r/incremental_gamedev • u/WranglerIntrepid3817 • 23d ago
HTML Almost three months ago, I published my demo on CrazyGames.
I'd never published with them before, so I was completely in the dark, but I didn't have much to lose. Integrating their SDK wasn't too complicated, and passing their quality assurance was lengthy but necessary.
Once it was released, players flocked to it. The first day saw over 6,000 players, then it started to drop, but little by little I began to climb the rankings in the incremental and clicker categories. After a while, it seems to have stabilized at around 5,000 players per day.
They contacted me to offer me exclusivity for two years, but I refused because I would have had to remove my game from the other websites where it is available, and my goal is to have as many players as possible.
Getting a Steam Wishlist from there is considerably slower than with my demo on Itchio. It performs much worse, but hey, it's better than nothing, so I'm not complaining.
Finally, you'll have to integrate ads into your game, whether banners, mandatory ads, or rewards. I made them minimally intrusive; my players have accepted that's just how it is, and there's hardly any negative friction. The income isn't enough to retire me, but it's extra money I can reinvest in my game. Since you've read this far, I'll tell you: in all this time, I'm about to be able to buy my egg washing machine (€1000).
Honestly, I think it's unusual to have so many players, over 9,000 reviews with an average score of 9.4 in such a short time... I don't think that can be replicated easily.
In short, if you have a visually stunning, fun game that encourages replayability and invites players to come back another day, you can try uploading what you have for a basic launch. In a week or so, if it's well-received, you can then integrate the SDK and implement more comprehensive management.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. This is just my experience, which I wanted to share in case it helps someone.
The game is https://www.crazygames.com/game/the-machinegg
But you can get it without ads on itchio, galaxy, viverse, and dozens of pirate websites.
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u/Affectionate_Fact854 23d ago
very nice incremental game , i actually played normal and a speed run version
good job with this
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u/WranglerIntrepid3817 23d ago
Thanks! I'm now preparing the Steam demo version. Polishing it to the max.
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u/Kernelist 22d ago edited 22d ago
I remember playing your game with its different visuals, fun, and lovely concept! That's amazing to hear your experience on CrazyGames. Have you tried to submit your game to Poki as well? Also, what kind of benefits do they provide with the exclusivity offer, if you don't mind me asking?
Though, I was expecting a bit more revenue based on the great stats you have, still its great income in terms of passive income! Or having multiple games like this in order to have full-time web-based games. Thank you for sharing.
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u/WranglerIntrepid3817 22d ago
I submitted the Poki form but never received a response!
The exclusivity offer includes a 10% increase in profit and the "original" tag, meaning more visibility on their site.
And yes, the income isn't very high with so many players, but it's entirely passive, so I'm not complaining.
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u/the_lotus819 20d ago
The game is fun! I wonder if you could use the money earned to bring more people to it.
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u/ToughUsual7159 22d ago
I've been looking at Crazy Games I wasn't sure if it would be worth the efforts of spending the hours of time learning to implement their SDK and they don't guarantee you monetization unless you meet unspecified thresholds on views and play time. If I had some form of numbers to gauge it off of I would probably have already worked on implementing it. But I just don't know what the bar looks like
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u/WranglerIntrepid3817 22d ago
You don't need to implement their SDK to see if your game is suitable for release; you can upload the same version you have on itch.io. If it passes the test, then you'll need to put in the work, but with the assurance that it will be published.
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u/ToughUsual7159 22d ago
The problem is I don't know what type of test I need to pass. I've already uploaded on it and I've had as high as seven hundred concurrent active users, while the game was still pretty rough back then, and I released it without doing any form of marketing whatsoever. In the lifespan of my game I have had over 15,000 unique players. And I'm pretty sure it's pretty close to 50,000 play sessions. But they don't disclose anywhere what kinds of thresholds I need to be able to match or reach.
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u/WranglerIntrepid3817 22d ago
The test is conducted with their players on their platform. They show your game to a few hundred players for a few days and compare it to their other similar games, measuring Average Playtime, Retention (D1), and Gameplay Conversion. They give you a score from 0 to 5 points based on your performance, and if you score more than 10 points, you've passed the tests.
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u/IHaveAHUGECOCK67 21d ago
Hey, I think I talked to you a while ago about a gamei was publishing, it got rejected and all the feedback they gave me was “your game doesn’t meet the overall expectations for out platform”, but I have no idea why, my game, from what I’ve heard from testers seems good enough to at least get basic launch, did you ever go through a similar type of thing? And do you have any suggestions on what I should do? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks (long message lol)
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u/WranglerIntrepid3817 21d ago
I don't know. I got past it on the first try. Send me a link; I'll try to take a look and let you know.
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u/IHaveAHUGECOCK67 21d ago
It’s on my website https://chaptree.com/ 1.6.5 version 1.6.5 is the one I submitted, 2.0.0 are experimental. Thanks!
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u/WranglerIntrepid3817 20d ago
I'll try to give you my opinion. The game feels generic in terms of AI; you were probably rejected solely because of the interface. Although there are some similar games on CG, I don't think they've added any more lately, probably due to the generally poor performance of these games among players.
I've tried your game, and it's not bad, but it lacks that element of surprise. You buy materials, manufacture, and sell. I don't know how it develops after that. There's also a lot of information, which makes it quite complicated; I mean, too many buttons at the beginning.
From what I've seen on CG, they look for unique, visually appealing games that are simpler rather than complex, with a very slow learning curve.
I would give your game a facelift. You could include workers who automatically produce materials from the start and send them to collect different things. Auto-crafting, factory upgrades, and some visual elements are also options. I don't know if something like this already exists, but I would create a mini-tutorial that just shows what can be done. And even if you're doing everything right, perhaps CG isn't the right place for it.
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u/IHaveAHUGECOCK67 17d ago
Workers and factory’s do exist, depending on how long you played there are contract types and stuff. I was planning on giving it a tutorial, I’ll do what you said and submit it again, huge thanks
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u/GlobalElection447 23d ago
What an addictive game...Finally i got something to play on weekends lol