What Kinds of Games Are on Jez Swanson's itch.io Page?

Updated

Jez Swanson's itch.io page is a collection of small, experimental games and toys, mostly built for game jams, spanning platformers, puzzles, a programming tutorial, and a satirical pretend MMO. Most titles are playable in the browser, so you can sample them without installing anything. The main exception is his early Flash work, which he notes is currently inaccessible.

The overall character of the page

Swanson describes himself as someone who enjoys "making small, silly games." Many were created for jams like Ludum Dare and Global Game Jam, which explains the short playtimes (often 5–15 minutes) and single-idea designs. He flags that a lot of his early games, including VUEL (the Ludum Dare 37 winner), were made in Flash and are "inaccessible at the moment," with hopes of porting them later.

Games by type

Platformers

  • I Have Put The Creature Into My Gun — "a lil' platformer about lil' guys."
  • Dogs++ — a platformer built around stacking dogs on your head.
  • Cable Connectors LLC (including an LD version) — listed as a platformer, playable in the browser.

Puzzle games

  • The Teeniest Seed — a "puzzle platformer storybook about a fragile seed."
  • 10 Second Wordle — a new Wordle-style puzzle every 10 seconds.
  • Echoes of Players Past — puzzle levels where you team up with previous players of the game.

Games with a twist or message

  • Mission: Programmable — a game that teaches you programming.
  • PhishScape — a pretend MMO about stealing people's passwords.
  • Shovelware Knight — you create and upload awful games to beat shovelware titles at their own game (5–10 mins).
  • Phone Tree of Despair — the frustration of an automated phone system turned into a game; the original used a real phone number, but a web version now exists (30–40 mins).

Toys and experiments

  • gaarden — a no-objective toy where you grow a peaceful forest with little people and one big egg (5–15 mins).

Swanson's own recommendations

His page highlights a few picks he says are "all still good":

Game What it is Playtime Jam result
GA GAME ME Recursive game on the theme "deeper and deeper" 10–15 mins 2nd for theme, 13th overall (Ludum Dare 48)
gaarden Peaceful forest-growing toy 5–15 mins —
Shovelware Knight Make bad games to beat bad games 5–10 mins —
Phone Tree of Despair Automated phone system as a game 30–40 mins 1st for innovation & audio, 2nd overall and for humor (Ludum Dare 47)
Adventure Boy Cheapskate Made with a friend over 8 years 30–60 mins —

Is this page for you?

If you like quick, quirky jam games with a humorous or experimental bent, the page offers plenty to try in short sittings. If you're looking for long, polished commercial titles, only Adventure Boy Cheapskate (and its DX version) comes close, at 30–60 minutes. Browser play is the default for most listed games, though the page does not state pricing or login requirements for individual titles.