Please Allow 3rd Party Advertising in Arcade

Tom & Ashley

I believe the arcade is in major need of an overhaul and Scirra could be making extra revenue from the arcade and it would encourage many more game designers to get a C2 or C3 license so they can produce games that make some revenue.

Divide the arcade into games made by license holders that allow 3rd party advertising and those that are made with the free version into different categories and only allow paid advertising in the licensed games section.

Charge a monthly fee and $10 a month to put games with advertising in the licensed section and get rid of that big advertisement you have on the load screen so we can use the games on our own websites.

Keep the free unlicensed game section limited to only 5 games or less per person and games that are not played after 30 days get deleted. If a game in the free section goes viral encourage them to get a license.

Many good game designers would flock to get a licensed version if they know they can offset the cost by including advertising in their games on the Scirra arcade and $10 a month at a minimum of 1000 game designers would bring in a nice $10K a month to Scirra. My guess is you would have ten times that many game designers using that service.

I would happily pay $10 a month to be allowed to have advertising in my games and use the uploads from Scirra on my own website without that huge ass Scirra advertisement that does not encourage our users to play the games. I think if you do the math based on reception of C3 in the comments you would make alot more by investing time into the arcade that encourages designers to get a license.

You also need to be hosting game Jams every month to attract new designers. They love competition and you should give away some licenses to C2 and C3 as prizes and other cheap prizes like Scirra T-shirts etc.

Thoughts?

We have lots of ideas for the Arcade but we just don't have the resources to address it right now - we're 100% on Construct 3 at the moment.

The Arcade is pretty demanding on our servers and we help support that with the ads for Construct. I'm not really convinced the payment model you suggest would work as a substitute.

We have lots of ideas for the Arcade but we just don't have the resources to address it right now - we're 100% on Construct 3 at the moment.

The Arcade is pretty demanding on our servers and we help support that with the ads for Construct. I'm not really convinced the payment model you suggest would work as a substitute.

Well Ashley, that big advertisement on the load screen makes it so websites like mine can not get interest in games because our viewers just see the same big Scirra ad instead of the game so they have no idea what the game is about.

You could do a smaller Scirra ad with a pic or better yet animated gif of the game and that would get more people to play the game and notice your advertisement don't you think?

I know you want to sell C2 and C3 engines but the fact is that most people visit Scirra to see the games and that is how they judge the quality of the engine and after they try the games in the arcade they go and get a free copy or maybe a licensed version.

Those people that consider a licensed version are interested in making a little money to offset the cost of the license and if you provide that in the arcade so they can include 3rd party advertising then that is a big selling point for them to get a license AND you would be making the extra revenue by offering that perk which would cover your expenses for maintaining the arcade server and probably a lot more.

You have tons of new people visiting the arcade every day and that is where you get your customers for your other Scirra products and that is what motivates people to get a license to try and make some money so it just makes sense I think to invest some time in getting that arcade working (CAPX downloads still not functioning) and get it set up with a search feature and animated gifs like you have for the Scirra store and then divide it into licensed games with advertising and free games with no advertising.

That is a big incentive for those people just using the free version to make the investment in a C2 or C3 license so you would benefit in all ways.

Just my opinion but I really hope you guys will consider it and run the numbers of visitors to the arcade compared to how many have shown an interest in buying a C3 license.

ADDED: I am in the process of setting up my arcade website right now and I would be more than happy to put a banner saying games created with Scirra on my website to help my viewers find your product BUT I want the games on my arcade to show the game screen with just a small Scirra ad so my viewers will actually try the games.

It might be easier just start your own portal, and offer users here a percent of what they generate.

There is very little money in online ads. You need a huge number of visitors to make any significant amount of money. We think getting a few extra sales of Construct helps cover the running costs much better than normal banner ads.

It's a free service we run - if you don't like the ads you don't have to publish there.

It might be easier just start your own portal, and offer users here a percent of what they generate.

I will probably end up doing that if Scirra does not fix the arcade but the whole idea was to create an instant gaming website with Scirra as the backbone which helps them and creates an entirely new market for Scirrra designers.

As it stands Scirra games in the arcade do not work at all well for an outside platform and Scirra needs websites like mine and my 85,000 subscribers I bring to the table if they want to grow their market base.

There is very little money in online ads. You need a huge number of visitors to make any significant amount of money. We think getting a few extra sales of Construct helps cover the running costs much better than normal banner ads.

It's a free service we run - if you don't like the ads you don't have to publish there.

Ok Ashley!

It makes no sense to me that you would avoid an obvious money maker for Scirra but it is your business.

OK maybe I wasn't making myself very clear in the first two posts?

What I am suggesting is allowing licensed game developers to include 3rd party ads in their games in the Scirra arcade so they can make some revenue.

That would be a big selling point for Scirra to promote getting a licensed version of C2 or C3 and game developers are more likely to get a licensed version if they also can make some revenue from the Scirra arcade to offset the cost of the license.

It would not cost Scirra anything to allow that and they can charge a small monthly fee of around $10 a month for licensed developers that want to have that perk in their games so it makes Scirra ongoing revenue. If Scirra wants to allow that for free even better but I think most game developers myself included would happily pay $10 a month to be allowed to include 3rd party ads in our Scirra arcade games.

So you are providing incentive for people to get a licensed version and making revenue from that perk and you will get many more game developers to get a license if they see they can offset the cost of the license with games in the arcade.

I really do not see any downside of doing this for Scirra?

Maybe Tom or some of the Mods here can tell me why that is a bad idea or what the conflict is that Ashley seems to feel is a negative of doing that with the arcade?

ADDED: You might look at ICHIO which is using a format like I described with both free games and games that can be downloaded or includes advertising.