About the Library
How we choose, and who we are
The Thornhallow Library is a short, opinionated guide to free and open games. It is written by a small team who play games most evenings and wanted one place to point friends to when they ask what is worth installing.
What earns a place
- Free to play in full. Not a demo, not a trial, not a game that stops at level ten.
- No adverts and nothing for sale inside. Some games ask for donations or sell a version on a store; we say so on the review.
- Made in the open. Every game here is open source or made by a volunteer community, so it cannot quietly change its terms.
- Kind to an evening. Each game has a natural place to stop, and we tell you where it is.
How we review
We play each game for several evenings before we write. Facts such as platforms, price and accounts are checked against the official site, and the date of that check is printed on every review. When something changes we update the review and the date. Scores are our opinion, out of five, and nobody can pay to change them.
What we never do
- Take money or free copies from the makers of the games we review.
- Use affiliate or tracked links. Every link goes straight to the official site and opens in a new tab.
- Embed the games or copy their art. The pictures on our shelves are our own artwork in an embroidery style, made for these pages.
Privacy in the Library
The Library pages set no cookies, use no local storage and load nothing from other servers. The evening planner runs entirely on the page and forgets everything when you leave. Our web host keeps standard server logs (IP address, page, time and browser) for up to 30 days to keep the site running; we do not use them for anything else. If you email us, we use your address only to reply, and delete the conversation after twelve months. To ask about your data, write to the address below.
Write to us
Suggestions for the shelves, corrections and questions: library@thornhallow.co.uk. We read everything and reply when we can.