tracker (Quest tracker;Mission tracker) | Player has an automated tool, explained or not, that automatically tracks vital points of any tasks they've agreed to perform. | notifications | 2000 / 2021 | 218 games |
Taunting loot | Player is shown clear glimpses of loot that they can not get until [i]much[/i] later, especially if this happens frequently. | notifications | 2014 / 2016 | 4 games |
Technological disparity (Mixed technology)[Tech disparity] | Low (primitive) and high technology are mixed on purpose in the depicted setting, such as swords and laser pistols being used at the same time by the same people. | notifications | 1982 / 2018 | 56 games |
Telefrag | A fatality or other often grotesque mishap that occurs when someone already occupies the teleport target location. | notifications | 1995 / 2015 | 30 games |
Temperatu scale options | Offers options on what scale to use for temperature presentation. Likely has celsius and fahrenheit at minimum. | notifications | 2018 / 2020 | 4 games |
Temperature | Temperature by itself can refer to several things. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Temperature changes | Temperature of an area (a room or a larger area) can change on its own or by influence of player (character) or others. | notifications | 1987 / 2020 | 11 games |
Temperature unit choice(Choice between celsius, kelvin and fahrenheit) | Player can choose which temperature unit to display, out of whatever is available. Likely celsius, kelvin and fahrenheit. | notifications | 3 games | |
Templates[templating] | Player can create templates, usually to speed up doing identical or similar groups of actions/tasks later. | notifications | 2000 / 2016 | 9 games |
Text macros(Chat macros) | Has quick to use shortcuts for various pieces of text to send in-game, possibly customizable. | notifications | 3 games | |
Text search | Includes a text search filter to quickly find something from long lists of things. | notifications | 2014 / 2016 | 8 games |
Thaumaturgy | Any tags referring to specific instances of miracle working that are not or can not be bundled or merged with other concepts. | list_alt | 0 game | |
The subject of Ternary Numerals | Features a ternary numeral system (trinary/base-3). | notifications | 1975 / 1979 | 2 games |
Theories | Deals an real life theory or theories. A theory is a group of true sentences which together support a particular conclusion. | list_altnotifications | 1 game | |
Thermal conduction(Heat conduction) | Simulates thermal conduction. | notifications | 2003 / 2020 | 5 games |
Theurgy | A form of magic accomplished by compelling or persuading a god or gods to do it for you. Prayers bringing protection, good fortune, or other positive things to oneself and friends or harm to enemies. | notifications | 1989 / 2021 | 14 games |
Third option | Player is given clear options for what they can do, but the game also recognizes options beyond those clearly given. Especially if this happens repeatedly. | notifications | 2000 / 2016 | 9 games |
Third-party | There's an extra person, group, organization, or something that takes somewhat active role in the depicted events but is not really part of them (steers clear of any conflicts if possible, does not challenge either of the ones fighting). | 0 game | ||
Thirst(Dehydration) | Player must keep their characters and/or minions watered lest they suffer dehydration and possibly death. | notifications | 1983 / 2018 | 32 games |
Threat display | A behaviour meant to scare away any potential adversaries, usually accomplished by making oneself look larger, baring teeth, brandishing weapons (if any), and making threatening noises. Done as a warning to which player may react appropriately. | notifications | 2001 / 2014 | 21 games |
Threat indicator (Detection indicator) | Has some extra HUD or gameplay element that shows the protagonist is in danger even when the player does not know it. Often with several degrees of danger, from NPC suspicion, recognition, search, pursuit, to all out alarm. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 50 games |
Tides | Simulates tides, or similar cyclic rising and falling of water level, to a degree. | notifications | 2011 / 2013 | 4 games |
Time span: Millennia[millenia] | The story covers thousands of years. | notifications | 1 game | |
Time span: Vague | The story of the game covers an indeterminate amount of time, with no clues on how much actual time passes. | notifications | 2 games | |
Time Unit carryover[TU carryover] | Some or all unused time units (or action points or such) are carried over to next turn. | notifications | 2014 / 2017 | 7 games |
Time units[Action points] | Turn-based system that uses a point system (usually named TUs [time units] or action points) to simulate more real-time system where each action takes a varying number of them, such as walking one square takes 1-2, attacking takes 8-16, and so forth. | notifications | 1992 / 2021 | 88 games |
Time zones | Simulates time zones, with time of day being different around the world or on different worlds, instead the same one for all or similar limited system. | notifications | 1984 / 2020 | 10 games |
Time-lapse Images | Utilizes time-lapse images. | notifications | 1 game | |
Timed block attacks | Timing blocks properly causes an attack to be performed in addition to it. | notifications | 1 game | |
