itch.io

All winners have now been payed through their PayPal accounts. Again, thank you for the great games you submitted!

Our judges have cast their votes and we are pleased to announce the winners of the Web Monetization Challenge 2020:

1. Moonshot: The Great Espionage - $1500
2. Relic Splatter - $750
3. Panic at the museum - $500
4. Twilight Secrets - $100
5. S.M.S. [Secret Moon Station] - $100
6. Earth's Secrets - $100
7. Secrets of the Isle - $100
8. The Secrets We Burn — Act 1 - $100
9. Secrets of Atlantis - $100
10. Island Treasure - $100

It was extremely close between first and second place and there was a lot of competition among the games placed third to fifth. Congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to everyone who participated!

The winners will be contacted to arrange for the transfer of the prize money.

/  The Defold Foundation

Ah, thanks, got it!

The game has Web Monetization enabled but how is it used in the game? Is it the +25% gold?

The game has Web Monetization enabled but how is it used in the game?

The game has Web Monetization enabled but how is it used the game?

The jam submissions are locked from updates. If you want to share an updated version on itch.io it's recommended that you create a new game page.

It doesn't seem like the game uses Web Monetization. There is no payment pointer added to the webpage. Is this correct?

Thank you for the submission, but this game jam is for HTML5 games which implement Web Monetization. Seeing as this is a desktop and mobile only submission it is therefore disqualified from competing.

It doesn't seem like this game supports Web Monetization. Is this correct?

There seems to be some kind of problem with your payment pointer or the way it is setup. The Coil plugin doesn't recognise the site/game as Web Monetized.

The Web Monetization Challenge just finished! Congratulations to everyone submitting a game! We and our esteemed judges now have a challenging but fun time ahead of us! The winners will be announced in two weeks.

You really should post an early submission to catch these kinds of last-minute submission issues. Use this URL to submit your updated game: https://itch.io/jam/18202/add-game/838898?token=OD10UtJ3Jl5zliMSZvUqQImFc

Hey everyone!

We're very close to the finish line now. Only two days left! It's time to put the finishing touches on your games and prepare your submissions.  We look forward to playing a lot of amazing games!

/ Björn, Mathias, Sara, Elin and Romain  - The Defold Foundation

Did you try reaching out to the person from the tutorial to ask?

It is now 10 days left on the Web Monetization Challenge. We and the judges are looking forward to playing a lot of great games in December! Keep up the good work

❤️ / The Defold Foundation

Web Monetization as provided by Coil (http://coil.com) functions as a $5/month subscription where the money a subscriber pays gets divided between the WM enabled content that is used/played during each month. 

Technical information here: https://itch.io/jam/the-web-monetization-challenge-2020/topic/1047889/about-web-...

In order for you as a developer to test and experiment with Web Monetization it is recommended that you have a subscription of your own. We gave away a free month with Coil at the beginning of the jam: 

https://itch.io/jam/the-web-monetization-challenge-2020/topic/1031845/free-one-m...

If you send an email to the address mentioned in the above post we'll provide a one month voucher.

As an alternative you can use this browser extension to simulate Web Monetization on localhost:

https://dev.to/gustavogr/web-monetization-simulator-dnc

Finally, if you do not register with Coil and set up a payment pointer using a wallet provider you can use the Defold Foundation pointer in your submitted game:

    <meta name="monetization" content="$ilp.uphold.com/QkG86UgXzKq8">

Hello all game jammers!

We hope you got a good start to the game jam and that you have a solid idea that you are working on. With a little less than 20 days left on the game jam you still have plenty of time to make something really awesome! We look forward to playing your submitted games.

Keep it up!

❤️ / The Defold Foundation

The iframe has allow="monetization; ..." at least when testing on Chrome. Are you still not seeing the value in the allow field of your iframe?

@subsoap is spot on with his answer!

We've tried to summarize the topic of web monetization here: https://itch.io/jam/the-web-monetization-challenge-2020/topic/1047889/about-web-...

There seems to be a bit of uncertainty what Web Monetization is and what it isn't. This post will try to shed some light of this new standard.

What is Web Monetization

Web Monetization is an open technology that allows someone viewing a webpage or playing a web game to stream very small payments (micropayments) to the creator in real time. It is an exciting new and non-intrusive way for game developers to monetize their web games while at the same time offering premium content to their paying players.

Web Monetization is being proposed as a W3C standard. It is based on the Interledger protocol which is an open, neutral protocol for transferring money of any currency, including digital currencies such as Bitcoin.

How does it work?

Three things are required in order to send and receive payments:

1. A player must have an account with a Web Monetization Provider - The provider streams payments from the player. One example (currently the only example) is Coil.
2. The developer must have a Web Monetization Wallet - The wallet holds received payments. Examples of services which provide digital wallets are Uphold and Gatehub.
3. The developer must add a Payment Pointer on the webpage containing content that should be monetized - The payment pointer tells the provider which wallet to send the money to. An example of a payment pointer is the one held by the Defold Foundation: $ilp.uphold.com/QkG86UgXzKq8. 

