Will they play social games outside of social networks?
Good afternoon.
I would like to talk about our new project.
The project on the affiliate program of flash games in my head appeared 3-4 years ago. The idea was to give web resources (sometimes I will call sites) an instrument of entertainment and audience retention, and of course, additional. income where without it :). Games should be integrated into the site, as the easiest way - using a frame. Those. the owners of the site would have additional content around which they could hang their ads, hold contests, etc.
Then I still didn’t have a monetization model built up, there was an idea that we would sell advertising for large online games, sharing income with the owners of resources.
Games were supposed to be quite primitive, i.e. starting from some lines, tetris, etc.
I had experience developing my games, though WAP browsers. For example, for a very long time our games were the only WAP browsers on wap.mail.ru and wap.rambler.ru.
We also had experience building affiliate programs, both on games, mobile content, and on our payment aggregator.
In 2009, VKontakte launched the possibility of publishing applications and games. Facebook even earlier, but at that time we were not engaged in social services. games, so I was not interested in them.
Over the course of the year, the idea still boiled in the cauldron of my head, while we launched a couple of other internal startups (unfortunately one did not succeed, the second can also be considered the tarino.ru e-bookstore, we did not close it, but froze it until better times).
Reborn ideas
And after the resources became free, I again decided with my partner to risk my money and start the project of the partnership program for flash games and applications - NextGame.RU . The idea was reborn into the fact that we take not just ordinary games, but also games and applications from social services. networks. Those. Our platform has an API for application developers similar to the Mail.RU API. Developers can post their application with us. We take on the function of distributing these games to a large number of sites that are not social networks.
Moreover, we can offer applications and games for sites suitable for their audience. For example, for dating - horoscopes, psychological tests, one-on-one games; for women's resources - arcades, quests, applications with various recipes, calculation of critical days (a joke), etc. etc.
The financial scheme has also undergone changes compared to the original ideas - these are games that work according to the Free2Play scheme, i.e. You can play for free, and you need to pay for additional bonuses. Also, such a model allows you to leave the audience on the site, i.e. without taking her to third-party sites.
Social support outside of social Networks
But we are talking about social games, i.e. this is support for profiles, friends, communication between them, wall posts, viral mechanisms, etc. The idea was precisely that we would provide the developer with all this. This is achieved in various ways, which I will describe below.
For platforms, we also developed our own API, which allows us to mark up our catalog of games directly on the site. And there are 3 levels of integration with the site:
- The most elementary (first) is to place the code of our "frame" with the game on the page of the site, like a regular counter. Those. Our platform will take on all functions, including authorization.
- The second level of integration allows you to maintain site authorization so that the site visitor does not have to log in again in the game. Also at this level there is the possibility of integration with profiles, friends, messages, etc.
- The third level of integration we carry out with very large sites - this is when we use their billing. At previous levels, our billing is used, from our NextPay.RU payment aggregator .
Those. The main idea of integration with the site is that we can completely put on the site, in our "frame", all the functionality that is necessary for social games. But in order not to duplicate the functionality of the site, and not to mislead the visitor, we are able to use the functions of the site that we need.
Exiting the vicious circle
I initially assumed that we would fall into a logical vicious circle, consisting of:
- owners of web resources, having come to them, they would of course ask you to show a list of games and applications (which is quite logical)
- developers, having come to them they would, of course, ask if not a list of sites, then at least a daily audience (DAU)
Solved this problem by launching a new small team that would make games for our platform, and for classmates, VKontakte, mail.ru. Of course, the games should not have been so big. The tasks before them were quite clear: a certain number of games with simple logic, and, if possible, traffic generators. Those. making money for them was a secondary task.
The task is more or less completed. They made eight applications, the quality and the games themselves do not always suit me, but the goal is fulfilled. Now they are faced with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency, i.e. this is the development of better games, and most importantly revenue-generating games.
Content
Honestly, when the project started, I thought that there would be a situation, that a large amount of content would be needed, and we would run after web resources. No, you need to run for web resources now, because we have correctly formulated a solution to some of the needs of web resource owners, and the flow goes to partners almost independently.
The problem turned out to be content, i.e. in the developers. Often, developers even beyond VKontakte do not post their applications. They fought for a long time. They were gold sponsors at the last three conferences for social game developers. As a result, they concluded about a dozen contracts.
Light at the end of the tunnel
The project has undergone several versions, even before it was released. For example, at the beginning we focused on multiplayer games. Having spent several months, we realized that we were mistaken, because then single-player games would be able to get into our platform, only through crutches. I had to roll back hard enough, but on the other hand, we made our platform on this engine, the engine holds very high loads.
In general, they started. Now 1-2 applications per day are added to the platform. Several sites per day are added as partners.
Hope to write real numbers soon compared to social networks.
At the April conference of OGICON developers , I read a report about our platform immediately after mail.ru. Colleagues from mail.ru very much doubted the prospects of the project, their main message was that the bulk of the money is in social services. networks. Do you think social applications and games will go outside of social networks? And most importantly, will there be money there? :)
I also want to ask for help from the audience, do I need some additional functionality or something needs to be changed?
If it is interesting, I can also tell our epic to investors. My situation was slightly different from the standard one, because there is already an income-generating business. Perhaps that is why conversations with investors did not always go well.
