No-Bullshit Games

https://nobsgames.stavros.io/

by doener • 3 years ago

440 170 3 years ago

nobsgames.stavros.io

I've been looking for a list like this for months.

kiwih• 3 years ago

Wow, this is cool! It has never made sense to me that a platform with thousands of times more compute and capabilities than Gameboys from two decades ago is worse in every regard for gaming. Hopefully resources like these can be used to both find and promote good works!

zigman1• 3 years ago

Younger generations really have it bad with how the market treats them as customers. I highly doubt they experience same level of joy as previous generations using gameboys and similar devices did.

I honestly feel majority of the games at that time were made by people genuinely in love with games and stories, whereas now, it's mostly opportunistic cash grabbing incentive. Not saying nice and well done games don't exist, but it is hard for casual young player to come in touch with them

Tanoc• 3 years ago

The rewards system for many games has been horribly screwed up. Constant small rewards are common on most mobile games, rather than the segmented rewards of old games where often the more effort was required the bigger the reward. The kids have little to no concept of payoff and expect a constant flow of action to reward. Suika Game, which was recently popular, is a prime example. Nearly every time you drop a fruit a reaction happens and you get a small reward. This also seems to be creating a general impatience I'm seeing in children where if there's downtime or slow segment they start looking for other forms of stimulation. It honestly makes me very worried because that behaviour might be extending to their everyday life rather than just with videogames.

bdw5204• 3 years ago

The Gameboy didn't have access to the internet which meant you couldn't do most of the modern business models on it. The only way to make money off of a Gameboy game was to sell it in a store. It was impossible to patch it after it was released so you had to make sure all of the bugs were fixed instead of just shipping it unfinished and patching it later. There was no way to play a game off of a server and no way to track "hours of gameplay" or "player count" to optimize for addictiveness. Without an internet connected platform, these things were impossible.

kibwen• 3 years ago

I yearn for an app permission of the form "can never access the network, period", and I don't just mean that it can't initiate or receive network requests, but also that it can't receive updates. In other words, once you install it, both you and (more importantly) the developer understand that the game is done. It's apparently unimaginable to people today, but this is how games worked for decades (and yes, every game that was worth its salt Just Worked, without major bugs).

TillE2• 3 years ago

The huge intrinsic problem with phone games is that your only real I/O device is a tiny touchscreen. This is a massive, often underrated limitation. You can't just port over games which are designed for a controller, and you can't make entire categories of games, at least not well.

It's not an easily solvable problem, and it's why platforms like the Steam Deck and the Switch will continue to be extremely popular.

kyriakos• 3 years ago

Either it hasn't been updating or all games after 2020 were bullshit.

stavros19• 3 years ago

Please submit the games you know!

palsecam2• 3 years ago

If you take installable Progressive Web Applications: https://FreeSolitaire.win

dfex• 3 years ago

I will pay GOOD MONEY, one time for games that entertain me without the aforementioned bullshit, but it appears I am not the target audience for most App store devs.

Thank you for this!

stavros19• 3 years ago

You're very welcome!

JKCalhoun• 3 years ago

Sadly App Store devs have been driven to this by the race to the bottom (in price).

Charge even $0.99 for an App in the App Store and you'll get no downloads. We've apparently trained users that apps are free and devs have to fall in line and figure out how to squeeze a living out of "freemium".

Sucks.

olliej2• 3 years ago

Anything from wadjet eye games is worth playing.

That said I feel the conflation of “demo+upgrade to full game” and “‘free’ game with unending pay to play” in the iOS App Store at least is miserable.

If I see an app that says “in app purchases” I ignore it as scamware unless there’s been some review I saw elsewhere. This is of course a problem AppStores could fix if they cared.

hnlmorg• 3 years ago

Yeah, I agree that “in app purchases” needs to be contextualised better. Even with non-game apps, it’s hard to tell what to expect. For example:

- does it just mean you can manage a subscription service via the app (if you hadn’t paid for it elsewhere)?

- is it to remove ads?

- is it to download extra 3rd party content like songs or TV / films?

- do you get a full basic app but you can buy “features”?

- are you paying for a demo that lasts a month or is severely crippled to the point that it’s basically unusable for the advertised function?

