Will they play social games outside of social networks?
Good day.
I would like to talk about our new project.
The project on the partnership program of flash games in my head appeared another 3-4 years ago. The idea was to give web resources (sometimes I will call sites) a tool for entertainment and audience retention, and of course add. where income without him :). Games should be integrated into the site as the easiest way - using the frame. Those. site owners would have additional content around which they could hang up their advertisements, hold contests, etc.
At that time, I didn’t fully lined up a monetization model; I had an idea that we would sell ads for large online games, sharing revenues with resource owners.
The games were supposed to be rather primitive, i.e. starting from some lines, tetris, etc.
I had experience in 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.
The experience of building affiliate programs was also, like on games, mobile content, and on our payment aggregator.
')
In 2009, VKontakte launched the opportunity to publish applications and games. Facebook even earlier, but at that time we were not engaged in social. games, so I was not interested in them.
During the year, the idea was still boiling in the cauldron of my head, while we were launching a couple of other internal startups (unfortunately one failed, the second can also be considered the tarino.ru e-book store, we did not close it, but froze it until better times).
The rebirth of an idea
And after the resources were released, I decided with my partner to once again risk my money and launch the project of the flash games and applications partner program - NextGame.RU . The idea was reborn in the fact that we take not just ordinary games, as well as games and applications from the social. networks. Those. Our platform has an API for application developers that are similar to the Mail.RU API. Developers can place their application with us. We take on the function of distributing these games to a large number of sites that are not social networks.
And 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, the calculation of critical days (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, but for additional bonuses you need to pay. Also, this model allows you to leave the audience on the site, i.e. without dropping it to third-party sites.
Support sociality outside soc. Nets
But we are talking about social games, i.e. This support for profiles, friends, communication between them, writing on the wall, viral mechanisms, etc. The idea was that we would provide the developer with all the possibilities. This is achieved in various ways, which I will describe below.
We also developed our own API for sites, which allows us to mark our catalog of games right on the site. And there are 3 levels of integration with the site:
- The most elementary (first) - place the code of our "frame" with the game on the page of the site, like a regular counter. Those. Our platform will assume 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.
- We carry out the third level of integration 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 mislead the visitor, we have the opportunity to use the site functions we need.
Out of the vicious circle
I initially assumed that we would get into a regular vicious circle consisting of:
- owners of web resources, having come to them, they will of course be asked to show a list of games and applications (which is quite logical)
- developers, having come to them, they, of course, will ask if not the list of sites, then at least the daily audience (DAU)
We 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 was a secondary task for them.
The task is less fulfilled. We made eight applications, the quality and the games themselves do not always suit me, but the goal is fulfilled. Now they face a goal to achieve self-sufficiency, i.e. this is the development of better-quality games, and most importantly, income-generating games.
Content
Honestly, when the project was launched, I thought that there would be a situation, that it would be necessary to have a large amount of content, and we will run after web resources. No, you need to run behind web resources even now, because we have correctly formulated a solution to some needs of the owners of web resources, and the flow of partners is almost independently.
The problem was in the content, i.e. in the developers. Often, developers even beyond VKontakte do not host their applications. They fought for a long time. Were gold sponsors at the last three conferences for social game developers. As a result, about a dozen contracts were concluded.
Light at the end of the tunnel
The project has undergone several versions, even before it was published. For example, at first we focused on multiplayer games. Having spent several months, we realized that we were mistaken, because then single-player games could get to our platform only through crutches. We had to roll back quite strongly, but on the other hand we made our platform on this engine, the engine holds very high loads.
In general, run. Now 1-2 applications per day are added to the platform. Multiple sites per day are added as partners.
I 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 viability of the project, their main promise was that the main money was in the social. networks. Do you think social apps and games will go beyond social networks? And most importantly, will there be money? :)
I also want to ask for help from the hall, do I need some additional functionality or do I need to change something?
If it is interesting, I can also tell our epopee with investors. I had a slightly different situation from the standard, because There is already a business that brings income. Perhaps that is why conversations with investors did not always get along.
