History MediaNotes / Shovelware

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 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.

A more modern interpretation of the trope is the "Asset Flip" (the name being a portmanteau of "game assets" and "flipping-a-[thing you own]-to-make-quick-money", and was coined by James Stephanie Sterling of ''WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' fame) -- games made using a build-it-yourself game engine and prolific use of unaltered stock or store-bought assets like character models, sounds, and maps -- which 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" program, where Valve has a hard time taking them down due to their "hands off" approach to their marketplace, but it has proliferated onto the likes of the [=PS-store=] and the [=Switch's eshop=]. The Unity engine, and its associated asset store, was among the most used for asset flippers[[note]]to the point where the engine itself 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 was very good[[/note]], despite it being a seriously fantastic engine used for many good games like ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}''. However, its greatest asset is also its greatest curse; the ease of use of Unity was directly proportional to how many people abused it to make asset flips. Other game engines, such as Cryengine and Unreal Engine also have asset flip issues of their own, but were established by games made in those engines from years past (''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' for the former, ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' for the latter).

'''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 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.

* 'Asset flips' -- games made using a build-it-yourself game engine and unaltered stock or store-bought assets like character models and maps -- are an increasingly common form of shovelware on digital storefronts. The Unity engine and its asset store are notable sources for these[[note]]to the point where the engine itself now has a serious image problem - while it is a serious engine used for many good games, the sheer amount of shovelware displaying the Unity logo has put a lot of players off of games made in it[[/note]], though others exist. Asset flips typically have little-to-no visual cohesion or unifying style, having clashing character designs, settings, sounds, and art styles hastily cobbled together.
* 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).

* Sold in bundles of several products, like those five-dollar "50 Great Arcade Hits" discs at discount stores that are [[NonIndicativeName neither great nor arcade games nor hits]]. This was, in fact, the original definition of shovelware. Some bundles may even have games that are clones of other games within the bundle as an artificial boost.

* 'Asset flips' -- games made using a build-it-yourself game engine and unaltered stock or store-bought assets like character models and maps -- are an increasingly common form of shovelware on digital storefronts. The Unity engine and its asset store are notable examples, though others exist. Asset flips typically have little-to-no visual cohesion or unifying style, having clashing character designs, settings, sounds, and art styles hastily cobbled together.

* Marketing is little to non-existent. Blurbs from the developers will either overstate the quality, or try to play it off as "ironically" bad.

* Sometimes, all the money comes from people uninterested in actually playing these games. Customers know they are garbage, but they buy it for the game's intentional or unintentional humor, 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).

The term ultimately originates in the CD-ROM boom of the early 90s, 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.

* Usually comes with glaring, colourful, and sometimes obnoxiously designed box arts, as with the case of casual and budget games for the UsefulNotes/NintendoWii.
* Most of them are Western-developed, but there are also some Japanese and Asian ones too, like the ''Simple 1000'' series.
* Often based on movies, TV shows, toys, or even celebrities and game shows. These are often made with small budgets and development times, and usually end up becoming simple platformers. See TheProblemWithLicensedGames. Some are also made just to advertise certain products, people in business and marketing like to call this "advergaming".

The term ultimately originates in the CD-ROM boom of the early 90s, when distributors started packing a bunch of older games onto the then unheard of 640 Megabytes on 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.

%% No examples, please. That would inevitably lead to edit warring, and we don't want that. If you ''must'' give examples, take it to Horrible.VideoGames in DarthWiki.

* Quality of gameplay usually ranges from mediocre (boring gameplay, unimpressive visuals, copy of another game) to abysmal (janky controls, unclear goals, unbalanced/impossible challenges).
* Sold in bundles of several products, like those five-dollar "50 Great Arcade Hits" discs at discount stores that are [[NonIndicativeName neither great nor arcade games nor hits]]. This was, in fact, the original definition of shovelware.

