Affiliates & Syndication Guide

for SGGS Affiliates and Partner Networks


Thank you for your interest in my product line and association with its affiliate network. Our affiliate methods are proprietary. We encourage former "Mochi Media Game Developers and Publishers" to contact us for consultation.

Steve Gose Game Studio (SGGS) affiliate network is a subsidiary of Stephen Gose LLC. We developed our affiliate network in response to Mochi Media's demise in early 2014. Many independent game developers were affected (as were we); all of us lost our:

  1. Distribution channel;
  2. Marketing Advertisement Revenues;
  3. Automatic updates to released games; and
  4. Analytics on game performance from the marketplace.

It has taken us 6 months to draft and revise our business plans and implement this initial syndication and affiliate deployment. The "Affiliate & Syndication Network" provides several methods to re-capture your lost revenue streams from Mochi Media Ads by deploying our updated game products. Today, we offer a substitute for Mochi Media to our current syndicates — it's time to recapture your Mochi Media revenues.

Before you deploy any of the Syndication games, you should do two (2) things:

  1. Register for the Affiliate Syndication program, it's quick and FREE (existing syndicates should log in and re-verify their affiliation information, and where you want payments delivered).
  2. Register your games' file names you're hosting on your website; and
  3. then, append each of those games' file names with your Syndication Vendor ID code. See the following example:

For example, you have downloaded a freely available demo game from Renown Games, from Scirra Arcade or from any of the several registered Syndication channels. You should notice that each of our games' file names includes the "_pbmcube" inside its file name. Replace just the appended "_pbmcube" portion with your registered Syndication Vendor ID code — which acts like an ISBN.

This is an important step; because even if the game is "scraped" from your website, you still receive traffic credit, commissions, and revenue shares. We do not use cookies, since cookies can be deleted from your client's browser. We do not use JavaScript, since it can be blocked. We use the "raw file name" to preserve your affiliate status. It is just that simple!

So, whether a scavenger takes your games off your website or "iframes" your games, you will still gain revenue credits from everyone who purchases in-game items, subscriptions, or licenses. It does not matter which website uses your Syndication Vendor ID (SVID) code — which works similar to an ISBN; you gain credit from the file name utilized and your attached SVID.

You'll earn 50%, 70% or 80% revenues based on your "hosted game" status. (Read the next sections) We pay you once a month based on the previous month's balances over $25 (US) through PayPal. All registered games with your Syndication Vendor ID (SVID) code contribute toward your account balance.

Creating a Syndication account and registering your hosted games generates your Syndication Vendor ID (SVID) code that helps us track, and assign revenues toward your Syndication account — no matter where the games sit on the Internet!

So, your first task is to register and generate your Syndication Vendor ID (SVID) code. Registering your SGGS games is FREE. It costs you nothing! You do not need a "subscription license" nor a "permanent (1-time fee) license" to start gaining 50% revenues from "crowd-funding" purchases and donations. Each game understands how to find your Syndication Vendor ID (SVID) code inside the game's "file name". The only thing remaining is to tell us which games you have and then, generate your Syndication Vendor ID (SVID) code. Unregistered games do not contribute to your Syndication account balance. When gamers donate money or purchase in-game entitlements and incentives, you earn 50% of those transactions! As we escrow those donations and your account balances reach either a 1-year subscription or a lifetime license — a choice you made when you registered any Syndication game —, we will send you a game license gift certificate to use for any of your registered Syndication games. Of course, if gamers purchase in-game entitlement or incentives, you earn commissions based on that individual game's status and whether it's registered or licensed. After you purchase (or subscribe for) a license, you earn even greater commissions! For each active annual subscription license, you earn 70% of all donations, subscriptions, in-game items, and licenses purchased from that individually licensed game. For a lifetime license, you earn 80% of all donations, subscriptions, in-game items, and licenses purchased from that individually licensed game. Licensed games also provide extra game levels and extended features.

