Some of Android's Most Interesting Games Aren't Just on the Play Store
gardinerbryant.com
When I read about gaming on Android phones (the “native” kind, not emulation!), the posts and comments usually revolves around big-budget ports, blockbuster mobile releases, and increasingly powerful hardware. Games like Red Dead Redemption, Subnautica, and Tomb Raider are pretty damn clear indications of just how far smartphones have
  • plutopos@lemmy.zipEnglish
    3 days

    I tried Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and AAAAXY, but they had file permissions problems. But Lona is great

  • boaratio@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6 days

    Have any of you been on the PlayStore recently? It’s a fucking dumpster fire. I recently had to get a new phone, and when I try to search for and install an app I had installed before the results are, “try tiktok, or Whatsapp” which are listed at the top of the search results even though they’re completely unrelated to what I searched for.

    • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6 days

      I avoid it like the plague.

      My main personal phone is on GrapheneOS, and my work phones are as basic as possible with what they run. The only time I really ever spend on Play Store (and even then I tend to use Obtainium instead) is for when I review retro handhelds which emulate.

      F-droid/Izzy and so on have everything we need!

  • wia@lemmy.caEnglish
    6 days

    Let me guess… Mindustry, breakout, pixel dungeon, unciv?

    EDIT: Close! 4/5. Never even heard of aaaaxy

    • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.todayEnglish
      6 days

      Shattered pixel dungeon is such a fucking masterpiece of a rogue like! I legit played it so much one day I had this weird aphasia the next day, where it seemed like time only moved when I did. What a strange day, wouldn’t trade it for anything though. I love that game.

      • Slashme@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5 days

        I recently had to uninstall Angband because I was spending too much time on it. I had never thought it would work on mobile, but it’s an amazingly faithful representation of the desktop version.

      • Slashme@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5 days

        Shattered is good, but the original pixel dungeon was absolutely brilliantly done in the sense that it was kept so small and with such tight gameplay that there was no grinding, just a fun mixture between puzzle game and roguelike.

      • altkey (he\him)@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2 days

        If not for you and the site’s newsletter, I couldn’t have got a handheld myself and could completely missed a lot of older gems I now slowly explore with joy. Keep it up! Niche Lemmy communities adore small and honest news sites covering what we are into, going out of their way to post it there and communicating with us directly. It’s still work, but it looks you too enjoy it, and that’s sweet. I hope to keep reading ya <3

        • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6 days

          OH that’s really nice to hear!

          Are you loving it? I still have mine on my shelf each and every day. Right now it is playing Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album. But I mean…also for games. So happy to hear it helped you!

          • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.todayEnglish
            6 days

            My hands are a little too big for the gamepad, but I’ve been doing a new Stardew with it and yes, loving it.

  • Schlemmy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    6 days

    Mindustry is amazing. Really fun to start over with the community mods.

    • lyrial@anarchist.nexusEnglish
      6 days

      Honestly it is way better on PC. I don’t think the controls translate very well to touch screen. It gets pretty damn hard, and I don’t think I’ve ever been able to get very far on phone or tablet. That could be a me thing, though. The game is amazing nonetheless.

    • qualia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6 days

      How in the $@-# are you sposed to change the direction of a conveyor belt?

      • Schlemmy@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6 days

        Just build over it in the proper direction or look in your game settings for the controls?

        When you build and drag in any directionele the belt direction is adjusted automatically.

      • foremanguy@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6 days

        Double tap and drag Or click the arrow to rotate it in the first place

    • TedvdB@feddit.nlEnglish
      6 days

      I came here to mention this one! Found a bug recently, it was fixed within 24 hours. The dev is really invested in this game at the time, I can’t imagine that will stay this intense forever.

    • Dave@lemmy.nzEnglish
      6 days

      I’ve been playing this too. Seems like every time I open it there has been an update with new features added!

  • wk5ar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6 days

    thank you for letting me discover f-droid and some of it possibilities.

    • Axolotl@feddit.itEnglish
      6 days

      I suggest to try “Droidy-fy” it uses the F-Droid repository along side some other famous thirdy-party repository and has a nicer look, i never used the playstore since then

    • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6 days

      As Axolotl said below, make sure you use F-droid to search for Droidify. It looks and behaves far nicer than plain old F-droid and gives you many more options!

      And enjoy, I’m so glad my article helped at least one person find new things out there :) :) :)

  • JPAKx4@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    6 days

    Great picks, love Breakout 71. My extra pick is ChipDefense, a short tower defense game with some cool science/tech history

    And simon tatham’s puzzles is excellent.

  • InFerNo@lemmy.mlEnglish
    6 days

    I have the following:

    • Anuto TD

    • Ricochlime

    • Unblock Jam

    Great to pass time