Publishing your game on GX.games is super easy. It gives you a platform where millions of gamers can play your games, but it may take some effort to reach those potential players.
Here are some best practices to ensure your game is noticed on GX.games:
Brief Overview
Cover Art
The cover art is what the user primarily sees in GX.games listings. They're usually faced with 8-16 game tiles at once (depending on their device), so it's important to make yours stand out.
Use colours that pop, and make the focal point of your thumbnail appealing to the user: this can be the name of your game, your main character, the villain, or a particular item of interest.
You can also make your cover art an animated GIF, since movement catches people's eyes far more easily, and gives them a brief glimpse into your game.
We'll go into a little more detail in the Cover Art section at the bottom of this tutorial.
Title
Write a brief title that describes what your game is about. On GX.games, this isn't something users see at a quick glance: your title is actually hidden until the user hovers on your game icon, so make that mouse movement count, and use a title that makes the user want to play your game.
If your game's name is "Almondland", make your title "Almondland: Food-based RPG", as it describes exactly what your game is about.
However, don't make your title too long just for the sake of it. It should be brief and quickly readable, ensuring you have less words that mean more, rather than the other way around.
Alternatively, your title can simply be the name of your game if your cover art doesn't include it.
Gallery
Your gallery can contain images and videos and is visible on your game page. Use this chance to tease the user with varied content from your game, such as screenshots of various levels, abilities, and action sequences.
Include videos to show players how your game plays, and tell players more about your game through trailers and informative guide videos.
Description
Use the description to explain what your game is about and how it can be played. However, don't rely solely on the description to deliver important information to users. This is displayed near the bottom of the page, which most players won't even read if they jump directly into the game.
Make sure that your game contains all the information relevant to your gameplay, such as the controls, context, and anything else that the user should know so they can get the best experience out of your game.
This is expanded upon in the Description section below.
Add Challenges
You can create Challenges for your game, which are featured separately on GX.games and give your game a chance to get higher visibility.
Each challenge gives the player a chance to earn a special score in your game and get themselves ranked on a public leaderboard among other players.
When your game is being played, all challenges for it are displayed on the side along with the top scorer, motivating other players to compete and get a better score:
You can check out our dedicated Challenges tutorial for more information on how to make the perfect challenges.
Description
What does it mean for a description to be “intriguing”? If you’re worried that your writing abilities might not be as good as your game development skill, don’t worry! Let’s instead focus on what makes a “good” description:
Short length
Tidiness
Contents.
Short length
Just a few sentences are enough to pitch your game to a potential player. A long paragraph going over your plot is unlikely to win you any favours, so try to keep the description short and sweet.
Tidiness
Proper capitalisation, punctuation, and grammar might not immediately win you players over, but their absence is sure to keep people at bay. Always make sure that your game description meets the grammatical standards you'd expect of anyone else, and if you’re not a native speaker or suffer from dyslexia, use external tools, which will check the text for you.
Contents
Take some time to think about what you want your description to express. Here are two examples of different descriptions:
Two player co-op spooky adventure game about saving two magical kitties from the evil hands of a pumpkin monster! (Meow at the Pumpkin Moon)
A unique "twist" on the classic block stacking puzzle game. (Quaterneo)
In both cases, the authors clearly stated what the player can expect (“Two player co-op adventure game” and “block stacking puzzle game”), and added a fun bit, which is supposed to convince the player to pick the game up (“saving two magical kitties from the evil hands of a pumpkin monster” and “a unique "twist" on the classic”). Both of them follow this simple formula:
[The type of game, with some technical details] + [What makes the game special] = Description
Example: Play as a brave firefighter in this classic platformer jumper game. How high can you jump? (Firejump).
Cover Art: Home Page Requirements
In order to create a consistent, attractive, and readable homepage for GX.games, there are some image requirements, which apply to games featured in the following sections:
Recommended by us
Games the community is playing
Newest game releases.
Ratios
One static image or animated GIF in the ratio of 4:3, and another in the ratio of 16:9.
Format
Acceptable image formats are: JPG, PNG and GIF.
Quality
The image itself should be a good representation of your game. It cannot contain imagery that's commonly perceived as offensive or that in any way breaches our Terms of Service.
How to increase the chance of your game being featured on the homepage:
Toroom by Gagonfe studio - example of a good cover image
The cover image of your game will decide on the player’s first impression. Make sure it’s good quality and shows what the game is about.
The cover image shouldn’t be too dark - use colours where possible to help you capture the player's attention.
The cover image should feature the name of your game.
Use the option to display GIFs to make your game stand out.
The cover image shouldn’t be too complex - on the site, it'll be quite small, so finer details won’t be noticeable.