Game Publishing
A game nobody can reach is not finished, however good it is.
Publishing is the step most first games never reach, and it is the step that teaches the most. For a first game, start with Cadeplay — no fees and no waiting on review, just one link you can send to friends. The stores and your own website can come later, once there is something worth reviewing.
Start with Cadeplay — playable from a single link
Cadeplay (cadeplay.com) is an HTML5 web game portal where people play right in the browser, with nothing to install. Upload your game as a single zip file and anyone can click a link and start playing — no store developer registration, no waiting on app review. Uploading is free, and the rights to the game stay with you. It is the fastest way to put a first game in front of people.
How Cadeplay differs from the stores
| Aspect | Cadeplay | The three stores |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free to upload | Paid developer registration (each store charges differently) |
| How players get it | Click a link and play in the browser — nothing to install, and players can add it to the home screen if they like | Find it in the store, then download and install it |
| Until the first play | The moment the build goes live, for anyone with the link | Public only after review passes (test tracks reach chosen testers only) |
| Devices | Any browser on a phone, tablet or computer | A separate build for each store's platform (Android · iOS · PC) |
What Cadeplay adds when you upload
The moment a build goes live, its play address opens. Before review, during review, even after a rejection, anyone you send the link to can play right away without an account. Until it passes review, though, it won't appear on the home page, in the catalog or in search — only people with the link will find it. Show friends first, fix what they trip over, then apply for review.
Three things that make players stay
- One thumb Most Cadeplay players arrive on a phone. Everything — menus, pause, restart — has to be playable to the end with one thumb, with no keyboard or mouse; keys are only a shortcut. Decide how the character moves before you build: adding touch to a finished keyboard game means rewriting the controls.
- In the player's language Text inside the game and the store listing need to appear in the player's own language. Write in one language you know and hand the rest to your AI tool — but never translate the game's name. Remember right-to-left languages such as Arabic too.
- A full store page Review requires an icon, a cover and screenshots. One screenshot passes review, but nobody clicks a thin page. Fill every screenshot slot and add a short gameplay clip — you can even ask your AI tool to play the game and capture them.
How to upload — three steps
- Zip it Pack your web export into one zip with index.html at the top (or one level down).
- Get a token once Create your first token once in the Cadeplay console and keep it in .env. Never paste it into a chat or into code.
- Upload and go live Upload the zip; once it passes the automatic check, make that build live. From that moment it is playable from a link.
Easy to miss before review
- The content survey — yes/no questions about what is in your game, such as combat, blood or gambling. Because it has nothing to do with your files, it is the most common reason for "I uploaded everything — why won't it submit?"
- The game's address name (its host label) is locked permanently at first publication. Choose it carefully before you publish.
- Don't load the SDK with a script tag or bundle it in the zip. Cadeplay injects it for you, and adding it yourself breaks it.
- Use relative paths (./). A path starting with /, like /assets/…, can't find its files on Cadeplay and leaves a blank screen.
- Once the game is published, updates go out through review. Players stay on the current version until a new build is approved, and a rollback brings back the previous build instantly.
Start your first game on Cadeplay — with a single link.
Open cadeplay.comWhy shipping changes everything
Until a stranger plays it, you are guessing. You know where the button is, you know what the goal is, you have played your own tutorial forty times. None of that survives contact with a person who has never seen the screen before.
Shipping also forces the decisions you have been avoiding: what the game is called, what its one-line description is, what the icon looks like. Those are not chores at the end — they are the moment you finally have to say what your game is.
The three stores
All three take a cut of revenue, all three require a paid developer account, and all three review your build before it goes live. What differs is the audience and how strict the review is.
Registration fees, revenue shares, review durations and age-rating rules change regularly, and any number written on a page like this goes stale. Read each store's official developer documentation before you plan around a figure.
Web deployment — HTTPS is not optional
Put your game on a web page and anyone can play it from a link, on any device, with no review and no fee. But it must be served over HTTPS with a valid certificate, and for a game that is not merely about looking trustworthy.
Browsers restrict a long list of capabilities to secure contexts — pages served over HTTPS. Fullscreen behavior, pointer lock for mouse-look, gamepad access, microphone and camera, service workers for offline play, and persistent storage all sit behind that line. Over plain HTTP your game will not just look untrustworthy; parts of it will simply not run, and the browser will show a warning next to your address.
Upload to Cadeplay and each game gets an HTTPS address automatically — no certificate to look after.
Certificates are free and the issuing is automatic. PES runs behind a Caddy reverse proxy that obtains and renews Let's Encrypt certificates on its own — no manual renewal, no expiry surprises. Most modern hosting does something equivalent, so the cost of getting this right is close to zero.
Before you press publish
- Watch one person play it start to finish without saying anything. Fix whatever made them stop.
- Check that it works on a phone, and on a screen you did not develop on. Most first launches break on someone else's device.
- Confirm you have the right to every asset you shipped, including anything generated. This is the part that gets games pulled.
- Write the one-line description before the build is ready. If you cannot describe it in one line, players will not be able to either.
Then publish it. The version you are embarrassed by, released, is worth more than the perfect one still on your machine.