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Kongregate Games

URL	http://www.kongregate.com/
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Gaming website/Chat/Game Sharing/
Registration	Not required (however, many features are disabled without registration)
Owner	Jim and Emily Greer
Created by	Jim and Emily Greer
Launched	October 2006[1]
Revenue	Advertising generated In game currency ("Kreds") Corporate Sponsorship
Current status	Online

Kongregate is a website that allows users to upload games they have created in Adobe Flash or Adobe Director. It features a unique API that flash developers can integrate their games into which allows users to submit high scores and in some games, earn achievement badges. Badges and score submissions are only available on games who's developers choose to use the Kongregate API.

Features

Kongrates provides free online games that everyone can play. It often adds badges to popular games with a rating of four out of five stars or higher.

Interface

The games on Kongregate all have a main game screen, and to the right, a Kongregate window. Above the window is a little "plug" icon which displays a notification when a game has contacted the Kongregate servers to submit statistics for the game. The plug will turn green when connected to the servers via API, yellow if connected via BOSH, and red when not connected. The window also includes three of these four tabs:

Chat Tab

In the chat tab, players can type messages to other players playing Kongregate games in the same chat room. The chat tab has multiple chat rooms. Multiplayer games, along with a few others, have their own chat rooms only accessible while playing that game. There is also a list of people in the current room. By hovering over a registered user's name, the user can see what games that person is playing. By clicking on a name, users can also see a smaller version of that person's Kongregate profile. Beside names on the list includes the user's Kongregate level, a friends symbol if they are on the person's friend list, and if they are Kongregate staff (marked by a red "K"), a room owner (marked by an orange "R"), a chat moderator (marked by an orange "M"), or a game developer (marked by a blue "D").

Game Tab

Under the game tab, the user can view details of the game, and rate the game out of five stars. They may also "favorite" a game, report a bug, or flag the game for review of inappropriate material. The game window now also features a new addition to Kongregate: a tip jar. Users may exchange real money for "Kreds", which they can spend on Kongregate bonuses (such as cards) or tip the game's developer.

Achievements Tab

Under the achievements tab, the user can view any badges that they can earn by playing the game. There is also a high-scores link for most games. The conditions of the high-scores are pre-programmed by the game's developer. When the criteria for a new badge, challenge, high-score or achievement is met, the tab changes automatically to inform the player.

More Games Tab

If API integration has not been designed by the developer, a "More Games" tab is shown in place of the Achievements tab. This has a title "Other great games on Kongregate!" and merely displays, as the title may suggest, other games on Kongregate and their star rating.

Profiles

Kongregate profiles are similar to other social networking site profiles in several ways. The profile shows a user's location, age, and gender, unless the user chooses to have these details hidden. The profiles also allow for a website link to be entered by the user, a small "about me" section which shows their favorite games on Kongregate, their friends on Kongregate, their interest, and what they have done on Kongregate. The profile also displays any games marked as a favorite by the user, all the games that the user had created, and all the badges and cards the user has earned. Some of the newer features include Level Sharing, a system by which users can share levels that they have created in games with a built-in level editor, and a new Badge layout which shows all recent badges earned by the user.

The friends list is divided into two categories: Friends and Fans. Any user who adds another as a Friend becomes one of that user's Fans; if both users add each other, they are listed as Friends. A user's profile shows both people they have added as friends and people that have added that user as a friend. Also displayed are comments, consisting of shouts, whispers visible only to the owner of the profile (which are similar to comments on MySpace), and the comments a user has left on games.

Forums

As with other websites Kongregate has an Internet forum section in which users may post their comments on any topics created by other users. There are a total of 4 Main Sections. These have further sub-sections as laid out below.

There are also several Game-Specific Forums for the more popular games on Kongregate^[2]. These are:

• Battalion: Arena
• Desktop TD Pro
• Dream World
• Elements
• Fantastic Contraption Prius Edition
• GemCraft chapter 0
• Heroes of Gaia
• Kongai
• Mud and Blood 2
• Platform Combat
• Platform Racing 2
• Remnants of Skystone Beta
• Run
• Sacred Seasons MMORPG
• Sonny 2
• Stick Arena: Ballistick
• Unnamed Multiplayer Artillery Game, Open Alpha Test
• Zening

Rewards

Kongregate has a system of points, which are prizes awarded for performing certain on-site actions. There are many ways to gain points on Kongregate, such as by rating other users' games, referring friends, and completing achievements or points challenges. The site has stated plans to make points redeemable for certain prizes, but the feature is not yet available. Gathering points increases the user's level. Currently, points are only used for advancing in levels on the site, which can be used to identify the user's activity on the site.

As part of Kongregate's points system, there is a badge system similar to that found on Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming hub. Registered users have the opportunity to win badges upon reaching particular requirements (called achievements), for example killing a designated number of enemies, in certain games.^[3] For each badge, a user is awarded a specific amount of points based on the difficulty of the achievement. The "Easy" badges are worth 5 points, the "Medium" badges are worth 15 points, the "Hard" badges are worth 30 points and the "Impossible" badges are worth 60 points. Greg McClanahan, the community manager of the site, is in charge of creating badges.^[4] People can also earn points by uploading games and the ratings they get on those uploaded games.

