We are proud to fund the Sweden-based Defold Foundation, developers of the free, cross-platform Defold game engine. The foundation works alongside industry partners to provide free and open software and services to game developers around the world. Their project will use the Web Monetization standard to provide alternative revenue streams to indie game designers while improving the gaming experience for players.
Today, monetization of web games is done mainly through ads, since they are easy for developers to integrate. However, ads can have a negative impact on the game experience: interstitial ads break the immersion and the flow of the game; banner ads take up valuable screen real estate, and incentivised ads run the risk of becoming a chore that the player must complete to progress through the game. Direct sales are not frequently used in HTML5 games because of their relatively short length and lifetime, and in-app purchases are uncommon outside of large platforms such as Facebook.
Defold believes Web Monetization could be the perfect complement – or even replacement – for ads in HTML5 games because it is non-intrusive and it can be used to enhance the experience and increase player retention without breaking player immersion.
“Web Monetization is an exciting new and non-intrusive way for game developers to monetize their creations while at the same time offering premium content to their paying players. The grant we have received from Grant for the Web will allow us to explore this new way of monetizing web games and we are excited to see it adopted by Defold developers.” – Björn Ritzl, Defold Product Owner
With this grant, Defold will:
Read Defold's announcement and learn more about Grant for the Web's early awardees.