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AppGameKit Classic Chat / The AGK Community Ad Network

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aviles22
10
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Joined: 1st Dec 2013
Location: New Jersey, USA
Posted: 3rd Apr 2014 20:35 Edited at: 3rd Apr 2014 20:37
NAPHIER: I just actually found this post as I really had no time for anything else but finishing my first app: Soaring Blue Jay.

(And thanks for your PHP help again!)

And my very next step was trying to figure out what and how ADS are and are implemented. As of now I really don't even have an idea as to how they work into my AppGameKit and how money is made from them.

I am interested in your idea once I get some idea of ADS!

Maybe after a brief post of an explanation of ADS and how they work in the APP community and AppGameKit many more people will jump into your idea. I think maybe many people like me don't have knowledge of this.
Naphier
14
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Joined: 2nd Oct 2010
Location: St Petersburg, Florida
Posted: 3rd Apr 2014 21:21
They work just like admob banners.
You grab the API from my site. The ads are non-paying.
If you want to see live examples you can download and play Wordspionage (available on iTunes or Google Play - link to my site in my signature). You can also see them in Swiped out (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.parmsoft.swiped_out)

The API for the AppGameKit Community Ad Network (ACAN) takes less than 5 minutes to implement.

I'm not sure what else to say. Do you have more specific questions?

You can also use AdMob with AGK. Commands are explained in the AppGameKit help files. You need an AdMob account. You can use both AdMob and ACAN side-by-side. AdMob in AppGameKit has issue with creating banners on the fly, but works well if you constantly show the banner on screen (though you may get FPS drops when the ads refresh). You need to sign up for an AdMob account. You will need many downloads to make even a dollar from AdMob banners. I'm currently working on modifying AppGameKit to work with Chartboost so we can have really nice game-focused interstitials (ads that pop up like a window)in our game. These types of ads command much more money than banner ads. Banner ads pay at max $1-$2 per click. Interstials pay $5 - $20 on Chartboost. You get paid nothing for impressions (showing the ad) or if you do that amount is a fraction of a penny per 1000 impressions.

So AppGameKit Ad Network was created to help AppGameKit developers support each other. I show these ads in my game Wordspionage exclusively. But I will also use Chartboost when we have it figured out. I will also be updating my game, dFenz, to show ACAN ads exclusively until Chartboost comes along. Then I'll be using both.

If we end up getting more interest in ACAN then I will eventually expand it to have an app wall and interstitial ads. I will be releasing a new API for ACAN on April 15th which will include access to Windows/Mac application ads so that our friends with DBPro can also use the network. The changes will not affect users of the current API so there is no need to upgrade. Any users of the current API will not see Windows/Mac application ads displayed.

Hopefully this answers your questions. If you have more specific ones then please let me know.

Java Man
13
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Joined: 20th Feb 2011
Location: Australia
Posted: 3rd Apr 2014 23:56
Get behind it - everybody!!!

Game players want to see ads about more games, not insurance.
Stop feeding the big faceless companies and back each other!!!

If I only had the time...
Java Man
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Location: Australia
Posted: 3rd Apr 2014 23:57
Game players want to see ads about more games, not insurance.
Stop feeding the big faceless companies and back each other!!!

Get behind it - everybody!!!

If I only had the time...
Naphier
14
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Location: St Petersburg, Florida
Posted: 16th Apr 2014 00:37 Edited at: 16th Apr 2014 01:01
I just uploaded the new AppGameKit T1 API that allows Windows/Mac ads to be shown if you set the flag to do so.
The upload form now also allows you to specify Windows or Mac along with iOS and Android.

The API has a lot of nice revisions thanks to Mobiius.
I also improved the error handling and added a cleanup method to destroy stray ad images.

The DBPro version should be coming soon. I just needed BMacZero to make one small change before I can release it.

Please email me if there are any questions or issues.
Thanks!!


EDIT:
I forgot to mention that I'm now recording stats!
You may be interested to know that out of 13 apps these are the following totals:
18,789 impressions!!!
44 clicks!!
The most clicked award goes to Swiped Out! by JavaMan with a close second to Holey Cow by Ched80
The more people involved in the network the faster this will grow.