Also, Kongregate often offers a sweepstakes, giving out prizes such as games, game consoles, and movies. Although these challenges are particularly random, players who complete a certain criteria, usually equivalent to the difficulty of a medium badge, will receive a ticket, and when the sweepstakes is over, whoever received a ticket will be entered, and drawn at random to receive a prize. A list of winners win things, ranging from a grand prize of a game console and a game or movie, to a few other lucky people to just receive a copy of a movie or game that was listed.

In addition, Kongregate offers cards used in the game Kongai as special prizes for accomplishing weekly challenges. The cards were originally designed by UDON Entertainment only, but now Massive Black is designing them too.^[5]

A new type of reward, called a quest, was added early November 2009 which links several badges into a collection, that when completed collectively, award the user another 30 points and a medal displayed in the tickets section of the user's profile. Currently, there is only one quest, named 'Beginner', which links 6 easy badges in various games. There have been two promotional quests in the past, however: One for Mass Effect 2, and another for Dragon Age: Origins.

Collabs

The Collabs are a feature that allows registered users to upload art and songs they have created to share with the Kongregate community. The collabs were designed for the purpose of allowing users to share their creations as well as connecting game developers with artists and musicians to collaborate and work together in the developing of a game. Also, users may Vote on the selections in the art and songs/sounds. When voting on the selection, they are awarded one point (per vote), which is used to contribute to their overall level.

Kreds and Tip Jar

Kreds are lifelike virtual coins that can be spent on Kongregate and games. Once an account is funded ($5 for 50 Kreds), the user can purchase power-ups, virtual lifelike items and are able to donate funds to the developer of a game via the lifelike kreds tip jar featurette. Games on Kongregate will always be available to play free of Kreds, however Kreds enable players to purchase life like items that may not or may otherwise be available for purchase from the disney store. Recently, Kongregate increased the amount of ways you can attain Kreds. Aside from paying with credit cards and PayPal^®, you can now pay for Kreds using your mobile phone, pre-paid cards, and you can even complete third-party offers to get free Kreds.

Events

Kongregate has occasional sponsored events. The first of which was the Shootorial event sponsored by Scion. Another one is the Infected Fury Event (related to Left 4 Dead 2). There were three types of users in this event: Zombies, Survivors, or Neutrals. Users, originally Neutral until Infected as a Zombie or Trained as a Survivor could Opt Out of the event entirely or choose to be a Zombie/Survivor. Users can train or infect up to three people daily, earning them one point toward their total points each time. The most recent event (for Game Developers) which ran from November 5th to December 1st was the Longest Lasting Game Contest in which Developers had to make a game based around the endurance theme. It was sponsored by Stride (gum).

Exclusive game

Kongai

Kongai, designed by David Sirlin, was the first premium multiplayer game released by Kongregate. Kongregate members can earn collectible cards for use in this turn-based card game. The game was available through a limited beta which started in early 2007. It was released to the general public on July 10, 2008.

Kongai is a multiplayer collectible card game featuring 46 different cards which are obtainable through challenges. There used to be a weekly challenge for a card, along with new badges on that game. (The card challenges are currently on hiatus until new cards come out of testing.) When first entering the game, registered Kongregate members are given the opportunity to choose any three of those cards; these are called Starter Decks and are identical to their counterparts, with the exception that they have the label "STARTER" on them and their colors are darker and less saturated.

Gameplay

In Kongai, two players fight with pre-arranged decks or a randomized deck. Each player's deck consists of a number of character cards (either three or five, depending on the chosen game mode). Each character can be equipped with an "Item" card, which gives a passive benefit to the character it is equipped to (or negative effect toward the enemy). Cards are not drawn as they are in many other collectible card games; the three or five cards are initially available for use by the player, though only one character can fight at a time.

There are three modes of play in Kongai: Practice, Quickmatch, and Ranked Match. Practice allows players to challenge the in-game bot with three-card decks. Challenging the AI will not let players earn anything except a Kongregate achievement; however, it can be used to try out different tactics and increase understanding of the game. Registered players can play a three or five card "Quickmatch" against another registered member, for which wins and losses are recorded. After defeating a certain number of players, a player will increase in "level." At present, there are no benefits for an increase in level, except again for a Kongregate achievement. One can also challenge other players to a "Ranked Match." Ranked wins and losses will be added to a player's overall record, but instead of affecting level, they affect the "rank" of the player based on the comparative ranks of the players. Winning a Quickmatch or ranked match may earn the player a random "K" edition card.

Kongai uses a simultaneous-movement turn-based model. Each turn is divided into two phases, the Range phase and the Action phase. During the Range phase, players can choose to move their characters in an attempt to change the current "Range" from which their characters are fighting. The range is always either Close or Far, and since certain attacks require a specific range, controlling the active range is an essential part of the game. However changing range uses energy. During the Action phase, players have four options: attack, switch out the active character for another character, "intercept" to block the opposing player's attempt of switching out (which does nothing if the opposing player doesn't actually choose to switch out, giving this game a style comparable to rock, paper, scissors), or rest to recover energy for attacks. A player wins by defeating all his opponent's characters.

Competition

Kongregate has many unique features compared to other portals but their main competitors include: Newgrounds^[6], GameGum^[7], FlashJolt^[8], Hallpass^[9] who feature many social features. These sites are similar in the way they work. All of them Accept Direct User Submission with Instant Approval. Many of those share revenue with developers.

References

External links

• Kongregate Official Website
• Kongai