/How we built/ miniclip.com
17/01/2007 | Filed under Design > How we built
Miniclip is one of the web’s largest online gaming sites with 30 million users a month. Founder Robert Small tells us what it’s like to build a site where 98 per cent of users are on broadband
.net: What is Miniclip and how did the site come about?
RS: The company was set up in 2001 when my business partner and I had the idea of creating a high quality online entertainment brand that would rival what companies like MTV, Disney, Warner Bros had created offline. We knew that as people’s lives got busier, and broadband penetration increased, people would expect easily accessible bit-sized entertainment on demand.
Initially, we developed topical games and animations, normally based on political figures such as George Bush and Tony Blair. Games like Bush Shoot- Out, Dancing Bush and Bush Aerobics had hundreds of millions of gameplays and helped to publicise the Miniclip brand globally. As we started to attract a larger and more diverse audience, we added more games to broaden the appeal of the site.
Another early strategy was to provide other webmasters with a suite of high-quality games that they could use on their own websites. This was a successful strategy, as our games are syndicated on more websites than any other.
.net: What have you added to it recently and why?
RS: Miniclip started as an online gaming website, and as our audience grew globally, and with more than 98 per cent of our users on broadband, we were able to plug in other entertainment channels, including a new cartoon channel. Our new channels have been popular with our existing gamers. We’ve been very encouraged by the initial traffic numbers they’ve generated thus far. We’ve also released other language versions of our website, including Italian, Portuguese, Korean and Chinese, to complement the Spanish, French and German versions we offered with the 2006 site relaunch.
.net: Who are your users?
RS: Our core demographic are young people between 13 and 18, though our broad range of games means we have users of all ages, from 13 to 80. We find that our puzzle and learning games attract a slightly older audience than the action and adventure games. Our audience is chatty, regularly recommending games to friends at school or college, and using IM, SMS, email and blogs. This has helped us grow our user base organically and with no advertising costs.
.net: What influenced the design?
RS: We relaunched our newly designed website in July 2006. This was built from the ground up with a focus on making it easier to navigate and more intuitive to use. A lot of the updates came from user suggestions, whose requests were incorporated into the new site. The main features of the new site include Game Search, a favourite games list, recently played games, more detailed support and FAQs, RSS feeds and optional full games/section lists on every page.
As our users wanted to recommend games to their friends, we added three different methods of sharing games: via email, with IM, and a copy/paste feature for blogs and websites.
Another factor that influenced the redesign was that we wanted to offer an enhanced environment for advertisers. We developed a new, innovative range of advertising formats, including rich media overlays, pre-roll video, homepage takeovers and our unique ‘Advergame’ buzz campaigns.
.net: What tools were used to create it and how were they applied?
RS: The new website has our own custom-made CMS. PHP enables us to easily move content around the site, add new games and optimise performance. The vast majority of our games and animation content is made with Flash and Shockwave.
.net: What was the design process you went through?
RS: Our aim with the redesign was to improve the user’s experience and help them locate what they wanted as fast as possible. The first stage of the design process involved establishing exactly what content we wanted to incorporate into the new site. Once we had this, we consulted users to find out what features and enhancements they wanted. At this stage, we also spoke to advertisers to establish what types of advertising formats they most wanted.
Various visual concepts were sketched up and discussed. And new features and routes of navigation were drawn up, which were then consolidated into a single design. We also ran usability tests on the design, which was modified and optimised before a final layout was decided on. The final stage of this process was to build and code the templates and feed them into our CMS, which was then propagated with all the games.
.net: The online hosted content marketplace is crowded. How will Miniclip cope in the future?
RS: We have some cutting-edge projects in the pipeline that we expect to continue the massive growth we’ve enjoyed over the last five years. Miniclip is unique among online content providers in the sense that our content is interactive and exciting vs passive types of old-style content, such as video or news. Also, 50 percent of users in the US are still on slow connections and not able to access our website. As broadband connections are rolled out across America and other countries, it will dramatically increase our user base.
.net: What’s your favourite game on the site?
RS: Commando. It’s a retro-style shoot-‘em-up themed around World War II. I also like the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest game, which was created to coincide with the official release of the film on DVD.
Visit Miniclip.com online!
To read the rest of the feature and more, go grab a copy of the February issue of .net, on sale now!