If the payment pointer is present on a website it will receive payments when visited by a web monetized user. The payment pointer is embedded in the <head> of a web page:

<meta name="monetization" content="$ilp.uphold.com/QkG86UgXzKq8">

Setup and detecting payments

The basic setup of adding the payment pointer to your website is documented here. As a developer you have access to a simple event based JavaScript API to detect when payments are streamed. Use this to differentiate between a paying and a non-paying player. Learn more about the JavaScript API here. For Defold there's an extension which binds the JavaScript API to Lua and similar integrations also exist for Godot, Phaser and Unity.

Wait? Streaming micropayments? Can't I pay any amount I want?

The purpose of Web Monetization is not to be another system for in-app purchases or tipping. It is supposed to be used for streaming of micropayments. Creators should get rewarded automatically and instantly through many many small streams of revenue coming from active use of the content they provide, be it an article, a video or a game.

How should I use Web Monetization in a game?

This is for you to figure out! You should come up with ways in which you can reward web monetized players as they play your game. One very obvious (but not very creative way) is of course to disable ads for web monetized players. Instead we recommend that you try to come up with ways in which you can integrate the streaming payments in the main game mechanics or meta game. Does monetized players have access to otherwise restricted content? Do they get some kind of bonus? Counters/timers that increase/decrease faster? Something else?

Try sending an email to the address mentioned above. Perhaps there's a kind soul reading your email ;-)

Try sending an email to the address mentioned above. Perhaps there's a kind soul reading your email ;-)

Try sending an email to the address mentioned above. Perhaps there's a kind soul reading your email ;-)

I think you need to either create an Extension (I think that is what they are called in Game Maker) or have a snippet of JavaScript code call into GML when the Web Monetization state changes (https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006636152-Execute-A-GML-Script-F...)

Yeah, so the purpose of Web Monetization is not to be another system for active in-app purchases or tipping. It is supposed to be used for streaming of micropayments. Creators should get rewarded automatically and instantly through many many small streams of revenue coming from active use of the content they provide, be it an article, a video or a game.

So think about ways in which you can reward web monetized players as they play your game. One very obvious way is of course to disable ads for a web monetized player. But that is not very integrated into the gameplay experience. How can you tie web monetization to the main game mechanics or meta game? Do they have access to otherwise restricted content? Do they get some kind of bonus? Counters/timers that increase/decrease faster?

(Side-note: Web Monetization itself is based on the Interledger protocol which also can be used for direct payments of any amount)

The codes have been sent to all participants who reached out via email prior to the start of the game jam.

We have received questions about the use of art and sound effects created prior to the game jam. We have nothing in the rules which forbid this and we say that you can "use existing tools, frameworks and libraries". This can be extrapolated to also cover use of existing art and sound.

Keep in mind that we will be looking at the game as a whole and judge the game on three criteria:

1. Fun - Is the game fun?
2. Web Monetization - How well does the game integrate and use Web Monetization?
3. Theme - How well does the game incorporate and interpret the theme?

If you use art from kenney.nl or some art which you have created before the jam does not matter much, but we obviously prefer to see something new, instead of reused art. But we do at the same time recognise the fact that a lone game developer might not be skilled in coding, game design, art and sound. Use common sense and focus on our three criteria: Fun, Theme and use of Web Monetization!

You can use any language, as long as the final game is playable in a browser (desktop or mobile).

As was stated in the original post: "We will send you the code when the jam starts".

The jam started at midnight CET (12 hours ago). It's a manual process to send out codes and we will start doing this now. Expect the code in your inbox within an hour or so.

The theme for the game jam is "Secrets". You must incorporate some aspect of the theme in your game. Perhaps some of the game mechanics are secret and has to be discovered while playing? Or there's a secret weaved into the story, waiting to be uncovered as the game is played? Or maybe the player will find secret treasures? Or something completely different. It is all up to you!

We wish you all good luck and we look forward to playing your submissions!

Hi everyone!

One week left until the jam starts! Exciting isn't it? To help you with the integration and testing of the Web Monetization API in your game Coil is giving away one-month voucher codes to all participants.

If you want a one-month voucher code please send us an e-mail to webmonetization@defold.se with subject "Coil one-month voucher" and your itch.io username in the email body BEFORE November 1st. We will send you the code when the jam starts. We will not be able to send out codes after this date.

When you receive the code please follow these instructions to get started:

1. Activate your free Coil membership

Redeem your code at: https://coil.com/redeem

Note that you will be asked for a credit card. You will not be charged until month two, so note that date if you want to cancel before first $5/month charge.

2. Install a browser extension

Browser add-ons/extensions are available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Brave and Microsoft Edge. For mobile iOS and Android users, the Puma Browser (a fork of Firefox) does not require any add-on/extension.

3. Get creative!

Start working on your game and blow our socks off with something really cool!

Although this has already been announced elsewhere on the forum (https://itch.io/jam/the-web-monetization-challenge-2020/topic/1022867/web-moneti...) I thought it best to share it here as well that itch.io has added the "monetization" value to all HTML5 iframes.

Yes, I believe you do need a credit card to create a Coil subscription.

We have uploaded a WM enabled game to itch.io to verify that the new "monetization" flag on the itch.io <iframe> tag works as expected. You can try the game here:

https://defold.itch.io/climberz (source code: https://github.com/defold/game-climberz)

For more inspiration we recommend that you check out theWinners in the Web Monetization category of the js13kgames competition: https://js13kgames.com/#winners-webmonetization

The extension has received to updates to fix potential crashes. Latest release is: https://github.com/defold/extension-webmonetization/releases/tag/1.0.2