Some of those usages are perfectly reasonable reasons to want in app purchases. Others are signs that the app is bullshit. But there’s no way to tell just by looking at the term “in app purchases”

olliej2• 3 years ago

exactly. There's a world of difference between "demo with paid upgrade", "full app with additional features you can pay for", "game you can only really win if you buy add ons", "glorified gambling" :-/

franze• 3 years ago

why install anything at all? i started to create my own "not getting hooked more than 1min games - no ads - no tracking" together with chatgpt

ie https://updownredgreenetc.franzai.com/

https://spinner.franzai.com/

https://flapimoji.franzai.com/

and the old (pre AI coding support) once viral http://lalo.li/lsd/

flarion• 3 years ago

hilarious. +1 any blog where you explain the process?

Kableado• 3 years ago

Candy Fucker https://varstudio.net/CandyFucker/ Developed mostly bored on a bus.

[/ShamelessPlug]

renegat0x03• 3 years ago

I like when domains have some sort of order.

https://franzai.com domain shows only a face. There are no links to subdomains pinner. http://lalo.li/ shows voice message, the ball game is hidden within the domain.

The domain structure is a mess.

dalmo3• 3 years ago

What's the logic behind the spinner one? I've got to lvl 49 but still no idea what I'm actually trying to do.

benjijay• 3 years ago

The tab title is "let the worm finally catch its tail" so uh... tappy make go fast, get points, dopamine?

jezzamon• 3 years ago

Filtering the app store for paid apps is a pretty good way to get a list that looks a lot like this. A lot of goods cross platform games are also on mobile.

supermatt2• 3 years ago

With 2 games added in 2023, and 1 game in 2022 this is either very out-of-date or there are very few bullshit-free games being created for iOS

ido• 3 years ago

A lot of them got added to Apple Arcade and Netflix Games (aside from Minecraft my kids are only allowed games from these 2 services, as I know they don’t contain ads and IAPs).

supermatt2• 3 years ago

Yeah, Apple Arcade seems to have been generally good, but some of the games were clearly designed as IAP games before being licensed to apple. For example, the star-trek game still has the mechanics for pay progression, but with no store. So you still experience the free-play "delays" preventing progress without waiting real-world time.

stavros19• 3 years ago

Please add any games you know (they are automatically added if they contain no ads and IAP).

unsupp0rted3• 3 years ago

"The Room" is my favorite series of no-bullshit games. Buy it, get n hours of enjoyment from solving the puzzles, move on. Then replay a few years later after you've forgotten more than half of it.

Also try Disc Brick. It's what I play on airplanes while listening to podcasts.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/disc-brick/id1476442754

levi_n• 3 years ago

Thank you for the Disc Brick recommendation. A no bullshit brick-breaker type game was literally what I was looking for.

unsupp0rted3• 3 years ago

Paying it forward :) Pretty sure I heard about Disc Brick here on HN years ago (the original pre flashy highlights/colors version was my preference).

AHTERIX5000• 3 years ago

Subscribing to Apple Arcade is another solution to the same problem. You probably end up paying for games anyway if you want to avoid microtransactions, ads and dark patterns.

Toutouxc2• 3 years ago

I have Apple Arcade as part of Apple One, but My Talking Angela 2? Delicious: Miracle of Life? Kingdoms: Merge & Build? They may not have microtransactions, but most of Apple Arcade games are still bullshit low effort games clearly aimed at kids.

ACow_Adonis• 3 years ago

but... subscriptions ARE a dark pattern?

renegat0x03• 3 years ago

Nobody said they are dark patterns, but are tied real closely. Not only in games.

https://www.schneiderwallace.com/media/dark-patterns-making-...

For some things subscriptions were introduced to gain control over their product remotely, or to remove your ownership of a product.

sillywalk• 3 years ago

I've got Apple One, it does have some good games, but I HATE the AD Notifications that pop-up. Ads for other games.

YokoZar• 3 years ago

There was a site just like this about a decade ago called "Honest Android Games". The criteria were almost exactly the same.

It closed down as the author didn't have the time for it anymore: https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidGaming/comments/2ggaqp/i_had...

stavros19• 3 years ago

It does take a bit of time, but hopefully with a bit of crowdsourcing, it can be ok.

