列举HTML5游戏最易创收的选择渠道

作者：Ben Chong

上篇有关创收主题的文章发布自今已有6个月。就HTML5游戏的迅猛发展速度而言，现在是时候该撰写新内容。注意，本文瞄准的是最容易创收的方式。

Chrome Web Store

首先是最简单的方式。托管你的游戏，在上面运行广告。两个值得信赖的广告网络是：

* Google Adsense——浮动利率，但这主要取决于游戏页面的内容。尝试插入HTML5相关的关键字，因为不少公司在HTML5相关的广告上投入更多资金。你多半会看到许多“Ludei ❤ HTML5”和“CocoonJS”广告。利用这一渠道，确保其中若干广告支出最终流入你的囊中。

* Ad4Game——这一网络呈现纯粹的游戏广告。你将推广其他来自大型游戏工作室的作品。eCPM（游戏邦注：千人印象成本）约是1.50 – 2.00美元，他们进行及时的NET30 Paypal付款。联系Angelica，告诉她你的作品搭载Chrome Web Store，她会非常乐于协助你。

若你有足够的勇气，不妨尝试谷歌的In-App Payments API。了解相关情况需要1个小时，整合游戏则需要若干小时。这里假设你的游戏能够顺利搭载内容付费模式。

在Web Store，获得推荐至关重要。

获得推荐的普通游戏平均每天的体验次数是1000次。在游戏版面首页获得推荐的游戏（在正上方）的日均体验次数是6万次。

若你展现公司工程师所创建的内容，谷歌将非常高兴。若你希望自己的游戏获得推荐，记得整合若干谷歌API：WebGL、Chrome Fullscreen和Web Audio等。你显然无法植入所有功能，但融入其中些许功能能够让你超越其他游戏开发者。只要你准备就绪，不妨向谷歌开发拥护者推广可玩作品。

成本：服务器托管费用、整合时间和宣传时间

iOS和Android

通过具体包装引擎（游戏邦注：如appMobi、Ludei’s CocoonJS、 GameClosure和Spaceport）展开你的游戏。

Ludei显然是唯一公开告知世界其引擎如何杰出的公司。他们具备完整的创收渠道（iAd和内在付费机制），这对开发者来说是个有利条件。

这里的优点在于，只要你成功掌握上述其中一个引擎，你就能够接触到整个手机应用市场，但用户是否会下载你的游戏就是另一回事了。

在发行游戏前，记住你只有一次试验机会。如果你的游戏在App Store以失败收尾，你也许可以通过免费日促销/价格调控进行挽救。但你通过促销活动获得的下载高峰水平不会持续存在。你的游戏将淹没于每日新发行的1000款游戏之中。找出自己的细分市场，通过TouchArcade之类的开发者论坛进行合理营销。不要忘记通过Kotaku之类的博客进行宣传，他们欣赏精彩的推广内容。

成本：

* appMobi就游戏开发工具包索取99美元。

* Spaceport就你的收益分成10%。

* CocoonJS和GameClosure无需付费，但你需要亲自联系这些公司。

* 学习如何运用工具及同游戏进行结合所耗费的时间。

* iOS开发账号每年的费用是99美元。

* Google Play账号每年的费用是25美元。

Facebook

Facebook平台的canvas游戏并未得到应有的关注度，但若制作得当的话，它们依然相当有利可图。源自游戏邀请/活动的病毒式传播是你在设计Facebook游戏时所应着眼的元素。

广告和虚拟商品（Facebook Credits）在此效果显著。注意，Facebook不允许运行谷歌广告，所以你需要寻找其他诸如Ad4Game之类的游戏广告合作伙伴。

另一建议：不是所有HTML5游戏都能够在Facebook顺利运作，因为他们的用户依然有一定比例人数采用陈旧浏览器。该怎么办？最佳办法就是委婉要求他们下载和使用Chrome，或是Google Chrome Frame插件。

