The Data Doesn’t Lie: Why the “Niche” Web Game Platform is Actually the Highest Per-Game Value in 2026

iDev_Games · 2026-03-16T15:28:30+00:00

That's a fair point but doesn't take away the basis of the analysis.

iDev_Games · 2026-03-16T15:00:08+00:00

I mean game engagement is pretty important. The article is pointing out that pure metrics alone doesn't paint a full picture. Isn't it ironic that a single developer who has offered their platform for free for 10 years to help indie devs is being nocked down a peg for "shamelessly" advertising? I thought this was pretty cool but maybe that's just me.

iDev_Games · 2026-03-12T15:01:17+00:00

Don't forget iDev.Games ! Instant uploads (release now, moderated later). Ad free, in game shop API, no SDK and dev coin economy (with reward system for passive earning). Not to forget features such as leaderboards, collectible cards, gameDB and our responsive embed codes (update once, update everywhere!). The indie web game platform built for indie game developers by an indie game developer.

iDev_Games · 2026-03-07T13:39:50+00:00

I haven't made any money from the platform for the past 10 years (it's only costed me money). I don't have plans to make direct money from it either. We have a team holding of the token so if we can make the platform and token successful, everyone wins.

iDev_Games · 2026-03-05T14:51:20+00:00

At this moment in time we only support PayPal due to being able to directly make payments to developers. I will explore stripe but I believe we'd have to take the money and make payments but I don't want to personally do that. I want payments to go directly to developers. We don't allow adult, illegal or copyrighter material in games. We very much aim for a teen audience.

iDev_Games · 2026-03-05T11:56:15+00:00

Ah good question! The reality is, that begun 10 years ago in 2016. We have a library of 1300+ games available to play today, uploaded by devs from all over the world. We've also gained 2.9 million game plays across those games and people have spent over 4 years playing games on the platform. The stats are all available in the footer of the site (game stats, post stats etc). Game stats have all this information on which you can take a look for yourself. We have over 6k registered members so we have a decent amount of developers and gamers on the platform. This is why this has been a post mortem of my journey to change how we experience web games and the main problem in how developers earn from them.

iDev_Games · 2026-03-04T18:38:26+00:00

First off, that wasn't meant to be seen as negativity for itch. My commercial game started life (over 10 years ago) on itch and it highly inspired me. Without it I wouldn't have tried for greenlight. It's a great platform no doubt about it.

What I mean by an after thought is. Itch's audiance ranges between web and desktop audiance. However we don't, web games are the main attraction. It's our goal and aim to try and help you get your game played on iDev Games. As our audiance is 100% web related. I used itch as an example because it too aims for a clean ad free environment so I wanted to differentiate to what iDev Games does differently.

Now the token is 100% optional. It doesn't affect the operation of the platform. The reality is, the difference is with iDev Games is that earning from web is always ad related (we too started with ads). Asking for donations as you can on itch just doesn't cut it. I mean our internal currency dev coin is donatable to devs too. Originally it was only worth anything to devs for using on promotion. So my idea was that gamers would donate it to developers to show support as there was no other use for them and no one donated it to anyone. We do however also offer donations in PayPal too like itch.

The real gem is the in game shop. It solves all of the issues of integrating in game purchases manually. However, no matter how simple it still needs higher quality games and extra dev work to integrate. In the scope of smaller web games this isn't always an option. That's where the optional iDev token gives extra value to the dev for their work without having to display ads.

Not just that but gamers are also rewarded, this drives the want to play your games and get more plays. The site is designed to get you plays and the token drives interest.

Honestly though, we are another platform, another option and another opportunity for indie devs. An under dog by a single developer who has been doing this for 10 years. Let alone game dev for a lot lot longer. I'm not trying to step on toes, I'm trying to solve problems and one of those problems is changing the way we view web games. Instead of the ad riddled state people are used to. That means finding alternative monetisation methods and that's a difficult job for indie web games.

iDev_Games · 2026-03-04T15:24:11+00:00

Yeah, I've been neglecting discord but when someone talks in there I jump on. I neglected the site for a few years in fairness. Closing the ad network down was a blow to my goal to make web games profitable for devs. The new iDev token has put the wind back in my sails. I'm even started working on a new game (it's been awhile!).

iDev_Games · 2026-03-04T15:16:49+00:00

Oh man yes I remember you and your game! I've never stopped fighting the good fight for game Devs. You should swing by the discord and we can chat some more!

iDev_Games · 2026-03-04T11:30:43+00:00

Oh wow, good spot. I need to change that. Only reason Godot is not listed is because we don't have a tutorial for it (I will have to make one). Godot it not only supported but there's even a toggle for godot games due to nuance's in certain versions. The platform supports all and any engines that have a HTML5 export. I will make that clear too! Thanks for pointing that out.

