I have been making games for around 6 years now.
Across mobile, web and other platforms, I have probably built 120+ prototypes.
The funny part?
The first 100 barely made me any money.
The next 20 or so got much closer to 6 figures in revenue.
Some examples:
700,000+ ratings!
- Watermelon/Suika variation — 65M+ players
GOTY Winner!
My ability to make games did not suddenly become 10× better.
What changed was that I finally understood distribution.
Instead of publishing a game somewhere and hoping people magically found it, I started working with web-game platforms that already had millions of players.
Platforms like CrazyGames get millions of players every month
Platforms like CrazyGames get millions of players every month
Think CrazyGames, Coolmath Games, GameDistribution, Poki, YouTube Playables and similar portals.
They already have the audience. Millions of players visit these websites every month.
Your job is to build something their audience wants to play.
Building the game is the easy part now
Coming up with game ideas does not always come naturally to me.
Usually, I start by scouting mobile stores and web-game portals to see what people are already playing.
I look at games with lots of ratings, play a few of them and try to understand:
- What is the core mechanic?
- Why does it feel satisfying?
- How quickly can you understand the game?
- What keeps you playing?
- Where could the idea be changed or improved?
The goal is not to clone the game.
I usually take the core idea, change the theme, add or remove mechanics and put my own spin on it.
Most of my games are currently 2D puzzle, casual, arcade or high-score games because they are small enough to build and test quickly.
Although lately, I have also been moving more into 3D games.
Racing and shooting games can work well on web too.
For development, I use AI heavily.
I vibe-code games in Unity or HTML/JavaScript using tools like AgentsGuild, Claude Code and Codex.
My workflow is basically:
idea → prototype → test → feedback → iterate → ship
AI now handles a huge amount of the coding.
I give it references, explain mechanics, test what it produces and keep correcting it until the game feels right.
You can see some of the games I build on anul.space.
For web specifically, engines like Phaser, Three.js, PlayCanvas or Cocos can be easier to work with.
I still use Unity because I know it well, although Unity web builds usually require more optimization.
Distribution is the actual business
This is the part I misunderstood for years.
Making a good game does not automatically mean people will play it.
You need distribution.
Web platforms solve that problem because they already have millions of users actively looking for games.
Once I have a playable prototype, I start approaching platforms.
Most portals have a developer or game-submission page where you can send them your game.
Usually, I host a playable version on my games website and submit a link.
The platform then evaluates things like:
- Is the game fun?
- Does it fit their audience?
- Does it feel different enough?
- Will people play it for long enough?
- Does it work properly on desktop and mobile?
- Can advertising fit naturally into the experience?
Platforms have also become much more selective.
Sometimes you submit a game and hear nothing.
Sometimes they reject it.
Sometimes they send you a long list of changes.
That is normal.
If I do not hear back, I may submit again later or contact someone from the company through LinkedIn or X.
Once a platform is interested, there is usually an iteration process.
They might ask you to change the onboarding, improve the controls, fix mobile responsiveness, adjust difficulty or rethink where ads appear.
After that comes QA.
You fix bugs, meet their technical requirements and keep iterating until the game is ready.
Once approved, the game goes live in front of an audience you would otherwise have to spend months or thousands of dollars building yourself.
That is the leverage.
Engagement = more distribution = more money
Web games usually make money through advertising.
There are ads around the game, and there can also be ads inside the game.
One format I particularly like is rewarded ads.
Instead of forcing someone to watch an ad, you give them something useful in exchange.
For example:
- Extra life
- Coins
- Power-ups
- Continue after losing
- Faster progression
- Bonus rewards
The important part is designing the game around engagement, not just ads.
If somebody plays your game for 30 seconds, there are very few opportunities to monetize them.
If they play for 20 minutes, return tomorrow and keep progressing, that player becomes much more valuable.
And platforms care about the same thing.
If players click your game and immediately leave, the platform has little reason to keep promoting it.
If players stay, replay and engage, the platform has more reason to give the game visibility.
So there is a useful loop:
better game → longer sessions → more monetization → more platform promotion → more players
This is why I think about monetization while designing the game rather than adding ads at the very end.
Launching the game is only the beginning
Once the game goes live, I start looking at data.
Most platforms give developers dashboards where you can track things like players, sessions and revenue.
I also like adding my own analytics.
For example, if a game has 20 levels, I want to know:
How many players reach level 2?
How many reach level 5?
Where do most people quit?
Are people using rewarded ads?
Are they replaying levels?
This makes improving the game much less subjective.
Instead of saying:
“I think level 7 feels difficult.”
You can see that 35% of players are quitting on level 7.
Now you have something to fix.
You can also keep updating games after launch.
New levels, seasonal content, Halloween themes, Christmas events or small gameplay improvements can give an older game another push.
And every game teaches you something for the next one.
That is probably the biggest advantage I have after 120+ prototypes.
I have a much better idea of what to build, what not to build and what platforms are actually looking for.
The real advantage is the relationship
One thing that became increasingly valuable over time was building relationships with publishers and platforms.
Once you have shipped multiple games with them, you can start asking:
What genres are working right now?
What mechanics are players responding to?
What kind of games are you looking for?
They have access to far more player data than an individual developer does.
So instead of spending 2 months building something and then trying to convince a publisher to take it, you can sometimes get feedback on the idea before you even start.
That dramatically reduces the risk.
And this is ultimately how I think about web games today.
AI has made building much cheaper and faster.
But AI is not the biggest advantage.
Distribution is.
You can build the best game in the world, but if only 100 people ever see it, there is a limit to what it can become.
Build something fun, get it in front of platforms that already have millions of players, study the data, improve it and repeat.
That simple loop took me from my first 100 prototypes making almost nothing to games that have now reached tens of millions of players.
