How we actually find the games we review

People ask how we stumble onto these small games, and the honest answer is a lot of scrolling and a bit of luck. The app store charts are dominated by the big players, so the interesting stuff hides a few pages down.

We lean heavily on word of mouth. Small developer communities, forum threads, and reader emails point us toward things the algorithms bury. Half the games I've loved this year came from someone else's recommendation.

Once a game is on our radar, we install it and give it a fair shot — usually a few hours minimum, longer for anything with depth. If it doesn't grab us, that's fine; not everything makes the site, and we'd rather write less than pad the catalogue.

If you've found something small and clever, send it our way. We can't promise to cover everything, but we read every message and plenty of our favourites started as a reader tip.