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.
Star Wars: Battlefront II is a 2005 first and third-person shooter video game based on the Star Wars film franchise. Developed by Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts, it is a sequel to 2004's Star Wars: Battlefront and the second installment in the Star Wars: Battlefront series. The game was released in PAL regions on October 28, 2005, on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Microsoft Windows, and Xbox platforms, and in North America on November 1 of the same year. It was released on the PlayStation Store on October 20, 2009, for download on the PSP. The PSP version was developed by Savage Entertainment.
Kongregate is an American web gaming portal and video game publisher. Its website features over 124,000 online games and 30+ mobile games available to the public. The company also publishes games for PC, mobile, and home consoles. It was purchased by GameStop Corporation in 2010 before being acquired by Modern Times Group MT AB in 2017.
Star Wars: Battlefront is a 2004 first and third-person shooter video game based on the Star Wars film franchise. Developed by Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts, it is the first installment in the Star Wars: Battlefront series. It was released in September 2004 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows to coincide the release of the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set. Aspyr released a Mac OS X port in July 2005, and a cellular phone version, Star Wars Battlefront Mobile, was released on November 1, 2005.
TowerFall is an action indie video game created by Maddy Thorson through her company Maddy Makes Games. In the game, players control up to four archers in a multiplayer platform fighter. It was released on the Ouya microconsole in June 2013 and was later ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, OS X, and Windows as TowerFall Ascension and to the Nintendo Switch under its original title of TowerFall.
Donut County is a puzzle video game developed by American designer Ben Esposito and published by Annapurna Interactive in 2018. The player moves a hole to swallow objects, which makes the hole increase in size. The concept originated in a game jam based on pitches from a Twitter account parody of game designer Peter Molyneux and later added a mechanic similar to that of Katamari Damacy. Other inspirations for the game included Hopi figurines—a theme Esposito later relinquished—and locations from Bruce Springsteen songs. Donut County was released in August 2018 for iOS, macOS, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows platforms, while versions for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch were released in December 2018. It was also released for Android in December 2020.
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.
Cube Life: Island Survival is an indie open world sandbox survival video game developed and published by Cypronia. It was released for Wii U in June 2015. An HD remake was released for Steam in April 2018, for Android and iOS in August 2018, and for Nintendo Switch in December 2020.
Slither.io is a multiplayer online video game available for iOS, Android, and web browsers, developed by Steve Howse. Players control an avatar resembling a snake, which consumes multi-colored pellets, both from other players and ones that naturally spawn on the map in the game, to grow in size. The objective of the game is to grow the longest snake in the server. Slither.io is similar in concept to the popular 2015 web game Agar.io and is reminiscent of the classic arcade game Snake.
Hungry Shark is a series of arcade-style RPG games developed and published by Ubisoft London and Ubisoft. The games allow players to control several unique species of sharks, including mako sharks, great white sharks, hammerhead sharks, reef sharks, megamouth shark, megalodon, basking sharks and whale sharks. To progress, the player must consume other marine animals and grow in size until the next, more powerful shark is available for purchase. In May 2016, Hungry Shark World was downloaded 10 million times in six days, reaching the top 10 free iPhone and Android apps. In 2018, Hungry Shark World was released for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It featured better graphics, and the complete removal of micro transactions. In 2022, it reached 1 billion players.
Surviv.io was a browser-based multiplayer online 2D battle royale game created by Justin Kim and Nick Clark. It was released in October 2017 on its website for desktop browsers, and in October and November 2018 respectively for iOS and Android devices. Similar to other titles in the battle royale genre, players battled against other players on a large map from a top-down perspective, scavenging for supplies and weapons. The game also supported two or four player team modes, and could be played on mobile browsers as well.
Fortnite Creative is a sandbox game, developed and published by Epic Games, part of the video game Fortnite. It was released on December 6, 2018, for Android, iOS, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and in November 2020 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
ZombsRoyale.io is a battle royale game developed by End Game Interactive. It was released for web browsers in 2018, with iOS and Android ports later that year. A simplified take on the genre, game matches follow up to 100 players who must fight on a large map to be the last survivors. It uses simple 2D graphics and a top-down perspective. The game has amassed over 120,000,000 downloads and unique players across iOS, Android, Web Browser, and PC as of 2024.
Voodoo SAS is a French developer and publisher of mobile apps and games based in Paris. The company was founded in 2013 by Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter. Voodoo's games began predominantly as free-to-play "hyper-casual games", which they helped popularize. Since then, the company has shifted to developing and publishing casual games and apps. Voodoo’s games and apps have surpassed 7 billion downloads as of 2024. The company has been criticised for cloning other games.
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.
A hypercasual game is a video game which is easy-to-play and usually free-to-play; hypercasual games also feature very minimalistic user interfaces. Popularized in 2017 by game makers such as Kwalee, Ketchapp and Voodoo, these games can be quickly played after downloading, usually without any tutorial or instructions. They also often use a 2D design with a simple color scheme, easy mechanics adding to their simplicity. Usually featuring infinite looped mechanics, hypercasual games are playable for an infinite amount of time, leading to their addictive nature. Some argue hypercasuals are a business model, rather than a genre. These games are often played while multitasking, which is why their simple user interface is essential. Because of the lack of a robust in-game economy and free download cost of most hyper-causal games, revenue is mostly generated from ads.
Titanfall is a media franchise that mainly features first-person shooter games. The series was created by Respawn Entertainment and debuted on Xbox and Microsoft Windows; it has expanded to other consoles and platforms.
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.
Snake.io is a multiplayer mobile and web-based game originally developed by Amelos Interactive and currently published by Kooapps. It was inspired by the classic Snake game. It was released in 2016 by Kooapps for mobile platforms. The player controls a snake that grows longer and bigger by eating pellets on the arena. The goal of the game is to grow as large as possible without colliding with other snakes or the boundaries of the arena. The game was also released on Netflix Games in August 2024 along with other games.
