In computing, cross-platform software is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software requires a separate build for each platform, but some can be directly run on any platform without special preparation, being written in an interpreted language or compiled to portable bytecode for which the interpreters or run-time packages are common or standard components of all supported platforms.
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.
A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone, tablet, PDA to handheld game console, portable media player or graphing calculator, with and without network availability. The earliest known game on a mobile phone was a Tetris variant on the Hagenuk MT-2000 device from 1994.
The Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine is a free and open-source, "all-in-one" game creation system. It was designed to allow the quick creation of 2D role-playing video games (RPGs). It was originally written by James Paige in QuickBASIC and released in late 1997 or early 1998. In May 2005, the source code was released as free software under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later, and it was soon ported from QuickBASIC to FreeBASIC and to modern operating systems.
American Girl is a series of video games developed by various studios and distributed by American Girl.
Candy Crush Saga is a free-to-play tile-matching video game released by King on April 12, 2012, originally for Facebook; other versions for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 10 followed. It is a variation of their browser game Candy Crush.
Monument Valley is a puzzle and indie game by Ustwo Games. The player leads the princess Ida through mazes of optical illusions and impossible objects while manipulating the world around her to reach various platforms. Monument Valley was developed over ten months beginning in early 2013 based on concept drawings by company artist Ken Wong. Its visual style was inspired by Japanese prints, minimalist sculpture, and indie games Windosill, Fez, and Sword & Sworcery, and was compared by critics to M. C. Escher drawings and Echochrome. The art was designed such that each frame would be worthy of public display.
Google Play Games is an online video gaming service by Google for Microsoft Windows, Chromebooks, and Android devices.
Geometry Dash is a side-scrolling music platforming game series developed by Robert Topala. It was released on 13 August 2013 for iOS and Android, with versions for Windows and macOS following on 22 December 2014. In Geometry Dash, players control an icon to navigate music-based levels, avoiding obstacles like spikes.
Agar.io is a massive multiplayer online action game created by Brazilian developer Matheus Valadares. Players control one or more circular cells in a map representing a Petri dish. The goal is to gain as much mass as possible by eating cells and player cells smaller than the player's cell while avoiding larger ones which can eat the player's cells. Each player starts with one cell, but players can split a cell into two once it reaches a sufficient mass, allowing them to control multiple cells. The name comes from the substance agar, used to culture bacteria.
Gardenscapes: New Acres is a casual, narrative, match-3 game, released in 2016 for Android and iOS devices and also on Facebook.
Homescapes is a casual free-to-play puzzle game. It was developed and launched by Playrix in 2017 as a spiritual successor to their 2016 match-3 game, Gardenscapes. The storyline narrates attempts by the game's protagonist, Austin the Butler, to restore his childhood home. The game is available on Apple's App Store for iOS and macOS, and also on Android via Google Play, Amazon Appstore, or Huawei AppGallery. It is also available for Windows on the Microsoft Store.
Diep.io is a multiplayer browser game created by Brazilian developer Matheus Valadares in 2016. Miniclip first published the mobile version. In Diep.io, players control tanks in a two-dimensional arena. They earn experience points and upgrades by destroying shapes and other tanks.
Google Play Pass is an app and video game subscription service by Google for Android devices. It was launched on September 23, 2019 in the United States.
Mekorama is a puzzle game developed by indie developer Martin Magni. Players control the movement of a robot through paths and various obstacles to reach the end of a level by tapping or clicking the screen. The game features a level editing tool, where players can create custom levels and share them online. The game was initially released for iOS and Android in 2016 and was later ported to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One in 2020.
GameClub is a video game subscription service for iOS and Android devices. The service primarily offers games that were previously delisted from app stores or are no longer actively maintained by their original developers, updated to support newer devices and software. They have since expanded to releasing mobile ports of games available for PC and console.
GDevelop is a 2D and 3D cross-platform, free and open-source game engine, which mainly focuses on creating PC and mobile games, as well as HTML5 games playable in the browser. Created by Florian Rival, a software engineer at Google, GDevelop is mainly aimed at non-programmers and game developers of all skillsets, employing event based visual programming similar to engines like Construct, Stencyl, and Tynker.
The popularisation of mobile games began as early as 1997 with the introduction of Snake preloaded on Nokia feature phones, demonstrating the practicality of games on these devices. Several mobile device manufacturers included preloaded games in the wake of Snake's success. In 1999, the introduction of the i-mode service in Japan allowed a wide variety of more advanced mobile games to be downloaded onto smartphones, though the service was largely limited to Japan. By the early 2000s, the technical specifications of Western handsets had also matured to the point where downloadable applications could be supported, but mainstream adoption continued to be hampered by market fragmentation between different devices, operating environments, and distributors.
Phoenix 2 is a freemium mobile game developed and self published by Dutch indie studio Firi Games, released for iOS on July 28, 2016, and the sequel to Phoenix HD... It is a vertical scrolling shooter where the player controls a ship via touch to destroy enemy ships flying in from the top of the screen. New missions are generated daily.
Kamibox is an independent German video game developer founded by Philipp Stollenmayer. Stollenmayer is the sole employee of the company, which creates almost exclusively mobile games. Some of Kamibox's games have received awards for their design, including an Apple Design Award. Kamibox games often have a philosophical element to them, such as see/saw and Sometimes You Die, which explore the concept of death in video games.
