This write-up investigates what only-games.github is, why it exists, how it works, and what its presence tells us about the future of indie game distribution. Only-games.github is not a single game but a collection of web-based games , each hosted in its own repository or folder, aggregated under a simple landing page. The site is maintained by an anonymous developer (or small team) known only by the GitHub handle only-games .
In a game industry obsessed with retention metrics, battle passes, and live-service roadmaps, only-games.github offers a different value: transience, smallness, and the quiet dignity of a hyperlink that works. only-games.github
There are almost no RPGs, open-world games, or narrative-heavy games exceeding 30 minutes. The format favors low-friction, high-accessibility experiences . This write-up investigates what only-games
Alternatively, the curator could open-source the selection process, allowing pull requests. As of now, there is no public repository for the site itself — only the hosted output. This keeps control centralized, for better or worse. Only-games.github is not a startup. It is not a platform. It has no business model, no growth metrics, no AI recommendations. It is, in the purest sense, a labor of love — an anonymous person’s carefully chosen list of games that run in a browser tab and ask nothing of you except your attention for a few minutes. In a game industry obsessed with retention metrics,
But that may be fine. A static archive of web games from 2019–2025 could become a historical artifact, like a digital time capsule. Future web archaeologists may study only-games.github to understand how indie developers worked within the constraints of free, decentralized hosting before the rise of Web3 and cloud gaming.
At first glance, the name suggests a gaming blog or a review aggregator. But the .github top-level domain reveals its true nature. This is a — a static web host originally designed for project documentation and personal portfolios, not high-bandwidth game delivery. Yet, only-games.github has carved out a niche as a curated, minimalist, and surprisingly resilient index of browser-playable games.