Tags look small, but they do a lot of work.
They help players understand what your game is. They help stores and recommendation systems decide where your game belongs. They help someone who has never heard about you decide whether your game is worth opening, wishlisting, or buying.
And yet, a lot of game tags are bad.
Some games barely have any useful tags. Some use tags that are technically true, but almost meaningless. Some use tags that are simply wrong. The result is bad for everyone - your game gets shown to the wrong people, players waste time looking at games they do not want, and recommendation systems get worse data.
I’m building Gamescovery, a game recommendation algorithm based heavily on tags, and this problem shows up very quickly.
So this is a practical guide for indie developers - how to tag your game in a way that helps the right players find it.
Do not outsource tagging blindly to AI
Tagging looks easy, but it requires understanding your game.
AI can generate a list of tags, but from what I have seen, it often produces generic noise. It may add tags that sound reasonable but do not actually fit. That hurts players, hurts discovery, hurts our planet, and hurts your game.
If you use AI for brainstorming, treat it only as a rough starting point. Do the final pass yourself. Remove anything that is not clearly true. Add the specific things AI usually misses.
Your tags are part of your store page. They deserve the same care as your screenshots, trailer, and description.
Good tags are free marketing
Correct tags are one of the simplest marketing things you can do.
They do not require a budget.
They do not require posting on social media every day.
They do not require begging an algorithm for attention.
They just require you to describe your game accurately and specifically.
That accuracy helps your game reach the people who are already looking for something like it.
If you are an indie developer, that matters a lot. Most players will never hear about your game directly from you. They will find it through search, recommendations, tags, lists, communities, curators, or store algorithms.
Give those systems good information to work with.
Tags are not decoration
A tag is not just a marketing label. It is a promise.
If you tag your game as horror, players will expect horror.
If you tag it as puzzle, players will expect puzzles to be a meaningful part of the game.
If you tag it as vehicle simulator, players will expect the vehicle simulation to be central, not just that the game has one car in one mission.
Good tags supports the following statement:
“I want my game to be known as a good example of a genre”
If the statement is not true - do not use the tag!
Start with the genre
Your game should have at least one genre tag.
This is the most basic discovery layer. Players often search by genre first, and algorithms usually need genre information to understand where the game belongs.
Examples:
platformermetroidvaniaboomer shootervisual novelturn-based tacticssurvival horrorcity builderdating simotomeroguelike deckbuilder
A few rules:
- Add at least one genre.
- Do not add genres that are only barely present. For example, don’t put the
vehicle simulatortag just because you can drive a car in your game, don’t put thepuzzletag if your game consists of only one puzzle for the entire game. - Prefer specific genre tags over broad ones. For example,
boomer shooteris usually more useful than justaction.otometells the right audience more than onlydating sim. - Usually, 1-3 genre tags are enough.
- If a combined genre exists and fits better, use it.
action-adventurecan be better than separately addingactionandadventure, if that is the common way players understand your game.
The goal is not to collect as many genre tags as possible. The goal is to describe the core way your game is played.
Add the visual dimension
Next, describe how the game is visually presented.
Useful tags here are things like:
text2D3D
You do not need to tag every visual detail. Start with the broad visual format.
If your game mixes styles, tag the main one. For example, if your game is mostly 3D but has some 2D menus, it is still a 3D game. If it is mostly text with some illustrations, text may be more useful than trying to tag every small visual component.
This kind of tag helps players immediately filter games by presentation style. Some players are specifically looking for 2D games. Some want 3D. Some love text-heavy games.
Help them decide quickly.
Add the camera perspective
Players also care about how they see and control the game.
Examples:
first-personthird-persontop-downisometricside-scrollerfixed cameraover-the-shoulder
Again, pick the main perspective.
Some games allow switching perspectives. GTA V and Skyrim, for example, can be played in more than one view. But if your game has one primary perspective, use that. Do not tag every possible camera mode unless each one is truly important to how the game is played.
Perspective tags are especially useful because they often change the audience. A first-person horror game and an isometric horror game may attract different players, even if both are horror.
Add game mode tags
Players need to know how the game can be played.
At minimum, add the correct mode tags (examples):
singleplayermultiplayerlocal co-oponline co-opMMO
Unlike genre or perspective, it is normal to use multiple game mode tags if your game really supports multiple modes.
If your game has both singleplayer and co-op, tag both.
If it has online multiplayer but no local multiplayer, do not imply local multiplayer.