Timeout hunter | Once time limit is reached, or just certain time has passed, a hunter of some description is spawned that proceeds to chase the player until they finish the objective or are defeated. | notifications | 1980 / 2018 | 36 games |
Timing puzzle | Puzzle that requires some kind of synchronization between the pieces, and forces the player to measure the time/rhythm of the different parts to solve it. | notifications | 3 games | |
Title mentioned(Eponym) | The game's title is mentioned in dialogue, cutscene or some other story related thing. | notifications | 1983 / 2022 | 536 games |
Titles | Player character may gain one or more titles over the course of the game, such as Champion of Divine Bakery, Verminslayer, Chosen of Bob, or some such. | notifications | 2005 / 2014 | 6 games |
Titular character (Titular protagonist) | Includes a character or such, commonly the protagonist him or herself, to whom the game's title refers to. | notifications | 1983 / 2021 | 609 games |
Titular concept | Involves a concept the game title refers to. | notifications | 2000 / 2005 | 3 games |
Titular entity | Involves an entity the game title refers to. | notifications | 1999 / 2016 | 13 games |
Titular event | Involves an event the game title refers to. | notifications | 1992 / 2020 | 20 games |
Titular group (Titular organization) | Involves a group (organization, company, faction, sect, gang, etc.) the game title refers to. | notifications | 1991 / 2015 | 80 games |
Titular locale[titular location] | Involves a location the game title refers to. | notifications | 1983 / 2023 | 219 games |
Titular object | Involves an object, device, vehicle, or such the game title refers to. | notifications | 1991 / 2022 | 59 games |
Titular vehicle | Involves a vehicle or such the game title refers to. | notifications | 1984 / 2017 | 31 games |
Tombstones [Gravestones;Headstones] | Features humorous quips or references written on tombstones as epitaphs. Likely things the authors couldn't fit anywhere else but didn't want to discard them. | notifications | 1982 / 2017 | 73 games |
Tornados (Twisters;Waterspouts;Typhoons;Hurricanes)[cyclones;vortexes;vortices] | notifications | 1985 / 2003 | 23 games | |
Toxins (Poison;Venom) | The protagonist can get poisoned to varying degrees and must deal with it somehow. | notifications | 1982 / 2021 | 98 games |
Traction | Simulates variances in traction and loss of it. | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 5 games |
Trade | Any and all trade related tags. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Trade with anyone | Player can trade, barter, or such with almost anyone they encounter and is not limited to just actual traders, shops, or similar, assuming the other party is open to such activities (such as not being hostile towards the player character) | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 11 games |
Transcendency(Ascendancy) | Deals with reaching a higher state of being/existence. Usually becoming a higher non-corporeal being, a powerful spirit, demigod or even a full god or one that is indistinguishable from one. | notifications | 1985 / 2014 | 51 games |
Transdimensional (Dimensional overlap) | Involves (the protagonist) existing in multiple dimensions/realities simultaneously or otherwise uses the concept as notable plot or thematic element | notifications | 2009 / 2014 | 3 games |
Transformative corruption | Corruption that transforms those afflicted with it in one or more ways. Especially when this is when simply an idea physically corrupts/transforms someone. This may overlap with body horror, general corruption themes, presence of mutagens, etc. | notifications | 1994 / 2023 | 31 games |
Transforming presence | The presence of the protagonist or something they build/place transforms the surrounding area somehow, commonly with plants sprouting to life where they step. The effect is often temporary, though in some rare cases it's permanent. | notifications | 1999 / 2018 | 19 games |
Triangular grid[Triangle grid] | Uses grid of triangles. | notifications | 1988 / 2019 | 23 games |
Trophies | Objects that have little practical value but can be used to decorate one's home, vehicle, clothing, etc. Usually awarded for significant deeds, such as slaying a terrible monster or rendering a great service to some person or people. | notifications | 2004 / 2014 | 9 games |
Tunnel vision | A condition where person sees only the center (focal) part clearly or sees only that part with everything else indistinguishable. | notifications | 1999 / 2014 | 9 games |
Uncertain ending | The ending is uncertain if the heroes won, if things are better now, if what they did mattered, or any such spell uncertainty if that's the real end of the story or not. | notifications | 1992 / 2016 | 10 games |
Unconfirmed | Entries added before official (public) confirmation has been made for the game (thus these are not necessarily even in development). | notifications | 2013 / 2015 | 3 games |
Unfixed bugs | Exhibits significant game breaking bugs even after having been moved out of support phase. | notifications | 1980 / 2017 | 35 games |
Unique minions(Unique underlings) | Players minions, underlings, troops, etc. are all or mostly unique individuals and thus if lost something unique about them is lost as well. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 58 games |