I also just started recording what app is getting the clicks and impressions. So I'll soon be able to show some daily data for the impressions/clicks of your ads as well as the impressions/clicks made in your app.

Please make sure that you are using your own API key. Otherwise all of your data will be either lost or recorded under Wordspionage. And I'm sure you'd like to know the performance of your app!

Final note:
We are now testing our next game, Shape Time!, in this game we are showing interstitial ads from Chartboost. I have Chartboost working in both Android and iOS. The modifications are pretty easy so I will share them soon. I do want to make sure that everything is working smoothly first. So it might be a couple more weeks. With that said, we have an AWESOME tool in Chartboost that is very much like the ACAN. They have a direct deals marketplace where you can work with other developers to exchange ads. What this means is that we could ultimately use Chartboost instead of ACAN to promote each other's apps!! AND they'd be interstitial or app wall ads (soon video too!). So that's a much hotter option that what I can do with ACAN. As things progress with that I will keep you all updated so that you can decide if you want to make the switch. I will leave ACAN up for the foreseeable future though as it is a pretty awesome tool (I'm not biased ).

(wow that ended up being a big edit...)
Cheers!

Naphier
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Posted: 16th Apr 2014 08:42
and... the DBPro API is now available thanks to BMacZero!

Clonkex
Forum Vice President
14
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Location: Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia
Posted: 16th Apr 2014 09:08
This actually sounds like a really awesome solution for ads in AppGameKit! I may not actually have time to complete my competition entry, but I'll get on board with my next AppGameKit project (possibly even my current project)

nz0
AGK Developer
17
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Location: Cheshire,UK
Posted: 17th Apr 2014 23:21
I got an error on the latest version (attached).

Also, I read about the stuttering when downloading ads - really - writing a few kb will cause that? I haven't looked at the code yet, but surely it must be downloading the ads asynchronously?

Slim possibility is that your HD has gone to sleep and it needs waking up, but that would be after some time of inactivity..

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Naphier
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Location: St Petersburg, Florida
Posted: 17th Apr 2014 23:52
Fixed! Thanks... I completely overlooked a condition of ad's not being approved in the db (Refender - will be approved shortly).

The stuttering seems to only happen on mobile. The code does download asynchronously. No clue why it might happen, ACAN is very lightweight and the files are less than 50kb. I have noticed with Wordspionage that file writing is pretty darn slow with AppGameKit and it doesn't seem to thread it. Best solution is to not show ads during gameplay. However, if you find anything in the code that might be doing it, feel free to update it!

Thanks for bringing this error to my attention.

The Zoq2
15
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Location: Linköping, Sweden
Posted: 21st Apr 2014 21:37
I have finally gotten around to porting the Acan API to T2.

.cpp file:


.h file


It works right now but there are some bugs that may need fixing.
1. Only the first ad is displayed, when the next one gets loaded, nothing shows up
2. Something might be causing a crash when using one of the functions (I havn't looked into it and it doesn't happen every time)
3. The image files are not verified, it didn't work propperly so I skipped the verification

I will try to fix those bugs in the future but I need to do something else now so if anyone feels like looking for them, feel free

Also, I don't know if I have made a misstake or if there is something wrong with my code, but I seem to only get ios ads on android, again, it needs more research

To use the API, include AcanApi.h whereever you want and instance the AcanAd class. Call the setup function once, call the instance class to start displaying the ad and the handle function to update it. Apart from the setup function, it works exactly the same as the T1 version except that I have put everything in a class so you could theoreticaly have multiple ads at the same time.

I have only tested it on android in AppGameKit v2 alpha 3.

Say ONE stupid thing and it ends up as a forum signature forever. - Neuro Fuzzy
Naphier
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Posted: 21st Apr 2014 21:50
Looks to me like your ostype is wrong.
Should be 1 for iOS, 2 for Android, 0 for other


I'm afraid I don't know C++ well enough to help with the other problems. File verification should be a little easier in C++ because you can handle big endians properly, which you can't easily in basic, but my hack works there for intended purposes. Or is there something else in the verification that's not working that I should be aware of?

Anyway, thanks for getting a great start on this. It's pretty nifty for me to see my basic code converted to C++. It gives me hope of making an easy transition to T2 someday.

