History MediaNotes / Shovelware

The UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} engine, and its associated asset store, is a top pick for these sorts of games. The engine itself nowadays has a serious image problem, as the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo puts a lot of players off from all games that use it. Despite this stigma, Unity itself is a great tool that has been used to create critically acclaimed games such as ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'', ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' and ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', just to name a few titles. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the engine is free and easy to use. This led to the barrier of entry for game development being greatly lowered and why so many people abuse it to make asset flips, and so it suffered greater than other game engines. Unity is most infamous for having no financial barrier of entry, but this has happened to just about any game engine that's cheaper to license than comparable engines; [[Creator/MonolithProductions LithTech]] was about as infamous around the turn of the millennium, as outside of one or two surprise hits it seemed everything that used it from 1998 to 2002 was a rushed ObviousBeta and/or the lowest of low-effort and -budget. Speaking of which, Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have similar asset stores and are also susceptible to the same asset flip issues as Unity, but these game engines were established by high-quality games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' for the latter), and so have less of a problem when it comes to their image; at worst, the most common complaint about Unreal-engine games are that a lot of them in the late 2000s were [[RealIsBrown too brown]].

The UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} engine, and its associated asset store, is a top pick for these sorts of games. The engine itself nowadays has a serious image problem, as the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo puts a lot of players off from all games that use it. Despite this stigma, Unity itself is a great tool that has been used to create critically acclaimed games such as ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'', ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' and ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', just to name a few titles. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the engine is free and easy to use. This led to the barrier of entry for game development being greatly lowered and why so many people abuse it to make asset flips, and so it suffered greater than other game engines. Unity is most infamous for having no financial barrier of entry, but this has happened to just about any game engine that's cheaper to license than comparable engines; [[Creator/MonolithProductions LithTech]] was about as infamous around the turn of the millennium, as outside of one or two surprise hits it seemed everything that used it from 1998 to 2002 was a [[ChristmasRushed rushed]] ObviousBeta and/or the lowest of low-effort and -budget. Speaking of which, Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have similar asset stores and are also susceptible to the same asset flip issues as Unity, but these game engines were established by high-quality games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' for the latter), and so have less of a problem when it comes to their image; at worst, the most common complaint about Unreal-engine games are that a lot of them in the late 2000s were [[RealIsBrown too brown]].

A [[TheNewTens '10s]] re-interpretation of this phenomenon is the "Asset Flip"; the name being a portmanteau of "game assets" and "flipping" (as in, buying just to sell for a quick profit) that was coined by James Stephanie Sterling of ''WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' fame. These are "games" made using a build-it-yourself game engine and use unaltered stock or store-bought assets like character models, sounds, and maps within them. They are a common form of shovelware on digital storefronts, most notably on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} via the now-defunct "Steam Greenlight" program, and the slightly less broken (but still alive) "Steam Direct" and "Steam Early Access" programs. While Creator/{{Valve|Corporation}} has a hard time of taking them down on their own store due to their "hands off" approach to their marketplace, it has also proliferated onto the likes of the [=PS-store=] and the [=Switch's eshop=].

Shovelware on a grand scale was a major factor in UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983.

* Usually comes with glaring, colourful, and sometimes obnoxiously designed box art, as with the case of casual and budget games for the UsefulNotes/NintendoWii.

* Sometimes, all the money comes from people uninterested in actually playing these games. Customers know they are garbage, but they buy it for the BileFascination, GuiltyPleasure, or as a cruel joke, like [[UndesirablePrize gifting the game]] to their "friends", or getting [[AchievementSystem easy achievements]], collecting, and more recently, bonuses that come from owning these games, like the [[UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} Steam Trading Cards]] (which are crafted into badges, used to gain Steam [=XP=], or sold for credits for games). A few have even been lucky enough to become "popular" in the modding and piracy scene for containing glitches that allow one to root their console and run homebrew apps, or even outright pirated games.

->''"Shovelware preys on consumers who are attracted to the low price and general cover art. You mainly see some parents buy their kids this stuff because hey, it's cheap, it looks like kids would enjoy this, and they really don't know what a high quality game is compared to shovelware. Most parents don't know the difference between ''Gummy Bears Minigolf'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3''."''

