We're Kongregate, and we're celebrating 10 years of being a gaming community! Ask us anything!

Is there any rivalry between you and other flash game sites (e.g. armor games, newgrounds)?

I'd say so! It's good to have competition, since it pushes us to keep on doing better than we did in the past. It's not TOO bitter of a rivalry, though, as we often see our sponsored games on AG/NG, as well as their games on our site.

Hi, I am a Flash game developer who has submitted a few games to your site. I've noticed that a specific game of mine, Elephant Rave HD, has failed to receive badges for over 3 years now. Given the score threshold and nearly unanimous support of the title, I was wondering when that was going to happen?

http://www.kongregate.com/games/jmtb02/elephant-rave-hd

If its any help, I work at Kongregate a few feet from you, and, I like elephants.

Given the score threshold and nearly unanimous support of the title, I was wondering when that was going to happen?

Thank you for submitting your badge idea to Kongregate. We do see that people seem to enjoy the game, but we're going to have to pass for now, as Greg has other games on his plate right now. We appreciate you taking the time to write to us, though, and we hope that you continue to let us know about the great work that you're doing!

Also hi John I'm waving at you right now.

P.S. emojis plz

Hello Kongregate! I am a long-time user of the site, I really really have enjoyed the hours and days of playing games on your website, and I still continue to use it. There's something that I have been wondering for over a year now, and I can actually ask it now!

Because of a lot of flash-like games being published on Steam for 99 cents, I was wondering, even though these games cost money, has it impacted your traffic on the website at all? I know some of the games on Steam also go up on your site and I'm sure you guys still get a lot of users, but have you noticed a decline at all since Steam has decided to add more flash-like games?

That's just something that I've been wondering for quite a while, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask it! Also thank you for your amazing website, it has brought me much joy. Including the cute little Kongpanions. I'm also wondering, I guess I have a second question too.. (sorry! heheh)

Do you have a team of artists who work on the Kongpanions or just one or two people? Do you guys spend much time planning them, or do you just churn them out? Also curious if you guys ever worry about running out of ideas for Kongpanions since they come out weekly (This weeks Bat is so cute!) Also, since they come out weekly do you guys ever have trouble meeting the deadline?

Thanks so much for your time, and thank you for your wonderful website! Also thanks for reading if you got this far, sorry for too many questions!

Because of a lot of flash-like games being published on Steam for 99 cents, I was wondering, even though these games cost money, has it impacted your traffic on the website at all? I know some of the games on Steam also go up on your site and I'm sure you guys still get a lot of users, but have you noticed a decline at all since Steam has decided to add more flash-like games?

I think a lot of things have competed with us for traffic, but I don't anticipate paid "flash-like" games being a large part of that. Paid game volume is always substantially-lower than free game, even if the revenue is similar. You can see this with top of the charts in paid and free games on mobile as well. I think the audience looking for a bunch of small, free games isn't going to be heavily swayed by being able to pay for a few smaller games on Steam. While I'm sure there's some cross-over, I wouldn't attribute a large shift in traffic from that specific case.

Do you have a team of artists who work on the Kongpanions or just one or two people? Do you guys spend much time planning them, or do you just churn them out? Also curious if you guys ever worry about running out of ideas for Kongpanions since they come out weekly (This weeks Bat is so cute!) Also, since they come out weekly do you guys ever have trouble meeting the deadline?

It's just one or two! The Kongpanions are mostly designed by Jimp with assistance and coordination from jmtb02. Jimp has a huge backlog of Kongpanions waiting to be released, and John (jmtb02) decides when to release each one. The rest of the Kongregate staff name the Kongpanions and invent their descriptions a couple days before they launch. I (IAmTheCandyman) named the bat, Plum! :D

What inspired you guys to create the chat for Kongregate? Do you have any regrets from making the website?

What inspired you guys to create the chat for Kongregate?