成本：

* 服务器托管费用

* Facebook API的整合时间

Mac App Store

这不像iOS App Store那样受欢迎，但依然值得进行尝试。此平台最早的一款HTML5游戏是《Onslaught Arena》。

Google+Games

谷歌在选择合作伙伴方面有些吹毛求疵（游戏邦注：主要是为了维持用户体验）。你需要具备一定名气及持有热门作品（《Triple Town》就是其中典型）。

Intel App Up Store

Intel让你能够接触到PC应用市场。这里没有硬性收益数据，他们会通过少量资金赞助鼓励开发者。

Pokki Store

Pokki让你能够接触到桌面游戏市场。将你的游戏包装在他们的SDK当中，然后展开！我们没有游戏创收情况的硬性数据。据悉，他们最近开展了HTML5游戏竞赛，事实证明这有利可图。

Mozilla App Marketplace

这将于2012年第3季度发行。Firefox有约25-28%的浏览器市场。从理论上来说，将你的游戏置于此处将能够带来和Chrome Web Store平台相当的收益水平。Mozilla制定较大计划，尤其是在移动平台。查看这是否有效配合App Marketplace将是个有趣过程。

出售地区销售权

越来越多发行商着眼于将新鲜HTML5内容植入自己的游戏门户网站。

这些发行商旨在授权运行于网页和移动平台的游戏作品（游戏邦注：运行于移动safari/android的游戏）。你可以通过如下方式利用这一平台：

* 向一位发行商高价出售地区销售权（1500-2000美元以上的费用）

* 向若干发行商以500美元以上费用出售非专属权限

* 向发行商出售地区销售权，从所有广告/虚拟商品收益中分成60-80%

你可以自由同发行商协商任何类型的协议。多数开发者倾向预先付费，但若你觉得发行商的覆盖范围非常广，就谷歌/虚拟商品收益进行分成将是明智选择。据悉，近来某主流开发商每月单从谷歌广告中就获得4位数的收益。

成本

* 针对移动网络优化游戏的时间

* 将游戏同发行商API进行整合所耗费的时间（必要情况下）

如何寻找这些发行商？

* 我的初创公司marketJS将HTML5游戏开发者同发行商联系起来。我们不收取任何费用，而且手头有很多发行商急切渴望获得游戏作品。上传游戏，然后开始协商！

众多选择

这里没有最佳创收方式。组建团队，选择突击销售方法，分析结果，然后征求其他开发者的建议。

我能否全职制作HTML5游戏？

是的，你可以通过制作HTML5游戏获得5位数的年收益。这排除开发承包和资助项目。抓住若干机会，你也许能够创造出6位数的收益。

选择你的竞争项目，测试各市场，持续完善。游戏行业非常富有竞争性，但能够实现个人抱负。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Making money with HTML5 games

by Ben Chong

It’s been 6 months since the last guide about monetization was written. Considering how fast things are moving with HTML5 games, it’s timely to write a new one. Please note, this guide chooses the path of least resistance to the money.

Chrome Web Store

Probably the easiest to begin with. Host your game, run ads on it. Two ad networks to trust are

* Google Adsense – variable rates, but it depends a lot on what’s on your game page. Try inserting HTML5 related keywords, because companies are spending more money on HTML5-related ads. You’ve probably seen countless “Ludei ❤ HTML5 “ and “CocoonJS” ads. Capitalize on this, and make sure some of that ad spend trickles into your pocket.

* Ad4Game – this network displays pure game ads. You’ll be promoting other games from large game studios. eCPMs of about $1.50 – 2.00, and they do very timely NET30 Paypal payments. Contact Angelica, tell her that your game’s on the Chrome Web Store. She’ll be delighted to set you up.

If you’re feeling brave, try out Google’s In-App Payments API. It might take an hour to figure out and a few more to integrate with your game. That is, assuming that your game actually functions well with in-app purchases.

Being featured matters a lot in the Web Store.

A normal featured game fetches about 1000 plays/day. A game featured on the front page of the games section, right at the top gets about 60,000 plays/day, or 60x.

Google loves it when you showcase what their engineers have built. If you want to get your game featured, remember to integrate some of Google’s APIs: WebGL, Chrome Fullscreen, Web Audio, etc. You can’t obviously integrate all of them, but having a few will give you a boost over other game devs. Once you’re ready, start pitching playable games to Google developer advocates. You can find them all here.