ElongatedMusket2• 3 years ago

Crowdsourcing invites a fox into the henhouse. The list will get polluted with masqueraded fake recommendations by multiple "people"

rchaud• 3 years ago

Probably because the list needed constant maintenance. A game that was micro transaction free in January could have changed their business model by June. You genuinely have to keep playing every game constantly to make sure it continued to satisfy the original conditions

unobatbayar• 3 years ago

Really want to browse the games but it's astonishingly slow.

stavros19• 3 years ago

Yeah, it's being HNed right now. It's usually very snappy.

slalomskiing• 3 years ago

If you’re on iOS Apple Arcade is basically this

It’s like all high quality games with no ads/microtransactions

Although the dumb thing is you can’t buy the games separately without subscribing

I usually just get 1 month of it when travelling and play a bunch of them

politelemon2• 3 years ago

Although the dumb thing is you can’t buy the games separately without subscribing

Sounds like BS to me.

bzzzt• 3 years ago

Most of the games on Apple Arcade are 'high quality' regarding production values, but that doesn't mean the games are 'great'. I found a lot of games I already played before and while there are some gems there most of it is a bit bland.

I also wonder what the subscription model will do to games. There's a big incentive mismatch regarding competition if gamers are paying anyway which will probably lead to more of the same old from established publishers.

gwervc• 3 years ago

Totally agree with your first paragraph. I tested Apple Arcane some time after is release and every game I tested (about 10) was some kind of experimental appleish indie game caricature: very stylish and beautiful but with minimal gameplay. None of them got me hooked, none felt like real games, all were very bland.

arun-mani-j• 3 years ago

Hint: If the game has its own currency (coins, diamonds, etc) which you can buy for real money, it's bullshit and you shouldn't submit it.

But there are games where you can use real money to buy golds and diamonds and spend them purely on cosmetics like costumes, pets etc.

They don't give you any advantage in game play or progression.

An example is Adventure Quest 3D. From their Google Play description:

NOT PAY-TO-WIN

- Finally, an MMO that's not going to wreck your wallet

- Earn power & cool items through gameplay. Wow, what a concept!

- Optional cosmetics if you’d like to support us… and our anime obsession ^_^

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.battleon.a...

teddyh2• 3 years ago

“It's Just Cosmetic”:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce5CDrq4dGg>

noirscape• 3 years ago

I get the argument you're presenting, but sometimes it's important to put your foot on the ground and say a hard no to even the cosmetic microtransactions.

Generally speaking these lists in part exist as buyers guides to those who don't have great impulse control to not buy microtransactions and that's something relevant to consider. "One buy and done" seems to be the hard criteria here (with some lenience if the "one buy" is an ad removal).

stavros19• 3 years ago

As sibling commenters said, I'm OK with those kinds of games in theory, but in practice coins are a very reliable indicator of bullshit. Since it's just me checking the games once in a while, I'd rather categorize all games with coins as bullshit, rather than have to wade through the shit 99% to find the good 1%.

Maybe if this gets more popular and people want to help out, it'll be worth it more. I agree with you in principle.

Toutouxc2• 3 years ago

Some games that I feel like have honest monetisation and that actually make sense on a mobile device:

  PinOut! (few hours of futuristic pinball obstacle course, banger soundtrack!!)
  Smash Hit (futuristic glass-breaking obstacle course, great on iPad, nice soundtrack)
  Human Resource Machine and 7 Billion Humans (human-powered assembler with a story)
  Little Inferno (burning stuff with a story, great on iPad)
  Machinarium (cute hand-drawn adventure with robots)
  Alto's Adventure (surprisingly relaxing one-button game, nice in the winter)
  World of Goo (bit like those bridge-building games, but cute and with a story)

teddyh2• 3 years ago

Three of those are from the same team. Don’t forget “7 Billion Humans” from the same team, either.

politelemon2• 3 years ago

The rating field allows negative ratings, could you limit it to a lower bound of zero.

merelysounds• 3 years ago

My more minimal take – user friendly browser games, working on desktop and mobile: https://merely.xyz/games

palsecam2• 3 years ago

Nice little collection!