Jim Greer, one of our co-founders, was the tech director at Pogo before founding Kongregate, which featured chat and badges next to very casual games, like solitaire and bingo. He was really impressed by the depth of community that formed on Pogo, how features like chat, badges, and profiles helped to bring people together while playing single-player games, and brought all of those inspirations to Kongregate.

Oh man has your site kept me entertained when I was dirt poor and could not afford any games. Also got me through when I was in the hospital for a month.

My question is, is the idle game craze still going strong or is it finally subsiding?

Glad to hear we could be there for you! I love to get stories from people that we helped through a tough time. :)

My question is, is the idle game craze still going strong or is it finally subsiding?

Sure is! Developers are still submitting a ton of really great and innovative idle games to our site, though the vast majority of submission are not actually idle games. But people love them and people keep playing them! :)

STABBY WHEN?

Never!

...Probably.

I've had a Kongregate account since like 2008, and I've seen tons of changes to the site and types of games on it (some good, some bad).

My biggest issue nowadays is that I find Kongregate overrun with idle games. I enjoy upgrade-oriented games, but every time I find a new one, it ends up being another idle game. Any comment on the prevalence and popularity of these idle games? A good example would be Clicker Heroes.

We answered a similar question elsewhere, actually, but a quick summary is that there are a ton of idle games right now because that's where we're seeing a lot of innovation and creativity. We used to be the place where Tower Defense games got huge, and now that's cooled down to a more "normal" level, so I imagine idle games will eventually do the same. :)

I've been a Kong user since 2013 and I've met a lot of great people through the site. Happy 10th everyone!

Are you guys starting to move away from Flash stuff and focus more on mobile? I saw your recent game on steam, are you planning on branching out into any other areas? What else do you see in Kongregate's future?

Thank you!

Are you guys starting to move away from Flash stuff and focus more on mobile? I saw your recent game on steam, are you planning on branching out into any other areas? What else do you see in Kongregate's future?

Mobile and Steam are our current focuses, though we're certainly not giving up on web developers or users! It does seem like browsers are moving away from Flash and we allowed Unity games for a time, but that's slowly getting deprecated as well. We've been open to WebGL and HTML5 for awhile now, and are continuing to look for new relevant technologies to support.

What are you wearing?

Khakis, for I am Jake from State Farm.

Just kidding. Jeans and a t-shirt, like I do every day!

Doesn't it ever get cold?

I live in the Bay Area now, and am from Wisconsin. These SF people don't know the meaning of the word "cold".

Ayy! Shoutout from Milwaukee! Nobody knows the struggle, NOBODY.

Milwaukee here too! WOO!

Whats on the t shirt?

It's pandas dressed up as The Avengers!

http://i.imgur.com/hbqbFnE.jpg

Which game on the website would you say is Kongregate's best attraction?

In the past, Desktop Tower Defense, Gemcraft, and Cursed Treasure were huge attractions. We were one of the big places to find tower defense games for awhile there. Now multiplayer games are getting big, like Contract Wars or Supermechs. There are also tons of idle games these days, as well as indie developer successes like Fleeing the Complex and Learn to Fly.

Question from BrainpanSonata as he doesn't use reddit

Does Kongregate have any plans to promote alternatives for Flash among devs?

We are indeed! We supported Unity Webplayer, though that's now slowly fading. We actively support WebGL and HTML5 natively, as well as other formats through iFrames, like a couple of Java games. If you have suggestions for new tech, feel free to email our support team, who passes those suggestions to the right people :)

A few questions:

• How do you feel about game-based chat effectively killing off many of the smaller room communities?

• Will Sonny 3 ever happen?

• What does Greg smell like?

How do you feel about game-based chat effectively killing off many of the smaller room communities?

Actually, game chat isn't the reason for that decline, though I can certainly understand why you might think so! There's been a general decline in chat on our web platform, in both game chats and room chats, so it wasn't actually game chat that caused that. It's partly an increased developer focus on platforms like mobile and downloadables, as well as the uncertainty revolving around Flash and Unity technologies.

Will Sonny 3 ever happen?