Costs: your server hosting fees, integration time and pitching time

iOS and Android

Deploy your game using one of the many wrapper engines out there, like appMobi, Ludei’s CocoonJS, GameClosure and Spaceport.

Ludei seems to be the only one publicly telling the world how great their engine is. They’ve got the entire monetization suite ( iAds and in-app purchases ), which is always a bonus for developers.

The upside is, once you manage to successfully master one of the engines above, you get access to virtually 100% of the mobile app market. Whether people will actually download your game is an entirely different topic.

Before launching your game, remember that you have only one shot at this. If your game flops in the App Store, you might be able to save it by doing free-app-a-day promotions/price manipulations. However, the download spikes you get from promotions do not last. Your game will be piled under 1000 new games being published each day. Find your niche, and market wisely via developer forums like TouchArcade. Don’t forget to pitch to blogs like Kotaku, they always enjoy a good story.

Costs:

* appMobi charges $99 for a game dev toolkit.

* Spaceport takes 10% of anything you earn.

* CocoonJS and GameClosure are free, but you need to personally contact the companies.

* hours in learning how to use the tools and integrating with your game.

* iOS dev account costs $99/year.

* Google Play account costs $25/year.

Facebook

Facebook canvas games don’t get the attention they deserve, but they’re still wildly profitable if done right. The virality from game invites/activities are what you should be focusing on when designing a facebook game.

Ads and virtual goods (Facebook Credits) work well here. Note that Facebook doesn’t allow google ads running, so you need to look for other game-focused ad partners like Ad4Game.

Another caveat: not all HTML5 games will work perfectly on Facebook, because they still have a percentage of users that have older browsers. What to do? Your best bet is to politely ask them to download and use Chrome, or the Google Chrome Frame plugin.

Costs:

* server hosting fees

* integration time with Facebook APIs

Mac App Store

Not as popular as the iOS App Store, but worth a shot. One of the earliest HTML5 games we noticed here was Onslaught Arena.

Google+ Games

Google is a bit picky when it comes to selecting partners, on grounds of maintaning the user experience. You need to have a reputation and a hit game to be considered ( think Triple Town ).

Intel App Up Store

Intel gives you access to the PC app market. No hard numbers on revenue, but they run a small fund to encourage developers.

Pokki Store

Pokki gives you access to the desktop games market. Wrap your game inside their SDK and deploy! We don’t have hard numbers of how well their games monetize. Last we know, they ran a HTML5 games contest which proved lucrative.

Mozilla App Marketplace

Should launch in late Q3 2012. Firefox has about 25-28% of the browser market. Putting your games here should theoretically produce similar revenue numbers to that of the Chrome Web Store. Mozilla has bigger plans ahead, particularly in mobile. Would be interesting to see if this ties in well with the App Marketplace.

Sell distribution rights

An increasing number of publishers are looking to pepper their own game portals with fresh HTML5 content.

These publishers are looking to license games that run on the web and mobile ( yes, games that run on the mobile safari/android). There are a few ways you can capitalize on this:

* sell exclusive rights for a high price ( $1500 – 2000+ ) to one publisher/

* sell non exclusive rights for $500+, to multiple publishers.

* sell distribution rights to publishers, and take 60-80% from all ad/virtual goods revenue generated

You are free to negotiate any type of deal with publishers. Most developers prefer upfront payments, but if you think the publisher has impressive reach, doing a revenue split from ads/virtual goods might be a smart move. A top developer recently made 4 figures a month from google ads alone.

Costs

* time to optimize your game for the mobile web.

* time to integrate your game with the publisher’s APIs ( if required ).

How do I find these publishers?

* Our startup, marketJS connects HTML5 game developers with publishers. It’s free to use, and we’ve got a good database of publishers hungry for games. Upload a game, and start negotiating!

So many choices

There’s no single best option to monetize your games. Build a team, adopt a shotgun approach, analyze results and seek advice from other developers.

Can I go full-time making HTML5 games?

Yes, you can make a high 5 figures/year by making HTML5 games. This excludes development contracts and funded projects. Snag a few of those, and you might even hit 6 figures.

Pick your battles, test each market, and keep polishing. The games industry is very competitive, but extremely fulfilling.（Source： gamasutra）