If you're like me, you love retro games. And even after writing for Retro Dodo for 6+ years now, I still find myself coming across new and unknown games that I never knew existed. There are just so many remarkable gems to explore, but finding them is no easy task, and when you do find new ones, it's likely not to your taste, narrowing the success rate of finding something worth your time.
Well, there's a new application out to help with that issue, 100% human-made. Not vibe coded, not prompted by a robot, just straight up raw passion and knowledge, the way we like it. It's called Questly, created by a single individual known as James and is already available to download and explore via Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store.
Put simply, Questly is a games discovery platform that uses a knowledgeable algorithm that learns your taste the more you use the app, offering truly unique games for you to explore, crafted to your taste, needs and wants. In James' words: "Finding your next favourite game shouldn't take longer than actually playing one. Questly is built around your taste, not what's trending. No ads, no algorithms working against you, no agenda".
- A deck, not a feed - Finite, focused, and respectful of your time.
- Filter by platform, year, genre - Only have an hour for something short on GAME BOY? Done.
- Hide what you've played - Already played it? It disappears. You only ever see fresh picks.
Between discovering new games, Questly has more to offer, such as importing your own Steam and Xbox library so you can track your collection and deepen Questly's knowledge about your tastes and what you want to discover. It can even track your achievements, playtime, your own personal review score, completion percentage and more. It can go as deep as you want, overwhelmingly so at times.
- Playtime and achievements synced - Steam, Xbox and retro achievements imported automatically. Time to beat and time to master both tracked because finishing a game and mastering it are two very different things.
- Replays welcome - Come back to a game years later and log it fresh without overwriting the original.
- Status that fits real life - Backlog, Playing, Completed, Mastered, Retired. Hide any category from your public profile if you'd rather keep it to yourself.
- Quests & progression - Unlock rewards by actually engaging with the games you love.
- 40+ console themes - From PS1 boot screens to Game Boy green. Always a yours-only choice.
- Built around what you've played - Every stat on your profile reflects what you've actually experienced and loved, not what you bought in a sale and never touched.
James obviously thought that this level of depth could get a little lonely at times, so he added a community section of the app, allowing you to engage with other community members, unlock rewards, and even showcase stats on your profile so you can show off just how much of a nerd you are. It has an insane level of detail, and it's all free.
"But Brandon, how does James monetise this?". There are some features locked behind "Questly Pro", such as Extended Posts, Extended Lists and Pro Cosmetics. You get these new features for approximately £3.99 a month. So if you do love Questly and want to support an independent application, you can pay monthly to secure the best level of Questly. It's clear James has put a lot of time and effort into this, refining it week by week and now wants to put this in front of gamers who want a new discovery platform that offers an array of tracking and organisational benefits for those who have a large collection of digital and physical games.
We love new applications like this. In a time where the retro gaming industry and emulation space are riddled with theft, confusion and half-arsed vibe-coded projects, it's nice to see something refreshing, but most of all, to see someone so passionate and hungry to make this a success. We wish James all the best and hope some of our readers will take a look at this free application; it's certainly worth your time. Check out Questly's website here.
