Then, Now & Next

      

The nature of both the web and gaming has changed a lot since Kongregate got its start over twenty years ago, so it’s easy to say that the web game developer of 2026 has much more to consider than the web game developers of 2006 did. As such, much of the original Kongregate site has had to adapt to keep up with changing times. As we continue our 20th anniversary celebration this week, we wanted to highlight the modern issues Kongregate has been tackling.

Age Ratings & Privacy Policies

Back in 2006, the internet was still in the middle of transitioning from static posts and pages to a more dynamic “Web 2.0” structure of user-uploaded content, comment sections, social media, and more. While this led to an explosion in creative projects being shared worldwide, such as Flash games, it also created a digital Wild West where users of all ages could access all sorts of content and messages from other users of all ages.

In the past two decades, governments across the globe have implemented regulations meant to bolster online safety for children on the web. While these laws have led to peace of mind for families everywhere, they’ve also meant new complications for publishing platforms that host user-generated content and web game developers who upload their games. To help make a new era of policies easier to navigate, Kongregate has recently begun providing useful age rating guidelines as part of our developer help center. Likewise, as laws around the responsible handling of user data have tightened, Kongregate has provided similar guidelines for privacy policies.

Loading Times & Mobile Devices

Before high-speed internet was as widely available as it is today, web games had to stay small to avoid frustrating potential players with long load times. Most Flash games at the time weren’t much larger than 1 to 5 MB, but nowadays even a “lightweight” HTML5 game can be 10 to 20 MB or more. As time has gone on, the site’s infrastructure, which was optimized for tiny Flash games, has struggled to serve larger Unity and HTML5 games as quickly. For over a year now, substantial work has been done on the backend that supports the site to reduce loading times significantly. At the same time, the early phases of a mobile-friendly layout have been rolled out to address another modern expectation that wasn’t even a consideration in 2006.

Kongregate Badges

Badges were a very novel idea back when they were first introduced. The Xbox 360 had only recently popularized the idea of game achievements with its 2005 release, and Steam’s now well-known achievement system was just getting started in 2007, around the same time that Badges were introduced on Kongregate. What made Badges stand out from other achievement systems was how carefully they were crafted and curated. For many years, Kongregate had a dedicated Badgemaster who would play newly added games searching for hidden gems to then directly design Badges for.

While this approach arguably produced some of the site’s all-time best Badges, the site’s growth over the past two decades has made it difficult to maintain at scale. Today, the Kongregate Team works with input directly from interested developers to implement new Badges while also providing quality assurance guidance based on what made Badges so successful to begin with.

What's Next?

There are still many improvements and announcements heading to Kongregate over the coming weeks, months, and even years. Plans you can expect to hear more about soon include an enhanced content age recommendation system and self-service publishing and tools to allow more devs to add Badges. We'll also be announcing a partnership with major universities, where together we give students the opportunity to publish games, receive feedback from real players, learn from live analytics, and gain practical experience operating a game beyond the classroom. Kongregate has always been an innovator for and champion of indie game developers and their games — still as true today as it was twenty years ago.

After two decades of games, memories, and community, and we're still evolving. From fresh games to new ways to discover your next favorite, there's plenty to explore. Stay on the lookout for more updates from us this month as we continue to celebrate our 20th anniversary, and in the near future as we continue to improve the Kongregate experience for everyone.

Rediscover Kongregate today and check out what's new!