I would like to talk about our new project.
The project on the partnership program of flash games in my head appeared another 3-4 years ago. The idea was to give web resources (sometimes I will call sites) a tool for entertainment and audience retention, and of course add. where income without him :). Games should be integrated into the site as the easiest way - using the frame. Those. site owners would have additional content around which they could hang up their advertisements, hold contests, etc.
At that time, I didn’t fully lined up a monetization model; I had an idea that we would sell ads for large online games, sharing revenues with resource owners.
The games were supposed to be rather primitive, i.e. starting from some lines, tetris, etc.
I had experience in 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.
The experience of building affiliate programs was also, like on games, mobile content, and on our payment aggregator.
')
In 2009, VKontakte launched the opportunity to publish applications and games. Facebook even earlier, but at that time we were not engaged in social. games, so I was not interested in them.
During the year, the idea was still boiling in the cauldron of my head, while we were launching a couple of other internal startups (unfortunately one failed, the second can also be considered the tarino.ru e-book store, we did not close it, but froze it until better times).
The rebirth of an idea
And after the resources were released, I decided with my partner to once again risk my money and launch the project of the flash games and applications partner program - NextGame.RU . The idea was reborn in the fact that we take not just ordinary games, as well as games and applications from the social. networks. Those. Our platform has an API for application developers that are similar to the Mail.RU API. Developers can place their application with us. We take on the function of distributing these games to a large number of sites that are not social networks.
And 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, the calculation of critical days (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, but for additional bonuses you need to pay. Also, this model allows you to leave the audience on the site, i.e. without dropping it to third-party sites.
Support sociality outside soc. Nets
But we are talking about social games, i.e. This support for profiles, friends, communication between them, writing on the wall, viral mechanisms, etc. The idea was that we would provide the developer with all the possibilities. This is achieved in various ways, which I will describe below.
We also developed our own API for sites, which allows us to mark our catalog of games right on the site. And there are 3 levels of integration with the site:
- The most elementary (first) - place the code of our "frame" with the game on the page of the site, like a regular counter. Those. Our platform will assume 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.
- We carry out the third level of integration 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 mislead the visitor, we have the opportunity to use the site functions we need.
Out of the vicious circle
I initially assumed that we would get into a regular vicious circle consisting of:
- owners of web resources, having come to them, they will of course be asked to show a list of games and applications (which is quite logical)
- developers, having come to them, they, of course, will ask if not the list of sites, then at least the daily audience (DAU)
We 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 was a secondary task for them.
The task is less fulfilled. We made eight applications, the quality and the games themselves do not always suit me, but the goal is fulfilled. Now they face a goal to achieve self-sufficiency, i.e. this is the development of better-quality games, and most importantly, income-generating games.
Content
Honestly, when the project was launched, I thought that there would be a situation, that it would be necessary to have a large amount of content, and we will run after web resources. No, you need to run behind web resources even now, because we have correctly formulated a solution to some needs of the owners of web resources, and the flow of partners is almost independently.
The problem was in the content, i.e. in the developers. Often, developers even beyond VKontakte do not host their applications. They fought for a long time. Were gold sponsors at the last three conferences for social game developers. As a result, about a dozen contracts were concluded.
Light at the end of the tunnel
The project has undergone several versions, even before it was published. For example, at first we focused on multiplayer games. Having spent several months, we realized that we were mistaken, because then single-player games could get to our platform only through crutches. We had to roll back quite strongly, but on the other hand we made our platform on this engine, the engine holds very high loads.
In general, run. Now 1-2 applications per day are added to the platform. Multiple sites per day are added as partners.
I 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 viability of the project, their main promise was that the main money was in the social. networks. Do you think social apps and games will go beyond social networks? And most importantly, will there be money? :)
I also want to ask for help from the hall, do I need some additional functionality or do I need to change something?
If it is interesting, I can also tell our epopee with investors. I had a slightly different situation from the standard, because There is already a business that brings income. Perhaps that is why conversations with investors did not always get along.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/120427/
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