I suggested adding https://freesolitaire.win (minimal Klondike Solitaire game, self-plug) to the list, via the Google Form ;-)

BoppreH2• 3 years ago

I'm happy to see the push for this kind of anti-features.

My personal suggestion: Netflix Games[1] have higher quality than usual and no ads, no in-app purchases, and no predatory tactics (in the games I tried). Bonus points for being all free if you already have a Netflix account.

I can vouch for Poinpy[2], Laya's Horizon[3], Lucky Luna[4], and Skies of Chaos[5]. I haven't tried the mobile ports, but the desktop versions were very good: Into the Breach[6], World of Good[7], and Kentucky Route Zero[8].

The downside is that some Netflix'ied games seem to be buggy, and it requires an online connection on startup to check your account status.

[1] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/121442

[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netflix.NG...

[3] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netflix.NG...

[4] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netflix.NG...

[5] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netflix.NG...

[6] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netflix.NG...

[7] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netflix.NG...

[8] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netflix.NG...

Black616Angel• 3 years ago

The mobile version of Into the Breach is really good. I played it even longer than the desktop version.

smusamashah• 3 years ago

They are not free when they need a monthly subscription.

vallode• 3 years ago

Just an FYI, all of those google play links are 404s. Seems HN cut off the query parameter after "netflix.NG" :)

BoppreH2• 3 years ago

Thanks, it's fixed! It was my own fault, I edited part of my comment by copying it back into the text box.

seanhunter• 3 years ago

Into the breach is great. Sort of like sudoku with giant killer robots with wierdly specific combinations of abilities. It's not only available on netflix for people who want to try it. I bought it on Steam.

stavros19• 3 years ago

Please submit all these games, I've tried some of them too and agree that they're great.

codeulike3• 3 years ago

It annoys me on the iOS App Store you can't search for 'paid' apps. The choices are either 'free' or 'any'. The paid apps generally involve much less bullshit than the free ones but they are always lost in the search. The only way to find paid apps is to look at the charts.

What really annoys me is freemium games for kids that insist you start a subscription (for no good reason) to get rid of the ads, instead of a one-off payment. They are literally banking on parents forgetting about subscriptions.

lukeholder• 3 years ago

I just stick to Apple Arcade games as a rule.

willis936• 3 years ago

I'd rather do nothing at all than partake in the cartel.

Lalabadie• 3 years ago

Oddly, their offer is ridiculously small outside of the US. There are good games, but for example, every single one featured in Arcade's launch trailer is unavailable in Canada.

I'd have expected that with their experience (Music, TV, App Store), they would have done better there.

codeulike3• 3 years ago

Dont want to let my kids loose on Apple Arcade though. I like to curate exactly what they get to play - educational games with no advertising or bullshit.

Gareth3212• 3 years ago

It annoys me on the iOS App Store you can't search for 'paid' apps. The choices are either 'free' or 'any'.

Because Apple are really a big back of dicks. In a few months in the EU we’ll be able to install third party app stores and I welcome some actual competition.

stavros19• 3 years ago

Wait, what? On iOS? That's fantastic news, how did I miss that? Do you have an article or reference perhaps?

EDIT: Found one, very interesting: https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/13/23507766/apple-app-store...

mikepurvis3• 3 years ago

Honestly, even non-game apps. I was looking for a white noise generator to use with a Bluetooth speaker recently and was appalled at several of the top picks in that category having subscriptions— and not just any subscription, but like $5-10/mo. For some looping sound files.

I ended up going with Noisli; it may not have all the features, but it's at least simple and straightforward and had a modest one time fee to unlock all functionality.

vladvasiliu• 3 years ago

Depending on what you need, iOS does have a background noise generator.

Settings -> accessibility -> audio / visual -> background sounds

You can even add them to the quick control panel or whatever it's called.

ToucanLoucan3• 3 years ago

While unpopular, I do understand the rationale for the subscription model. Even if it's "just some looping sound files," an app project like that is never really "done" because of Apple's ever evolving operating system demanding revision on the developer's part, or the software will stop working. And that's not even going into the cost of running a server, which the majority of apps, even simple ones, require for cross-device functionality.

