Forums > Suggestions > New possible gameplay genre - 'Merge'
Freeman (65146) on 3/9/2024 4:31 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report
I'm wondering if the 'merge' genre should be listed as a separate gameplay genre. What are merge games? From this article: "Merge games are a subgenre of puzzle games where players combine items or elements to form new, often more advanced items." The data.ai site lists 'Merge' games as a subgenre of the 'Match' genre.
For now, these games are being added under the Tile matching puzzle genre (or not given any gameplay genre). However, the emphasis of the gameplay is quite different from Match-3 games and articles will usually treat them as separate genres. Eg. "Match 3 games have consistently been one of the most popular and profitable casual game categories...The next most profitable genre, merge titles..."
So new category, or should we keep using the Tile matching puzzle genre? If the latter, perhaps the description can be rewritten to explicitly include these types of games as well.
Kayburt (32231) on 3/11/2024 1:46 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report
I made a similar suggestion a couple of years ago https://www.mobygames.com/forum/10/thread/259844/new-genre-for-covenience/
"Tile matching puzzle" is the closest sub-genre that fits, but I think Crafting / Merge makes better sense.
Alaka (106329) on 3/11/2024 9:59 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report
The Tile matching puzzle genre is purposely meant to cover a wide variety of games that play vastly differently from each other. Memory Pairs, Bejeweled, and Mahjong Solitaire are all included and they play nothing like each other than they they have matching as a key component.
We already have a Threes variant group which is a distinct branch of these merge type games. I would suggest forming another group to wrangle in these other type of merge games.
You can also submit a description edit to the Tile matching puzzle genre page also.