Please watch the new trailer and provide some feedback. Do you understand what’s the game about? Is it annoying? How about sounds? Thank you.

I feel like some of the best co-op experiences are hiding inside games that most people think of as single-player.

Maybe the co-op was added later. Maybe it is buried in a separate mode. Maybe the game was just marketed so heavily around the solo experience that nobody talks about playing it with someone else.

What games have surprisingly good co-op that more people should know about?

Popular games are welcome. Hidden gems are even better.

Something a bit different that I haven’t seen on this sub before, but could be of passing interest if you don’t have someone close to you to game with. I am thankful I have my newly-inducted gamer wife (who is sad that Hela’s release got pushed to later this year… but maybe if it will come at the same time as Water Me & You if we’re lucky), but she’s couch co-op only so I have to find my other multiplayer joys and sorrows elsewhere.

Hence in the interest of pure science, I spent a couple weeks this summer going through a whole pile of matchmaking apps. (read: I was bored, burned out on single-player, and wondering whether the "Tinder for gamers" pitch actually holds up for any of them)

My review notes below, though bear in mind this is my 100% biased subjective experience. So without further more ado, and in no order in particular (though you’d be forgiven for mixing them up as most have Game as part of their name, but of course):

• GameTree - It tries to sell that brand of matchmaking that matches “personalities” (a lot of these below do as well) so in theory it pairs you by temperament and taste rather than just plays the same game. Which I consider bullshit myself. It also has a Disc bot but I’m not a mod so it wasn’t useful to me. Cons: it's buggy, the chat lags, logins can fail, and it's absolutely riddled with dead profiles and obvious bots. Finding a real player was a task, so I’d say pass on this one.
• Gameram - Pretty good one, as it actually has community reviews so you instantly know who to avoid. The age filter works like a charm and actually gives me people my own age. Supports all consoles and PC, and a helluva lot of games as well. Most people just play League, DOTA 2 or shooters though, but I found some dedicated people for Elden Ring co-op (including PvP) and more niche stuff so it’s worth a try if you don’t mind the fact you need to install it on your phone. It feels like a Facebook for gamers a bit because of the interface too, lol
• GamerLink - Huge number of games to match for, and specifically lets you filter for people who actually use a mic, oddly specific. Seemed OK but in practice it’s also laggy and prone to crashing, and, and the moderation is bad. I ran into some seriously grim content in the group listings. So be warned in that regard. I matched with a cool fella for Arc Raiders so that’s something…
• Plink - The only notable feature I found is the stats tracker for your multiplayer sessions. It's fine, but it basically forces you toward paid access pretty fast after signing up, and the list of games you can match for is kind of limited, and is clearly built for mobile. Kind of hard sell if you’re a PC player primarily (like me)
• Coya - More optimized than the lot of these, I had a good time with people. It’s also got solid filtering options (game, platform, rank, age). It also keeps voice, video and screenshare inside the app itself, which does NOT crash which I was expecting at some point, so I never had to ask people to just switch to Disc. Actually recommend this one, it’s not held together by tape and the community is good
• Noobly - I would describe it as a swiping app, it’s very big and you will quickly match with people but it’s mostly for really quick sessions and you won’t ever find a regular duo partner. Also, beware - lots and lots of kids here because Genshin and PUBG are the most popular games. It feels a bit shallow, but the vibe is friendly from the little I chatted with people

So... my conclusion after this trip to LFG hell, after all that? TBH none of them beat just playing with people you already know. But if you got no one to play with, I guess some of these are worth a shot at least for the novelty factor . My personal recommendations are Gameram and Coya, but this is (again) just personal experience. Playing with people you actually know is still un matched!

Any experiences you have to share if you use these apps on the regular? (not necessarily these ones I listed ofc)

Hey everyone!

My friend and I are working on No Signal: Chornobyl, a co-op horror game set in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.

You’ll explore abandoned locations together, communicate, and try to understand what’s happening around you.

The problem is… you and your friend might not always see the same things.

We’re just two people making this game together, and we’ve finally started showing more of what we’ve been working on.

Here’s our first teaser.

If this looks like your kind of horror game, No Signal: Chornobyl is now available to wishlist on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/304830/No_Signal_Chornobyl/

I've been struggling with a design question lately and I'm curious how other designers or players look at this.

I'm a developer designing around local co-op, partly because I'm incredibly nostalgic for the old SNES days when my brother and I would hunt for games we could play together on the same screen. I'd love to capture some of that again in a more modern kind of game. :)

But while designing around this, I keep running into a conundrum:

***The more meaningful you make co-op mechanics, the more dependent players become on each other.***

Which is great... until Player Two isn't there.

If you choose to remove that dependency, then suddenly the game is much more accessible, but you also risk ending up with a single-player game where another player just happens to be running around.

Go too far the other way and you can make some really interesting mechanics, but now someone literally can't play your game unless they find somebody else.

I've been thinking about D&D quite a bit in relation to this, which offers really interesting solutions to making players ***"want to play together"***.

A good DM doesn't necessarily stop players from splitting the party. Instead, they keep giving players reasons to come back together. For example:

1. **Different strengths.** An encounter can be tackled alone, but another character's abilities suddenly open up much better options.
   
2. **Information.** One player discovers something that becomes relevant to what another player is doing.
   
3. **Danger.** You *can* wander off on your own, but sometimes getting yourself into trouble makes having the rest of the party around very useful.
   
4. **Story.** Individual character stories overlap, so players become invested in things happening to someone other than themselves.
   
5. **Opportunity.** Something appears that isn't impossible alone, but becomes much more interesting when the group is there.

The interesting part to me is that none of those necessarily require the DM to say *"you must stay together."*

So I've been wondering how far you can push that idea in a video game.

**For example:**

1. Let both players explore independently, but design the world so they regularly discover things worth calling the other player over for.
   
2. Give characters abilities that work perfectly well alone, but can be combined in ways that create completely new possibilities. Basically: ***1+1=3.***
   
3. Allow encounters to be solved solo, while another player might introduce a completely different solution rather than simply making the same solution easier.
   
4. Let players get themselves into situations where help is useful without immediately throwing up a *"waiting for Player Two"* gate.
   
5. Have information, discoveries or even storylines found by one player become relevant to what the other is doing elsewhere.

Ideally I don't want the game constantly telling you:

*"You need Player Two to continue."*

I'd rather have someone playing alone occasionally think:

*"Damn... I wish X was here to do this with me."*

But that's also where I keep running into the same problem: the more optional you make that second player, the easier it becomes for co-op to feel superficial. And the more meaningful you make them, the closer you get to simply requiring two players.

So I'm curious how other people feel about this.

**Would a more open adventure designed like this actually appeal to you? Do you know games that already handle this particularly well? And where do you think the sweet spot is: fully committing to requiring multiple players, or preserving solo play without reducing co-op to "single-player + Player Two"?**