Basic genres like “Platformer” and “Shooter” were fine when videogames only had one defining feature each. Super Mario and DOOM didn’t need to get bogged-down in descriptors and clarifications because games were, on some levels, just simpler.

When games became more varied, genre names began to evolve. Even then, the change was slow at first…

“Hey this game is like a mix of what Castlevania and Metroid do”

“Like some kind of…Metroidvania?”

Portmanteaus are still a staple to describe certain series’ and genres (Looking at you Soulsbornekiroring) but even that technique runs out of steam eventually.

If you wanted to do a portmanteau genre for a modern release you’d need to throw at least 4 or 5 in there to cover everything – by that point you wouldn’t know which parts of each was even being referenced! For example, is a game that’s “Like Borderlands mixed with Pokemon” a turn-based creature-collector with wacky characters and comedy? Or is it an FPS where your weapons are creatures you collect and train?

Comparative genres are a whole subset in themselves, often named “-likes”. For example a “Soulslike” is a game that’s kinda like Dark Souls (To quote YouTube legend Iron Pineapple). Survivors-likes are games that are kinda like Vampire Survivors. Roguelikes are games that are…nothing at all like Rogue but we’ll get to that…

The point is:

• Simple genres were too, well, simple.
  
• Portmanteau and comparative genres were too restrictive.

So we birthed a new genre, in my opinion the best kind: “Off-the-wall original name that we just learn what the f**k it means”. This is my guide to the strange genre names that you might not understand (or might think you do…).

Friendslop

Friendslop is, first and foremost, not an insulting or derogatory term. It’s a genre. With AI Slop cropping up in the lexicon around the same time I don’t blame people for the confusion, but it’s a very important distinction. The term “slop” appears in both, but they aren’t causally related.

So, what actually is Friendslop? Friendslop is a genre of games that focus on delivering emergent, player-driven entertainment by providing a simple world filled with interaction tools. Friendslop encourages creative teamwork (and creative sabotage) to fuel the fun, relying on the personalities of the players and what they choose to do.

The main ingredients for Friendslop are a simple goal, in a simple map, with tools that each player can use to interact either with the goal, map, or each other. The term “slop” made it’s way into the genre name because of this focus on low-effort maps and objectives, as many saw this as a way for devs to cheap-out and just rely on players to make their game fun, rather than the devs making the game fun themselves.

Thing is, creating an environment and set of tools within that environment that actually allows truly emergent, funny gameplay with no script or guidance is actually not the easiest thing in the world. The devs can’t rely on writing or witticism, they have to rely on sheer creativity in terms of creating enemies, obstacles and most importantly ways to interact with them.

A premier example is Cursed Companions, which will damage (and eventually kill) players based on “Death Words” they are assigned. Anytime they are in range of someone saying one of their words (including themselves) they take damage. The rest of the game is store asset maps and basic retrieval gameplay, but Friendslop just needs that one innovation, that one hook, to create interaction and let the players make their own fun.

Boomer Shooter

Another one that gets taken as derogatory – Boomer Shooter.

No, no one is saying these games can only be enjoyed by Boomers.

No, no one is using Boomer as it’s roots from “Ok Boomer” to say these games should be disregarded.

It is simply the term that stuck, and has a lot of validity when you cut off the silly connotations. Boomer shooters are fast-paced, first-person single-player games. They are basically DOOM-likes (The original DOOM, not DOOM 2016 or Eternal…which incidentally are more like Mobility Shooters).

Oftentimes a modern Boomer Shooter will have 3D enemies, or some form of RPG mechanic thrown in, or a novel progression system, but the basic framework of single levels, secrets, ammo and HP shards everywhere and a tight fps view are always there.

Given the time DOOM hit the stage, and its comparative age to gaming as a whole, Boomer Shooter fit.

Eurojank

Unironically one of my favourite genres ever, and substantially older as a term than either Boomer Shooter or Friendslop. Eurojank is a specific breed of European-developed RPG game. We’re talking Gothic (and subsequent game Elex), we’re talking Two Worlds, we’re talking Rune, and even though they’re French-Canadian I have to shout out my boys Nine Dots Studio for creating Outward, which fits the genre perfectly.

These are mid-low budget games with a focus on soul and real-world progression. What do I mean by real-world progression?

Well, in Gothic you start as nothing. You can’t just go around slapping enemies to level up and become a god either, you need to actually live in and progress through the world itself. By finding trainers, amassing wealth and gaining knowledge of the game yourself as a player, you slowly become more powerful. This reflects in-world through dialogue when making friends or joining factions. After exploring the world you become an adventurer, then maybe even a hero. It’s not an exp bar that fills up and says “DING! You’re a hero now yay!” it’s a persistent and personal sense of progression resulting from your own actions in-world.

“Jank” can be seen as inherently bad, but with indies slowly taking over the gaming scene I hope more people come to realise that AA jank games, and specifically Eurojank, deserves a place in the industry more than ever. I think it comes down to why the jank is there.

In a AAA game, jank is bad. You want a curated, smooth, high-end experience that’s been worked on by industry vets and had millions of pounds (or your regional equivalent) poured into it. If there’s jank, it’s because the devs, or publishers, or something, somewhere, failed.

Now for AA, you want something fun, something novel, something new. This is a smaller team making a passion project. If there’s jank, it’s because the devs were being ambitious, innovative and trying their hardest to actualise their vision for the game in it’s rawest form.

Is that a double-standard? Maybe, but hopefully AAA gaming won’t be relevant long enough for anyone to care.

Language is always evolving

It’s increasingly shunned to suggest that any words have meaning inherently, and that any words have integrity against false use. In that world, genre names will come and go frequently. However, I like to think these terms do have integrity. I like to think that people’s assumptions that these are all negative terms, rather than genre names, doesn’t somehow transform them into derogatory comments.

Someone using Friendslop as a derogatory term doesn’t make Friendslop a derogatory term, it just makes that person wrong.