Game Design Secrets

Web Game Resources: Publishers

This section includes a survey of some leading web game publishers that accept submissions from indie developers, and includes some insights and advice from the company (when available).

Be sure to pay attention to the demographic profile of the site visitors, because that information helps you determine which publisher is ideal for your game. If your game is a bright and cheery casual game, for instance, it’s probably best to go with Big Fish Games or Game House; if your game involves variations of face punching, Kongregate or Armor Games is likely the better place to look.

NOTE Unless reported by the company, all demographic stats are from Google’s Double Click Ad Planner, which I recommend highly as a good-if-imperfect third-party source for tracking online traffic. So make this a permanent bookmark: www.google.com/adplanner.

Also, keep in mind that web games published by these sites are often embedded on third-party sites (that’s the magic of Flash!), so the monthly visitors do not necessarily reflect the publisher’s entire market.

Kongregate.com

Here’s how to contact the folks at Kongregate:

Developer’s page: developers.kongregate.com

Developer’s contact: Game Director Greg McClanahan at [e-mail]

CROSSREF Kongregate is covered extensively in Chapter 7, “Deep Dive into Web Gaming: Who Plays, Who Pays.” I highly recommend that you read that chapter before contacting Kongregate.

Armorgames.com

Developer’s page: armorgames.com/submit ...