* Many are only known, and sometimes even ''beloved'' for how bad they are, after having been found, played, and mocked by a popular {{Lets Play}}er.

A [[TheNewTens '10s]] re-interpretation of this phenomenon is the "Asset Flip"; the name being a portmanteau of "game assets" and "flipping" (as in, buying just to sell for a quick profit) that was coined by James Stephanie Sterling of ''WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' fame. These are "games" made using a build-it-yourself game engine and use unaltered stock or store-bought assets like character models, sounds, and maps within them. They are a common form of shovelware on digital storefronts, most notably on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} via the now-defunct "Steam Greenlight" program, and the slightly less broken (but still alive) "Steam Direct" and "Steam Early Access" programs. While Valve has a hard time of taking them down on their own store due to their "hands off" approach to their marketplace, it has also proliferated onto the likes of the [=PS-store=] and the [=Switch's eshop=].

-->-- '''WebVideo/ScottTheWoz''', ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6hjqRHgLpA&t=177s&pp=ygUXc2hvdmVsd2FyZSB2YXJpZXR5IGhvdXI%3D The Shovelware Variety Hour]]''

-->-- '''WebVideo/ScottTheWoz''', "The Shovelware Variety Hour"

A [[TheNewTens '10s]] re-interpretation of this phenomenon is the "Asset Flip"; the name being a portmanteau of "game assets" and "flipping" (as in, buying just to sell for a quick profit), and was coined by James Stephanie Sterling of ''WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' fame. These are "games" made using a build-it-yourself game engine and use unaltered stock or store-bought assets like character models, sounds, and maps within them. They are a common form of shovelware on digital storefronts, most notably on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} via the now-defunct "Steam Greenlight" program, and the slightly less broken (but still alive) "Steam Direct" and "Steam Early Access" programs. While Valve has a hard time of taking them down on their own store due to their "hands off" approach to their marketplace, it has also proliferated onto the likes of the [=PS-store=] and the [=Switch's eshop=].

A [[TheNewTens '10s]] interpretation of this phenomenon is the "Asset Flip"; the name being a portmanteau of "game assets" and "flipping" (as in, buying just to sell for a quick profit), and was coined by James Stephanie Sterling of ''WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' fame. These are "games" made using a build-it-yourself game engine and use unaltered stock or store-bought assets like character models, sounds, and maps within them. They are a common form of shovelware on digital storefronts, most notably on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} via the now-defunct "Steam Greenlight" program, and the slightly less broken (but still alive) "Steam Direct" and "Steam Early Access" programs. While Valve has a hard time of taking them down on their own store due to their "hands off" approach to their marketplace, it has also proliferated onto the likes of the [=PS-store=] and the [=Switch's eshop=].

'''Shovelware''', also known as "crapware" or "trashware", is essentially [[LowestCommonDenominator lowest-common-denominator]] software. Perhaps the software was created to take advantage of a fad. Perhaps it was made to cash in on a bit of marketing share of something eminently useful. Or perhaps it was an actually good or clever idea that either suffered severe budget cuts and time constraints, or was simply made as an afterthought in the developers' spare time. The term is also used (especially in the past) for game bundles of very low-quality games where quantity is regarded more important than quality (a common form of this was game bundle [=CDs=] shipped with game magazines). Regardless of how it was made, almost all examples of shovelware are made with very little thought or care, as if they just scooped up a load of software from a trash heap, dumped it on a table and slapped on a price tag, hence the name.

The term ultimately originates in the CD-ROM boom of the early 1990s, when distributors started packing a bunch of older games onto the then unheard-of 640 megabytes of a single CD-ROM. The word "shovelware" was originally used of CD-ROM compilations of mediocre-at-best commercial games that had previously been released years before. It later was associated with CD-ROM collections of {{shareware}} that packed hundreds or ''thousands'' of games or art assets onto them. The sheer scale of these [=CDs=] meant that any given distributor quickly ran out of "good" games/art assets, and had to go hunting across [=BBSes=] and the then early Internet for new assets to fill them up, thereby lowering the reputation for the word even further.