* Some are based on movies, TV shows, and toys and then there are the weirder ones like ones based on food products or endorsed by a celebrity. See TheProblemWithLicensedGames. Some are also made just to advertise certain products, people in business and marketing like to call this "advergaming".
* A good chunk of shovelware games, especially on the PC, contain so many glitches and bugs that they're {{Obvious Beta}}s.
* A good chunk of shovelware games also tend to fall under the PartyGame genre.

* Usually found in discount bins, even if they've only been released a week ago.
* Has similar appearance to other, more popular or refined products. For example, many "Tycoon" games. Essentially, one cousin of the ShoddyKnockoffProduct.
* Quality usually ranges from mediocre to abysmal, pretty much by definition. Often mostly created in a programmer's spare time and turned into a product. A cheeply made but decent game would be termed budget rather than shovelware, with the distinction being subjective.

* 'Asset flips' -- games made using a build-it-yourself game engine and unaltered stock or store-bought assets -- are an increasingly common form of shovelware on digital storefronts.

* Usually comes with glaring, colourful, and sometimes obnoxiously designed box arts, as with the case of casual and budget games for the Wii.

* Sometimes, all the money comes from people uninterested in actually playing these games. Customers know they are garbage, but they buy it for the game's intentional or unintentional humor, 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).

* Sometimes, all the money comes from people uninterested in actually playing these games. Customers know they are garbage, but they buy it for the game's intentional or unintentional humor, or as a cruel joke, like 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]].

* Quality usually ranges from mediocre to abysmal. Often mostly created in a programmer's spare time and turned into a product.

* Sometimes, all the money comes not from people who want to play these games, costumers know they are garbage, but they buy it for some kind of joke, like the game having intentional or unintentional humor, or a cruel joke like gifting the game to his "friends", or getting [[AchievementSystem easy achievements]], collecting, and more recently, bonuses that come from owning these games, like the [[UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} Steam Trading Cards]].

* A good chunk of shovelware games, especially on the PC, contain so many glitches and bugs that it's an ObviousBeta.

* Sold in bundles of several products (Like those five-dollar "50 Great Arcade Hits" discs at discount stores that are [[NonIndicativeName neither great nor arcade games nor hits]]. This was, in fact, the original definition of shovelware).
* Usually comes with glaring, colourful and sometimes obnoxiously-designed box arts, as with the case of casual and budget games for the Wii.
* Most of them are Western-developed, but there's also some Japanese and Asian ones too, like the ''Simple 1000'' series.
* Some are based on movies, TV shows, and toys and then there's the weirder ones like ones based on food products or endorsed by a celebrity. See TheProblemWithLicensedGames. Some are also made just to advertise certain products, people in business and marketing like to call this "advergaming".

* 'Asset flips' - games made using a build-it-yourself game engine and unaltered stock or storebought assets - are an increasingly-common form of shovelware on digital storefronts.
* Sometimes, all the money comes not from people who want to play these games, costumers know they are garbage, but they buy it for some kind of joke, like the game having intentional or unintentional humor, or a cruel joke like gifting the game to his "friends", or getting [[{{AchievementSystem}} easy achievements]], collecting, and more recently, bonuses that come from owning these games, like the [[{{UsefulNotes/Steam}} Steam Trading Cards]].

'''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 [[TheyJustDidntCare with 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.

->''"It's... it-it's awful. IT'S [[PunctuatedForEmphasis ALL! FUCKING! AWFUL!]] IT'S- ALL OF IT! ALL OF IT! AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM '''SUCKS!'''"''

->''"It's... it-it's awful. IT'S [[PunctuatedForEmphasis ALL! FUCKING! AWFUL!]] IT'S-- ALL OF IT! ALL OF IT! AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM '''SUCKS!'''"''

->''"It's... it-it's awful. IT'S [[PunctuatedForEmphasis ALL! FUCKING! AWFUL!]] IT'S- ALL OF IT! ALL OF IT! AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM '''SUCKS!'''"''

* A good chunk of shovelware games also tend to fall under the PartyGame genre, potentially to give the player more to play with rather than being a story-driven game.

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