Casual games may see a vast amount of traffic, but monetizing them can be more than a little tricky due to issues relating to Flash-based game files and the needs of various publishers. Israeli startup TicTacTi is looking to make monetizing casual games more efficient, by using image recognition to insert ads into casual gaming widgets.
The biggest obstacle in providing In-Game Advertising (IGA) typically involves getting the actual ad into the game. Games, which are typically in Flash SWF format, require distribution by a publisher, which can be anything from an Oberon, to a HeyZap, to an online edition of a newspaper. Each publisher has its own quirks and demands when it comes to monetization—one wants to advertise pre-game, the other post, and the third between levels. And this is where the crux of the problem lies—all of these quirks require alternate versions of the game source for the various publishers and advertisers.
TicTacTi realizes that requiring developers to integrate with multiple SDK’s to facilitate the embedding of ads is not scalable, so it developed a semi-manual method that at least takes the SDK integration out of the equation.
Each game has to be set up by TicTacTi, a process the company estimates at about one to two hours per game. The actual game source code is not required which means that games can by encrypted—an important point for game developers. It’s here that TicTacTi “marks” events in games where ads could be placed. For example, a game could be marked in such a way that when the “Loading” prompt is visible, it would initiate a pre-roll ad marker, and when the “Game Over” prompt is visible, it would initiate a post-roll marker.
TicTacTi’s image recognition engine seeks these visual events in order to trigger the ad insertion. If the game source already includes TicTacTi’s IGA logo marker (see right), the game preparation stage can be skipped altogether because the image recognition engine will identify it automatically.
The image recognition is performed entirely client-side with ActionScript. The patent-pending technology involves a mechanism that combines image recognition throttling and emulation. This means that it is activated for small segments of time so as not to impose a cost on the user’s CPU. TicTacTi’s own testing revealed CPU usage remains the same for the entire game duration.
In order to embed the game, the publisher would call TicTacTi’s wrapper, which would in return load the game, along with additional elements. These include the ones that drive the image recognition, the ad insertion component and the reporting to the backend.
Standard ad units and tags are supported so ads inserted into the Flash games can originate from ad exchanges such as Right Media, Double Click, or the publisher’s own ad server. TicTacTi will charge a varied commission for the service.
Embedded below are a widget utilizing TicTacTi’s technology and a video demo of the service.
TicTacTi renders flash movies unplayable when Ad blocker plus is enabled
https://addons....efox/addon/1865
616,321 weekly downloads
43,067,639 total downloads
43 million installs == fail for this tech ??
Most people that are no longer able to play the game will simply navigate to a site where they can play the games.
Hi Chris,
I have installed this Add-on and played the game, it worked seamless showing both the game and the ads
My guess is that problem is somewhere else, please feel free to contact our support team: support [at] tictacti-inc.com
Cheers, Nir, TicTacTi CTO.
If you’re using localized adverts, then the advertisement string for you in ISRAEL may be different than what I get in the US, and Ad blocker may be blocking based on that.
As a developer you will need to test that by connecting yourself to an American VPN, then trying to load your flash movie with ad blocker pro installed.
Well, it seems pretty harsh to induce that it’s a general problem because you couldn’t get it to work.
Nice job TicTacTi – it’s great to see innovation in the field. Your adwrapping technology may do the same for casual games as Greystripe’s did for mobile games – giving indie developers a way to monetize.
Agree. It has always been a pain point to identify locations in a game (or a website or application or PDFs) which can be used for ads so that these attract users but without obstructing them. These ads look more like popups in early web days which would make you swear not to visit the site again!
I have also installed Add-ons, but I can’t play game. I will try again.
Thanks for nice Video!
Brilliant! As a loooong time Flash developer I can see huge potential in this. I love the fact that you seem to be able to publish your game to various social networks right from tictacti’s system (if I understand the video above correctly). I know of a lot of Flash guys that would see real value in a service like this.
I give a shot that embedded game and I think that inspire me to installed it to my site,and if this publisher is paid to game format that is easy to get visitor,but what is most of demographic player in my site is 10 years old student that has no power to but and what if my demographic is from the third country ,still that good idea to there publisher
I think the answer to your question might be yes – it would still have value to advertisers. Although your user demographic may be young kids I doubt that the embedded ad delivery system would really be able to tell the difference between a 10 year old and a 30 year old.
You would also be surprised at who actually plays your games. I used to manage one of Australia’s busiest kids sites which was filled with Flash games – I can’t tell you how many times I met adults who were very familiar with all of the games on our site.
Simple elegant and smart, it is the new economy in its best.
We’ll done Tictacti, applause
Tim
Seems like a sure fire way to cook your cpu. They are taking a bitmap capture of the screen then preforming image recognition on it over and over again. Games need all the CPU they can get, this is likely to lead to poor performance and pissed off gamers.
“The image recognition is performed entirely client-side with ActionScript. The patent-pending technology involves a mechanism that combines image recognition throttling and emulation. This means that it is activated for small segments of time so as not to impose a cost on the user’s CPU. TicTacTi’s own testing revealed CPU usage remains the same for the entire game duration.”
Hi Luke
Through the game period we are in idle mode not disturbing the player experience
We are using techniques of throttling and client emulation, meaning that the actual image recognition process is done in intervals and for splits of a second
Already tested on dozens of games, minor effect on the CPU usage
Cheers, Nir, TicTacTi CTO
We at Ybrant are testing that solution, still in a very small scale, we offered that solution as part of our package to publishers and the responses so far are very positive. The key is the basic need of many publishers in “Free Content”, that content even come with an extra bonus of keeping longer the user on the site
Jacob thanks for your comment,
I agree with you, we got requests from publisher asking for “Free Content” to monetize
That is one of the reasons we launched our widget site
This will also help publisher both to increase site stickiness and boost viral distribution by our built in Distribution Manager
Cheers, Nir
Hi
Cool Tech…
Good Luck
Xman
Great innovations by the TTT team, keep up the impressive work!
Wow!!
It seems like finally someone is thinking on the right tracks in means of games monetization
Google, you should learn and listen…..
We at Portalium believes that the company is well situated for a home run
What a revolutionary way to put ads into games. I went to their site and there are other types of video ad overlays that seem to be leaps and bounds above the competition. Way to go TicTacTi to make this simple!
you guys are getting better by the minute.
great innovative work!
Great product, amazing team, keep TicTacTing, I will follow closely and be glad to introduce more angels Eyal!
Great product, amazing team!!!!!