500 HTML5 games in 4 years.

[Zygomatic 16]

Today, we finished number 500 of our growing list of html5 games. We (Arjan Haverkamp and me, Bram Schoonhoven) started this journey at the end of 2013.

Our first html5 game was a remake of our Flash game Animals Connect. Now almost 400 different games are launched on our various portals.

Our next goal: 1,000 HTML5 games. If we keep releasing 2 new games a week, it will take us another 5 years. All our games can be licensed for your game portal or you can distribute our games for free.

Some statistics:

• Our most played game is Candy House with 2.5 million game plays.
• We have around 6 Million game plays per month with 1.25 million unique users playing our games.
• Average playing time is 12 minutes per game.
• Interestingly enough, our games are played 69% on desktop, 16% tablet and 15% mobile.
• Top 5 countries: United States, Germany, Brazil, Poland and Russia.
• Chrome is used in 58% of the game plays.

 

Some of the tools/technology we use:

• Howler.js for audio.
• Hammer.js for touch support.
• Cloudflare as CDN solution.
• Javascript Obfuscator for obfuscating Javascript code.
• Browserstack for testing the games in various browsers.
• Google IMA SDK for monetization.
• Google Analytics.
• Add to Homescreen for adding game to the home screen.
• Screenfull.js for full screen support.
• Webfontloader.js for loading custom (Google) fonts.
• Cordova for creating apps.
• Website2APK for creating Android apps.
• PNGquant and JPEGoptim for optimizing images.
• Wavepad for creating sound sprites and optimizing MP3's.

[rich 2,419]

That's one hell of an achievement. Congratulations

[ivan.popelyshev 402]

You can compete with @True Valhalla if you publish finace report

[InchingForward 0]

Congratulations--that's one hell of an accomplishment! 

With so many different types of games, how did you learn the different architectures/algorithms required for the different kinds of games?  Lots of experience, books, websites, learned "on the job", etc?  Attempting something with so many different genres seems kinda daunting. 

[end3r 183]

It must be a huge party whenever a new publisher says he wants the whole catalogue

[reopucino 2]

wow.. that a big games list.. congrats guy

[mattstyles 596]

Awesome work! MOAR gamez!

[Zygomatic 16]

Some answers to your questions:

Quote

how did you learn the different architectures/algorithms required for the different kinds of games?

We learned it by doing and observing other games. Before our html5 work we already did more then 500 Flash games. And first tries of new games are not Always the best, but we try to iterate and improve. 

Quote

It must be a huge party whenever a new publisher says he wants the whole catalogue

This did not happen yet

Quote

You can compete with True Valhalla if you publish finace report

We work a bit different then him. We are a self Publisher. Meaning for the most part we develop the games for our own portals like NeonGames.com, MahjongGames.com, MindGames.com, Match3Games.com ........ Everything above break even on the game development works for us

[Gio 48]

Very impressive, that's about 1 game for every 2 working days... not sure how this is even possible, but well done.

Can you tell us how you pull that off? Like you spend 2 hours thinking about what game you want to make, 5 hours for art, 7 hours writing code and 2 hours for cleaning it up and publishing it? Or do you work 24 hours a day including Christmas and holidays?

It'd be very good to know what "break even" means too, in terms of numbers, if you don't mind sharing that information.

[theweirdn8 3]

Congrats.

 

Good work.

[Zygomatic 16]

22 hours ago, Gio said:

Very impressive, that's about 1 game for every 2 working days... not sure how this is even possible, but well done.

Can you tell us how you pull that off? Like you spend 2 hours thinking about what game you want to make, 5 hours for art, 7 hours writing code and 2 hours for cleaning it up and publishing it? Or do you work 24 hours a day including Christmas and holidays?

It'd be very good to know what "break even" means too, in terms of numbers, if you don't mind sharing that information.

I am the Producer and Arjan is the technical lead. For the rest we rely on a team of dedicated freelancers (graphics and programming). So not only the 2 of us. On average a total team of 6-8.

You could calculate break even: 6 million gameplays means about 6+ million Ad views at a CPM RPM of about 3 USD. That's all I can share..

[rich 2,419]

For anyone wondering, that's approx. $18,000 USD a month  (before Google's share, tax, etc)

[Zygomatic 16]

17 hours ago, rich said:

For anyone wondering, that's approx. $18,000 USD a month  (before Google's share, tax, etc)

Net CPM: I should have said RPM

[totor 35]

wow! How do you keep track of all the games? I mean did it happened that you made a game then realized that you had made it already?

[Zygomatic 16]

15 hours ago, totor said:

wow! How do you keep track of all the games? I mean did it happened that you made a game then realized that you had made it already?

Just a few weeks ago I discovered we were building a game that just also was in testing phase. But luckily although the briefing was almost the same the game turned out to be very different. 

[away168 21]

This is a real deal and inspiring! Wish you best on your next goal. 

[tips4design 103]

Congratulations, this is really amazing, your productivity is incredible.

That being said, I think that for the end-consumer it would be better to have fewer better, more polished games than having hundreds of mediocre games to choose from. I don't condemn what you are doing, it's a great business tactic and you will make many players happy, but I think players would be even happier to also be able to play very polished HTML5 games.

[summer_of_george 0]

That's an amazing accomplishment! I'm trying to get to 1!

Thanks so much for sharing the list of tools/technology that you use. Lists like that are extremely helpful for people like me.

[DavisMoye 2]

Congratulations.
It has a lot of different game genres, so you have such knowledge. Great.

[Luminous Wizard 12]

Congratulations!  

[mickeyren 8]

if you guys don't mind i like to ask a few questions:

1. do you guys use a library to load the ads on every game load / round?

2. do you guys still earn if your games are being shared? how does 3rd party sites share your games?

3. you mentioned Cordova - and building for androids. are each game individual installs or are they all packed into one app?

[Zygomatic 16]

1. Yes. We show preloader ads via IMA SDK and use Google Adsense for Games. We do not show ads every round/level

2. Yes. Third party sites embed or iframe our games. 

3. Usually single games, sometimes a collection of related games.