Comments
king / 17/01/2007 / 12:29
mm
Ollos / 18/01/2007 / 13:24 / http://www.Freewebs.com/keps/
HAHAHA What?
michael / 19/01/2007 / 17:09
good article
Steve Dyke / 19/01/2007 / 22:25 / http://www.boxedarcade.com
An inspiration to many, especially us at BoxedArcade.com
Rob / 19/01/2007 / 23:51 / http://www.bigducky.com
Mini Clip basically made their niche on the backs of other webmasters
Zeezac / 20/01/2007 / 03:48 / http://freewebs.com/zeezac2
I would like to ask Miniclip about something...I acessed a game called Roly-Poly and there was no game and my other never worked the same since.
Also, Miniclip isn't supposed to have Runescape on their websit, Runescape.com it says that you may only log on to runescape on runescape.com
TRY TA GET OUTA THAT!!!
John / 20/01/2007 / 04:24 / http://www.fastgamer.com
Miniclip has always been one of my favorite sites.
Miniclip opened the doors for a lot of us small guys and as miniclip grows it helps to pull the rest of us up with them.
Keep it up guys!
Perry / 20/01/2007 / 16:58
Good article and a good site! Visit it many times daily and try not to miss a day...keep up the good work Miniclip.
kvin / 21/01/2007 / 11:24 / http://kbbqruebgvhvru4y
minniclip is the BEST WEBSITE EVER AND CLUB PUGUWIN GAME IS THE BEST GAME IN THE WORALD/.................................................................................................................................LOL I NEED TO POOP NOW BYE poop is the BEST.....................................LOL
Jessa / 22/01/2007 / 02:20
hi wats up
Aaron / 22/01/2007 / 18:44 / http://www.aoddesign.co.nr
I've been usin' Miniclip! since it's birth, usin' a dial-up connection in the beginin, and now usin' broadband and trust me, I've used it in the most remote parts of the world too. It's a great site even till date, vary stable and has never let me down.
Steven H / 22/01/2007 / 20:34 / http://www.apex.co.nr
Personally I'm an Adobe Flash designer, web designer, and a programmer.
I noticed that many (in fact, most) of the top games in history of Miniclip are not created by Miniclip. Instead they were made by other websites and companies. Such games include:
• HelliAttack series (by SquareCircle Co.)
• RuneScape (by JaGex Ltd.)
• Many games from www.neodelight.com
These are only a few examples, I wonder if Miniclip actually owns the copyright to all the games on the website and was allowed to modify, distribute, or sell them to other webmasters without legal concents from the creators everytime?
P.S. - By modify, I meant adding the Miniclip logo at the beginning of every game on the website. By distribute, I meant the free distribution of games to other webmasters for uses on their websites.
DB / 23/01/2007 / 12:59 / http://www.thisisstockton.co.uk
In talking about the site design - I do like it, it seems easy to use and very user friendly.
Kanilho / 24/01/2007 / 22:24 / http://kanilho.deviantart.com
Well, Miniclip is surely the best gaming site around, and, one thing they forgot to comment on the interview was that the forum has A LOT of ppl in it, and they must have about 1k posts every single day
Mal / 29/01/2007 / 13:17 / http://www.magsite.co.uk
Its always been friendly and fun. Great break filler when on lunch at work
bluebell / 24/02/2007 / 18:55
i luv miniclip its great i luv club penguin
Rune Fan / 04/03/2007 / 16:05 / http://www.fruitcakes.com
Miniclip is allowed to have runescape. if you go onto runescape.com it states that you can only log on to runescape from the site AND pther trusted sites.
Go to runescape.com/miniclip
Alyssa / 17/03/2007 / 22:23 / http://America Online
Cool
Zeezac / 20/03/2007 / 00:56 / http://zeezac.brightforums.com
Well actually, thats Club PEnguin your thinking about Rune Fan! Runescape CLEARLY states when you need to log on to forums, in box mail, etc, that you may ONLY play RS on http://runescape.com/
NICE TRY, BUT ZEEZAC IS THE INTERNET GUY!
baby girl / 22/03/2007 / 20:33
miniclip is cool
Arcade Temple / 26/03/2007 / 02:12 / http://www.arcadetemple.com
MiniCip is a pioneer in the arcade industry; we at ArcadeTemple can only hope to parallel you folks' status some day.
Ben / 11/04/2007 / 02:42 / http://www.hookahgames.com/
Interesting article, I wonder how many of the games were created by miniclip if any. In my experience it is really hard to find fun games without having to create them yourself.
nadir / 14/04/2007 / 13:11
the game HOt rods it doesn't work correctly, problems flash, why can i do?
pete / 18/04/2007 / 11:39
Hot Rods is built with shockwave not flash.
btw. talking of bugy games, Commando doesn't work properly because the dev team used lazy/undoc'd code for their mouse presses... school boy error!