I understand the bitterness on the part of users, especially with so many subscriptions (including this one, IMO) being quite egregiously priced. But at the same time, the app market on both platforms is extremely competitive and it's difficult to get an app to a level of popularity where advertising or lower charges can fund the effort involved to keep maintaining it.

I don't really have an answer here, unfortunately. I think the availability of free apps for phones for decades based on the hand-wavy ad-tech "we'll monetize user data later" has created the impression among phone users that just because software runs on their phone and not their PC, that it has basically no worth. It's not as if the code is easier to write for a smaller screen.

unsupp0rted3• 3 years ago

I like Noizio for this. $10, no BS.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/noizio-calm-meditate-sleep/id9...

tgsovlerkhgsel• 3 years ago

Likewise, the Google Play store shows you which apps have ads and which have in-game purchases, but doesn't let you filter by those criteria.

93po2• 3 years ago

I installed an app recently that had a 7 day free trial. Cool, I'll do that, I'm excited for the app. I immediately cancelled the autopayment on the trial after signing up because I wanted to explicitly evaluate at the end of the trial instead of have it assumed i want to continue. The app then immediately cut off my trial access. It's frustrating that Apple even tells the app developer that it was cancelled.

nacs• 3 years ago

This is one of the anti-consumer things about the Apple App store and it applies to Apple's own apps too..

I subscribed to Apple Music with their 3 month trial and shortly after redeeming, I hit cancel on the subscription to prevent auto-rebill.

It immediately revoked my access to Apple Music and my 90 day trial disappeared. Same with Apple TV trials, etc.

Now I'm forced to set a Calendar reminder when I activate any kind of trial to remind me to cancel before the automatic rebill.

stavros19• 3 years ago

Hey everyone, thanks for upvoting this so highly! I made it a while ago, and it takes some reviewing time to keep it up to date, so I mostly haven't. If anyone would like to help curate the games, please shout!

ykonstant• 3 years ago

What an amusing coincidence; yesterday I decided to buy some games after almost 2 years since my last purchase. The games were the Room collection and Agent A, which appear in the first two pages of your list!

ciroduran• 3 years ago

Good to see Transport Tycoon there, even if it's got a 3.8 rating on iOS. I played this game a lot when it came out in 2014, and I played the original TT back in the a lot as well. It's a good one.

rijoja• 3 years ago

Unciv is absolutely amazing as well, for all the civilization fans out there!

slmjkdbtl• 3 years ago

I've also been collecting great iOS games, here's some:

https://space55.xyz/files/iosgames.jpg (a lot are great desktop / console games that also released on iOS)

Michael Brough is my favorite game designer that regularly release games on iOS. Please recommend me more if we have similar taste!

msl09• 3 years ago

I've spent a good amount of time (and money!) trying to replicate in me the joy that other people seem to have playing games on phones. Then I discovered novels (stupid, I know) and I never looked back if I'm too fidgety to read another chapter, honestly I'm probably not going to enjoy doing anything else at that moment.

So this is my recommendation for people that haven't quite enjoyed playing games on phones in the past and wonder if no-bullshit games are the solution. Maybe give a different medium a try!

stavros19• 3 years ago

Fun fact: The single biggest problem this service has faced in accepting contributions is people submitting bullshit games with "I know you can pay to win, but it's really not so bad if you grind". I apparently have failed to be explicit enough on "no bullshit" :P

boppo1• 3 years ago

People who like f2p looter shooters are just a different breed.

joenot443• 3 years ago

There's an incoming generation who was raised on them, I'm not happy about it, but I think that's probably the way the industry's headed.

stavros19• 3 years ago

Also, for those of you who add/report apps and add extensive notes about IAP/ad status: I love you, you make this much easier, thank you!

zamadatix2• 3 years ago

If instead of "bullshit/no-bullshit" games were tagged with one of many predefined attributes like "pay to avoid grind" or "unremovable ads" it might benefit twofold. First because it becomes that much clearer when a person enters the game it should have that tag and that tag can be filtered by default and enables them to see why a certain game was already entered but not in the list without trying to resubmit. Second because people who don't mind a certain attribute are able to disable one of the default criteria if they want while still leveraging the others i.e. more flexibility in use.

stavros19• 3 years ago

Hmm, I don't know if I want to add "pay to win" games to the list, even with a tag, as then that will just be every game on the play store. I will think about it, though, thank you!

ssag2• 3 years ago

Thank you for your work and dedication to this. This was sorely needed.

stavros19• 3 years ago

Thanks, I'm glad you like it!

kacovvv• 3 years ago

Hello ssag2! I am trying to create the next Reddit. Can you reach me via fsuaterdogan@icloud.com? Many thanks!

