List of user-given Steam tags

A term that doesn't mean much. Can encompass puzzle games, story games with no action skills required, as well as indie platformers which are considered easy by skilled players.

Games where you are omnipotent or close to, such as Populous or From Dust.

Generally adventure games without action or required skills; usually, scenes are shown from the first-person point of view of the protagonist, unlike most point & click games.

Low-poly elevated to a way of life. (But mostly, reusing engine assets and humor.)

Platformers with back-tracking and other annoy.. sorry, revolutionary features all stolen from Castlevania and Metroid, as the name says.

This is either an actual movie, or a game based on a movie. This tag is too generic to tell.

Generally old-school adventure games, such as Monkey Island, where you point your cursor and click objects. The protagonist is usually shown on screen, unlike most hidden object games, another genre by itself.

Probably not a game, but a spreadsheet or something.

This is not a game. This is a banana.

Novels told mostly in the form of conversations and thoughts, where the character currently talking is shown on screen. Visual novels also offer multiple choices (and endings), except for 'kinetic visual novels'.

One more game!

Games that are either set in a recognizable American environment (e.g. The Crew), or that make fun of American clichés (e.g. BroForce).

Generic childhood trauma simulator. I'm Batman. Or was it The Batman, I forgot already.

Games from developers who think The Matrix is like the greatest movie ever, innit. Had they watched Blade Runner instead, we'd probably have a 'Flying car' category among these.

Games set in an old-fashioned binary environment where the good Americans are fighting those damn Russians. If the game is Russian, please reverse the roles. Unless they want their game to sell. It's complicated. It's called diplomacy, I think.

Games with full-motion video, often as an integral element of gameplay.

Games where the universe is licensed from Games Workshop, e.g. Warhammer games. Games Workshop is notably very open to licensing its rights.

This tag means that most players who tagged the game thought its soundtrack was one of its main qualities.

This is a joke/meme user tag that gets assigned randomly by troll users or as a protest.

Games where your inventory is very complicated to manage. Generally a tag added by trolls, sometimes affectionately.

Games that feature a female protagonist with two high-poly meshes in front of their body that you'll never get to see because she's too busy showing her buttocks.

Games that aren't sure how long you'll play their game, so they'll force you to save every other minute and try out variations, just in case. JUST IN CASE that troll turns out to be a long-lost relative if I don't fry it first. Hmm, nope, just a troll.

Games with aesthetics based on Noir detective films.

Games with (sometimes suggested) nudity. Can also be used as a 'troll' tag by users wanting to make fun of games that are too cute/childish for their own taste.

See 'Rogue-like', 'Rogue-lite', 'Rogue One', 'X-Men' and 'wasting an afternoon of my time because I forgot to disable that option'.

A very specific genre of games that are both aiming to be philosophical, and that are set in Philadelphia. Or maybe someone typed it wrong, and everyone does the same now. We are sheep. No thoughts of our own. I never went to Philly. Life is meaningless.

Games that think you'll buy them just in case you get a cameo from Guybrush Threepwood or Jack Sparrow. Works every time. At worst, someone'll at least mention some booty.

I'm in my happy place. I'm in my happy place.

Keep calm and carry on playing my game.

Games where you can kill a monster with a gun, but also with a sword. At the end you unlock a new mode that allows you to finish the game again with killer bananas. That's where you supposed to uninstall it.

Games that use mechanics similar to those found in the Dark Souls series.

Games that feature people waging war in the stars. I guess. Is this a thing? I don't know. Oh it's like Star Trek you say, right? So who's Spock in this?

Spandex simulators

The word Villain comes from old French, like 87% of the English language. (Yes, I'm evil. And I still don't know why anyone would tag a game with this.)

Back in the 90's, doing software-rendered 3D texturing was hard. Voxels were easier to do. Then GPUs came and ridiculed voxels. Have mercy on them. They're still cool. They've always been cool.

Games with dwarves or something, in the future or something, and that were too lazy to create their own IP so they licensed one for cheap.

Games compatible with NVidia 3D Vision devices.

Games that were financed through crowdfunding. Why is it worth a tag? I don't know, you tell me.

Games that are eager to run off with your money. The goal is to get it back by asking for a refund. Can you do it?

'I don't have the money to finish the game, so I'll just sell it in parts. People love that, don't they?'

Generally a $0 game. If you add this to your tradables, you didn't get it.

Games tagged with this are fully compatible with a controller, and thus with the Steam Link.

Tools that will help you create the next shovelware game on Steam. Rejoice!

See Crowdfunded: games financed through crowdfunding, specifically Kickstarter.com here. Also see 'If you vaguely promise you'll build it, they will come.'

Games that also allow you to create & play your own badly designed levels. Technology is great.

Modification provided, generally by fans, for an existing game.

Games that don't provide support for controllers or keyboards.

Games tagged with this are only partially compatible with a controller, meaning you may need an extra keyboard/mouse to play them through a Steam Link.

This game successfully went through the 'pending verification' phase, and Steam will now count it as part of your library if you own it. It is also allowed to distribute trading cards, for instance.

Applied automatically to obscure new Steam games ('Steam is learning about this game'). You won't get trading cards or a +1 in your library until it's proven not to be a fake game made for quick bucks.

Let me guess... Soundtrack DLC?

Supports the Steam Cloud feature that keeps a backup copy of your game saves on a remote server.

Supports the TrackIR technology. You can google that if you want.

True gamers get VR sets. Sane people spend their $800 on real life.

'6 degrees of freedom', generally games like Descent where you can move freely in deep space.

aka 'danmaku'. Usually, shoot 'em up games where enemies are sending complex waves of bullets that you're expected to skillfully maneuver through. Sometimes encompasses non-SEU games that still ask of you to dodge waves of objects.

A sub-genre where the game likes to tell you it will remember that. Remember what? Is that a threat?! You know I can uninstall you whenever I like, hey?

Doping simulators

'Your kid is starting to get on your nerves? Show them my game! They'll LEARN stuff! Like, why does daddy always put me in front of boring games when I just want to shoot zombies?!'

Games where the user sees what the player character sees, as opposed to third-person camera games.

Rogue-likes for children. That Chocobo one on my Wii was really kewl. Why isn't it on Steam yet?!

Women-oriented stories. Generally applies to visual novels where a female main character gets to meet and date men.

Politicians suck! Real life sucks! Viva la revolución con video juegos!

Politicians suck! Real life sucks! Power to video games!

Games that invite the player to dive into the joys of computer programming, or something just as hip, like 'hacking'. No, really, cool tag.

Generally, these are games played in randomly-generated maps, with permanent death and suitable for quick playthroughs. Can be quite hardcore. Developers like to say they're working on a rogue-like. It looks good on their resume.

Similar to the rogue-like tag, but applied to games that are only partially like Rogue, e.g. only permadeath or only the random generated maps. Rogue-likes for chicken. So it's the chicken version of hardcore. Mainstream hard mode?

Games built using the RPG Maker tool, tailored for 2D JRPG à la Chrono Trigger / old Final Fantasy.

Hardware-only tag, refers to computers with the Steam OS preinstalled. Also used erroneously by users to tag some games with a steampunk setting.

Games where the camera is usually located behind the player character, rather than in front of them (first person).

Games that challenge your keyboard skills. For the secretary in you.