The Zoq2
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Posted: 21st Apr 2014 22:15
Quote: "Should be 1 for iOS, 2 for Android, 0 for other"


That was probably it, I have no idea how i managed to copy it like that

As for the verification, I copied your code without copy paste so I probably missed a number in the verification part which should be pretty simple to fix. But I didn't feel like looking thru it right now so I just left the verification out completley.

Also, your code was really easy to translate since your variables were structured in a very neat way which made it easy to know which variables were global and which variables that were defined in a function. The only thing that I was unable to just copy and change the syntax were strings since they work a bit diffirently in c++. AppGameKit returns "char*" which need to be deleted manualy to not cause memory leaks and you can't just do "some string" + "some other string" to combine them.

Say ONE stupid thing and it ends up as a forum signature forever. - Neuro Fuzzy
The Zoq2
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Posted: 25th Apr 2014 12:50
Is it possible to get an API key to use in my app without adding the app to the system? I havn't uploaded it to play store yet but I still want to have the ads in it.

Say ONE stupid thing and it ends up as a forum signature forever. - Neuro Fuzzy
Naphier
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Posted: 25th Apr 2014 12:58
You can use the test key that comes in the new API or
You can upload your ad now and get your own API key to have ready when you publish. You would need to put some valid link in, but you can email me to change it. I can do it quickly so there's no wait.

The Zoq2
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Posted: 25th Apr 2014 13:06
I will stick with the test key for now then

Say ONE stupid thing and it ends up as a forum signature forever. - Neuro Fuzzy
BMacZero
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Location: E:/ NA / USA
Posted: 29th Apr 2014 20:42
I found the 50kB file size restriction to be a problem when I was adding my game. My 480x80 PNG banner came in around 63kB, and it contains a good number of similar colors, so it ought to have compressed pretty well. I think 100kB should be totally manageable with today's internet speeds.

BatVink
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Posted: 29th Apr 2014 21:13
Quote: "My 480x80 PNG banner came in around 63kB, and it contains a good number of similar colors, so it ought to have compressed pretty well"


Try saving it in a different program. PNG is based on Metadata and different programs add different amounts of baggage. Not all of them compress the file either.

Naphier
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Posted: 29th Apr 2014 21:23
I'll consider changing it, but wanted to keep it as low as possible.

BMacZero
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Posted: 29th Apr 2014 23:18
Okay, I found out Photoshop has a "Save For Web" option that lets you take better control over the format. That got it down to 25kB.

Naphier
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Posted: 29th Apr 2014 23:20
Yeah, that's what I always use whenever exporting a PNG. I thought the standard save as did the same, but apparently not. GIMP also has good features for PNG compression.

Naphier
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Posted: 6th May 2014 05:26
I've just uploaded a new guide for deploying on Android to my site. It includes many updates to the AppGameKit instructions which allows you to do things like have your app listed as "designed for tablets". It also improves the method for linking the FacebookSDK which is often a problem in Eclipse.
The guide also includes instructions (and a downloadable java file) on how to integrate Chartboost ad network, fix premature app exiting errors that occur with the AppGameKit T1 END command, and fix FacebookPostToWall so that it does not require users to manually log in.

Many o fthe annoyances that have plagued me for the past year are so. Now fixed and available to all!

http://naplandgames.com/agk/agk_android_setup.html

JohnnyMeek
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Posted: 6th May 2014 13:40
The Chartboost integration is awesome.

Is there any way to integrate this into iOS?
Naphier
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Posted: 6th May 2014 20:27
Yes, I have it working in iOS, too. It's even easier than Android. I'll post instructions for it when I have time Also I want to make sure that my current release passes Apple's review before I show people how to do it, just in case. So it might be a week or two.

JohnnyMeek
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Posted: 7th May 2014 12:32
Any chance you could PM me the instructions if you don't want to post them here? I'd like to start implementing it into my game now as I've almost finished it.

Thanks.
easter bunny
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Playing: Dota 2
Posted: 24th May 2014 07:14
I'm getting an error message: "Header at byte 7 is 80 should be 10"
It pops up twice, then the message "Image failed PNG verification"

Any ideas how to fix this? at first I thought it would be a firewall issue, but it's not


On the phone, it pops up saying "response not read" but the ad ends up loading properly.


