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Trail releases developer tools to bring accessible, high-quality gaming to the browser. No downloads, no installs, no paywalls – just play.
Trail, the game distribution platform that makes meaningful and engaging play ultra-accessible, today officially came out of stealth mode to publicly launch its SDK, enabling game developers to deliver studio-quality games, with a focus on those created in Unity, to the browser. Trail’s mission is to bring down the barriers to gaming by providing creators with tools to make their games more accessible, easily discoverable and virally shareable – with games just one click away from billions of potential players. Downloads and installations get in the way of fun; Trail removes those obstacles to make zero-friction gaming a reality. No hassles, just play.
Leveraging WebGL 2.0 and WebAssembly, Trail is the first to streamline professional game development for the web to make more games available anytime, anywhere. This next-generation technology platform enables Unity game developers to take advantage of all the benefits of the browser, while providing players an exceptional gaming experience that’s rich, engaging and satisfying.
“The recent explosion in game creation has given rise to tons of new innovative content, but the existing platforms for distributing games lack the tools developers need to break new ground and connect with entirely different audiences. Meanwhile, continuous improvements in microprocessing have made even common laptops into gaming-capable devices,” explains Willem Demmers, founder and CEO of Trail. “Trail aims to bridge this gap between developing for native platforms and WebGL, where creators can reach billions of untapped potential players. Developers struggle to be heard above the noise; Trail simplifies how they can share their games, from creation and distribution to performance and analytics.”
Trail redefines the gaming landscape with its developer-first ethos and belief that games should be easily accessible to all, without the hassle of installations and paywalls or a need for professional-grade equipment.
Create, Share, Play…with Trail
Games are fun, and Trail believes they should be easier to access, but billions of would-be gamers are getting left behind by burdensome log-ins and exclusive subcultures. Trail makes it possible for anyone to enjoy new gaming experiences with a single click, and to invite and play with friends simply by sending them a link – it’s as easy as watching and sharing a funny video. And for the first time, professional games can be embedded directly onto a webpage.
“The major edge Trail has is the simplicity it brings to trying out a game with instant shareability through links and embedding,” comments gamer Erveon, managing director at Oddshot Games, developer of Slapshot: Rebound, which has grown to nearly 500k active players in the past year. “It’s very difficult to get people to go to a website, find our game, download it, start it up and so on. Every hurdle is another point for them to drop off. Trail makes it so much easier – give them a link, they click and they’re in the game. It’s very nice to give players immediate access to Slapshot without any of the barriers. It’s got massive potential.”
By enabling slick, latency-free gameplay in the browser, Trail brings the full commercial potential of under-served games to a vastly bigger demographic, while giving developers the tools they need to market and grow their audience. Using the Trail Unity SDK Extension, creators can easily port new and existing Unity games into the platform, be they mobile games seeking new audiences on desktop, indie PC games looking to reach more players, or an entirely new gaming concept that is ripe for going viral. No remote or cloud streaming needed.
A Vision for Developers First
Trail envisions an online gaming platform that is as much by the developer as it is for the developer, with favorable revenue splits and incentives that reward creators for their influence and innovation. With Trail, developers can take control of their destiny and break free from industry gatekeepers, gaining better access to players and insightful analytics to drive engagement.
Demmers comments, “While in stealth mode, we’ve worked with a small number of Unity developers who are excited to be a part of Trail’s growth. With this launch, we encourage others to join us in building a community where developers can gain independence from distribution channels that control their player acquisition process, enforce unfair revenue splits, and limit engagement with their own playerbase.”
Being in-browser gives Trail full attribution, making it far easier to understand the player journey as compared to other game distribution platforms. These insights will soon be available to Trail developers via an analytics dashboard, which will help them understand and learn more about their players – where new traffic comes from, and even where players are dropping out or having a negative experience. These insights will enable developers to make quick fixes and even better long-term decisions. And because Trail games are browser-based leveraging WebGL 2.0, developers can iterate quickly and even run sophisticated A/B tests to deliver highest-quality performance without having deep pockets or overextending resources.
Trail offers developers a holistic approach to making games for the web with tools that overcome the problem of a not yet mature or reliable ecosystem, leveling the playing field and making the web, with its intrinsic accessibility and shareability, a viable alternative for professional game development. From start to finish, the game creation process in Trail empowers developers at every step, ensuring games are fully optimized for the web, with a global payment solution, file-streaming, performance-enhancing post-processing, player authentication and account management, adaptive quality, and more customizable settings that developers have been searching for.
For more information and to get started developing on Trail, visit https://trail.gg/.
