What do you think about using a widget as form of advertisement, I was thinking of creating a widget that was basically a free and ‘lite’ version of the real game? There would be a link in the game somewhere that would open the browser and display my games’ website with the option to buy.
The only problem I see with this idea is that people may like playinh in the widget form better than the normal game mode and then complain.
I prefer stand-alone apps to widgets in all cases.
And I prefer web players to widgets.
hey Randy. I’ll be doing a “demo” for my upcoming soccer game as a web player only. I’d thought about a widget, but the web option offers a much wider audience since the game itself will be for Mac and PC users. But that being said, the Banana Warehouse widget sure has been effective in “advertising” the future game Ron and I will release.
Yeah, your widget was basically what inspired me to think about using a widget as a way to demo the game. However, like I said, I worry that people may get upset if the full version of the game was a regular full screen game as opposed to a widget… With the number of downloads you have received, I take it there are a lot of people out there who like to play games in the widget form.
I’d say a widget would be an excellent advertisement for a game in some circumstances … Mac-only games perhaps, games that could lend themselves to simpler gameplay, etc. I think that there are a lot of users who wouldn’t mind playing short littler games (or play with toys) in widgets at all, and actually might think that it’s convenient to not have to manage a full app.
I think I’ll give it a try. I’ll let you (all) know how it goes. — Zen of Clover… coming soon ---- 
I would say instead of widget do it as a web player. As on the PC you can easily view a web player not a widget.
Currently there doesn’t seem to be a way to get a unity widget to play on a PC. Where as if you d a web player you can still limit it to a lite version. And both Mac and PC’s can play it.
Or better yet why not to a widget and a web player. Pretty easy to do both out of Unity.
Has anyone run into a situation where a web-player worked but the stand alone didn’t? How about visa-versa?
I think one of the reasons for releasing a demo version of a game is to ensure that it will work on the player’s computer. If a web-player will do this, then that would get my vote.
agreed. it doesn’t matter if its a mac only crowd - posting a widget is a huge chunk of free advertising (especially considering the lack of cool 3D widgets the great downloads-rankings of unity widgets so far) - if there’s nothing performance or control wise stopping you i say go for it IMO ; )
There are very rare instances where bugs in one environment won’t manifest on another. Usually issues between the builds ae more fundamental - PlayerPrefs not working in the web player, or not being able to right-click, that kind of thing.
I suspect it’s not that widgets themselves are particularly compelling, it’s that Apple gets such an insane amount of traffic on their website. Unless the widget somehow puts your game in a bad light, I don’t see any reason not to try to leverage Apple’s website.
Another way of course is to get your game featured in an article on Apple’s games page. Not sure how to go about that. Whereas the widget page has an obvious “in”. There’s no telling if you’ll be a featured widget, of course.