Universal theatre (Universal theatre of war;Universal theatre of operations) | notifications | 1994 / 2014 | 20 games | |
Unknown past (Blank past) | What the protagonist did or was before the beginning of the game is never revealed. | notifications | 1990 / 2022 | 124 games |
Unsteady camera (Unsteady perspective) | The camera moves about on its own. Likely to give sense that you're seeing the things from someone's or something's eyes or from a camera carried around by someone than the artificial fixed view you normally have. | notifications | 2010 / 2015 | 10 games |
Unused content(Cut content) | The data included with the game includes notable content that is not actually used in the game itself, often revealed by analysing the game data outside of the game. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 4 games |
Update retcon | Disregards or blatantly changes (story/mythos) facts compared to an earlier version of the game. | notifications | 2004 / 2013 | 4 games |
Upkeep | Your hirelings, projects, or other things require resources to be diverted to them for them to continue working. | notifications | 1990 / 2019 | 49 games |
UVL maintenance: Confusable | Any games that can be easily confused with another game by same or similar name on same or related platform. | notifications | 1970 / 2021 | 2843 games |
UVL Maintenance: Generic tie-in tag | Needed when migrating the tie-in game type to tags, now these games have to be tagged more specifically. | notifications | 1981 / 2021 | 2245 games |
UVL Maintenance: Phonetic Title Listed | An officially used phonetic title is listed in the game entry as an alternate title. | notifications | 1 game | |
UVL maintenance: SKU problem | Known to have missing or incomplete SKU information. Or has a known technical problem (such as improper barcodes on packaging, and such difficulties) | notifications | 1983 / 2016 | 57 games |
UVL Steam Coverage Check | This is a maintenance tag to use when all the platforms involved have an entry. | notifications | 2007 / 2017 | 51 games |
UVL: Image Issues | This is a maintenance tag. The stored images have some unexpected issues ( i.e. thumbnails were not generated ) | notifications | 1 game | |
UVL: Images are safe, but not 'front page appropriate' | A maintenance tag to be removed from games later. For safe images that might give UVL visitors the wrong impression about UVL if seen on the main page | notifications | 1 game | |
UVL: Refining needed | Any tags that are or seem to be in need of refining, better or more clearly defining what they are about and providing examples if some of the proposed concepts are vague or limited in scope. | list_alt | 0 game | |
UVL: Tags that may need renaming | This is maintenance tag for other tags that need their raw name changed. Usually a menial but time consuming task. | list_alt | 0 game | |
UVL: Version synchronization | This is maintenance tag for game entries that need to be synchronized with other more complete versions/ports of the game, such as copying basic game information and tags. | notifications | 2009 / 2012 | 7 games |
Vague story | The story is told only bits and pieces that don't entirely connect if at all, leaving a lot to be made up by the players. | notifications | 2011 / 2018 | 9 games |
VAGUE: Adventure | This could possibly mean `adventure game´ or `adventure fiction´. | list_alt | 0 game | |
VAGUE: Chat macros | This either refers to `text macros´ or `voice macros´. | 0 game | ||
VAGUE: Voice commands | This either refers to `voice macros´ or `voice control´ | 0 game | ||
Vaguely Naturalistic | While is has nothing overtly magical, paranormal, psychic, mystic, super powers, technomagic, nor magical technology, some elements are not clearly so | notifications | 1980 / 2018 | 16 games |
Vanity items[Transmog;Glamor;Infusion;Infuse] | Player has access to items that do nothing but change the characters appearance and possibly sounds, having absolutely no impact in actual gameplay. Usually these have separate slots from normal gear. | notifications | 2003 / 2021 | 28 games |
Variable ability power (Variable magic power) | Player can use variable amount of power, force, time, etc. on performing a magic spell, ability or similar. Such as by selecting the power level each time the ability is used. | notifications | 1993 / 2015 | 13 games |
Variable gravity | Gravity is not uniform across a map, level, or other similar area with clear boundaries. | notifications | 2010 / 2015 | 3 games |
Variety bonus | Player gains bonuses (to score, cash, experience, whatever) for varying the method of doing whatever gives a reward. | notifications | 2013 / 2014 | 3 games |
Vendor trash | Objects that have absolutely no value for the player regardless of character build outside of being sold, and usually of sufficient monetary value to keep around specifically for that purpose. Usually things like jewellery, gems, and other trinkets. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 67 games |
Verse | Game features words presented with metric and/or rhythm and most likely rhyming. | notifications | 2 games | |
Veterancy (Unit experience) | Your underlings gain experience when they participate and stay alive. | notifications | 1984 / 2016 | 129 games |