We have made this easy for everyone! Registering your game activates a new button in our game's menu called "Donations". This lets your community understand that you are "crowd-funding" a license for this single game. (Note: If you do not see this button, you might have an extremely old game version. All SGGS games released after April 21, 2014, have this button).

As your community provides donations — i.e. "crowd Funding" —, we collect (from each of your registered games) those donations and apply those donations toward your Syndication account balance. When your Syndication account balance reaches either an annual subscription price or lifetime price for a single game, you can elect to apply those funds toward your first-year license subscription (for a single game of your choice in your Syndication account) or continue collecting donations until you can purchase a "permanent (1-time) license" for a single game of your choice in your Syndication account. Once all your registered games are licensed, you continue to collect donations! We pay you once a month on balances over $25 (US) through PayPal. Naturally, if gamers purchase in-game incentives or entitlement you earn commissions based on that individual game's status. For example, if the game is registered, you earn 50% commissions. If a game has an active license subscription, you earn 70% commission!

Annual License subscriptions (currently) are $12 (US) per year per game. For each game that you have an active annual subscription, you receive a 70% (for you) : 30% (SGGS portion) split from customer donations and purchases. In other words: 1) if your account has enough cash to pay for an annual license subscription; and, 2) you elect to activate an annual license for this game, for every donation collected thereafter you keep 70% of the donation/purchases as long as the game's license subscription remains active! If your subscription license expires, your hosted game reverts to the registered version; you would then earn only a 50% revenue share. After your annual license subscription expires, your hosted game reverts to non-registered status. Placing games in prominent settings or with high popularity ratings helps you gain more donations.

Currently, 1-time (permanent) licenses are only $48 (US) per game (Volume Discounts do apply; some affiliates have hosted our games for over 10+ years!). For each permanently licensed game, you receive a 80% (you) : 20% (SGGS administrative and processing) split from your customers' donations and purchases. In other words: 1) if your account has enough cash to pay for a 1-time license; and, 2) you elect to activate this license for this individual game, for every donation collected thereafter you keep 80% of those donations or purchases!  Placing games in prominent settings or with high popularity ratings helps you. Permanent licenses never revert to registered status or demo status.

I should also mention that you should purchase the game mechanics source code for any SGGS game from our online shop. The source code already includes a (permanent) 1-time license. Source code with its 1-time license is $60 (US).

The game file name has your embedded Syndication Vendor ID (SVID) code. A scavenger cannot change your file names — unless they have access to your website which is a very serious problem you would need to address.

As mentioned above, we don't use cookies since browser cookies can be deleted. Many game publishers use cookies to track affiliate sales. SGGS is a Big Fish Silver Partner; I have lost countless purchases, based on the Big Fish Affiliate program cookie policy and due to my customers' cookies having been changed from surfing to other Big Fish affiliate sites. Most game producers are only interested in selling; they don't care who makes the final sale … just so long as an end-consumer ultimately buys! This is great for their revenues but demonstrates the lack of respect for their affiliate distribution channels.

We don't use JavaScript either; since it can be blocked. With the advent of "Content Delivery Networks", JavaScript no longer reflects the original source. Your referrals now show the "Content Delivery Network" as its end-consumer referral.

As mentioned above, we use the game's raw file name to preserve your affiliate status. Unless the file name is changed, you retain the referral of the ultimate end-consumer. So, it does not matter whether a scavenger takes your games off your website or "iframes" your game content to camouflage the referral website. The opposite is desired, you want as many webmasters as possible to take your hosted Syndication games off your website — with your embedded Syndication Vendor ID (SVID) code — and spread those games to as many websites as possible. You want your hosted games to go "viral" — "take them all"!  This one concept is unique to SGGS— no other game distributor on the Internet does this! When your "branded" games go viral, you gain even more affiliate revenues — from every consumer, from every site with your affiliate file name — who purchases in-game items, subscriptions, or licenses.