AuthorTopic: Profiting from web games  (Read 10989 times)

Offline Mathias

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Profiting from web games

on: May 27, 2013, 05:18:39 am
Regrettably, I still don't understand the business side of web game development.

Take Kingdom Rush, for example. A great little turret defense game. IMO, ranks high up on the list of best-ever flash turret defense games. I, for one, love it.

But . . . how did it profit? How were the devs paid?

It was done by Armor Games (apparently). I'm sure each group probably has a slightly different business model, but surely they're all very similar.

Anybody have a little info on this subject? I would love to know about it and I assume there are many others here who feel the same way.

Offline junkboy

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Re: Profiting from web games

Reply #1 on: May 27, 2013, 05:57:12 am
Ads and mictrotransactions?

Offline yaomon17

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Re: Profiting from web games

Reply #2 on: May 27, 2013, 06:07:27 am
Yea, some microtransactions on the iOS version too ( plus the iOS version costs 1$), Ads from site traffic.

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Profiting from web games

Reply #3 on: May 27, 2013, 06:37:07 am
A friend of mine who does web based games said that usually publishers such as Amor Games pay a flat rate up front for games showing promise. Then they keep the revenue of ads and site traffic etc. A premium is also sometimes paid if the developer agrees to only have the game on one particular site. Smaller games often include ads within the game, and of course many have micro-transaction options.

Offline Mathias

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Re: Profiting from web games

Reply #4 on: May 27, 2013, 08:46:27 am
Microtransaction? Didn't know they were called that. I assume this is when users purchase little game-related things, like so-called "premium content".

I beat Kingdom Rush and now I'm being urged to pay actual money to keep going. Here's the payment options screen:



I assume Kongregate will get all, or just a percentage of money made this way.



As a casual gamer, one doesn't really care or need to know about any of this. But just underneath the surface, there' s a bustling market. Very interesting.


So then, if the group that created Kingdom Rush sold it for a flat dollar amount, I wonder what that was. Anyone care to venture a guess?

Offline PypeBros

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Re: Profiting from web games

Reply #5 on: May 27, 2013, 09:06:44 am
I'd recommend lostgarden's post on flash games. It explains the role of the key players in flash games fairly well, although I cannot validate/invalidate his claims, not being in the business of flash games myself.

Offline Conzeit

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Re: Profiting from web games

Reply #6 on: May 27, 2013, 03:11:55 pm
Narrowly on-topic but I want to ask you guys something....maybe I wont be the only one thinking this

I dont code, but I've been thinking of learning *something* to start making games, flash seems good because of this monetization posibility, but isnt it supposedly dead now that HTML5 is out? is there something out there like flash to make games in html5 or something? =/

Offline PypeBros

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Re: Profiting from web games

Reply #7 on: May 27, 2013, 04:00:30 pm
is there something out there like flash to make games in html5 or something? =/

Maybe calling it "like flash" is a bit extreme, but there's Impact JS who had a fairly nice demonstrator. I know it has issues with sound, though (sound support in HTML5 doesn't seem very convincing altogether).

(don't we have a "code/platforms listing" thread somewhere, btw?)
« Last Edit: June 03, 2013, 07:46:58 am by PypeBros »

Offline junkboy

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Re: Profiting from web games

Reply #8 on: May 27, 2013, 05:40:19 pm
Conceit: GameMaker, among other tools, can export to HTML5. It's probably not perfect, but there's always that option.

PypeBros: That's actually a great article, thanks for sharing.

Offline ErekT

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Re: Profiting from web games

Reply #9 on: May 28, 2013, 01:18:25 am
@Conceit:
Construct 2 is a very easy to use and powerful game making tool that exports to html5. If you like having more control and don't fear getting into programming, Monkey (Basic-like syntax) is also easy to pick up and more flexible than Construct. But Construct has a lot of stuff built-in to streamline your workflow that Monkey doesn't; image/animation editor, automatic sprite sheet arranging etc.
« Last Edit: May 28, 2013, 01:21:37 am by ErekT »