Broken Bulb Launches Appstrip to Help Smaller Games Grow

Since Facebook scaled back the visibility of apps in users' news feeds earlier this year, advertising has become the core of some social gaming companies. But ads have become expensive, and small developers are looking for new ways to get ahead. The latest, created by game developer Broken Bulb Studios, is called Appstrip. Appstrip is a cross-promotion bar that a developer can attach to their game. Within the bar are links to games by other small developers, creating an artificial version of the game networks large publishers like Zynga can create on their own. Some cross-promotion bars are sometimes run by marketers for profit, but a recently created free network called Applifier, created by a group of developers, has taken hold. Applifier is the template for Broken Bulb, which already exposes its 3.5 million monthly active users to the network. On Applifier, clicks to a link on the bar are a straightforward trade -- if a player of my game clicks on your game's icon, I get a click back from elsewhere on the network. The model works well, according to Broken Bulb CEO Robert Nelson, but a variation might do even better: namely, Appstrip. In Appstrip, the network takes a 10 percent "commission" on each click. [Update: Applifier takes a commission too; more on this tomorrow.] That means that if you send other games 100 clicks, you only get 90 back. The extra 10 percent will go to a pool that's sold to bidders who want more traffic. Nelson says the charge isn't for Broken Bulb to make money -- he doesn't think there's any chance that Appstrip will ever make enough to compete with the company's games. Instead, the pool will serve as an alternative to buying advertising for small games that want to grow, but aren't sending out enough clicks to get any back. (At the moment, small developers might not even be able to get on Applifier, as the network is invite-only.) Companies with established games might also want to spend more to grow faster. The cost per install from paid Appstrip traffic will always remain lower than ads, says Nelson, although it may have to be raised if clicks sell out too quickly. ""Because we've spent so much time buying traffic from Facebook, we know what's fair. We're not going to add a premium just because they're in high demand. We'll sell out [of clicks] before we do that," Nelson says. From the earnings, most of the money will go toward development of analytics tools for users and work to keep Appstrip stable and running at all times, something that Nelson says hasn't always been the case for Applifier. It's still early days for efforts like Applifier and Appstrip, but these networks will likely become increasingly important for developers this year. Big companies like Zynga, Disney (the new owner of Playdom), and Electronic Arts can easily bid up the price of ads beyond what smaller developers can pay for -- and there aren't any other easy avenues for growth. For now, Nelson is hoping that Applifier won't see Appstrip as competitive. He certainly doesn't; for now, Broken Bulbs' games will run with both Applifier and Appstrip's promotion bars.

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Broken Bulb Launches Appstrip to Help Smaller Games Grow

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