I would like to talk about our new project.
The project on the affiliate program of flash games in my head appeared 3-4 years ago. The idea was to give web resources (sometimes I will call sites) an instrument of entertainment and audience retention, and of course, additional. income where without it :). Games should be integrated into the site, as the easiest way - using a frame. Those. the owners of the site would have additional content around which they could hang their ads, hold contests, etc.
Then I still didn’t have a monetization model built up, there was an idea that we would sell advertising for large online games, sharing income with the owners of resources.
Games were supposed to be quite primitive, i.e. starting from some lines, tetris, etc.
I had experience developing my games, though WAP browsers. For example, for a very long time our games were the only WAP browsers on wap.mail.ru and wap.rambler.ru.
We also had experience building affiliate programs, both on games, mobile content, and on our payment aggregator.
In 2009, VKontakte launched the possibility of publishing applications and games. Facebook even earlier, but at that time we were not engaged in social services. games, so I was not interested in them.
Over the course of the year, the idea still boiled in the cauldron of my head, while we launched a couple of other internal startups (unfortunately one did not succeed, the second can also be considered the tarino.ru e-bookstore, we did not close it, but froze it until better times).
Reborn ideas
And after the resources became free, I again decided with my partner to risk my money and start the project of the partnership program for flash games and applications - NextGame.RU . The idea was reborn into the fact that we take not just ordinary games, but also games and applications from social services. networks. Those. Our platform has an API for application developers similar to the Mail.RU API. Developers can post their application with us. We take on the function of distributing these games to a large number of sites that are not social networks.
Moreover, we can offer applications and games for sites suitable for their audience. For example, for dating - horoscopes, psychological tests, one-on-one games; for women's resources - arcades, quests, applications with various recipes, calculation of critical days (a joke), etc. etc.
The financial scheme has also undergone changes compared to the original ideas - these are games that work according to the Free2Play scheme, i.e. You can play for free, and you need to pay for additional bonuses. Also, such a model allows you to leave the audience on the site, i.e. without taking her to third-party sites.
Social support outside of social Networks
But we are talking about social games, i.e. this is support for profiles, friends, communication between them, wall posts, viral mechanisms, etc. The idea was precisely that we would provide the developer with all this. This is achieved in various ways, which I will describe below.
For platforms, we also developed our own API, which allows us to mark up our catalog of games directly on the site. And there are 3 levels of integration with the site:
- The most elementary (first) is to place the code of our "frame" with the game on the page of the site, like a regular counter. Those. Our platform will take on all functions, including authorization.
- The second level of integration allows you to maintain site authorization so that the site visitor does not have to log in again in the game. Also at this level there is the possibility of integration with profiles, friends, messages, etc.
- The third level of integration we carry out with very large sites - this is when we use their billing. At previous levels, our billing is used, from our NextPay.RU payment aggregator .
Those. The main idea of integration with the site is that we can completely put on the site, in our "frame", all the functionality that is necessary for social games. But in order not to duplicate the functionality of the site, and not to mislead the visitor, we are able to use the functions of the site that we need.
Exiting the vicious circle
I initially assumed that we would fall into a logical vicious circle, consisting of:
- owners of web resources, having come to them, they would of course ask you to show a list of games and applications (which is quite logical)
- developers, having come to them they would, of course, ask if not a list of sites, then at least a daily audience (DAU)
Solved this problem by launching a new small team that would make games for our platform, and for classmates, VKontakte, mail.ru. Of course, the games should not have been so big. The tasks before them were quite clear: a certain number of games with simple logic, and, if possible, traffic generators. Those. making money for them was a secondary task.
The task is more or less completed. They made eight applications, the quality and the games themselves do not always suit me, but the goal is fulfilled. Now they are faced with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency, i.e. this is the development of better games, and most importantly revenue-generating games.
Content
Honestly, when the project started, I thought that there would be a situation, that a large amount of content would be needed, and we would run after web resources. No, you need to run for web resources now, because we have correctly formulated a solution to some of the needs of web resource owners, and the flow goes to partners almost independently.
The problem turned out to be content, i.e. in the developers. Often, developers even beyond VKontakte do not post their applications. They fought for a long time. They were gold sponsors at the last three conferences for social game developers. As a result, they concluded about a dozen contracts.
Light at the end of the tunnel
The project has undergone several versions, even before it was released. For example, at the beginning we focused on multiplayer games. Having spent several months, we realized that we were mistaken, because then single-player games would be able to get into our platform, only through crutches. I had to roll back hard enough, but on the other hand, we made our platform on this engine, the engine holds very high loads.
In general, they started. Now 1-2 applications per day are added to the platform. Several sites per day are added as partners.
Hope to write real numbers soon compared to social networks.
At the April conference of OGICON developers , I read a report about our platform immediately after mail.ru. Colleagues from mail.ru very much doubted the prospects of the project, their main message was that the bulk of the money is in social services. networks. Do you think social applications and games will go outside of social networks? And most importantly, will there be money there? :)
I also want to ask for help from the audience, do I need some additional functionality or something needs to be changed?
If it is interesting, I can also tell our epic to investors. My situation was slightly different from the standard one, because there is already an income-generating business. Perhaps that is why conversations with investors did not always go well.