TillE2• 3 years ago

I respect having firm criteria, but I'd say that games like Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering Arena are in a totally different category from the typical F2P bullshit. Mostly because they're real games that are designed to be games first rather than a money-extraction machine.

But also like, I played MTGA for a very long time and only ever spent money on cosmetics.

emmelaich• 3 years ago

Thanks for the site, fantastic.

Can you add more filters? Also it'd be nice for clicking the sort column a secod time to reverse the order.

JohnFen3• 3 years ago

That's downright poetic: people using bullshit logic to justify bullshit games.

foxyv• 3 years ago

I wonder if I could create a game that has two buttons: One is "Play" and all that happens is it increases a number. The other is "Pay" and it increases the number to 1 trillion if you pay $5 then flashes something like "You win!"

Would people actually pay me $5 to see the number go up?

bradknowles2• 3 years ago

KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, and Icewind Dale are not Strategy RPGs. They are Tactical, turn-based RPGs.

You should also be able to apply multiple filters. So, I would want to turn on those three filters -- RPGs, Tactical, and Turn-based. Because I'm not interested in turn-based strategic games where I'm trying to manage a whole army, I just want to manage my small party of maybe five to eight PCs/NPCs.

Otherwise, this looks like a pretty good list. Could you also do one for macOS?

Thanks!

bradknowles2• 3 years ago

Oh, and it would also be good if the list of tags that you can filter by is sorted, preferably alphanumerically.

renegat0x03• 3 years ago

Many people complain about the quality of search at corporations. Amazon, Google play store, youtube etc.

If their search is indeed not good, then I see a great opportunity in creating custom search filters, as a community.

ElongatedMusket2• 3 years ago

I'm assuming once that site got even remotely popular, it would be smacked with a cease & desist

But that's just the pessimist in me complaining about bigCo.

Sites exist like "CanIStreamIt?" for years and haven't been shut down by Netflix/Amazon, so maybe there's a legal way to go about it?

azemetre• 3 years ago

Why would they get hit with a C&D? What are they doing wrong?

jerf2• 3 years ago

Bare facts have no protection. Netflix owns Squid Game's media content, but they have no ownership over "Netflix has a program called Squid Game that is currently available." or "As of blahblah date Netflix will no longer have Squid Game available in CountryX."

Asooka• 3 years ago

Are we reinventing web rings and directories? I don't mind, those were fun!

mcphage5• 3 years ago

If their search is indeed not good, then I see a great opportunity in creating custom search filters, as a community.

It's not, but creating good custom search filters is a lot of effort, and not easy to monetize.

clouddrover10• 3 years ago

Fundamentally most video games are bullshit. They won't improve you, they won't build you any capability. A lot of them are designed to be as addictive as poker machines and they will waste your finite time. They won't do you much good.

The exceptions are high quality educational games (or utilities, if you like) that actually teach a skill like piano playing or touch typing or spelling or arithmetic, etc.

Supermancho3• 3 years ago

Fundamentally, games are about understanding reality and pushing personal limits. Most mobile games focus on a combination of creativity, probability, timing, statistics and logic as a form of entertainment.

Not appreciating what they offer, is not the same as having nothing to offer. The world rewards those with higher skill ceilings in many of these verticals, when leveraged outside of games.

clouddrover10• 3 years ago

The world rewards those with higher skill ceilings in many of these verticals, when leveraged outside of games.

It really doesn't. Even e-sports are not profitable for most of the participants:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/20/technology/e-sports-reven...

Self deception is not a useful quality.

mcphage5• 3 years ago

Not everything in life is about being as productive as possible. Play is healthy, as is joy.

clouddrover10• 3 years ago

You'll get more health, joy, and life satisfaction out of the capability you develop from an actual skill set than you'll ever get from mashing buttons to make some lights blink.

imglorp• 3 years ago

Wonderful! I would like to see an indication for "no data collected."

