Publishing to the Construct Arcade

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This tutorial is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Please refer to the license text if you wish to reuse, share or remix the content contained within this tutorial.

An easy way to share your game with the world is to publish it on the Construct Arcade! We host the game for you, so you don't need to find your own web server.

Limitations

To ensure players have a good experience on the Construct Arcade, some features are blocked. For example, your game cannot navigate to another page, nor open any pop-up windows. If you wish to provide a link to a website or to your game in an app store, you can add them elsewhere (we'll talk about this in a bit!)

There are also some types of content that aren't allowed on the Arcade. Please refrain from publishing games that contain:

  • Real Money or Cryptocurrency Prizes
  • Pay to play or In-app purchases
  • Chat rooms or multiplayer chat functionality

Bear in mind you'll need to give your game an age rating, so read them carefully when you come to publish! If your game has been published with something that shouldn't be on the Arcade, we may take it down without warning.

Exporting and Uploading

To export for the Construct Arcade, simply choose the Construct Arcade option when exporting. You'll get a zip file when the export finishes.

You then need to upload this file to the Construct Arcade and we'll walk you through the information you need to fill in.

Firstly, you'll need to make sure you're logged into your Construct Account – you can't upload games as a guest!

On the main Arcade page is the option to Upload a Game, click this to start the process. You'll need to fill in some information about your game before it can be uploaded:

  • Game Language
  • Game Name
  • A short Description - this should be more than 100 characters
  • Category – pick which best describes your game, is it a puzzler or an action game for example?
  • Status – is your game complete, a test or a demo of a larger game?
  • Age Rating – be sure to read the ratings thoroughly and categorise your game accordingly, else your game could be removed, and your account banned from publishing
  • Supported Devices - have you designed/tested your game for Desktop, Mobile or both?

Next, you'll be able to upload your game file. You can also choose to upload the source file if you want. Once you've uploaded the zip file, you can view its arcade page – but the game will be unpublished.

Once uploaded you can access new pages including the Basic Details, Settings and App Store Links pages.

On the Basic Details page, you can add more information like a fuller description (including any external links, perhaps to your website) and instructions for how to play the game. You can also adjust any of the information you added before uploading your files.

The Settings page allows you to tweak certain aspects of the game's page. This is where you'll find the privacy settings so you can decide if your game is public or not. You can also turn off commenting and public ratings if you like, and you can decide if you want to show the game's stats or live player counts. Plus, if you're updating your game in the future, there is a setting in here to enable or disable the ability to play older versions of your game.

If your game is classed as a Full Game or a Demo you'll see the App Store Links option as well. This is where you can add links to Apple's App Store, Google Play or Steam.

Under the Game Files section of the menu bar, you'll see links to the Main Game Image, Game Icons and Screenshots pages. This is where you can upload graphical assets for your game. If you've created a great piece of cover art for your game, or want to show off some excellent gameplay screenshots, you can upload them in the relevant tabs.

When you're happy with the information available and the game's settings, you can hit publish, agree to the terms and conditions, and your game will be available for everyone to play!

Updating Your Game

The arcade supports updating your game and it's a simple process to upload a new version.

When you go into edit your game, in the left-hand menu, you'll see an option to Upload a new version.

This will take you to a new page where you can upload your new zip file - if the file seems to be the same as an older version, the arcade will tell you that it matches and you might want to check you've picked the right file.

Once the upload is successful, a green bar will appear informing you so. You'll also be presented with a set of Terms and Conditions and a checkbox to confirm that you agree to them as you did when you first uploaded your game. Tick the checkbox and hit publish and your new version should be ready to play and visible in your version history.

Embedding

If you want to share your games elsewhere, there is the option to embed them into other sites. Under your game's settings, you'll find the option to enable or disable embedding. If you do want to embed your game on another site, you can click the Embed button on the game's Arcade page.

Once you click the Embed button, you'll see a preview of the game alongside the embed code. Where exactly you embed your game will depend on your site, but you'll need to paste the provided code into your website to embed the game.

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  • The arcade is broken because every game page displays a "arcade.construct.net refused to connect" message instead of the actual game.

  • I have a problem with uploading my game. i am not allouwed to use .otf font files but how els am i suposed to add fonts that anyone can use?

  • Thers still something missing: About updating your game. I uploaded like already 2 new versions yesterday and tried today as well uploading the newest but its NOT getting updated ?! Why =? Still the old version before my newest fixes and its pissing me off.

      • [-] [+]
      • 1
      • Laura_D's avatar
      • Laura_D
      • Construct Team Community Manager
      • 1 points
      • (3 children)

      The tutorial has been updated to cover uploading new versions. Did you agree to the T's & C's and click the Publish buttons for your new version?

      • There are no such things but I guess I know why, my game status is on WIP and set to private URL ( which also doesnt work as it should= Private URL: Anyone with the URL can play this game.

        -> Noone can play it with just the link...always getting "Ahhhh nuts!

        We Couldn't Find That! The server returned an HTTP 404 error. That requested URL could not be found."

        So I just have the "upload file" page but it should override the old version instantly, right ?

        But I'll set it soon on public when finished testing and fixing but then it should work just fine ? There are no limits as how often you upload a new version ? ( like 2-3 times a day ? ) Or how long does it take until the new version is playable ?

        + You still have to clear cache for the site to reload your game.. Would be nice if you could do that on Construct Arcade without deleting everything else, so like a button "Reinitialize game files" / "Check for new version" or something.

  • Thanks for the article! When I try to upload my game I get an error message that reads: "Could not upload file (Public access is not permitted on this storage account." Do you have any advice for how to get around this? Thank you.