Virgins | Deals with virgins, regardless of the reasons for it, but puts some importance to the fact. | notifications | 1 game | |
Vision indicator(Sight visualization) | Player is given some form of indicator of where other characters can see. | notifications | 1 game | |
Visionary plan (Plan of foresight) | Story involves a plan set in motion long ago in anticipation of future threat. | notifications | 2003 / 2011 | 13 games |
Visualized trajectory[throw trajectory;projectile trajectory;trajectory indicator] | Non-straight trajectories are visualized somehow for the player, usually for thrown objects. | notifications | 2009 / 2018 | 55 games |
Vocal powers (Power of Voice)[sonic powers;sonant powers] | The player character expresses unusual powers with his/her speech, singing or voice in general. | notifications | 2007 / 2011 | 4 games |
Voice macros(Voice commands) | Simple pre-defined voice overs that may or may not be actual commands. Commonly exist in place of or as supplementary to text chat, voice chat, and text macros. | notifications | 2005 / 2016 | 18 games |
Volume grid | Uses any shaped grid with volume. | notifications | 1974 / 2014 | 63 games |
Vorarephilia(Vore) | Caters to people with vorarephilia, the act of being eaten or eating someone else. Divided into soft and hard vore, where the latter is gorey and grotesque while the former is harmless to the one being eaten. | notifications | 2008 / 2010 | 5 games |
VR: Room-scale | The VR experience is meant to be experienced while standing with plenty room to move about without bumping into things, meaning motion controllers and full body tracking or at least position tracking within that room is included. | notifications | 2016 / 2019 | 3 games |
VR: Seated | The VR experience is meant to be experienced while seated. This is the most basic VR experience as it likely means it doesn't use motion sensors besides head tracking if even that. | notifications | 2014 / 2017 | 9 games |
VR: Standing | The VR experience is meant to be experienced while standing. | notifications | 2016 / 2017 | 4 games |
VR: Vehicle locomotion | VR experience is in something that clearly is identifiable as passenger in a vehicle. | notifications | 1 game | |
Wardrobe malfunction damage(Clothing damage) | Damage taken is presented as wardrobe malfunctioning to one degree or another, revealing more and more of specifically intimate bits. | notifications | 2013 / 2018 | 8 games |
Water (Liquids) | Any tags related to how water or other liquids behave or how player interacts with it. | list_alt | 0 game | |
Water walk[water walking;walking on water] | Includes a limited use device, ability, spell, or such that allows the protagonist to walk on water as if it was solid ground. | notifications | 2005 / 2018 | 14 games |
Wavering aim | All or most ranged weapons (possibly even melee weapons) suffer from the aim wavering about, possibly getting worse the longer you aim. | notifications | 1 game | |
Waypoints | Player can set waypoints through which their characters or other units go through in order. | notifications | 1997 / 2023 | 70 games |
Weapon experience (Growing weapons;Weapon levels) | Rather than the character wielding a weapon becoming more practiced and skilled in using it, the weapon itself gains power through its use. | notifications | 2000 / 2018 | 14 games |
Wetting[Drenching;Soaking] | Things, especially characters and other creatures, can become wet/drenched. Alone this hardly does anything significant, so features that work with it are required. | notifications | 2011 / 2016 | 11 games |
Wild magic | Features magic or other powers that have unpredictable extraneous results. Not for magic that has completely random effects. | notifications | 2000 / 2015 | 11 games |
Wind indicator | Includes an indicator for wind direction and possibly speed. | notifications | 1983 / 2018 | 160 games |
Window entry/exit[Window exit] | Player can enter or exit locations through all or most windows (not counting armored windows or steel mesh reinforced ones or similar), by smashing the window if necessary. | notifications | 1998 / 2017 | 24 games |
Witnesses | Various activities (usually criminal) can have witnesses who can be eliminated in that capacity somehow (by bribing, killing, coercing, etc.) | notifications | 2001 / 2012 | 10 games |
Workers(Worker placement) | Work sites need workers and player can assign and re-assign those workers at will. Likely involves managing a limited workforce. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 62 games |
World domination | The plot involves someone (protagonist, antagonist, or some third party) trying to take over the world, galaxy, or the whole universe. | notifications | 1991 / 2016 | 24 games |
Xbox Classics (Best of Classics) | Budget range for games on the Microsoft consoles in PAL regions. | notifications | 2006 / 2013 | 4 games |
Xbox LIVE Gold | Requires Xbox LIVE Gold subscription to play (online) besides any other fees (such as the game's own subscription fee) | notifications | 2 games | |
Zoned global lighting | Global lighting is changed by zones. Simple way to provide mood lighting for zones without volumetric lighting or similar, but causes transition areas between such zones to behave oddly with light. | notifications | 2011 / 2018 | 4 games |
Zoophilia(Bestiality) | 2 games |