Last week I briefly mentioned a site that deserves a little more attention. I’m talking about the Kongregate website. You may have seen the Kongregate name and their ant logo on various flash games distributed around the web. If you are a fan of those type of games it is worth your time to check out the. If you are someone who makes those games it could even be profitable for you.

As a player Kongregate offers a ton of great games. They say they have over 7000 games hosted on their site. I probably haven’t played more than fifty yet. They have all the games sorted by genre and ranked by fan ranking. However you can change that ranking if you want to, say, sort them by most recent uploaded. They allow you to tag your favorites so other players can see what you like. It also makes them easier to find if they aren’t the games on the top of their categories. They also have a points & levels system so the more games you play the higher level you obtain. They have suggested that there will in the future be some kind of rewards for rank. Even without that it is still a great way to get the largely obsessive/compulsive gamer crowd to keep coming back. The categories of games include Action, Shooter, Adventure & RPG, Sports & Racing, Multiplayer, Strategy & Defense, Puzzle, and a catch all called More. (My favorite games in each category are in order: Amorphus+, Tactical Assassin 2, Monsters Den 2, Dolphin Olympics 2, Tactics 100 Live, (Tie between Gemcraft and Desktop Tower Defense 1.5), Hexiom Connect, and Ragdoll Cannon 2.) A lot of the games have achievements tied to them which get you points. Some are so easy that you don’t even notice that you accomplished them. Some are nigh impossible or not worth the time it takes to achieve them (I’m looking at you Balloon Invasion.) There is a large and vocal community tied to the site but the truth is that I don’t associate with them much at all. There is a chat room open next to every game as it runs but as it is half off my screen I largely ignore it. I also don’t play many of the multiplayer games. Really, when I am looking for a flash game to play I just want a time waster, I’m not looking for a conversation. The other thing they do to encourage people to play new or overlooked games is every few days or so they have a new Challenge. These Challenges usually have a reward attached to them in the form of a virtual card for their multiplayer game Kongai. It is a CCG style video game and while I jump on the Challenges like a hamster hitting the feeder bar I don’t play Kongai. I’ve played so much magic that I am burnt out on CCGs. I’ll still play Magic and V:tES given the opportunity but I am not really interested in learning a new CCG. My most recent obsession has been Hexiom Connect which has jumped to the top of my list of favorite puzzle games. It does a great job of combining logical deduction and observation tests. Level 39 was particularly nasty. Now I have to go back to Protector:Reclaiming the Throne and beat that last very hard board that has been kicking my ass for a while.

Kongregate also has many things to offer flash game developers. I am not one so I don’t feel that I can adequately critique them. Here is a link to details of their services. They do mention Sponsorship and Add Revenue Sharing so it might be worth checking out if you do that sort of thing.

I go by the handle ChaosPriest on Kongregate. Feel free to check my profile and see how I’ve been wasting my time lately. I almost forgot the best part. It is totally free to sign up and play but you don’t even need to sign up to play. You won’t have the points and all but you still can play the games.