How to Get Your Game Approved on PixelPicked

Every game submitted to PixelPicked is reviewed by a human before it appears in the feed.

That is the promise we make to players — and it is the thing that makes PixelPicked worth anything at all. If we let everything through, we become another app store. The feed fills with clones, cash grabs, and asset flips. Players stop trusting it. Developers with genuinely original games stop getting discovered.

The curation is the product. For developers, that means there is a bar to clear. This guide tells you exactly what that bar looks like, what gets rejected, and how to give your game the best possible chance of approval.

How the review works

When you submit your game, a member of the PixelPicked team reviews it manually within 1 to 2 days.

We look at your game page — the title, description, screenshots, trailer, and anything else you have provided. We are not downloading a build and playing through ten hours of content. We are looking at what you have shared and making a judgment about whether this game belongs in the feed.

That means your submission materials matter enormously. A genuinely original game with a weak submission page can get rejected. A polished submission communicates craft and intention even before we see the game itself.

If your game passes, your page goes live and you can start building an audience. If it does not, you receive honest feedback explaining why — and you are welcome to resubmit once the issues are addressed.

What we are actually looking for

Originality above everything

The single most important thing we evaluate is whether your game is genuinely original.

This does not mean your genre has to be invented. Puzzle games, platformers, roguelikes, and RPGs are all welcome — the mobile game library is not saturated with good ones. What it means is that your game needs to be doing something with that genre that feels like a real creative decision, not a copy of whatever is currently performing well on the charts.

We ask ourselves: does this game exist because someone had an idea they wanted to bring to life? Or does it exist because someone saw a trending game and tried to replicate it?

That question has an answer. It usually shows up in the screenshots, the description, and the overall feeling of the submission.

A distinctive art style

Art is one of the fastest signals of intentionality. A game with a consistent, considered visual style — even a simple one — reads completely differently than a game assembled from default assets.

Your art does not need to be technically impressive. Pixel art, flat illustration, hand-drawn, 3D minimalist — any style can work if it is coherent and clearly chosen. What does not work is a game that looks like it was built from a Unity asset store haul with no visual direction.

If your game is still early and the art is placeholder, say that in your submission. We understand development looks rough in progress. What we are evaluating is whether there is a visual vision, not whether every pixel is final.

Creative depth

Beyond originality and art, we look for evidence that your game has real creative depth. This could be a mechanic that does something genuinely interesting. A world with a distinct atmosphere. A narrative hook that makes you want to know more. A combination of elements that feels like it came from a specific mind with specific tastes.

This is harder to define precisely, which is intentional. We know it when we see it. And when a developer has it, it usually comes through clearly in how they describe their own game.

What gets rejected

Being direct about this matters. These are the categories of games that do not pass review.

Direct clones. If your game is a reskin or close imitation of an existing title — same core loop, same visual language, same mechanics — it will not be approved. This applies to clones of popular mobile games and clones of indie games alike.

Shovelware and asset flips. Games assembled from purchased assets with no meaningful creative work added. These are identifiable immediately.

Predatory monetization as a core design. If your game is built around gacha mechanics, aggressive pay-to-win systems, or monetization patterns that are designed to extract money rather than deliver an experience, it is not a fit for PixelPicked. Games can have monetization. They cannot be monetization with a game bolted on.

Unplayable early concepts. There is a difference between a game that is in development and a game that is a concept document. If you have nothing — no screenshots, no prototype footage, no visual identity — there is not enough to review. Come back when you have something real to show.

Generic execution of a generic idea. This is the hardest rejection to receive because it is not about something specific being wrong. It is about the sum of the parts not adding up to something worth a player's time. A puzzle game with standard mechanics, standard assets, and a standard description that could apply to a thousand other puzzle games is not going to pass — not because any single element is disqualifying, but because there is no reason for it to exist over everything else already in the feed.

Mandatory submission requirements

These are not optional. Your submission will not be reviewed without them.

Game title. The actual name of your game, not a working title or a placeholder.

Short description. One to three sentences that explain what your game is. Not what genre it fits. What it actually is. What makes it yours.

At least two screenshots. Real screenshots from the game itself. Not mockups. Not store art. Actual gameplay or game world images.

Development stage. Tell us where you are — concept, prototype, alpha, beta, near launch. We need to understand the context of what we are looking at.

Platform target. iOS, Android, or both.

Genre. Select the closest fit from the available options.

Good to have

These are not required to pass review, but they meaningfully improve your chances and the quality of your page once approved.

A trailer or gameplay video. Even a rough screen recording of a prototype communicates more than screenshots alone. A developer who has captured footage of their game playing is a developer who has something worth capturing.

