Heyzap Vies To Become A YouTube For Flash Games (YC W09) | Hacker News Reader

Heyzap Vies To Become A YouTube For Flash Games (YC W09)

techcrunch.com

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Here are a few other links on us. Thanks for the coverage everyone!

http://mashable.com/2009/01/15/heyzap/

http://tinycomb.com/2009/01/15/heyzap-the-longtail-competito...

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/first-impressions-heyzapc...

http://news.gotgame.com/heyzap-the-youtube-side-of-games/236...

Okay, I know I ask a lot of questions (I already asked another one in this thread), but I'm curious: why name it HeyZap? What's the "zap" in reference to?

Congrats a ton on launching, and best of luck to you guys! :-)

Its a fun, cool, memorable, short, unique name. Zap is a small monkey we keep in the office :P

No way. You're pulling my leg. That would be too adorable.

A pygmy marmoset with a joystick would make an awesome mascot. http://uartsjournals.com/2006_sara/wp-content/uploads/2007/0...

I don't usually say this about YC companies, but I'm not impressed - gaining traction to be flash game epicenters Kongregate, CrazyMonkeyGames, and most of all, Newgrounds, is not something I really envision. Do I really need ANOTHER flash game website? Do you REALLY offer something consumers need?

Why would I want to install a widget on my blog for games, honestly? All I want to do is play them, not embed them.

This seems a lot more webmaster / publisher-oriented, while Kongregate seems more (new) developer- and community-oriented. Just compare the Kongregate "About Us" page with HeyZap's front page. Kongregate even has its "Shootorials" which honestly might be more about marketing the site as newcomer-friendly and less about seriously teaching people stuff.

To be honest, I much prefer Kongregate's slant, but that's because I'm much more interested in the developer end of things. However, HeyZap is just starting, so I'm not going to fault it for not having all the bells and whistles Kongregate does. There also might be serious value in the widget model (i.e. HeyZap is not a destination, like Kongregate is) that I'm completely blind to because I personally think that's dumb.

I'm sure we can get that search box in there. It's something we've been planning (we've actually half done that feature :>)

Thanks guys for the support.

Best of luck to you!

I'm curious to hear in your own words, however: what does embedding games do to help a site? As opposed to, say, doing what Kongregate does, and creating a centralized location for games? With video it's different, because videos tend to be shorter and last less time, so posting a video - especially one under 10 minutes in length - makes sense. (Even then, longer videos work better in centralized zones like Hulu or even Vimeo.) Aren't most games long enough that they thrive more from a feeling of centralization and unity of location?

Thanks for your comments unalone,

Embedding games on your site will keep users engaged for longer and give them deeper, more interesting and addictive content.

If the users want to spend longer on a piece of content, they wont opt out just because that piece of content has been embedded.

It's also great for the developers to get their games out to a larger audience.

In general, setting these games free can only be a good thing for game developers, game players and publishers.

Same pitch I heard for Kongregate, so it seems like a good one.

Is Kongregate as focused on the widget aspect? I've always just gone straight to the site.

Already making money - gotta love it. I wonder if there's room in the widget to fit a small box for search.

Immad I'm curious how you plan to compete with Kongregate, et al. What's the value add? One of the things I notice about Kongregate, as a level 16 user (sad, huh?) is that "badges" play a large role for me.

I don't have an infinite amount of time, and I've found that achieving badges has become essential for me to feel like I've "done something". A lot of the Flash games have a variety of levels of engagingness. Spending 20 minutes completing a badge gives me a warm glow even if the game was mediocre and keeps me going back to Kongregate again and again.

Hi sh1mmer,

Kongregate does a great job with concentrating on game developer tools and providing a deeper experience for its users. We don't plan to directly complete with that. We want to let other websites embed games to provide more content for there users.

So imagine if Youtube was massive as a destination website but didn't allow people to embed videos. The analogy is not perfect but fits well to describe the different.

Either way the world of casual gaming is a lot bigger than just what Kongregate does, I am sure we will find a space and hopefully when you want to install games on your websites you know where to come ;-),

Congrats on the press hit Jude and Immad.

I'd suggest adding a mute button to your widget. I like to listen to internet radio while I play flash games, and it annoys me when the game music starts to play. Also some authors seem to partially hide the mute button, so can be somewhat frustrating to mute the sounds in game.

I thought that was what newgrounds.com was.

You can't embed things with Newgrounds. As a side note, I onder why Newgrounds faded out of popularity. Very fun web design, very neat systems for stuff, and yet it was completely ignored as a company.

They've been concentrating on other things, I think. I know Tom Fulp was focusing on first Alien Hominid and then Castle Crashers (which is a really fun game btw). Their PDA game is surprisingly fun as well.

I think they have other things in the works, but it seems like they're moving in the direction of console games, rather than online flash games. But all the same, I figured they still had a ton of traffic.

I figure they must, but I find it odd that I never hear the name pop up on sites like this and Reddit.

Have they made many console games? The only one I knew of was Alien Hominid.

I don't know. Tom bootstrapped newgrounds with his friends, and they're based out in Philly, so I think he never really plugged into the tech world. They've been doing well and profitable, so they might be plugged in elsewhere, perhaps the flash community.

They released "PDA Game" first as a minigame inside of Alient Hominid, and then the sequel as a stand-alone on Xbox Live. They just (i.e. a month or two) released Castle Crashers. I haven't heard of anything else coming from them.

What about supporting the Unity Web Player? http://unity3d.com/

Hi, happy to consider it.

Doesn't that require a separate install? Can you link me to a web playable game?

It does require a separate download of about 3 MB.

Here's one of the Unity demos: http://unity3d.com/gallery/live-demos/tropical-paradise

Here's a game I made (it's a bit slow due to last-minute physics overkill): http://www.tojam.ca/games_2008/office_smash.asp

Love unity3d. We should definitely get in touch with them. Super fast 3d in browser gaming.

and one in french!

http://www.accessoweb.com/HeyZap-Le-Youtube-des-jeux-en-flas...

the techcrunch comments are strangely positive, either you must be doing something good or techcrunch started moderating comments better :)

Even a blind squirrel... :)

i've been waiting for this. congrats on the launch, guys.

Frankly, Kongregate seems better.

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