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[zircon]

As the topic says, has anyone had any experience with monetizing an HTML5 game? eg. either selling it via a web store, getting a sponsorship on an arcade site, etc. There are many more numbers/topics available for Flash games (sales, ad revenue figures, sponsorships, etc.) but since HTML5 is still just taking off, I've had a hard time finding info on it. Basically, the indie studio I'm a part of (http://www.spacewhalestudios.com/) is working on a fun little HTML5 platformer and we're wondering how realistic it is to expect that we might make, say, $1000 from it if we polish it up and get it on some HTML5 arcade.

Here's an early WIP of the game:

http://www.spacewhalestudios.com/duckit/

Thanks in advance!

[moi]

I'm not a HTML5 PRO, yo.
But it seems to me that with HTML5 being more easily copiable, it would be more difficult to monetize/license/sitelock a HTML5 game .

[MetalRain]

You would absolutely need to make it server-dependent. So not just something that gets hosted up, but something with a server perhaps via multiplayer options.

Once you have server-dependence, you can add a pay gateway and monetize like any zynga app would. Sell credits or whatever.

You could try normal distributions (give people a zip, open it and run play.html) But be aware that you are giving the code for your game when you do this. This can lead to easy abuse of the system.

[GoldFire]

MetalRain is spot on. My game studio has started switching our focus to solely HTML5 game development over the past few months, and we have decided that all of our games will be multiplayer with a good amount of the game logic residing on the server. We then will monetize through virtual goods sales or unlocking new features (or maybe levels in your case).

You can always try to hide your code by obfuscating it, but generally speaking if someone wants it bad enough they can get past that, so the best way is to not put it all in the browser. That being said, it doesn't look like multiplayer is an option for this specific game, so I would say make it is difficult to manipulate or steal the code to the game as possible, and then monetize like a flash game. There are several portals popping up for HTML5 games specifically, if you Google it you will find many.

[X3N]

Searching for this too!
See my post: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=22466.0

I think that mass-distribution: phonegap (or just a web browser!) iOS/Android, html5 sites, microtransactions using

corp.playspan.com/

Looks promising. Wondering if it's worth starting an indie-html5 game site like FlashGameLicense? (FGL is rumoured to be trying html5 eventually. Don't see any rush on it - no results for searching html5 on their articles). I think sites like Kongregate / Afroninja will get into it eventually. Why has this not already happened?

Also, any results with the Chrome store?

(Should we merge these threads? An indie run html5 store / site might be worth talking about in a separate one)

[ishlilith]

From Chris hughes, one of the owners of FGL

Is HTML5 a threat to or replacement for Flash?

Everything's driven by money. FGL supports Unity now. We could easily support HTML5. The problem is, when we do that, we create a marketplace for a market that doesn't exist. But the second that Google, Microsoft, or Apple or any of those guys pushing HTML5, the second they say, "Fine. Here's a million dollars to developers to make HTML5 games," we've got a market. It's funny - we talk to Microsoft quite frequently about things, and they're always trying to get us to push HTML5 and convince developers. But the second we ask for some money to give to developers they go, "Ah no, we don't want to do that." They're shooting themselves in the foot - it would be so easy! They could have hundreds if not thousands of HTML5 games in a matter of months if they just dumped some money into it. And not even a lot of money.

So to me, that's the catalyst. But right now there's no reason. Say you're a developer. Right now you want to make an HTML5 game. What are you going to do with that? Where are you going to make money? The only way you can do it, is to go the commission route. But that's a contract job, that's not a creative indie developer thing. If you just want to make your cool idea into a game, there's no reason to try HTML5. And the technology is so behind right now. I used to be a web developer and HTML5 is a pain in the ass. Or even just HTML! Does it work in Firefox? Does it work in Explorer? And these are just websites. When you have a complex game with physics in it, you're going to have to make it work in so many browsers, it's going to break in so many different ways. And how are you going to protect your code? You can just view the source! There are all kinds of problems. Of course, a developer isn't going to care about any of that crap if someone gives them $100,000, but right now, no ones even giving $1000.

