Type of site
|
Publishing platform and marketplace for games |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Owner | Lucent Web Creative, LLC |
Created by | David 'CROS' DeCarmine |
Slogan(s) |
|
Website | www |
Alexa rank | 4,381 (September 2016[update]) |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | July 2004 |
Current status | Online |
Game Jolt (GJ) is a hosting service for freeware and commercial video games (in browser and a downloadable client) with social functions. The initial site was launched on January 1, 2004, and was founded by David 'CROS' DeCarmine.
Development of Game Jolt started in 2003. The site publicly launched on July 1, 2004 and included a public account system, forums, a chatroom and games, uploaded with the respective creators' permission. In 2007 the site was taken down due to inactivity.
In December 2008, David launched a second version of the site with Game Jolt becoming a game portal. The site was completely redesigned and introduced an automated uploading system for downloadable, Flash, Unity and Java games.
Ad revenue sharing was publicly released in September 2009 from its closed beta, which gave users a 30% share on advertising revenue on their game pages, profiles and blog posts.
The site had much automated spam from mid-2011 to early 2012, which resulted in inactivity of the community as well as its owner.
The Game Jolt API came out of its three-year beta in July 2012 allowing games to integrate with the site.
Game Jolt started accepting browser-based HTML5 games for upload in February 2013.
David DeCarmine announced on August 8 that he was working full-time on Game Jolt's development, leaving his job at Zulily in the process.
Indie Statik, a now defunctindie games-related news aggregator and blog, announced it was 'partnering' with Game Jolt in October 2013. This brought an article stream on the front page and articles of Game Jolt hosted games show up on the said game's profile, with a game portal congregated by Indie Statik and served by Game Jolt planned but never came to fruition.