Does anyone know of any Lua libraries that could be used with third party advertising agencies to insert ads into GameGuru games?

Jason

I don't know of any, and I hope they don't exist!

I agree with Jerry, there's nothing more immersion breaking and just plain annoying than real life advertising inside a game, personaly I think it should be classified under the same regulations as subliminal advertising in films is and be banned from gaming.

But a man got to make a living!

this is how you would monetize a windows game but it would need to be built into the engine and altho its also something I would like to see I would not want time spent on it when so many other engine features are needed, I doubt you will find a Lua module to achieve this.... check the Love2D wilki! (you never know!)

@PartTimeCoder: I checked the Love2D wiki and did not find anything. I will keep looking. And you are right, currently there are many other features that are needed but eventually this will need to be addressed (unless you are planning on doing this only as a hobby and not for a living or are going to use the premium (paid) distribution method). Other then the premium distribution method sponsorships are the only other method of monetizing games I know of other then some form of ads.

Jason

Oh I agree, I make software for a living and dabble with games for fun, all my other game making software comes preloaded with Ad libraries and it would be great to have GameGuru be able to do the same, but in all honestly with an already saturated games market its hard to make money, my out look is to make a game that gets talked about and shared, give it away and reap profits from website visitors using AdSence, offer updates and incentives to bring people back to the site, load pages and keep the pennies coming in ..... it can turn a profit, not a huge one but better returns than banner ad's on mobile devices (im my experience anyway)

all we really need from TGC to make this happen anyway is some HTTP functions in Lua, it would then be down to us to write API interfaces for our desired ad network, I'm not even sure if any allow embedded ad's within games but sponsorship's would require some sort of communication, but in the mean time consider AdSence, as long as your site is getting traffic then you are earning money, make a free game that goes viral and suddenly your site is worth a whole lot of cash!

same here i also develope software and started doing games for fun, but also with the idea to release something sometime and not just toy around with it. so totally agree that an ad lib would be a great addition to GG!
btw there is socket support for lua, check this: http://w3.impa.br/~diego/software/luasocket/http.html

of course, that one bypassed my train of thought

ok if I find time over the weekend Ill write up some basic lua/php scripts for some rudimentary communication, not sure how GG will react to this it really needs to have an asynchronous option, maybe a lua coroutine or LuaLanes can help out here, its worth a shot, I already got json working inside GG so that takes care of the data, we could pass an entire db query back to GG to process, just need to find an encryption method that works in php and Lua and we got all the ingredients

GG is one weekend away from creating MMO's lol

oh you got json to work inside GG? sounds good! ..apparently there is openSSL support for lua aswell http://mkottman.github.io/luacrypto/manual.html
so there you go, access to multiple crypto algorithms

Yea I made a small database script using json for storing persistent data, funny this seems the logical next step from that lol

nice one thanks, this will come in handy for sure! could be used to save items and reload them in the next level.

well the function set and internal table are global so no need to save between levels, that is for saving data between game sessions so your players can collect items, close the game, open it again the day after and he still has those items, you could even work it into Lee's new save game system so it also saves your private data as the current system does not, you could even use it for a highscore table or user account login for a RPG style game, the applications are endless

I am currently using the database for a kind of GTA style stat system, it records shots fired, shots on target and a % accuracy, bad guys/civilians killed, times shot at and a whole bunch of other statistics so after 20 or so plays of the game the player has a global pool of how he has done, it works pretty well, add in the ability to save to mysql (via php) and I have a online score/leaderboard..... add a mini forum or chat system driving users to the game site, loading adds and earning pennies ...... if the game is good enough it *could* pay the rent lol

indeed this opens up a lot of possibilities oh and good plan btw! could work very well, people love public stats to brag about

I don't like the idea of advertising in games, really, yet I liked the idea (someone else suggested it on these forums where we were discussing commercial brands in games) of ordering a pizza at the local pizza joint in the game and having it at your door in the near future (30 minutes or less?). This could apply to anything, of course, but I think pizza was the first (naturally) object of discussion, and probably the closest to "smell-o-vision" we are likely to see for some time!

@PartTimeCoder: Have you made any Progress on this?

Jason