A more modern interpretation of this trope is the "Asset Flip"; the name being a portmanteau of "game assets" and "flipping-a-[thing you own]-to-make-money-quickly", and was coined by James Stephanie Sterling of ''WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' fame. These are "games" made using a build-it-yourself game engine and use unaltered stock or store-bought assets like character models, sounds, and maps within them. They are an increasingly common form of shovelware on digital storefronts, most notably on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} via the now-defunct "Steam Greenlight" program, and the slightly less broken (but still alive) "Steam Direct" and "Steam Early Access" programs. While Valve has a hard time of taking them down on their own store due to their "hands off" approach to their marketplace, it has also proliferated onto the likes of the [=PS-store=] and the [=Switch's eshop=].

The issue with asset flips is not the use of pre-made assets by themselves (which are invaluable to indie and AAA game development), the issue lies in the ''whole core experience'' of the game being made up '''solely''' of assets in one art style or theme clashing with another simply to sell a game for a quick buck. Something to note is that just because a game uses pre-made assets, does not make it an "asset flip" or shovelware.

The UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} engine, and its associated asset store, is among the most used for these sorts of games, to the point where the engine itself now has a serious image problem, as the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo puts a lot of players off from games that use it, even if they're actually good. Despite this stigma, Unity itself is a great tool that has been used to create critically acclaimed games such as ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'', ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' and ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', just to name a few titles. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the engine is free and easy to use. This led to the barrier of entry for game development being greatly lowered and why so many people abuse it to make asset flips, and so it suffered greater than other game engines. Unity is most infamous for having no financial barrier of entry, but this has happened to just about any game engine that's cheaper to license than comparable engines; [[Creator/MonolithProductions LithTech]] was about as infamous around the turn of the millennium, as outside of one or two surprise hits it seemed everything that used it from 1998 to 2002 was a [[ChristmasRushed rushed]] ObviousBeta and/or the lowest of low-effort and -budget. Speaking of which, Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have similar asset stores and are also susceptible to the same asset flip issues as Unity, but these game engines were established by high-quality games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' for the latter), and so have less of a problem when it comes to their image; at worst, the most common complaint about Unreal-engine games are that a lot of them in the late 2000s were [[RealIsBrown too brown]].

The UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} engine, and its associated asset store, is among the most used for these sorts of games, to the point where the engine itself now has a serious image problem, as the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo puts a lot of players off from games that use it, even if they're actually good. Despite this stigma, Unity itself is a great tool that has been used to create critically acclaimed games such as ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'', ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' and ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', just to name a few titles. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the engine is free and easy to use. This led to the barrier of entry for game development being greatly lowered and why so many people abuse it to make asset flips, and so it suffered greater than other game engines. Unity is most infamous for having no financial barrier of entry, but this has happened to just about any game engine that's cheaper to license than comparable engines; [[Creator/MonolithProductions LithTech]] was about as infamous around the turn of the millennium, as outside of one or two surprise hits it seemed everything that used it was either a [[ChristmasRushed rushed]] ObviousBeta or the lowest of low-effort and -budget. Speaking of which, Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have similar asset stores and are also susceptible to the same asset flip issues as Unity, but these game engines were established by high-quality games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' for the latter), and so have less of a problem when it comes to their image; at worst, the most common complaint about Unreal-engine games are that a lot of them in the late 2000s were [[RealIsBrown too brown]].

The [[UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} Unity engine]], and its associated asset store, were among the most used for these sorts of games, to the point where the engine itself now has a serious image problem, as the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo put a lot of players off from the game, even if the game in question was actually good. Despite this stigma, Unity itself is a great tool that has been used to create critically acclaimed games such as ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'', ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' and ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', just to name a few titles. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the engine was free and easy to use. This led to the barrier to entry for game development being greatly lowered and why so many people abused it to make asset flips, and so suffered greater than other game engines. Speaking of which, Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have similar asset stores and are also susceptible to the same asset flip issues as Unity, but these game engines were established by games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' for the latter), and so have less of a problem when it comes to their image.

