Game Discovery App Ludocene Launches 6th August

Collage of screenshots from Ludocene's web app.

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With so many games releasing each month across many platforms, choosing your next adventure game be daunting. Enter Ludocene, a match-making app not for people, but for video games. After a successful Kickstarter campaign back in March, the app is set to fully launch on August 6th.

There’s Too Many Fish In The Sea

Ludocene is part deck-builder, part dating app. When building your deck to help define and narrow your taste in games, you can select cards with varying purposes. Most obviously, you can select cards that represent games you have previously enjoyed — or you can discard games you don’t like. If you see a game you’re interested in playing, you can ‘Pin’ it so you can come back to it later. Alongside game cards you’ll also find Special cards — based on genres, in-game activities, awards, or even subscription services — and Expert cards. Pulling these into your ‘loved’ section will help further guide the recommendations you receive.

Ludocene's homepage on mobile showing the user a list of recommended games, along with so new, popular, upcoming games, and a few expert cards. — These recommendations are trouble for my wallet.

As well as crafting various ‘runs’ and building different decks to aid discovery, there’s also a helpful homepage. On it, you’ll find various sections with different lists of games. These range from highly personalised — games you’ve pinned during runs, or recommendations based on your saved runs and preferences — to generalised lists like upcoming releases and newly added games on the app.

All of this discovery is powered by human researched, meticulously crafted data pulled together over the past 5 years by the small family-owned team behind Ludocene; no AI; no crazy algorithms. They’ve also worked wonders on building a great network of Experts that can lend their tastes to your search. These Experts include journalists, writers, streamer and content creators, and even developers. As I backed a specific tier during the Kickstarter, I even have my own Expert card you can use by clicking here.

An in progress 'run' on Ludocene mobile. 5 'recommended' games are shown at the bottom of the screen, with a pile of 'pinned' games next to it. — This is NOT going to help my backlog.

Free?

Yes, mostly. The app is free to use and free of ads for all users. This includes ALL game cards that are available, a wide-range of Experts and a few Special cards. There is also a paid option available. For £3.99 a month, you can support the ongoing development of Ludocene and unlock some additional benefits in the process. Additional Special and Expert cards, Discord access, and a monthly digest newsletter will be yours for subscribing. Not bad at all.