When the market takes off, we'll be ready to support it. We're willing to move wherever developers want to move. In fact, with Unity we tried to be the driving force - to give it that little extra push. We put a lot into it. But there was no bite. The whole reason of a sponsorship is marketing, right? You're putting a banner ad in a movable bit of content. With Unity, a game can go to three sites right now. The game might be awesome, but so what? It doesn't have the viral spread of a Flash game. And the last statistic I saw, when a person hits a Unity game, there's a 50 per cent drop off from the 'install Unity' screen. So you're losing half your customers before they've seen the game. Maybe that's improved some now, but with Flash you hit 98 per cent of your users straight away. But if anyone's going to do it, Unity will. they have awesome people working for them and they're doing lots of things right, but it's still tough.

Source: http://www.next-gen.biz/features/flash-gaming-doing-deals-chris-hughes?page=4

[X3N]

From Chris hughes, one of the owners of FGL
Explanation why FGL doesn't support HTML5

Source: http://www.next-gen.biz/features/flash-gaming-doing-deals-chris-hughes?page=4

Thanks ishlilith. Has anyone seen a quality html5 games portal, or know of indie html5 successes in Google Chrome?

[Scoops]

Just out of curiosity, where do you all think the market is going to head now that flash is no longer supported on mobiles.  Do you think this will affect anything in the long run?

[moi]

yeah, HTML5 will become king, white wizards will harness the power of millions of souls playing HTML5 games and Steve jobs will raise again, more powerful than ever.

[Desert Dog]

From Chris hughes, one of the owners of FGL
Explanation why FGL doesn't support HTML5

Source: http://www.next-gen.biz/features/flash-gaming-doing-deals-chris-hughes?page=4

Thanks ishlilith. Has anyone seen a quality html5 games portal, or know of indie html5 successes in Google Chrome?

The only one I know for sure is Spil Games and they seem to be geared more towards 'phone' html5 games. (which html5 is ideal for, true). I've contacted them with a pc one, anyway, we'll see what they say.

[X3N]

Let us know, Desert Dog. I'm sure your game is better than Dream Princess Today or Block Mover.

[Desert Dog]

Hah, yeah, but I think they aim towards girl gamers. I haven't heard back from them at all, so not a great start. :p

[X3N]

Try re-theming.. ?

[tametick]

Just out of curiosity, where do you all think the market is going to head now that flash is no longer supported on mobiles.  Do you think this will affect anything in the long run?

Has anyone ever used mobile flash before?

If you want flash on mobiles you use air, same as before.

My prediction is that html5 will slowly grow and become more dominant, but there is still at least 1-2 years left before it's a better choice than flash.

Coincidentally, we've just been having exactly this discussion on the technical board.

[dustin]

Has anyone ever used mobile flash before?

I've earned a couple hundered from the kongregate mobile arcade app/website and also use it to play games on my phone, both things use mobile flash I'm pretty sure.

[X3N]

Has anyone ever used mobile flash before?

I've earned a couple hundered from the kongregate mobile arcade app/website and also use it to play games on my phone, both things use mobile flash I'm pretty sure.

How many hits to make a couple hundred?

[dustin]

Has anyone ever used mobile flash before?

I've earned a couple hundered from the kongregate mobile arcade app/website and also use it to play games on my phone, both things use mobile flash I'm pretty sure.

How many hits to make a couple hundred?

So I got ~100$ from 50,000 hits and another $300 of prize money.  Note this wasn't a game I designed for mobile it was just one of my normal games that ran ok on a phone so I reuploaded it as a mobile version.

[Desert Dog]

Here's a blog post of Mark Wilcom, speaking of how he's done with html5:
http://www.spacemonsters.co.uk/2011/12/html5-gaming-in-2012/

Very interesting read for anyone who's looking into html5 as a dev platform.

[batman4444]

From Chris hughes, one of the owners of FGL
Explanation why FGL doesn't support HTML5

Source: http://www.next-gen.biz/features/flash-gaming-doing-deals-chris-hughes?page=4

Thanks ishlilith. Has anyone seen a quality html5 games portal, or know of indie html5 successes in Google Chrome?

I don't know what your standards are for "quality" but here is a game portal I am creating for HTML5 games http://html5gamer.net

[Desert Dog]

Hey Batman,

As the topic suggests, people are looking for a way to turn there games into cash.

I had a flick through your website, and in the submit button. There isn't anything about licensing, or publishing, so I'll assume your strictly freeware. Correct? So that isn't necessarily what people want.