Audacia Games - Latest WIP - AUTOMAYTE 2.1, AppGameKit one click deploy to Android
"When you've finished 90% of your game, you only have 90% left"
Naphier
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Posted: 24th May 2014 07:37
I'm not sure. I just ran it through all the ads about 10 times and no errors. All of the image files show up fine.
If you're getting a "response not ready" message it usually indicates a timeout or a -1 response from the connection attempt. Maybe the server dropped off for a second?

2 things you can do
- shut off the debug messages
#constant ACAN_DEBUG = 0
These should be off anyway in any release
- shut off the png validation - though there is the slim chance that you'll grab an incomplete download and the image won't load to shut it off you can just go into the function VerifyPNGFile() and at the first line put EXITFUNCTION 1
That'll always force a passing code.

It attempts two VerifyPNGFile twice (once for 300x50 image and once for 480x80 image) so thats why you get 2 messages. If the debug messages are off then it will just keep chugging along until it can get an image, but it adds a bit of a delay before the next check if there are more than 5 consecutive failures. So basically you can just shut off the debug messages. They should be off anyway before production. I'll look at the code on the site and make sure that is the case in the ZIP file.

easter bunny
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Playing: Dota 2
Posted: 24th May 2014 08:23 Edited at: 24th May 2014 08:26
If I turn error reporting off, the error count just shoots up.

I think I know what the problem is, but I don't know how to fix it. It's trying to download wsbanner_acan.png, but the copy of the file (\Documents\AGK\acan_api\media\acan\wsbanner_acan.png) is only 4 kilobytes where it's supposed to be 151. Obviously it's not dowl....


ohh, I just changed the file extension to .txt and looked inside it.

Turns out my firewall is blocking your website and replacing the image with a html doc


Now I'm constantly getting the response not ready error though. I'll get it sorted out though


Audacia Games - Latest WIP - AUTOMAYTE 2.1, AppGameKit one click deploy to Android
"When you've finished 90% of your game, you only have 90% left"
Naphier
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Location: St Petersburg, Florida
Posted: 24th May 2014 08:27
uh... that's weird...
What is k9 Web protection?
Do you have a web filter blocking internet content?
That's what was appearing in your original message which you've edited out.
Furthermore why the heck does k9 think my site contains mature content???

Naphier
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Posted: 24th May 2014 08:28
you can enter this into your browser to emulate the situation so you can tell K9 the site is ok
http://www.wordspionagedb.com/agkads/imgs/wsbanner%5Facan%2Epng

easter bunny
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Playing: Dota 2
Posted: 24th May 2014 08:46 Edited at: 24th May 2014 08:52
No idea why
I fixed the original problem, just had to disable K9. The ad network is working fine except for one major problem.
I call DeleteAllSprites() between each screen. This is a problem because the API doesn't realise that the sprite has been deleted so it causes all sorts of weird bugs. (such as clicking anywhere on the screen will click on the ad, some sprites disappearing when they shouldn't etc)

I fixed it by calling deleteAd at the end of the loop and createAd at the start, but it's just something that you might want to look into sometime.


Anyway, got that all sorted, will update the game soon!

For the record, K9 thought my website had mature content as well


Audacia Games - Latest WIP - AUTOMAYTE 2.1, AppGameKit one click deploy to Android
"When you've finished 90% of your game, you only have 90% left"
Naphier
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Posted: 24th May 2014 08:52
Yes this is not designed so that someone is calling deleteAllSprites. I guess I never even thought about it because I've never used it.
I don't really see a way to recover from that well, maybe I can just say if the sprite no longer exists then re-initialize.

I'm pretty concerned that K9 is blocking my site and this was also happening on your mobile tests with the ACAN too, right? I mean if it is blocking that then it's probably blocking connections to Wordspionage. If website filters are able to block AppGameKit http commands then that's a pretty big issue.

easter bunny
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Playing: Dota 2
Posted: 24th May 2014 09:01 Edited at: 24th May 2014 09:09
Yeah, not sure about that, K9 is terrible, like I said, it was blocking audaciagames.com too. Just had to manually set it to allow wordspionagedb.com

Edit:
Do you have any idea why this modified code isn't working?

(right near the end of ACAN_Handle())
It's supposed to make it work more like a button, activate on up instead of down, and half opacity while hovering.



