It started with Newgrounds.
I spent plenty of happy IT lessons discovering games on Newgrounds. When I was about 12 or 13, a friend and I built our first website. It started with cheat codes and grew into a games directory on GeoCities.
Years later, I found myself collecting game links again. People were sharing things they’d built with AI on X, Reddit and elsewhere. I’d spot something I wanted to try, lose the link, then struggle to find the game or its creator again.
So I built Playground: somewhere to discover those games, find out who made them, and get playing.
Games have always been part of my life.
Video games can be silly. They can be fun. They can be meaningful.
In February 2025, my youngest brother Jordan took his own life. He was just 27. We shared a love for gaming - whether it was FIFA, Uncharted or Red Dead Redemption 2, we spent a lot of time playing together and online.
I actually have an interview podcast called Project Possible, and recently got to tell Red Dead 2's Arthur Morgan - Roger Clark - just what playing RDR2 in the aftermath of his death meant to me. You can watch this clip here.
From a small browser experiment to a world you can spend hundreds of hours in, I love what games can do. Playground comes from that same curiosity: what are people making, and what might be worth playing next?
A place for the games. And their makers.
Playground welcomes games made with AI assistance, using any model or a mixture of tools. The games vary in scope and polish. Some are ambitious projects; others are small experiments with an interesting idea.
My main aim is to shine a light on the amazing games being made. Each listing links to its creator and the game itself. Players can rate games and leave reviews, and creators can submit their own work for free.
I’d love Playground to give you that familiar feeling: one more game, one more discovery, one more link worth sharing.
Rich Leigh