Do you know any free-to-play games that run in mobile browsers?

[SamosGisor]

Hi there!

 

we are playing with the idea to develop a browser based free-to-play game. Do you know of any such games which are optimised for mobile browser?

 

If not, are there any reasons that there is no Free-to-play games market on mobile browsers?

 

Thank you for your input!

 

Thomas

[boomer1204]

I would imagine because most people who want to play a game on their mobile device are going to look in the respective app store instead of going to a site.  

Not saying it can't be done and I'm no expert i'm just getting into this html5 development but that would be my guess.

 

Let us know if you find anything different!

[kuuuurija]

I would imagine because most people who want to play a game on their mobile device are going to look in the respective app store instead of going to a site.  

Not saying it can't be done and I'm no expert i'm just getting into this html5 development but that would be my guess.

 

Let us know if you find anything different!

 

the biggest advantage of HTML5 is all you need is a browser to run, doesn't matter mobile or desktop - it just works! (obviously developer has to optimize for the respective platform)

 

Regarding mobile web games out in the wild, there are loads of them - you can check this forum's Showcase section http://www.html5gamedevs.com/forum/8-game-showcase/

 

Also some websites here,

http://m.addictinggames.com/

http://labrat.mobi/

http://clay.io/ (open in mobile browser to get mobile web games content)

http://www.a10.com/ (open in mobile browser to get mobile web games content)

[boomer1204]

the biggest advantage of HTML5 is all you need is a browser to run, doesn't matter mobile or desktop - it just works! (obviously developer has to optimize for the respective platform)

 

Regarding mobile web games out in the wild, there are loads of them - you can check this forum's Showcase section http://www.html5gamedevs.com/forum/8-game-showcase/

 

Also some websites here,

http://m.addictinggames.com/

http://labrat.mobi/

http://clay.io/ (open in mobile browser to get mobile web games content)

http://www.a10.com/ (open in mobile browser to get mobile web games content)

 

I understand that's a huge benefit.  I have been seeing some courses on Udemy about taking the games and making them "native" apps with a wrapper (Cordova or something like that).  Is that not gaining much traction from the mobile stand point??  Wouldn't "turning it into a native app" be easier to monetize??

 

Just curious.  Just bought the Discover Phaser book and gonna start building stuff.

 

Thanks

[kuuuurija]

Congrats on buying the Phaser book, good luck on your Phaser adventures.

 

Regarding the native apps, ya sure  you can wrap the HTML5 games with native wrappers. But it is completely up to you. But for me web platform gives me freedom (no app police).

 

And ya, regarding the monetization it is much more easier with native apps. I haven't come across any decent monetization for mobile web games (but there are few out there).

[boomer1204]

Thanks.  Yeah i'm really looking forward to it.  I have played a couple games guys have created here and i'm hoping to add mine to the list!!!

[kuuuurija]

also check this reddit post, http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/2xtqaz/what_would_convince_you_to_build_a_mobile_web_game/

[boomer1204]

Awesome.  Thanks for the link.  I always forget reddit can actually have some good info on it!!!

[SamosGisor]

Hi Boomer1204, hi Goldenratio,

 

thanks for your replies.

 

Casual HTML5 games are great for mobile browser, we are currently making such games ourselves for clients. You can check some of those games on our website: flying-sheep.com (still a work in progress :-)).

 

My question actually concerns Free-to-play games as in games with micro-transactions. I only know of casual games monetised by advertisement, and we are evaluating if it makes sense to develop a game wich player will pay for, specifically targeted at mobile browsers.

 

So I am wondering why nobody else developed more complex games including micro-transactions.

 

Cheers,

 

Thomas

[kuuuurija]

ah, sorry I misunderstood your question. 
I haven't come across any mobile web games making use of micro-transactions. But would be interesting to see, if someone does it.

[n-gauge]

As soon as money is involved to progress within a game please note that:

 

Though HTML has reached a point where it is comparable to a native app (for simple games re speed etc) , you would need to good anti cheating code to stop players using either their browsers network debugger or sniffer to 'game' the system. This, from an Android native app point of view, would be harder to achieve.

 

For example, bots could be written to control players and enemies positions quite easily via the console for a free html app.

 

 -Yes you can obfuscate, but devs that rely on that can forget that simple maths still give the game away; for example a timer that give the player 2 mins to do something;

 

 asd = 120;

 

will be found!

 

Here you would need to use javascript to obfuscate this values, like ~~Math.PI * 40

 

Anyway,  I digress.

 

I hope you master Phaser and create an amazing game!

[prvi_treti]

 

My question actually concerns Free-to-play games as in games with micro-transactions. I only know of casual games monetised by advertisement, and we are evaluating if it makes sense to develop a game wich player will pay for, specifically targeted at mobile browsers.

 

So I am wondering why nobody else developed more complex games including micro-transactions.

 

 

Because casual games targeted only at mobile platforms via native apps are a proven and lucrative model when it comes to F2P.

 

If you intend to target mobile platform, better look for Unity or Xamarin etc based solution which allows you to develop from singlish code base specialized for platform and also allows using payment options of platform unlike browser game. It can pretty easy annoy players to see they can't use Apple Pay.