Fostering Independent Game Development
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At the moment Kongregate.com is entirely advertising supported, although Greer is mulling over the idea of charging for micro-transactions.
"We're considering working with our best developers to create exclusive games for us," he reveals, "which may include a few free maps and then we'd charge $2 or $3 to unlock an additional 10 maps. Our intention is to be primarily a free site, but we may decide to charge for a few things that visitors will see as being a good value. We're still sorting all that out."
He admits that no developer is yet making a killing from the check he gets from Kongregate.com.
"We're still a relatively small site," he says, "but we're growing. And when we get to two million to three million monthly unique visitors, then we'll start to be interesting to brands that want to target their ads to a young male market."
But while observers such as CMP's Simon Carless, editorial director of Game Developer, are impressed with what Kongregate.com has achieved so far, he has some doubts as to how successful the site will be, especially since Kongregate.com focuses specifically on Flash and Shockwave games, which can all be played in a Web browser with no downloading necessary.
"There are some really big advantages to browser-based games," Carless says, "and some disadvantages. On the plus side, the games are incredibly easy to access and that makes the site very immediate and user-driven. Developers can just upload any games they've made and people can start playing them and commenting on them right away."
However, he says, because all of its games are free, it's not an easy site to monetize.
"I don't know how much Kongregate.com is making from ads," he comments, "but, for the developers who supply the content, I'm pretty certain that revenue is pretty incremental compared to what one might make selling individual games at $20 a pop. From an independent game advocate's point of view, I do wonder whether giving away games for free will ever make people enough money to live on."
Nevertheless, Carless describes Kongregate.com as well-executed, and he says there's always room for another site that showcases the work of indie game developers who otherwise might not get their games played.
In addition, because Kongregate.com allows developers to post links to their own Web sites, there is the opportunity for the more enterprising developers to sell some of their other games.
"I know one professional, Sean Cooper, who has a game on Kongregate.com called Boxhead that has you shooting at zombies," says Carless. "Not only is it one of the site's top games, but it links to Sean's own site, where he sells game upgrades. So there are indeed some developers who are making money -- but I'd be willing to bet that he's one of only a few."
However, says Carless, that doesn't deter developers, many of whom are hobbyists who build games not for the money but "because they think it's a cool thing to do. Given those circumstances, Kongregate.com works. But, as a business proposition, I think it's still to be proven."
Greg Costikyan agrees. He is the CEO of Manhattan-based Manifesto Games, a two-year-old site that also shares its revenue with developers.
Manifesto appeals to a more hardcore gaming audience and relies not on advertising but on the sale of its downloadable indie titles.
"What Kongregate.com is doing makes a certain degree of sense in terms of potentially giving exposure to games that otherwise might not get that exposure," he says. "But I don't think that is a viable business model for developers. The kind of per-user revenue resulting from an advertising-supported model is pretty slim."
Costikyan's site, on the other hand, has an inventory of 170-plus games -- with an additional two to three added each week -- built by 80 developers who are under contract, who retain all the rights to their IP, and who provide them to Manifesto on a non-exclusive basis. When one of their games is sold, they get 60% of the revenue.
"We're hoping to become the first place gamers turn to when they're looking for something they can't find at GameStop," says Costikyan.
One of Manifesto's bestsellers is PeaceMaker, a turn-based strategy game developed by an American-Israeli-Palestinian team that simulates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Another top seller is The Shivah, a graphic adventure about a rabbi having a crisis of faith.
"I'm sure you'll agree that these are not your usual video games," Costikyan adds. "But they are games that merit some exposure. And getting exposure for an indie game can be an awfully hard road to hoe."
Essentially, he concludes, Manifesto is trying to create for games what the indie music and film markets provide for their industry.
"We hope to create a viable ecosystem so that these talented developers can not necessarily get rich, but at least make a living," Costikyan says. "All they want to do is pursue their kind of individual creative vision within the field instead of spending extended hours in some big publisher's sweatshop working on better road textures or something. That's not why most of us got into the games industry to begin with."
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