If multiplayer is planned but not currently available, be careful with the tag unless the store has a clear way to mark planned features.
This is one of the easiest places to lose player trust. Few things annoy players faster than finding out that a game tagged as co-op does not actually have the kind of co-op they expected.
Add theme tags
Theme is not the same as genre.
Genre is mostly about how the player interacts with the game.
Theme is about what the game is about, what kind of world it has, and what flavor it gives.
Examples of theme tags:
cyberpunkpost-apocalypticfantasydark fantasysci-fiwestern90smedievalspacedetectivemythologycold war
A cyberpunk game can be a platformer, RPG, visual novel, shooter, or strategy game. The theme tells players what world they are stepping into. The genre tells them what they will do there.
You usually want at least one theme tag. More than one is fine if they are accurate.
For example, a game could be:
survival horror(genre)first-person(view perspective)singleplayer(game mode)post-apocalyptic(theme)sci-fi(theme)
That already gives players and recommendation systems a much better picture than just horror.
Add mood and atmosphere tags
Mood tags are about how the game feels.
Examples:
darkgrimrelaxingcozyfunnysurrealmelancholicwholesometenseatmospheric
These tags are important because players often search by feeling, not by mechanics.
Someone may not know they want a farming sim specifically. They may know they want something cozy.
Someone may not care whether your game is technically horror or thriller. They may want something tense, dark, or unsettling.
Mood tags help your game reach people based on emotional expectations.
But be honest. Do not tag a game as relaxing because it has one calm level. Do not tag it as funny because there are two jokes. Tag the dominant experience.
Add specific subject tags
This is where many developers stop too early.
Genre, perspective, mode, theme, and mood are the foundation. But specific subject tags can be extremely powerful.
Think about objects, places, actions, creatures, communities, historical periods, professions, and motifs that are important in your game.
Examples:
trainsfishingcookingwitchescatsrobotsdinosaurs
For example, tags for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R game could include: Chernobyl, radiation, nuclear plant, disaster, mutants, anomalies, post-Soviet, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Russian, firearms, monsters, jumpscares, bandits, gopniks, factions, and much more.
These tags may look small, but they help with very specific discovery.
If someone loves games about trains, trains is useful.
If someone wants games with witches, witches is useful.
If someone is interested in post-Soviet settings, that tag is useful.
This is often where indie games can stand out. Just genre or theme tags are crowded with a lot of games. Specific tags help you find the exact players who care about the exact things your game contains.
Do not be afraid to be specific.
Use references carefully
If your game is directly related to a known world, franchise, historical event, public domain work, or recognizable cultural reference, consider adding that information as a tag.
For example, if your game is explicitly connected to or inspired by something like the Half-Life universe, that may be useful context for players.
But do not abuse this.
Do not tag every popular game that vaguely inspired you.
Do not tag Dark Souls because your game is hard.
Do not tag Stardew Valley because your game has farming.
Do not tag Disco Elysium because your game has dialogue.
Use references only when they genuinely help describe what the player will find.
Check spelling and language
Misspelled tags are surprisingly common. You wouldn’t believe how much games tagged as paltformer instead of platformer.
Before publishing, check:
- spelling
- singular/plural consistency
- common tag names on the platform
- whether the tag is in English
- whether two tags mean the same thing
If you use non-English tags, some players and systems may not understand them. That may be fine if you are targeting a specific local audience, but for broad discovery, English tags are usually safer.
A simple tagging checklist
When tagging your game, go through this list:
- Genre - What is the core gameplay genre?
- Visual dimension - Is it text-based, 2D, 3D?
- Perspective - First-person, third-person, top-down, side-scroller, isometric, etc.?
- Game modes - Singleplayer, multiplayer, co-op, local, online, etc.?
- Theme - What kind of world or setting is it?
- Mood - How does it feel?
- Specific subjects - What objects, places, actions, creatures, or motifs matter?
- References - Is it genuinely connected to a known world, event, or cultural reference?
- Spelling - Are the tags correct?
If you do only this, your tags will already be better than many games.
Final thought
Do not tag your game for everyone.
Tag it for the right players.
The goal is not to appear in as many places as possible. The goal is to appear in the places where players will look at your game and think:
“Yes. This is exactly the kind of thing I wanted.”
That is what good tagging does.
If you have questions, feedback, or want to talk more about game discovery, you can join the Gamescovery community. I’m building it around the same idea - helping players find the games they actually want, and helping indie games reach the players who will care about them.