If it does, it's not in our hands! That's an Armor Games question.

What does Greg smell like?

Greg says it depends on how recently he's rolled in mud, but I say it's sunshine, puppies, and chocolate.

Are there any plans to revamp any parts of the site? I still miss the old way badges were displayed in the old user profiles.

Our design team is always working to improve the site experience for our users. I remember that old badge browser, and it was neat to see all of them out there, but I think the design team also felt it looked cluttered. You can get a full version of your badge feed if you click your badge count on your profile, though!

What is Ducklette doing nowadays? Missing her and the old Feed the Ducks!

She left the company almost exactly three years ago to become a veterinary technician full-time. So she's spending all her time with adorable animals!

Do you have any plans to improve discovery? To better suggest games to specific players, that should interest them?

It's always challenging to get a robot to recommend things that a real human would like, but we're always working on improving our systems to the best of our ability. Part of that system relies on players rating games truthfully, so make sure to rate games that you do and do not like in order to help the bot make better and better picks. :)

When will you be opening your London offices? I need a software engineering job and I don't fancy relocating to America at the moment. IAmTheCandyman promised to put it onto the to-do-list, but I've heard nothing about it since then.

I did put it on the to-do list. It's just somewhat far down that to-do list. Sorry!

How much time does the average admin spend on actually using Kongregate in their spare time in a week?

Average admin is relatively low, because different admins do different things. As one of Kongregate's community managers, I've been on the site for over eight years now, and am still involved in the community. You'll find me on occasional weekends earning up all my Badges of the Day in advance.

In advance! CHEATER FUCKING CHEATER!

What? I only mean getting the ones for the current week. D:

I can see how that was confusing though!

I'm going to have some Papa Johns pizza to celebrate Halloween. What side should I order? Garlic knots or garlic pizza sticks?

Gonna have to go garlic pizza sticks, because I find the garlic knots a little chewy. But hey, why not both?

I love some of your mobile games, especially Tinker Island.

What kind of process do you go through to produce these games and how do you decide which games to publish? Any plans for new ones you can share?

What kind of process do you go through to produce these games and how do you decide which games to publish?

Deciding which games to publish is a group effort. Every new game we find that we’re interested in goes through a rigorous review process, and the Kongregate team has to agree that it makes sense to work on the project. Generally, we’re looking for great developers, and not just great games so we can potentially setup a longterm working relationship with teams all over the world.

From the production-specific standpoint, we help each game and each developer in different ways, depending on their needs. Our goal is to not get in the way of a team’s vision, and really just help them avoid pitfalls we’ve seen elsewhere, and ideally stay on schedule for a timely launch. Our goal is to share knowledge and help developers learn and grow from data and situations we’ve seen elsewhere.

Any plans for new ones you can share?

We have about 10 new games in different stages of development on the way, but don’t want to say too much more just yet. We DO have an upcoming Peter Molyneux game called The Trail, which you can pre-register for on Google Play. It'll be on iOS as well, there just isn't a pre-registration for the game there. We're also going to be launching the latest Burrito Bison game, Launcha Libre, on mobile soon. You can play it on web if you're impatient. ;)

Have any admins reached level 65 yet? You're close, so if not, you could be the first!

Not yet! I'm at 63 myself, but I don't think I'll make it any time soon. :(

Hey there! Longtime Kong user myself. I've got a lot of fond memories of a lot of different games published there.

My questions:

It seems like Kongregate's been flooded by idle games lately. I'm not necessarily opposed to those, but it seems to have crowded out a lot of other game archetypes. Why do you think that is?

And related to that, do you do anything to encourage development of a variety of games? Or more generally, nudge developers towards particular sorts of games?

It seems like Kongregate's been flooded by idle games lately. I'm not necessarily opposed to those, but it seems to have crowded out a lot of other game archetypes. Why do you think that is?

We're seeing a lot of Idle games because that's where a ton of innovation in gameplay is coming from. Its basically a new genre and set of mechanics that can be applied to many other genres. These don't come around often and developers are really excited to cut their teeth on emerging design.

