Ukkio - a new way to monetize your html5 games!

[thomasbaggio]

Hi I'm Thomas co-founders of Ukkio. I would like to introduce you our platform for HTML5 games. It is based on a very simple concept: to play a game, the user must insert a coin.

The price of a coin is $ 0.06 and we sell them in packages. We thought that this system allows users to try more games without any advertising.
We strongly believe in "Do Not Disturb" the player with banners, especially in mobile devices.
Ok in-app purchase exists, but in our opinion has ruined many games (on the player side).

The 70% of the coin's value goes to the developer. Players have free coins at the first access to try the games (we have also other strategies to get the interest of users).

We are currently in the initial stage and we have released our SDK (http://github.com/ukkio/ukkio-sdk/).

We provide to developers free hosting, unlimited bandwidth,  game promotion, payment system, free support.

Here's an example of how easy it is to install our SKDs from the command line:

Install Node.js and execute command:

$ npm install ukkio-cli -g
$ cd /my/fantastic/html5/game/folder
$ ukkio sandbox
$ Sandbox started: point your browser at http://localhost:5005/

Visit our developer site http://developer.ukk.io

Please contact me if you want to learn more or if you have questions.
My email is [email protected]

Thanks,
Thomas

[mentuat]

Hi Thomas - looks like an interesting proposition!

 

a few questions:

 

- where do users purchase coins (on the site?  within the games?)

- what payment methods are available to users (paypal, credit card etc.)

- what does a 'coin' buy the user? (a 'life' within the game?  a period of time to play all games?)

- what methods do you have in place to stop users bypassing your system?

[rich]

I'm curious why someone would pay (even a tiny amount) to play a game on the web? Given how many sites exist that offer thousands upon thousands of games to play for completely free. I hope for the sake of your site/business that I'm wrong, but it feels like something that died off with the arcades to me.

[SimNerd]

I think it might actually be easier to sell a game for $4.99 than for $0.06. Simply because of perceived value.

 

But I guess it could work, if the platform had a smart way to grow the audience and also allowed non-cash methods of getting tokens (because that's crucial to get the majority of people who are freeloaders). Such as socially-oriented transactions between players, completion of incentive offers, purchasing something that the platform offers and getting coin for free, etc. Not that this would necessarily succeed either, but it could get more types of people through the door. Highly popular, high quality platform-exclusive games would help too.

[thomasbaggio]

Hi all,

 

my feedbacks here:

 

 

where do users purchase coins (on the site?  within the games?)

 

In the public site http://ukk.io (coming soon)
 

 

what payment methods are available to users (paypal, credit card etc.)

 

Paypal for now

 

 

what does a 'coin' buy the user? (a 'life' within the game?  a period of time to play all games?)

 

The developer decide what is better for his game. It could be "three life" in a platform game or "3 laps" in a racing game.

 

 

what methods do you have in place to stop users bypassing your system?

 

The game is loaded in an iFrame. Our SDK are a simple wrapper to communicate to the parent window that take care to spend coins.
Every communication from your game to parent window checks the target origin to prevent security holes.
Different story if some one cracks your code. But this is another question I mean.

 

 

I'm curious why someone would pay (even a tiny amount) to play a game on the web? Given how many sites exist that offer thousands upon thousands of games to play for completely free.

If you post the same game in two portals, a free one and a paid one, it is obvious that no one will pay you.
I think the difference is between developing a game in "Lite" version (with ads) and a full version to be published on Ukkio (with coins).

If you are good and you make a good game, for those who want to play it full, they don't have to do anything: they only come on Ukkio.
 

 

I hope for the sake of your site/business that I'm wrong, but it feels like something that died off with the arcades to me.

 

We do not have (for now) numbers to make sure it will work, the only thing we can do is find it out.
At that point, you will just look at the revenues generated to decide whether to publish on Ukkio or continue with banner advertising.

 

 

 I think it might actually be easier to sell a game for $4.99 than for $0.06. Simply because of perceived value.

 

Because of the click- and-play style of web games, I think it's much easier to spend $ 0.06 just to try a game, that to evaluate an actual purchase of $ 4.99 . In the App-store, for example, to evaluate a purchase you have to rely on a description, 5 screenshots and reviews .
In Ukkio you have just to try it .

I think " SimNerd " has achieved our goal .
When a player buys a package of coin, he receives an amount of free coins to share with his friends. These friends can do the same to return the favor.
Every day, if the user logs in , he gets a handful of free coins to spend as he wishes.
The amount of coins dispensed will vary based on users response .

We are already considering the possibility of offering a flat subscription but it is still too early to implement it.

We will discuss this issue again when we will have statistics on which to rely .

The publication of the games on Ukkio is subject to our validation, this is in order to maintain an overall high quality.

I thank you all guys, for suggestions and questions, that allow me to explain better our project!

 

I hope I have answered in a comprehensive manner, feel free to contact me when you want.

 

Long life to HTML5 games!

 

Thomas
 

[prtksxna]

But I guess it could work, if the platform had a smart way to grow the audience and also allowed non-cash methods of getting tokens (because that's crucial to get the majority of people who are freeloaders). Such as socially-oriented transactions between players, completion of incentive offers, purchasing something that the platform offers and getting coin for free, etc. Not that this would necessarily succeed either, but it could get more types of people through the door. Highly popular, high quality platform-exclusive games would help too.

 

That sounds very interesting. It could even be like a real arcade wherein if you keep beating the game (some definition of beating) you don't need to pay extra. I don't what that'd do for business thought 

[thomasbaggio]

Thanks for your reply.

We have a lot of attention from developers and we are excited for this.

Follow us to see the next steps.

Thomas

[Raiper34]

It is very great, do you plan any Construct2 plugin?

[user123456789]

I'm curious why someone would pay (even a tiny amount) to play a game on the web? Given how many sites exist that offer thousands upon thousands of games to play for completely free. I hope for the sake of your site/business that I'm wrong, but it feels like something that died off with the arcades to me.

 

Yea, but most of the developers would like to make money while developing games. It would be nice to give all of them out for free, but then the goal is impossible to reach   

 

I am complete newbie when it comes to monetizing issues, but I do know that ads and donate buttons etc. are possible & game can be considered still being free, but I personally don't like ads and I don't believe in donate buttons - it is not continuous nor stable money flow. Also, I know that there are services such as gamejolt, but if your game is not truly popular I believe that you cant make money more than worth of an lollipop.

 

I love the fact that ukkio takes yet another approach for monetizing games and I hope that it will work. People are purchasing lots of games through steam today, almost as it is completely different medium than the browser & I hope that people soon are more openly paying to play browser games also.

 

I think this issue is somewhat similar to any software and application on the web: there are many things for free, but money adds value to the products and people are buying them if they truly need them.

 

Gaash, I dont know - but good luck with the ukkio ! 

[Funkyy]

I think there is crucial question that no one asked before.

Is this side project or startup, or do you have proper budget going in tens of thousands for promotion and media?

If you expect developers to drive traffic to you - then you can be disappointed here. You would need major game portals on board to promote you and whole mass of coins distributed for free to users while still paying the 60% to developers...

[thomasbaggio]

It is very great, do you plan any Construct2 plugin?

Yes we are planning! Stay tuned!

[thomasbaggio]

I think there is crucial question that no one asked before.

Is this side project or startup, or do you have proper budget going in tens of thousands for promotion and media?

If you expect developers to drive traffic to you - then you can be disappointed here. You would need major game portals on board to promote you and whole mass of coins distributed for free to users while still paying the 60% to developers...

Yes we are a startup, we are in contact with some investors.