Discovering new games can be exciting, but this often means you have to sift through low-quality shovelware – games that are plagued by reused assets, repetitive gameplay, and endless ads. Game stores are overflowing with these cash grabs, but you don’t have to fall for them. This post will tell you everything to detect and avoid shovelware games.
What Are Shovelware Games?
The term shovelware originated in the early 1990s, referring to CD-ROMs stuffed with low-quality, outdated games or software emphasizing quantity over quality. The concept is similar to shoveling dirt – bundling mediocre products to increase perceived value. Today, it describes games made solely for profit, with little concern for quality, player retention, or long-term success.
These games often use low-quality, recycled assets and mimic whatever gameplay is currently trending. For example, after the success of Flappy Bird, countless clones flooded the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Most of these clones were shovelware created to cash in on the original game’s popularity.
Many developers produce cheap, low-quality games that can still turn a profit, even with minimal engagement. You’ll find such games on platforms with lenient publishing policies, like Google Play, the Apple App Store, Steam, and Nintendo eShop. While not all shovelware is inherently bad or a scam, its main focus is to monetize even brief player interaction.
To avoid wasting time and money on these games, let’s learn how to detect shovelware games:
Check Developer’s History
On most online game stores, you can check the developer’s history showing all their other games, which can give clues about whether they focus on quantity or quality. Below are some things you need to look out for:
- If the developer releases too many games with similar assets or themes, it could be shovelware. For example, lots of cooking, dress-up, or puzzle games with just different names/themes.
- Low ratings and negative reviews on many games can indicate people are not satisfied with the games’ quality.
- Check the developer’s presence online. Do a quick search to see if they have a proper website and if people are talking about their games. Usually, shovelware developers online have a basic website (if any) showcasing their games with very low mentions of their brand online.
Look for Clues in User Reviews
A high game store rating doesn’t always mean a game is good. Developers can buy fake reviews and ratings to make their games look good. For shovelware, you need to look at reviews and find clues that are common in shovelware games.
Be cautious of 5-star reviews as they could be fake. The most insightful reviews are the ones with 2, 3, or 4-star ratings. Below are some signs you need to look for:
- Complaints about too many ads are a dead giveaway since most shovelware apps heavily depend on ad revenue as the content usually isn’t worth buying. If reviews suggest forced ads or not being able to progress without ads, it’s better to stay away. If the platform supports microtransactions instead, look for reviews about too many microtransactions.
- Shovelware games also typically have repetitive gameplay that gets boring quickly. Many also aren’t too difficult to keep giving that high feeling of winning. If people say it’s too repetitive or not challenging, it could indicate shovelware.
- Glitches and bugs are also common in shovelware due to limited resources spent on refining the game. Look for comments that say it crashes, lags, ads don’t give the expected resources, etc.
Depending on the game store, you can also filter reviews for enhanced information. For example, on Steam, you can check the play time of the user to see how long they played the game. If too many reviews have low play time, it could mean the game is low-quality and isn’t worth buying.
Poorly Written Description Is a Red Flag
Since churning out lots of games is a priority, many shovelware game developers often don’t provide in-depth details about the game. Their descriptions mainly focus on making the game look cool so that users can download it to find out.
The description could be vague and only use words that make it sound fun like “addictive gameplay”, “master all tactics”, or “easy to learn”. They don’t tell you what the game offers and what you need to do in it which makes it fun.
Furthermore, some really low-effort ones may even be written in broken English/grammar or feel like it was translated. A good game description usually talks about the game’s story, gameplay details, and the list of features. Make sure the description tells you exactly what you can expect from the game without needing to download it.
Avoid Games With Titles Matching Popular Games
All popular games like Clash of Clans, Flappy Bird, Candy Crush, or Counter-Strike have clones or similar-looking games trying to capitalize on their popularity. They even use matching titles to confuse players or make them curious to try.
Since they are created to capitalize on another game’s popularity, they usually lack the quality of the original. The developers just quickly create a game with similar gameplay and try to monetize aggressively. For example, “Counter Strike CS: Gun Games” has a similar name to the popular FPS game “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” but it’s a completely different game with description and reviews suggesting it’s a low-effort game.
Of course, not all games with matching titles are bad. For instance, Clash of Lords comes from a reputable developer, but the name is similar to Clash of Clans. However, it’s a good metric to detect shovelware when other signs are also present.
Track Update History
Many shovelware games aren’t updated often as their core gameplay is already limited with no intention of expanding upon it. The developer either won’t update them often or fake updates them with vague changes that don’t tell what exactly was updated.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to track update history as not all online game stores provide detailed update history. On the Apple App Store, you can see the last 25 updates, which is usually more than enough. For most others, you’ll have to depend on third-party websites or the game’s official website.
You can use the App Brain website to view the change log of most games on the Google Play Store. For Steam games, SteamDB offers a complete update history along with patch notes information.
Depending on the game genre, it should be updated every 3-6 months. The changes should also be big enough to impact gameplay, not just some bug fixes that people can’t track. The updates should include gameplay balance changes, new levels/characters, new maps, etc.
Learn More About It Online
Any game worth its salt will have at least some discussions around it online. It doesn’t have to be official news or some special patch notes. Even lesser-known games have people talking about it on forums or creators making videos about it.
Shovelware games usually don’t have any dedicated fan base talking about it online or creating guides. Usually, searching for their name online will only show their official listings on the online game stores and maybe a commissioned video on YouTube. If it has no online presence, it’s probably because it’s not worth people’s time.
Shovelware games aren’t always bad, some may offer brief addictive gameplay loops. However, they are usually copies of the same popular ideas for which much better original games are already available. If you’re looking for quality experiences, check out the best Steam Games you can enjoy with friends.
Image credit: Pexels. All screenshots by Karrar Haider.
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