Announcing Kongregate - "YouTube for games"

[jimgreer]

Hi all - wanted to let people know about a new site we've just launched for uploading and playing web games. It's called Kongregate - we're calling it that is we're really emphasizing playing with and against your friends. All games have chat, collectible items, points, etc.

Here's some more info (forgive me for repeating from another thread!)

The games are Flash games uploaded by the developers - we'll also be supporting Shockwave games soon and maybe Java a little later on. We give a share of the revenue we make to the game developer - up to 50% depending on whether they implement our APIs and whether the game is exclusive to us.

Game developers will be able to use our 1-click payment system to charge for premium content in their games. For instance you could have a racing game where the first 3 tracks are free, and then additional tracks are $0.50 each or $5 for all of them. The price is up to the developer - here the revenue share will be much higher than 50% - it's your game after all.

One cool thing we're doing that isn't implemented yet is a metagame. By playing the individual Flash games you can earn "Cards" - sort of like Achievements on Xbox Live. Those cards are playable in an online collectible card game, sort of like Magic the Gathering.

A lot of this isn't implemented yet, but you can check out the basics now. If you're interested go to http://kongregate.com and request an invitation. If you mention this thread I'll make sure you get one! We're really trying to get feedback from developers to make sure we're implementing the right set of features and making a site that will be the best place to upload web games.

[KNau]

When does Kongregate open to the general public? The only part that seems visible right now is the invitation-request page. Is it possible yet to see the site layout and how content will look on it?

[jimgreer]

KNau - we're planning on opening to the general public in January or so - we really want to make sure we've got things nailed and have a fun site.

We're not doing this to be secretive, and we'll be issuing plenty of invitations. I'd send you one now but your email is not on your profile - or you can just use that request and we'll usually get you one within a few hours.

[KNau]

No prob, I already submitted an invitation request.

I've always scoffed at the microtransaction formula but that seems to be where the industry (and the customer) are going. It will be interesting to give it a try.

Is all the revenue generated from game level / microtransaction sales?

[Mark Fassett]

How is this "YouTube for games"? I don't have to pay to watch movies on youtube... If you can't come up with a better way to advertise what you're doing than using an inaccurate comparison with a successful company - you've already lost.

[jimgreer]

You don't have to pay for many of the games on our site - it's up to the developer of the game what they want to offer for free and what they want to charge for. Currently all the games are completely free - we're striking a balance between what's good for the developer and what's good for the gamer.

As for the YouTube comparison, sorry if it offends you. It's the most concise way of describing what we do...

[Pyabo]

By that definition, there are already 100 sites that are the "YouTube for games." Miniclip, NewGrounds, etc.

[jimgreer]

True, though of those I think only Newgrounds lets you upload a game and have it immediately on the site. And Newgrounds doesn't share any revenue with game developers - aside from having 10 $250 prizes every month.

It's a great site though - lots of amazing stuff on it. I hear they are redesigning it, too.

[whisperstorm]

I would be curious to hear about what apis you will be offering. If you had some chat/login apis that would be interesting. To have a framework for some simple multiplayer games would be cool.

[jimgreer]

Whisperstorm - Chat and login actually don't even require an API. You just upload your game and we put a chat sidebar next to it that takes care of that.

The other APIs we will be offering:
- 1-click payment - game tells us what the user wants to purchase, we swap the game out for a payment screen that allows them to debit from the credit card we store.
- achievements - the game reports events (like framework.reportEvent("won race")) - we can then have a challenge on the game, where you get a collectible card if you finish the challenge (i.e. win 10 races).
- pause (automatically pause when user is chatting)
- intermission ads (show an ad every 10 minutes or so, at natural breaks in the game, like between levels - game tells us when is a good time for an ad)

We will be doing multiplayer as well - we're starting with single player because there are so many great singleplayer web games already...

[whisperstorm]

Looks like you got a favorable review from techcrunch (http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/19/kongregate-a-next-generation-web-games-marketplace/)....