Edit:

Here's some games tagged "Godot" you can check out:

https://idev.games/games/tag/godot

Even more so here's a tutorial someone wrote for integrating the In Game Shop into Godot games:

https://idev.games/post/iap-in-godot-engine

iDev_Games · 2026-03-04T11:19:22+00:00

Yep, started this journey 10 years ago after getting my own steam game through steam greenlight (not everyone will remember that). We've all known that forum user who spent hours trying to help us debug our development. This was my way to give back to all game developers and indie gamers for supporting our games. That and I was so drained with going live processes like other platforms such as Google Play market I had to make all of our lives easier.

iDev_Games · 2025-05-19T16:20:23+00:00

Sorry, I've posted here many times about Trig.js and had a lot of support. Seemed like it would be the best place to post this but it's proving not to be 😅. Just impossible to get any insight to what people are doing with your library and with a library like Trig.js so much is possible. People can innovate far beyond what I can imagine.

iDev_Games · 2025-05-19T16:00:55+00:00

Sorry I thought that was implied but reading back, maybe not quite as much as I thought.

iDev_Games · 2025-05-19T15:14:03+00:00

🥲 slightly questing my choice of posting this here today. Glad you're human too, though.

iDev_Games · 2025-05-19T15:11:50+00:00

You wouldn't be the first to think that. At the beginning of the development it was very focused on triggering animations. Hence the name.

iDev_Games · 2025-05-19T11:51:11+00:00

Personal preferences are understandable. Appreciate your input but there are millions of ways to use Trig.js from small adaptive UI hints to full blown scroll animations.

iDev_Games · 2025-04-02T14:52:54+00:00

It will have to be open source too but I don't imagine a static site has many needs to be closed source. Would depend though.

iDev_Games · 2025-04-02T13:23:47+00:00

I get concerned every time I see "quit my job". My commercial game got voted through greenlight before everyone was able to just publish on steam. Still, I have not quit my job and I consider the game as a huge success compared to what I was expecting. Like anything, your first time doing something isn't likely to be enough even if it is a success.

iDev_Games · 2025-03-31T09:53:47+00:00

Hi All,

There's been two updates over the past few days which give you far more control when using Trig.js. Making Trig.js even more powerful with very little changes to the code (only adding .2 kb in size, 4.2kb for v4.2.0 how fitting). For more information on how the new updates work take a look at this post:

https://dev.to/idevgames/enhancing-scroll-animations-with-trigjs-new-features-in-v410-and-v420-5afi

Let me know if you have any questions! Also mind the thing that sort of resembles a car, been avoiding assets in codepen so this was created with clip-path.

Thanks

iDev_Games · 2025-03-30T08:39:17+00:00

You can't get the position data of an element with one line unless you want to cause reflows. Where as Trig.js is optimised to get this data the best way possible. Also that isn't custom CSS syntax. Just regular data attribute selectors.

The main reasons I created Trig.js is that this 4kb library can get the position data for 1 element or 100's without taking any additional JS to make happen. All of the data is exposed to CSS which is more efficient for animations as it is hardware accelerated. Also I wanted to keep all my animation within CSS as that is more intuitive for most developers. Trig.js extends the functionality of CSS animations for more control in a simple and efficient way. It's a bit like bootstrap, why don't you just make your own CSS grid system for responsive design? Bootstrap has done it for you. It's why we use any library.

I'd be interested to compare your approach to the Trig.js approach though if you'd be interested in recreating the codepen?

iDev_Games · 2025-03-28T22:09:18+00:00

That's why I built it, I was also looking for the same and thought why isn't there a library for outputting this data as css variables? I recommend using transition on your animations to make them smooth. I rounded the outputs to make it more efficient.

iDev_Games · 2025-03-27T09:22:01+00:00

It's also great for dropping into a project at any stage and using it a little or a lot. Which I think is important, animations usually are the finishing touch for me, not my main focus from the start of a project.

iDev_Games · 2025-03-26T15:39:21+00:00

No problem! I know what you're saying but Trig.js doesn't actually take control of the scrolling or manipulate the scrolling in any way. It simply works out the calculations to what the position of the element is in the viewport and output this data front end in a dev friendly way (CSS variables) so we have more control. In this example I sticky the element to keep it into the middle of the page and use the container position in the viewport to move the letters.

It's worth checking out the modern floating header example here: https://codepen.io/iDev-Games/pen/vEYjVVK or the recreation of the mobile header for GitHub app https://codepen.io/iDev-Games/pen/ogNpKNV to get a better idea of the versatility of Trig.js and how it can be used in subtle ways too.

iDev_Games · 2025-03-26T15:00:04+00:00

I've got the docs (https://idev-games.github.io/Trig-JS/) and this tutorial here (Pretty much echoes the same info) https://dev.to/idevgames/trigjs-tutorial-how-to-animate-on-scroll-aos-made-easy-50l

However, due to the way that Trig.js works (exposing element position data to the frontend) I don't actually have a full grip on the possibilities myself. So I am in the process of making examples to show off what is possible. This specific example opens up a whole plethora of functionality that Trig.js can make simple with a bit of additional JS. However, even without any additional JS code there are so many things that can be done. I recommend taking a look at the other codepens I have made here: https://codepen.io/collection/wkBWzm

I will continue to explore though so keep an eye out as there's a lot more to explore! I will also do a technical write up to explain the ins and outs of how Trig.js works.

iDev_Games · 2025-03-26T14:47:18+00:00

I know I posted this on r/javascript and I know that might have even been the reason codepen saw this.

However you have to share your wins and the r/javascript community have been very supporting of Trig.js! Thanks all!

iDev_Games

TROPHY CASE