And related to that, do you do anything to encourage development of a variety of games? Or more generally, nudge developers towards particular sorts of games?

Kongregate Launchpad is our publishing wing for experimental design. We ask developers to really consider how to make games different than what's out there, by looking for innovation in genre or even paving the way for new ones. We want to support developers doing awesome stuff, because success (and failure) needs to happen for games to evolve.

Hey team! I am really happy with what is being done for the 10 year anniversary. A lot of cool events, including this one!

My questions are: What is your favorite little-known game on the site? What point in the site's career led you to know it would be this huge? What was the closest the site came to ever shutting down?

Please answer questions in this format for everybody.

Question

Answer

Question

Answer

What is your favorite little-known game on the site?

We have lots of favorites, but for the person answering this AMA (Community Manager IAmTheCandyman), my favorite little game is You Have To Burn The Rope. It's simple and fun, and has a great little song at the end!

Other answers from the team include Reeelz, a sort of combination between a slot machine and Yahtzee, Aisleen, a game submitted to our first game jam, which tells the story of an artist fighting through their self-doubt to improve their work, and Icycle, a game about a little naked man biking through a frozen apocalypse.

We'll work on answering more of this soon :)

I ended up downloading the .mp3 of "You have to burn the rope" years ago. It occasionally shuffles on my computer and forces me to load up kongregate just to kill the colossal

Same! I also have the song from Music Catch (Isaac Shepard's "Before Dawn) come up on my mix sometimes.

You guys have saved me from hours of boring work in high school. My question is, "What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs while at the same time remaining environmentally friendly and minimizing job layoffs?"

What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs while at the same time remaining environmentally friendly and minimizing job layoffs?

I think the best plan is going to be to make red sweaters from organically fed sheep's wool for everyone, reducing our heating costs and helping us meet our energy requirements. The need for more sweaters will also create more knitting jobs, a tragically underrepresented occupation in this modern world.

Hey Kongregate! Long time user here, do you guys ever think you'd imply a way to change your user name? I've been around since I was about 9 (I'm 18 now) and I'd really like to change my name. Thanks for being so great over the years!

Since you were 9? UNDERAGE! BAN BAN BAN!

Just kidding. We generally don't allow name changes, though we do make occasional exceptions for security reasons, like if someone used their real name or phone number (that actually happened once) as a username.

If you think you have a good case for it, though, feel free to email our support team at [email protected], and they might be able to help you out.

When will the last "present" in the 10th anniversary open?

I mean I know it's today but when a few hours? was there a delay?

It'll be later today, probably this afternoon! We're still putting the finishing touches on it.

Other than the charity stream, are any more Kongregate Live events planned any time soon? I especially enjoyed the Jimp livestreams.

We did recently have a trivia livestream with a group prize, and unfortunately, jmtb02 has been too busy to host live events, but we're working on trying to find new people to host new events!

Hey! What's the story behind the site's name?

"Kongregate" was one of the names we were originally workshopping, and it really grew on us. It's really about bringing people together!

This is also relevant to why our mascot is an ant. Ants congregate, and work together, because teamwork makes the dream work.

[deleted]

I don't know if we'll be able to! That game is a little beyond its reasonable lifetime, and we no longer have the in-house resources dedicated to developing it further. Rest assured, we're taking a long and hard look at Kongai's future as it provided everyone with some great memories!

A question what is the point system and level for?

At present, the entire system is for bragging rights! The more points you get, the higher your level. The higher your level, the better you (probably) are at games! You can read a little more here. :)

Hello Kongregate! I used to love your website as a kid a lot. So much so that I learned how to hack some of the games and get those tasty rewards. I thought it was so cool that I made videos about it teaching people to do the same but always remembering to use it to get the badges only, and not highscores.

Sorry about that. Anyway, my question is, have you guys ever dealt with a funny situation on customer service email thing?

Anyway, my question is, have you guys ever dealt with a funny situation on customer service email thing?

