A Curated 20-Game Starter Library for a New Arcade Website
A new arcade site has a cold-start problem. Ten games feel thin, two hundred feel random, and you do not yet know what your visitors like. Twenty well-chosen games is a workable middle: enough variety to look like a destination, few enough to check by hand.
Below is a starter library of 20 games from the PlayKovo embed catalog. Every game here was present in the public embed feed on 13 October 2026, which means PlayKovo has individually approved it for embedding. The device, orientation and controls details come from that feed. We did not play-test these on a set of physical devices, so treat the "publishing notes" as things to verify, not results.
How the 20 were chosen
The brief was balance, not popularity.
- Five puzzle games, because they suit short sessions and people of most ages.
- Five casual games with one-tap or one-drag controls.
- Four arcade games that work in either orientation or with simple swipes.
- Four action games that still work on a phone.
- Two sports games. The embed feed has only two sports-tagged titles we would recommend today, so that is all we include.
We also set a mobile rule: 19 of the 20 are declared for all devices. One, Motorcar Volleyball, is desktop only, and we included it deliberately because it is the one game in the feed built around two players on one keyboard.
The library
| # | Game | Genre | Devices and layout | Controls (from the feed) | Why it earns a slot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Water Sort Puzzle | Puzzle | All, portrait | Tap a tube, tap another to pour | Familiar rules, one level per session |
| 2 | Arrow Escape: Tap Away Arrows | Puzzle | All, portrait | Tap an arrow to slide it out | 100 levels, calm pace |
| 3 | Jewelsback | Puzzle | All, either orientation | Drag a jewel onto a neighbour | Match-3 appeals to a wide audience |
| 4 | Minesweeper Kovo | Puzzle | All, either orientation | Tap to open, long-press to flag | Classic with three difficulty levels |
| 5 | Cream 2048 | Puzzle | All, landscape | Swipe, or arrow keys | Easy to explain and hard to put down |
| 6 | Orbit Keeper | Casual | All, portrait | Tap anywhere to flip | The simplest controls on the list |
| 7 | Helix Jump | Casual | All, portrait | Drag left and right to spin the tower | Instantly readable gameplay |
| 8 | Stack Tower | Casual | All, portrait | Tap to drop the block | Score visitors can compare |
| 9 | Zigzag | Casual | All, portrait | Tap to turn | One-tap reflex game |
| 10 | Lumira: Word Puzzle Game | Casual, word | All, portrait | Swipe across letters | 750 levels, a reason to come back |
| 11 | Lane Hopper | Arcade | All, either orientation | Tap to hop, swipe to turn | Hop across roads, rivers and rail tracks |
| 12 | Blade Spin | Arcade | All, either orientation | Tap to throw a knife | Skill and timing in a single input |
| 13 | Rocket Dash | Arcade | All, either orientation | Tap to fire the engine | Short, tense runs |
| 14 | Rainbow Run | Arcade | All, landscape | Swipe to change lane, jump or slide | Endless-runner format |
| 15 | Sumo.io - Push Them Off | Action | All, landscape | Joystick plus dash on mobile | Quick rounds, last one standing |
| 16 | Hex Drop.io | Action | All, landscape | Drag to move, button to jump | Falling tiles keep rounds short |
| 17 | Stickman Dash | Action | All, portrait | Hold, drag back and release to dash | One-touch combat |
| 18 | Stolen Sword | Action | All, portrait | Drag to aim, release to dash | One finger from start to finish |
| 19 | Tideline | Sports, simulation | All, landscape | Aim, hold to charge a cast, tap to hook | A relaxed fishing game for slower sessions |
| 20 | Motorcar Volleyball | Sports | Desktop only, landscape | Arrow keys or WASD; two players share a keyboard | The only local two-player game in the set |
What the mix looks like
- Orientation: nine portrait, five that work in either orientation, six landscape.
- Devices: nineteen for all devices, one desktop only.
- Input style: sixteen of the twenty rely on a single tap, drag or swipe.
The nine portrait games are the main design implication. PlayKovo's default embed code is a 16:9 landscape box, and that is the same for portrait titles too. If you drop a portrait game into the default box on a phone, it will be small. Plan for a portrait frame; our guide on building a mobile-first games section covers how.
Three of the 20 you can try right now, straight from the catalog. Note how each card shows its device support before you commit to a slot.
Try it live · PlayKovo catalog
Shove your rivals off a shrinking sumo platform in this fast and funny .io brawler. Bump, dash and outsmart the crowd to be the last fighter standing, then spend your coins on hats and…
A relaxing 3D fishing game. Cast your line, fight the fish, sell your catch and upgrade your gear to unlock new waters.
Run, jump and push across falling hexagon floors, solo or in teams. Every tile drops after you step on it. Be the last one standing!
Publishing notes for the whole set
- Embedding is approved, but ads are not yours. The Partner Terms say ads shown inside the games cannot be blocked, hidden or replaced. Do not design your page on the assumption that you control what appears in the frame.
- Do not edit the iframe's allow attribute. Removing the permissions the default code sets (fullscreen, autoplay, gamepad, pointer lock) breaks sound and controls.
- Keep the credit. Games must not be presented as your own work. You can say "games from PlayKovo" or "powered by PlayKovo".
- Check the feed weekly. If a game leaves the feed, you must remove it from your site as well.
- Word games depend on language. Lumira is listed as an English game in the feed. If your audience reads another language, swap it.
Build your own version in an hour
- Open the catalog or pull the feed at https://playkovo.com/api/embed-games?format=json and copy this list into a spreadsheet.
- Delete any game that does not suit your audience. A children's site, for example, should look closely at action titles.
- Replace each deleted game with another from the same genre so the balance holds.
- Give every game its own page, with the iframe, a two-sentence description and short controls instructions taken from the feed.
- Open all twenty pages on a phone and a laptop and write down anything that breaks.
If you end up with 15 games you trust instead of 20 you have not checked, keep the 15. Quality is the whole point of a starter library.
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