The [[UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} Unity engine]], and its associated asset store, were among the most used for these sorts of games, to the point where the engine itself now has a serious image problem, as the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo put a lot of players off from the game, even if the game in question was actually good. Despite this stigma, Unity itself is a great tool that has been used to create critically acclaimed games such as ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'', ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' and ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', just to name a few titles. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the engine was free and easy to use. This led to the barrier to entry for game development being greatly lowered which was why so many people abused it to make asset flips, and so suffered greater than other game engines. Speaking of which, Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have similar asset stores and are also susceptible to the same asset flip issues as Unity, but these game engines were established by games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' for the latter), and so have less of a problem when it comes to their image.

The [[UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} Unity engine]], and its associated asset store, were among the most used for these sorts of games, to the point where the engine itself now has a serious image problem, as the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo put a lot of players off from the game, even if the game in question was actually good. Despite this stigma, Unity is a seriously fantastic engine used to make all manner of good games like ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'', ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingPocketCamp'' and ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', just to name a few titles. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the engines' ease of use was directly proportional to how many people abused it to make asset flips, and so suffered greater than other game engines. Speaking of which, Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have similar asset stores and are also susceptible to the same asset flip issues as Unity, but these game engines were established by games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' for the latter), and so have less of a problem when it comes to their image.

[[TheProblemWithLicensedGames Many movie tie-in games are considered shovelware]], [[SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames though there are exceptions.]]

* Sometimes, all the money comes from people uninterested in actually playing these games. Customers know they are garbage, but they buy it for the BileFascination, GuiltyPleasure, or as a cruel joke, like [[UndesirablePrize gifting the game]] to their "friends", or getting [[AchievementSystem easy achievements]], collecting, and more recently, bonuses that come from owning these games, like the [[UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} Steam Trading Cards]] (which are crafted into badges, used to gain Steam [=XP=], or sold for credits for games).

* A common theme with "asset flips" specifically is that they typically have little-to-no visual cohesion or unifying style, having clashing character designs, settings, sounds, and art styles hastily cobbled together.

->''"It's... it-it's awful. IT'S ALL! FUCKING! AWFUL! IT'S- ALL OF IT! ALL OF IT! AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM '''SUCKS!'''"''
-->-- '''WebVideo/JonTron''', "Plug and Play Consoles"

* Quality of gameplay usually ranges from mediocre (boring gameplay, unimpressive visuals, copy of another game) to abysmal (janky controls, unclear goals, unbalanced/impossible challenges). Bugs and glitches are almost guaranteed.

[[caption-width-right:350:Image taken from [[http://thepunkeffect.com/overthinking-it-new-years-resolutions-i-wish-video-game-companies-would-make-this-year/ this article]].]]

* Most of them are Western-developed, but there are also some Japanese and Asian ones, like the ''Simple 1000'' series.

The [[UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} Unity engine]], and its associated asset store, were among the most used for these sorts of games, to the point where the engine itself now has a serious image problem, as the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo put a lot of players off from the game, even if the game in question was actually good. Despite this stigma, Unity is a seriously fantastic engine used to make all manner of good games like ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'', ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingPocketCamp'' and ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', just to name a few titles. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the engines' ease of use was directly proportional to how many people abused it to make asset flips, and so suffered greater than other game engines. Speaking of which, Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have similar asset stores annd are also subsceptible to the same asset flip issues as Unity, but these game engines were established by games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' for the latter), and so have less of a problem when it comes to their image.

The Unity engine, and its associated asset store, was among the most used for these sorts of games, to the point where the engine itself now has a serious image problem, as the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo put a lot of players off from the game, even if the game in question was good. Despite this, Unity really is a seriously fantastic engine used for good games like ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'' and ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingPocketCamp''. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the ease of use of Unity is directly proportional to how many people abused it to make asset flips with it, and so suffered the most. Other game engines, such as Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have similar asset flip issues of their own, but these game engines were established by games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' for the latter), and so have less of a problem.

And just to clarify something, the issue with asset flips is not the use of pre-made assets (which are invaluable to indie and AAA game development), the issue lies in the whole core experience of the game being made up '''solely''' of assets in one art style or theme clashing with another. Just because a game uses pre-made assets, does not make it an "asset flip" or shovelware.