Purposegames Help

Getting Started

What is PurposeGames?

PurposeGames is a site that lets you create and play games to help you learn new things.
It can be used for studies, procrastination, or simply for the fun of it.

Is PurposeGames a FREE service?

Yes. PurposeGames is completely free of charge. No fees whatsoever.

Do you offer Google Sign-In

Yes.

I never received a mail with the activation code.

This is only relevant if you signed up with your email address, not if you used Google Sign-In.
First, make sure you have used the correct email address.
If you still don't receive a mail, you should check that you are allowed to receive mails from the domain 'purposegames.com'. Check your spam filters to see that all is OK.

It is unlikely that it got stuck on our side.

When playing a game, it stops and tells me to turn off my adblocker

If, when a game is being played, it stops after a little while saying you need to turn off any adblocker, please do so in order to continue playing games at PurposeGames.

If you do not have an adblocker on your computer, and still get this message when trying to play games, it is most likely a network problem (someone on your network is blocking our ads). To test if this is the case you can try and play a game on a cell phone that is not connected to the same network as your computer. If you are able to play a game from your phone using a different network/wi-fi than your computer, you need to contact the one responsible for your network to unfilter calls to PurposeGames.

Do I need to create an account to use PurposeGames?

No. Anyone can play games without an account.
To create games or to set tournaments, and have your scores saved etc., an account is needed.

Does PurposeGames use any "old technology" like Flash?

No.

What domains do we need to unblock, in order to run PurposeGames?

Technology question, mostly for network technicians et al
PurposeGames uses a Google Certified ad partner.

From a technical standpoint, you need to make sure that the sources are not blocked on your network. Specifically, these three addresses:

cdn.fuseplatform.net
g.doubleclick.net
amazon-adsystem.com

Creating Games

What is the difference between public and private games?

A public game is visible to all and shows up in the play section of the site, and also in search.

A private game is not visible to anyone but you on the site. It is however possible for anyone to play, given that they have the URL (address) of the game, so you can send it to friends, share it on Facebook etc, even though it is private.

What image type (JPG, PNG, WEBP or GIF) is best to use?

Any format of the four works fine.
That said, the GIF format only contains 256 colors and is only suitable for simpler images.

What are advanced options when creating games?

These are tweaks that a game maker can put into a game when it is created/edited. They do not affect the way a game is made, but do affect the way the game is played. So they are used by the game maker, but affect the game player. Advanced options are accessed during game creation or editing via a link just above the "Save", "Preview" and "Publish" buttons in the game creation engine.

Why does my game not show up in site lists or search, after I created it?

The usual reasons are:

1) You have not made the game public
2) You have not published it yet

Check to make sure these are not true. If neither is the case, then it is likely that:

3) It contains obscene or offensive images or language
4) It is a too-graphic anatomy game
5) It contains material identified as copyrighted
6) It potentially violates someone's privacy (find my friends or family type games)

In some cases the game may be forced private, in others, removed entirely.

Please note, if you do not see your game at all, and end up in a 404-page, make sure you didn't delete the image you based the image on since that image need to remain in your account in order for a game to be playable.

I created an image game but when I go to it, I end up in a 404-page

Most likely, you have removed the image used in the game from your account leading to the game being removed as well.
You need to make sure that the images you upload for games stay in your account.

How many games can I create?

For the time being, you can create a maximum of 5 games per day, and 25 games per calendar month.
For subscribing members (not yet available to the general public), there's no daily maximum and 100 games per month as maximum.