Gaming has exploded in popularity over recent years, and the industry could be worth more than $320 billion by 2026 according to recent projections by PwC. That’s more than the movie and music industries put together. Gaming is now a mass market activity, and to see the average gamer we need only look at the average person in the street – or take a look in the mirror!

This growth is driving leading edge gaming studios to push the envelope and come up with new types of gaming experiences. Plenty has been written elsewhere about emerging technologies like VR and blockchain, but sometimes all it takes is to look at what is already out there and approach it from a different angle.

That was how the idea of gaming mashups came about. These essentially take familiar games and characters and place them in new scenarios, or blend two completely different genres in a single game. Here’s a handful of examples that represent a cross section of mashups – whatever your usual choice of game, at least one of them is certain to appeal.

Dating and dungeon crawling in Eternights because – why not?

Studio Sai’s bizarre creation is described as “a mix of dating and action.” Set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia, your challenge is to “try to make the most out of life” in a world full of danger, love and adventure.

The game was initially announced at Sony’s State of Play last year. It is scheduled for imminent release in “early summer.”

Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt, the iGaming mashup for casino adventurers

iGaming is one of the most competitive gaming niches, and there is a good market for new real money online casino games as well as the classics like slots, blackjack and roulette. Gonzo’s Quest is one of the most popular and enduring slot games of all time and Evolution Gaming has created this intriguing casino mashup by placing Gonzo into a new live casino environment.

Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt is more like a TV gameshow, in which the player selects squares from a screen to search for hidden treasure and other prizes.

Neon White is the ultimate mashup

Is it a platform game? Is it a puzzle? Is it a first person shooter? In short, yes, yes and yes. It also has action/adventure elements and can be compared to a speed runner, too.

Neon White is the brainchild of Angel Matrix, a group of independent game developers who have proved that the whole can sometimes be even better than the sum of its parts. The game has deservedly picked up a lot of great reviews, and the different aspects mean it never gets boring.

Wildfrost presents a roguelike deckbuilder for the serious gamers

We said earlier that everyone’s a gamer these days. Still, there are serious gamers, just like there are serious music and movie buffs. If you fall into that category, you’ll know all about roguelike and deckbuilder as two subgenres that gaming geeks can’t stop talking about at the moment.

Combining them is an intriguing idea, and one that Deadpan Games has set about making a reality. Wildfrost was released in April and has had positive reviews. It’s one of those games that takes minutes to learn but weeks to master, so be prepared to put in the hard yards.