If you build things: where to list a game or an app for free, and how to get the first people to actually try it. If you play things: how to tell a good free game from one that will interrupt you every ninety seconds.
Reviews are the one part of a listing you cannot write yourself. When to ask so the prompt is not wasted, what both stores forbid, why review-gating backfires, and how to get the first few from people who already talked to you.
An ordered diagnosis rather than a list of marketing tactics: the seven reasons a live indie game or app gets no installs, cheapest and most likely first. Work down it and stop when you find yours.
Every store console, directory form, and reviewer asks for the same nine things in a slightly different order. Here is the list, the specs that actually matter, and the parts of a traditional press kit you can skip.
A short, honest list of places that will host or list an indie game or app for nothing, what each one is actually good for, and how to tell a useful directory from a link dump.
A daily challenge is a finite game with an ending, which is why it holds attention that endless play loses. What separates a good one from a retention hook, and how to keep a streak from running you.
A one-minute check that tells you how a free mobile game makes money before you install it — reading the store listing, the review filter, and the screenshots for what they actually reveal.
Solving speed comes from search order and pattern recognition, not from thinking harder. Seven habits that cut sudoku solve times, and the two that matter most.
How to find phone games that genuinely work with no connection — including the airplane-mode test that catches games which claim to be offline but are not.
Most phone gaming happens one-handed — on a train, in bed, holding a coffee. Here is what actually makes a game one-handed, and how to spot it on a store page.
One-tap games have a single input and are still hard. Here is why the format works, what separates a good one from a cheap one, and how to actually improve your scores.
Multiplayer sudoku turns a solitary puzzle into a race. Here is how 1v1 sudoku actually works, the formats you will meet, and the tactics that win shared-grid matches.
You do not need advanced sudoku theory. Four techniques — scanning, single candidates, hidden singles and pointing pairs — solve the overwhelming majority of easy and medium puzzles.
A practical way to pick a phone game when you are bored: match the game to how long you actually have, how much attention you can spare, and whether you want to think or switch off.