Kongregate Newsroom (Page 21)

Web Jan 09, 2018

December 2017 Contest Winners

Each month, developers win cash prizes for having the highest-rated new games! Click here [http://www.kongregate.com/monthly_contest_rules] for official rules. Check out the official contest page here [http://www.kongregate.com/contests]. We asked MezzanineStairs to share a few words about their inspiration and experience developing last month's first-place contest winner, "World's End Chapter 3": MezzanineStairs: We had been collaborating on musical projects for years, and were both fans o

Marketing Jan 02, 2018

Playable Ads: The Most Fun Ad Ever!

If you’re looking to paid advertising to grow your user base, you probably already know that it’s getting harder and harder to engage users with standard ad formats. Look around and you’ll notice that new ad types keep popping up, and while during the last few years the market has continued to move toward video ads, this year we’ve seen the growth of playable and game-simulation ads to be the most innovative ad type yet. Admittedly, we’ve tested a lot of different ads, and we’re here to proclai

Community Dec 21, 2017

8 Tips to Help Manage Your Indie Community: #5 Will A-Maze You!

1. FIND A FLOW Community management can be unpredictable and hectic, but you don’t have to be. Find ways to help streamline more routine tasks. Take notes and set reminders for meetings, community interactions, and other communications, content, and updates. Note taking is an acquirable skill and not everyone has the same habits or preferences, but dictating your interactions will help ensure that important details aren’t missed and promises are kept. Whatever you use, whether it’s Trello [http

Mobile Publishing Dec 14, 2017

'Bit Heroes' Hacks 'n' Slashes onto Steam

Bit Heroes, the massively successful mobile [https://www.kongregate.com/pages/bit-heroes-mobile] and web [http://www.kongregate.com/games/Juppiomenz/bit-heroes] hit, is now available on Steam [http://store.steampowered.com/app/666860/Bit_Heroes/]! Founded in 2017, Bit Heroes developer Juppiomenz [http://www.juppiomenz.com/] was a side project created by three industry veterans while working at other companies. With millions of plays and downloads, Bit Heroes is now a full-time passion that con

Art & Design Dec 12, 2017

Fixing Your Game's Perceived Slowness with Elevators

Spending months on optimization only to realize your game still feels slow can be pretty demoralizing. Try as you might, eventually you’ll reach a point where the technical solutions are simply too expensive to justify. What do you do then? Your game still feels slow and players won’t accept it. Luckily you have other options. Let’s talk about elevators Wait, what do elevators have to do with video games? Loads! Trust me, this’ll make sense. Solving the problem of perceived slowness can be tric

Web Dec 07, 2017

November 2017 Contest Winners

Each month, developers win cash prizes for having the highest-rated new games! Click here [http://www.kongregate.com/monthly_contest_rules] for official rules. Check out the official contest page here [http://www.kongregate.com/contests]. Congratulations to the following developers! TOP WINNERS * 1st Place: $1,750 Wondrous Lands [https://www.kongregate.com/games/drakonian_lord/wondrous-lands] by drakonian_lord * 2nd Place: $1,250 Shift [https://w

Engineering Dec 05, 2017

Welcome to SS-Hell

The Long Ago Kongregate has been around for a relatively long time. We were around when Flash was cool, and also when it became uncool. We were also around when SSL was considered an optional luxury that added significant overhead and latency to network requests. Thus, we built our site with the assumption that HTTP was a fine protocol to use most everywhere, and SSL should just be used "as needed" -- for authentication, purchasing, and other sensitive data. That assumption held up for over a

Game Development Nov 28, 2017

Oops I Did It Again: Finding Flow in Hard Games

pictured: Thumper Dark Souls is more likely associated with anguish than euphoria as a series, but it -- and other notoriously difficult games -- are where we can find some of gaming’s most pleasurable moments. If you work through your urges to throw your controller at a wall, you might be lucky enough to experience the joy that keeps us all coming back for more “YOU DIED” screens. We’re going to delve into what leads to these experiences, why they feel so good, and how they can be designed.

Developer Spotlight Nov 23, 2017

On the Front Line: A 'Wartide' Dev Q&A

We sat down with gaming studio Outact to talk about their new game, Wartide: Heroes of Atlantis, now available for Android and iOS devices [http://www.kongregate.com/pages/wartide-mobile?haref=Blog_WT_102617]! KONG: Outact formed in 2014; can you tell us a bit more about how the studio came to be and what inspired your direction as a studio? Outact: Many of us have been working together for nearly a decade and some over two decades. As a team, our history can trace back to Iron Lore Entertai