EDIT 2: Never mind


Audacia Games - Latest WIP - AUTOMAYTE 2.1, AppGameKit one click deploy to Android
"When you've finished 90% of your game, you only have 90% left"
Naphier
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Posted: 24th May 2014 09:04
Have you played Wordspionage from this network before? If not I might have to try it out. Almost all web filters are terrible though, but I'd like to know! And AppGameKit should be getting by those, but who knows??

easter bunny
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Posted: 24th May 2014 09:07 Edited at: 24th May 2014 09:19
No, I haven't tried Wordspionage from here before.
You probably won't have too many problems with it though, I don't think it's that widely used, Thankfully


Edit:
Just some tips to anybody who uses DeleteAllSprites().
There are a few problems you'll need to fix.
1. Remove ACAN_CreateAd() function from ACAN_Initialise()
2. Call ACAN_CreateAd() before each loop which contains an ad
3. Call ACAN_DeleteAd() after the loop (before you call DeleteAllSprites)
I think those are all the changes that need to be made


Audacia Games - Latest WIP - AUTOMAYTE 2.1, AppGameKit one click deploy to Android
"When you've finished 90% of your game, you only have 90% left"
BatVink
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Posted: 24th May 2014 10:04
Maybe your leaderboards are throwing up an alert on K9, in user names or longest words?

Naphier
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Posted: 24th May 2014 10:06
I don't think so. There's no web content other than the ACAN site on that domain. Other than that it is all database access and push. What do you mean user names or longest words?
His K9 message did explicitly say it was blocked for adult content...

easter bunny
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Posted: 26th May 2014 13:11
I've got a request, can you please add something on this page to let us know how many times each API Key has been used to display an ad?
I'd just like to know how many users are viewing other peoples ads with my app


Audacia Games - Latest WIP - AUTOMAYTE 2.1, AppGameKit one click deploy to Android
"When you've finished 90% of your game, you only have 90% left"
Naphier
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Posted: 26th May 2014 19:00
Yes. It is on my list. I'm recording daily impressions and clicks within your app. I'm also recording the daily impressions and clicks for each ad. I swear I'll post the data some day!

ThrOtherJoJo
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Posted: 4th Jul 2014 20:04
@The Zoq2

Didn't you get his API converted without any errors? The last post I read was left without a solution I think.

I'm glad I read this post because I was just about to convert it to Tier 2 myself.

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Naphier
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Posted: 4th Jul 2014 20:08
Zoq never finished up his work on it. I think he has a good start though if you want to riff off of that.

ThrOtherJoJo
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Posted: 4th Jul 2014 20:19 Edited at: 4th Jul 2014 20:27
Ok. Thanks!

I will continue the conversion...

Edit:

Naphier, did you make any changes since he was working on it?
I'm asking because I'm wondering if I need to download the API from your site.

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SoftMotion3D
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Location: Calgary,Alberta
Posted: 10th Aug 2014 19:24 Edited at: 10th Aug 2014 19:26
hey guys...

so i did a few modifications to this ad plugin and got your ads to show on the backboards on my newest hockey game. A video showing some initial game play has been posted and you can check it out to see if your ads are visible enough. I should be able to make them slightly bigger but if it looks fine for you guys then great!

This ad network was a great idea!

https://vimeo.com/103039057

any ideas on what i could do so that one could select these ads "clicks" to see them on the ouya?

Naphier
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Posted: 10th Aug 2014 20:12
Wow that is pretty cool!
The ads look pretty good, there appears to be a little stretching, but for the most part I could read them.
What a neat idea!
I think that you might add a "Sponsors" section to a game menu that would cycle through banners. Maybe make the menu look like a program like what they sometimes hand out at college hockey games?
Very neat.

SoftMotion3D
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Posted: 10th Aug 2014 20:24
to correct the stretching....does it need to be wider? by how much do you think? it should be an easy fix. And great idea about adding a section to show them off with more information.

Naphier
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Posted: 10th Aug 2014 20:26
Yes, wider. The aspect ratio should be 6:1 (i.e. ads are 480x80 or 350x50). They don't look like they need to be much wider, just a little.

BatVink
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Posted: 20th Feb 2015 16:55
Added to crucial forum threads

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