A browser game is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Alternative names for the browser game genre reference their software platform used, with common examples being Flash games, and HTML5 games.
The Majesty of Colors is a 2008 Flash browser game by Gregory Weir. Weir has described the game as "pixel-horror".
Anna Anthropy is an American video game designer, role-playing game designer, and interactive fiction author whose works include Mighty Jill Off and Dys4ia. She is the game designer in residence at the DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media.
Mighty Jill Off is a 2008 independently developed freeware platform video game designed by Anna Anthropy, with art by James Harvey and music by Andrew Toups. It stars a submissive named Jill, who has a boot fetish and is forced to climb up a tower after her Queen kicks her down it as punishment. Jill does this by jumping and slowly descending over obstacles. Jill can be defeated in one hit by these obstacles, but will return to the last check point. The game serves as an homage to the 1984 arcade game Bomb Jack and its console and computer sequel, Mighty Bomb Jack. It had follow-ups, such as Mighty Jill Off - Jill Off Harder Edition and Jill Off With One Hand. Jill made a cameo appearance in the 2010 video game Super Meat Boy as a playable character.
Abobo's Big Adventure is a freeware parody flash game. Inspired by various video games released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the game features Abobo, a boss character from the Double Dragon franchise, traveling through the worlds of several different games to save his son. Written by I-Mockery.com founder Roger Barr, programmed by Nick Pasto, with art and animation by PoxPower, Abobo's Big Adventure was released in January 2012 to positive critical reception.
Encyclopedia Fuckme and the Case of the Vanishing Entree, later rereleased under the name Fuck Eat Kill, is an independently developed freeware dating sim developed and written by Anna Anthropy. The game stars a submissive who eagerly goes to Anni, her dominant partner, only to find that Anni plans on eating her for dinner in her house. The player is forced to make branching choices which affect the game's outcome.
Canabalt is a one-button endless runner designed by Adam Saltsman for the Experimental Gameplay Project in 2009. The 2D side-scrolling video game was originally written as a Flash game, then ported to iOS, Android, PlayStation Portable, Ouya, and HTML5. An authorized version for the Commodore 64 was released on cartridge. Canabalt has been credited with popularizing the endless runner subgenre.
Don't Shit Your Pants is a browser-based text adventure game created by Canadian developers Teddy and Kenny "Rete" Lee for Cellar Door Games. The objective of the game is to use a text prompt to prevent a balding man standing beside a closed door in pajama bottoms and an undershirt from defecating inappropriately. It was the first title released by the Lee brothers, receiving positive critical reception.
Coming Out Simulator 2014 is an interactive fiction video game made by Canadian developer Nicky Case. The semi-autobiographical game was released on 1 July 2014 as a submission for the Nar8 Game Jam.
itch.io is a website for users to host, sell and download indie video games, indie role-playing games, game assets, comics, zines and music. Launched in March 2013 by Leaf Corcoran, the service hosts over 700,000 products as of April 2023.
Nina Marie Freeman is an American video game designer known for her games with themes of sexuality and self-reflection. A former game designer at Fullbright, she developed and published numerous video games and is a co-founder of the Code Liberation Foundation, a non-for-profit organization that makes an effort to diversify employment within STEAM fields.
Kitty Horrorshow is the pseudonym of an independent video game developer. Releasing her games on the distribution platform itch.io, she specializes in the psychological horror genre, with her games focusing on surreal and atmospheric horror in the aesthetic style of early 3D videogames.
Queers in love at the End of the World, also stylized as queers in love at the end of the world, is a hypertext game created with Twine. Developed by Anna Anthropy in 2013 for the Ludum Dare Game Jam, the short, ten-second narrative faces players with how to interact with their partner before "(e)verything is wiped away".
Game Maker's Toolkit (GMTK) is a video game analysis video series created by British journalist Mark Brown. Beginning in 2014, the series examines video game design and aims to encourage developers to improve their craft. It is hosted on YouTube and funded via Patreon.
Friday Night Funkin' is an upcoming rhythm video game developed by Funkin' Crew Inc. and released on Newgrounds in 2020. The game is developed by a small group called The Funkin' Crew Inc., which consists primarily of Cameron "ninjamuffin99" Taylor, David "PhantomArcade" Brown, Isaac "Kawai Sprite" Garcia, and evilsk8r. The game is also open-source. It shares some gameplay features with Dance Dance Revolution, PaRappa the Rapper, and the "Dance Contest" minigame from Club Penguin, and borrows aesthetic influences from Flash games. The game has been credited with driving users back to Newgrounds, a site that rose in popularity in the early 2000s.
Oneiric Gardens is a 2014 video game by Cicada Marionette, the pseudonym of independent video game developer Lilith Zone. Described as a game depicting a "series of chambers drawing from half-remembered spaces (and) feelings," Oneiric Gardens is open-ended adventure game in which the player explores surrealistic spaces. The game received positive attention from critics as a surrealistic work and led to Lilith's exhibition of the game and engagement in the Dutch contemporary art space through MAMA Rotterdam and Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Bernband is a 2014 video game by Dutch independent developer Tom van den Boogaart, a member of the Dutch independent studio Sokpop Collective. The game is an open-ended walking simulator set in an alien city, with no objectives or milestones. Critics praised the design of Bernband for its immersive setting, with the game inspiring the parallel development of Hernhand by Australian independent developer Jake Clover in 2015.
Genderwrecked is a 2018 video game created by independent developers Heather Flowers and Gendervamp, the pseudonym of Ryan Rose Aceae. Described as a "post-apocalyptic genderpunk visual novel", Genderwrecked is a work of interactive fiction in which the player is invited to explore themes and issues around gender through the comic representation of monsters. The game was developed by Flowers and Aceae using the Ren'Py visual novel software as a personal expression of their own experiences. Upon release, Genderwrecked received praise from several publications, with critics praising the game's balance of humor and earnest discourse on gender and identity. Following release, Genderwrecked received the 'Jury Award' at the Melbourne Queer Games Festival in October 2018, and was briefly showcased by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Stick Shift is a 2015 video game by independent developer Robert Yang. Described by Yang as "an autoerotic night-driving game", the game is an erotic video game and art game in which players "pleasure a gay car". Created following the development of games featuring more "uncanny" characters, Yang aimed to create a game that explored eroticism through the facial expressions of a player character, using the "humorously masculine" innuendo of manual driving as a metaphor. Upon release, Stick Shift received positive attention, with some critics expressing amuseument and bewilderment at the game's absurd and erotic concept, and others praising the game's uniqueness, with several drawing comparisons to the themes of the J.G. Ballard novel Crash.
Tetrageddon Games is an online compilation of video games and digital art by alienmelon, the pseudonym of independent developer and net artist Nathalie Lawhead. First published as a website titled Tetrageddon, hosting web games designed by Lawhead from 2008. Lawhead combined the releases into a compiled form on the website from 2012, receiving several iterations and revisions over time, and released a downloadable desktop release titled ARMAGAD in 2016. Following release, critics praised Tetrageddon Games for its eclectic mixture of aesthetics and gameplay styles. The project received several awards and nominations, including a Webby Award for the website version and a Nuovo Award at the Independent Games Festival.
