Why I Built SecludedGems: A Letter to Gamers Tired of Doomscrolling Steam

Hey everyone, I'm Adrian.

If you're anything like me, you probably spend more time looking for a game to play than actually playing one. Lately I noticed I was spending more and more time just asking Gemini to find games for me (it came bundled with my cloud storage). And it works, kind of. But it takes ages to explain my taste, what I'm in the mood for, what I've already sunk hundreds of hours into. And even after all that typing, it mostly hands me the big established games I've already heard of a hundred times. Maybe that's a me problem. But I have a feeling I'm not the only one.

Here's the part that really gets me. I'm mostly doing this on my phone, and Gemini is a chatbot, so it's all text. So I get a recommendation, and then I have to open a new tab and search the game myself to find screenshots and gameplay. Because sometimes a game reads great but looks rough, or just feels off once you actually see it moving. And if I jump on YouTube for gameplay, well, first I get to sit through a couple of ads.

Tip: watch YouTube in your phone's browser rather than the app. You tend to get fewer ads that way.

Then if I still like it, I go check whether it even runs on the Steam Deck. If it's only "Playable" and not "Verified," I head over to ProtonDB to see what I'm in for. And if it's not on sale, I either chuck it on the wishlist or go digging through SteamDB to see what the lowest price has been, or when it was last discounted.

Gemini → Steam → YouTube → ProtonDB → SteamDB. For one game.

By the end of all that, I've done about ten minutes of admin just to decide on one game.

And honestly, half the time I don't even get that far. I just end up endlessly scrolling Steam, especially when there's a big sale on. The mobile Steam app, in my opinion, just isn't great for discovering new stuff, especially once you've already played most of the established titles. It doesn't help that you can't even have multiple tabs open in the app, so comparing a few games means constantly jumping back and forth. And before I know it, I've somehow got 30 things on my wishlist when I usually sit at around 5, and I still haven't actually picked anything to play.

So I scroll. On the toilet, usually, where if you camp out long enough you're basically signing up for hemorrhoids. Then I give up, clean up, get into bed, and keep scrolling there instead. Rather than, you know, actually firing up the Steam Deck sitting right next to me.

That's basically how SecludedGems happened. I just wanted one tool that did all the heavy lifting in one place. Something that takes what I already play, works out my taste from that so I don't have to write an essay about myself every time (though you can still tell it what you're in the mood for), and goes looking for well-reviewed, under-the-radar games I'd actually like. The ones real players loved but I'd somehow never heard of. Local price, sale info, Steam Deck status, all sitting right there. No fifteen tabs.

When I couldn't find anything that fit my exact workflow, I figured I'd just make it.

If you fancy giving it a go, it's live at secludedgems.com. Paste your Steam profile and see what it digs up.

This is very much a hobby project, and it's completely free to use. I'm constantly tinkering with it, so please let me know what I can do to improve the site and what features you'd like to see next. There's a tip jar if it helped you find your next game, though let's be honest, it'll probably make you spend more than it saves you. Either way, telling me how to make it better helps way more.

I hope this helps you find a good recommendation for your next game.

Kind regards,
Adrian