Looking for a game just yesterday, was shocked to see it declared to collect FINANCIAL data, plus location and identifying info. WTF? How and why should any app even have access to financial data? Nope.

ourmandave• 3 years ago

IAP = In App Purchase

from-nibly• 3 years ago

I have like 8 apps on my home screen and slice and dice is one of them. Best 8 bucks I've ever spent on a video game period.

everdrive• 3 years ago

Seems like a regression. Just make peace with the fact that any phone-based games are generally going to be awful. Do some exceptions exist? Sure, but there’s no point in looking for them. Just play games on a real computer or a game console. Emulating on a phone is probably the only potential solution which makes sense.

dbspin• 3 years ago

Fortunately there's no need to look for them, this list solves that. Lots of people would like to casually game on their phone without running the gauntlet of the app stores.

Darthy• 3 years ago

It's a good list, but I feel "Mario Run", a single player game that refuses to run if not connected to the internet (and will also fail to run in a few years when Nintendo gets bored and turns its servers of) is a prime example of a game that does indeed contain bullshit, and should not be included in this list.

stavros19• 3 years ago

You can use the red flag button to flag that, along with your rationale.

roryokane• 3 years ago

I agree with the above rationale, so I just flagged Super Mario Run for Android and iOS with an explanation along those lines.

ink404• 3 years ago

Does anyone know of a site like this for all apps?

atum47• 3 years ago

Thanks, I just submitted Qubes, my game.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.victorribe...

Trufa• 3 years ago

I didn’t know this game, but one or two days ago I remembered and was pleasantly surprised to find old school bulldozer game ported to iOS, I’m having nostalgic fun :) would recommend specially for those who played it way back when, and for those who didn’t the puzzles are fun, but the controls could use some improvement, still fun tho.

mattcantstop• 3 years ago

Sounds like a similar move to what 37signals is trying to do with once.com, but with a games focus.

darkwater• 3 years ago

Will definitely use this in the future! The 3-4 games I enjoyed playing on Android are all there and for sure they are no-bullshit certified (the Room series, Threes!, Monument Valley 2). I'm missing Alto's Adventure but it might had some nag/play4win thing added? I remember it was pretty no-bullshit (otherwise I wouldn't have played it).

Kudos to stavros for this!

SamuelAdams• 3 years ago

Lately I've been getting into retro gaming. Handheld android devices that run retropie are fairly cheap - a decent one can be $250 USD or less. There's thousands of games that can be played with no ads, no updates, and no microtransactions. Instructions guides make this all very easy [1].

I really wish Nintendo and other game industries would make a legal channel of how to play old games. Nintendo switch online is a great start, but it does not have every game [2].

[1] https://retrogamecorps.com/2022/03/13/android-emulation-star...

[2] https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/nintendo-switch-online-e...

pentagrama• 3 years ago

Is great have a resource like this to find quality games.

Recently I purchased the game Limbo for Android, the game is awesome and has no in-app purchases and stuff like that. It is listed on this site [1].

But I find really annoying that each time the game launch, I get asked to create a "Google Play Games Profile" [2], and is no "Don't as again" option, or disable that dialog on Settings. I will dispute a bit the "no bullshit" label.

[1] https://nobsgames.stavros.io/android/?name=limbo&genre=&rati...

[2] https://imgur.com/a/lInE4zn

wruza2• 3 years ago

I noticed that https://nobsapps.stavros.io/ is not responding.

Please fix!

jcmontx• 3 years ago

I'm a big fan of Antiyoy and all of the other Yiotro games.

ElijahLynn• 3 years ago

Been looking for this website for many, many years. THANK YOU!

autoexec• 3 years ago

I love how functional this site is, even without JS enabled!

redhale• 3 years ago

This is a great resource!

I can't believe Universal Paperclips [0] [1] had not been added yet, so I submitted it. It's the game that first comes to mind when I think of "no bullshit" games.

No ads or IAP. A "number goes up" game with a definitive ending -- so it's addictive, but finite. Humorous and entertaining for what it is. Well worth $2.

There is a free web version too. [2]

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.everybodyh...

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/universal-paperclips/id1300634...

[2] https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html

No-Bullshit Games

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