Not exactly a customer service email, but I once had a kid threaten me by telling me that his dad had REAL Pokemon and would be coming to my house to beat me up! In case you were wondering, I have not been assaulted by a Machamp.

Is Corporation Inc. 2 being worked on?

That's actually an Armor Games game, so you'd have to ask them that!

I used to play your games on browser a long time ago, but can't remember which ones.l. Did you guys have that asteroid like game? I loved it and I can't remember if it was yours.

That one doesn't sound familiar to me, but we do have a thread where people can try to describe games and figure out what the games were called. It's surprisingly successful!

Oh man, I'm on time for an AMA I care about! i used Kongregate all through highschool and anytime I buy a game on my phone that has your image, I know it was a good investment. Thank you guys for all your work.

My question is, can you guys promote developers to release their games on iOS more often? You guys have the best games and a great community, I would love to see it flourish more.

Also, favorite cereals?

My question is, can you guys promote developers to release their games on iOS more often? You guys have the best games and a great community, I would love to see it flourish more.

All of our published games have been released on both Android and iOS so far, and we intend to continue along that path! I'm not sure how we could encourage developers that we don't directly work with to publish to iOS, since they're making the decisions that are best for them as a developer. :)

Also, favorite cereals?

Obviously Quaker Oatmeal Squares are the BEST cereal, as confirmed by me and at least two other people in the office. Others are also telling me they love Rice Krispies Treats cereal, Honey Bunches of Oats (with almonds, of course), Cocoa Pebbles, and various flavors of Chex.

Hi Kongregate: will you ever make a version of kdice? Love that game but hate the community. We need a dice battle strategy game run by kongregate!

Will you ever make a version of kdice?

We actually don't "make" most of the games on our site. We work with developers who upload their games to our site. Just wanted to be clear on that point.

I don't think we have anything planned like that, but there are some Risk-ish games on our site like Warlight!

Approximetley how many people work full time for the website?

We have roughly 75 employees on staff across all kinds of teams. Community, design, production, engineering, QA, business development, marketing...

have you cut the rope?

I have cut, sliced, and snipped the rope! I have so many stars.

Are you guys hiring? ;)

Always! You can find our open jobs here.

What are the admins dressing up as for Halloween?

All sorts of things! We have a Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill, Officer Jenny from Pokemon, eggs and bacon, and Linda Belcher from Bob's Burgers, with other costumes to reveal themselves at our Halloween party later today.

Our whole Portland office have dressed up as the Wormy Army, after a beloved contest entry we got last year. Here's one of the Wormy Army, gazing out over the beauty of an Oregon autumn.

Someone even dressed up as a character from our upcoming Peter Molyneux game The Trail!

What are your highest rounds on Bloons Tower Defense?

I've made it up to round 105 on the Brick Wall map, but then things start to slow down and make it harder to play, so that's the best I've done!

Can you stop emailing me?

We can! There are options in your Kongregate account to unsubscribe from our emails, but if you need help, feel free to email [email protected] :)

What should I play on Kongregate right now?

What should I play on Kongregate right now?

I always direct people to my favorites list where you'll find action games like Doeo and You Have To Burn The Rope and Solipskier alongside story-based games like The Journey Home or Pheus and Mor or ImmorTall, as well as silly games like Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar, which is exactly what it sounds like.

What do you think of Gamestop?

This is going to sound like the cheesy corporate line, but really, they've been great. Despite what plenty of people imagine, we still have full control of everything that happens in the day-to-day, so we still get to do what we think is best for Kongregate as a whole. :)

Whats your best memories from running Kongregate over the past 10 years?

There's a ton of them! One of my favorites was when the Village People stopped by to use our office as a green room before a performance nearby. They even played a few rounds of Pacman Battle Royale with us! Others in the office are pointing out that they loved partying hard after we got acquired, playing games with their children while sick and otherwise unable to interact with each other, and just generally knowing that we are providing some games that people are using to get through a tough time.