A longer description with genuine voice. The short description gets people to click. A longer description that reads like it was written by the person making the game — with opinions, context, and specificity — builds real connection. Write about why you are making this game, not just what it is.

Devlog history or progress updates. Submitting with some development history already documented shows that this is a real project with momentum, not a wishful placeholder.

Beta access plans. If you have thought about how you want to run testing — what kind of testers you want, what you want feedback on, when you plan to open access — include it. It signals that you are thinking about your game as something players will actually experience.

Social links or community. A Twitter account, a TikTok with devlogs, a small Discord — any evidence that you are already building a presence around your game adds weight to the submission.

Estimated launch window. You do not need to commit to a date. A rough quarter or season gives us and players a sense of trajectory.

The cases that always clear review

To give you a concrete picture of what approval looks like in practice, here are the patterns we see consistently pass.

A developer submitting a puzzle game with hand-drawn art, a mechanic that uses a physical metaphor in a way we have not seen before, and a description that reads like it was written by someone who clearly loves puzzles. The game is in alpha. The screenshots are rough. But the creative intention is unmistakable.

A narrative mobile game with a distinctive visual world, a premise that is specific and personal rather than generic, and a short trailer that establishes tone in thirty seconds. The developer has been posting devlogs and has a small Twitter following. None of that is required — but it reinforces what the submission already communicates.

An arcade game that takes a single mechanic and pushes it to an extreme, with a visual style that is minimal but completely coherent. One screenshot communicates the whole game. The description is two sentences and they are the right two sentences.

What these have in common is not polish or scale. It is clarity of creative vision.

The cases that always fail

And here are the patterns we see consistently fail.

A game described as "the next Clash of Clans but with a twist." The screenshots show generic fantasy assets. The description is four bullet points about features. There is no voice, no specificity, no reason to believe this game is going to be different from the thirty things it is trying to be.

A hyper-casual game with no visual direction, a description that is entirely about the ad revenue model, and screenshots that could be from any of ten thousand similar games.

A game that is clearly a reskin — the same structure as a known title, with different characters and a new color palette. The developer describes it as "inspired by" the original. Inspired by is fine. Identical to is not.

An unfinished submission. No description. One screenshot. Genre selected. Nothing else. We cannot review what is not there.

How to write a submission that passes

The description is where most submissions fail or succeed. Here is the difference.

What not to write:

An exciting new mobile RPG with deep combat mechanics, beautiful graphics, and an immersive storyline. Hundreds of items to collect. Regular updates. Available on iOS and Android.

This describes every RPG ever made. It tells us nothing about your game.

What to write instead:

A one-thumb RPG set in a dying city where every character you meet has already decided how the story ends — and your job is to change their minds. Turn-based combat built around conversation, not damage numbers.

This tells us something real. We can picture a game. We can feel the creative decision behind it.

Write about what makes your game yours. Not what category it fits into.

After rejection

If your game is not approved, you will receive specific feedback explaining why. Read it carefully.

Most rejections fall into one of two buckets. Either the submission materials are too thin to make a fair assessment — in which case the fix is to add more — or the game itself does not clear the originality bar, in which case the feedback will say that directly.

You can resubmit. There is no penalty for resubmitting. Games that were rejected early in development and came back six months later with real progress have been approved. Development changes games. We evaluate what you submit, not what you submitted previously.

What we ask is that you do not resubmit the same materials with no changes and expect a different outcome.

The honest version

We are not trying to be a gatekeeper for its own sake. Every game we reject is a developer we are turning away, and we do not take that lightly.

But the players who use PixelPicked are trusting us to surface things worth their time. That trust is the only reason the platform works at all. If we break it, we become useless to everyone — including the developers we most want to help.

The bar exists because originality and craft deserve a place where they are actually valued. If your game clears that bar, we want it in the feed. We want players to find it. We want to run the launch campaign and send the notifications and put it in the newsletter.

We just need to be able to look at your submission and see the game you are building.

Quick reference

Required to submit:

Game title
Short description (1–3 sentences, specific to your game)
At least 2 real screenshots
Development stage
Platform target (iOS / Android / both)
Genre

Strongly recommended:

Gameplay trailer or prototype video
Extended description with genuine voice
Estimated launch window
Beta access plans
Devlog history or social links

Instant rejection:

Direct clones of existing games
Asset flips with no creative work added
Predatory monetization as the core design
No screenshots or description
Generic execution with no distinguishing creative element

What we value most:

Originality of concept or mechanic
Distinctive, intentional art style
Creative depth — a game that feels like it came from a specific mind
Clarity of submission — you know what your game is and can say it

Have questions about a specific submission or want to talk through whether your game is a fit? Reach out before you submit. We would rather have that conversation than send a rejection.