You guys just made me sign into my old Kongregate account. I can't believe I still remembered it! You guys pushed me though my childhood and teen years with your achievements. Achievements were a great way to get me playing games on your website. I still remember the old days of playing Tyrant and platform runners EVERYDAY for months. I will definitely tune into your extra life stream. Any chances you will be releasing more mobile games anytime soon? I believe its the best platform for you guys to expand more into.

I will definitely tune into your extra life stream.

We appreciate the support!

Any chances you will be releasing more mobile games anytime soon?

Definitely! We're continuing to release mobile games as time goes on. It takes time to get them together, but we want people to have the best experience in our games, so we work hard to polish them. We have Animation Throwdown out right now, as well as The Trail (a Peter Molyneux game) and Burrito Bison: Launcha Libre coming soon.

Hey ive been with you guys since 2009 and have loved every single day. I was wondering are you guys planning to make your own idle game considering how popular they have become in the last few years?If yes by when could we be getting it?

I was wondering are you guys planning to make your own idle game considering how popular they have become in the last few years?

Actually, we published an idle game a few months ago under the Kongregate name called Pocket Politics (very topical considering this election cycle) on Android and iOS! Idle games are still an emerging genre, so don't be surprised if this one isn't our last.

How deep does adventure capitalist go in terms of number of zeros?

Theoretically, you can reach over 100 uncentillion, which would be up to 308 zeros!

Hi Kongregate, will there be mobile versions of the Sonny games? Also, what happened to the Kongregate app on Android?

If there were, it wouldn't be our decision! Those were made by Armor Games, not us. :(

How do you feel about gaming addiction? I love your site and sometimes go through major bouts of regular play, but eventually find myself in a place where I ask my account to be suspended just to get out of an unhealthy spiral--usually at least 6 months before I'm ready again. It's been at least 3 cycles of this, but knowing K has a trapdoor out really helps. Are there other organized addiction efforts you take part in?

How do you feel about gaming addiction?

There are a lot of things out there, including games, that people can become addicted to. I know I've personally spent plenty of time (especially while in college) playing games when I should have been studying, and it can be a hard one to get away from. While we can't make the decision for anyone, I personally make sure that I help anyone block their account if they feel like they need our help in focusing their efforts elsewhere. :)

One of my favorite games on your site is pandemic 2. I was shocked to see a very similar game released on steam and various appstores. Why would people pay for a game that you have had for free for many years? Has this affected you in any way?

We answered a similar question here, but the basic answer is that it hasn't affected us in a significant way. The group of people looking for free games is always bigger than those looking for paid games.

Which sites are your rivals/competitors?

Honestly, the longer we've all existed, the more we've bonded as #teambrowsergames. Like we mentioned elsewhere, it's a mostly friendly rivalry. I sent Tom Fulp of Newgrounds a pair of Kongregate sunglasses (and a t-shirt and stickers) as a prize for coming up with the name "Korrigate" for our cardboard box Kongpanion, and he apparently now wears them whenever he goes for a drive!

https://twitter.com/TomFulp/status/698885213166968832

1. What's the most popular game in the site's history?

2. Which is your favourite classic game from back in the day when Flash games were huge around the mid-2000s?

What's the most popular game in the site's history?

That would arguably be Dawn of the Dragons with over 73 million plays ever since it was uploaded in 2012.

Which is your favourite classic game from back in the day when Flash games were huge around the mid-2000s?

I'm going to guess this question is looking for a game that isn't on Kongregate, so I'm going to have to go with Defend Your Castle, that game about stopping an invasion of rampaging stick men by picking them up and flinging them into the air so that they land and splatter on the ground!

What is the worst game you have hosted on your site?

It would be pretty unfair to call out a developer's hard work as "the worst", so we're not going to do that.

Does Kongregate have plans to venture into any other areas? I miss the collabs section. Kongregate's journey into the world of mobile publishing seems to be going well.

We're always looking forward to what's going to happen next! I don't think we're planning to bring back the Collabs, as they were a seriously underused function of the site.