Will / 20/04/2007 / 19:40 / http://www.freewebs.com/wishiwasrich
cool article i love miniclip all the games are superb!!!!!!!!!!!
arnoud / 23/04/2007 / 20:39 / http://www.freegamesjungle.com
Miniclip is a great website
Tyler Lalliss / 26/04/2007 / 00:44 / http://Puffle club
i want to contact the makers of club penguin because, i want to make a new club, it`s called club puppy.
So please contact me my email is,slalliss@satx.rr.com
frederick / 06/05/2007 / 07:58
hi, I working on creating the world best website best rouneded company, and I need help. I am currently making a social network website, I want to talk to the owner of miniclip, please rech me at mrfredjohn@yahoo.com
Grant / 16/05/2007 / 01:18 / http://ultimatesite.wetpaint.com
I remember the first time I came to this website,play'd bush shoot out over and over again.
Sat there eating snickers bars.yumm.
watching this site grown,link'n these games to my site.
Life is good with miniclip,Keep it up the good work guys your doing great.
Henry / 09/06/2007 / 11:22 / http://henryshomemade.googlepages.com
Miniclip have never let me down,
visit my site at http://henryshomemade.googlepages.com
Miniclip may put the games on my website onto thier website and they DO have permission from me!
Aaron / 12/06/2007 / 11:43 / http://www.aoddesign.com/
Still lovin' Miniclip! Love Heli attack 3, and the toons bring back ma kindergarden memories. :)
Jonas Haezebrouck / 11/07/2007 / 11:43 / http://www.jonas-online.be
I read much bad comments concerning the website of miniclip.
But I am certain that all these persons visit regularly this site,
and enjoying its many options.
Infact I find mini clip still one of the best gamesite's in the world, large choice and the most inportant user-friendly.
Keep on the good work!
Jonas
Andreas / 12/07/2007 / 14:58 / http://www.spiele-zone.de/
Miniclip.com is one of the best and most professional gaming sites world-wide. You won´t find any other gaming site with such amazing and interesting games.
I wish Miniclip all the best for future. Great interview. Thanks!
Mike P / 25/07/2007 / 04:51 / http://mikeprestonvoiceovers.co.uk
Mini Clip is a top, top website. I've been getting enjoyment since back in 2001, fav games have gotta be the sports, Tennis Ace and Table Tennis particular favourites, keep up the good work!
Bernd / 02/09/2007 / 11:16 / http://www.netzfind.de
Miniclip is my site for coffee break I love the Games.
Miniclip Rules, Keep it up!
RC / 29/09/2007 / 21:24
Miniclip is great, and being an online game site means that their games are cross platform! There games work on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, as well as some being compatible with the Wii and PS3. PS: There is full PS3 support if you run Linux... This basically shows there are ways of making cross platform games!
Brandon / 12/10/2007 / 05:07 / http://www.enchantedgames.net
This is what you call the "Mother" of all gaming sites. They are definitely an inspiration. Keep it up... like you always did.
Ben / 29/10/2007 / 03:34 / http://www.benkrull.com/
Miniclip is one of my favorite gaming sites. Thanks for the interview.
Redmondian / 17/11/2007 / 05:11
I reckon Miniclip should go public. Its share prices could be absolutely fantastic - Miniclip could be the new Google!
chalapathi / 27/11/2007 / 08:27
yes, so it very beautiful site when ever i used to get free time i used to login the same
thank's and keep it up.
CakeEater / 13/12/2007 / 01:17
I've been using Miniclip for years!
liliana barrientos / 15/12/2007 / 01:05
Miniclip is the best website ever .Miniclip rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
RealTaken Admin / 19/12/2007 / 15:28 / http://www.realtaken.com
I love miniclip but why don't you try out my game website at www.realtaken.com
I am the CEO and founder of RealTaken. RealTaken were founded on 14/10/07 and we are still designing our website to make it better for you. So play our great games at www.realtaken.com. Tell your mates!
Donnie Toppings / 19/12/2007 / 21:19
I have played MiniClip ever since it came out
Michael Rad / 19/12/2007 / 22:53 / http://www.cartitans.com
Redmondian, I agree. The online gaming scene is growing by the hour and miniclip seems to be EVERYWHERE!!
Joe / 20/12/2007 / 03:08 / http://www.bibleminis.com
Hi great site! I'm hoping to add our title bibleminis found at www.bibleminis.com. To it! Just a fun puzzle game about biblical events. It has tons of animation that would be a good fit for the miniclips site!! My favorite game on the miniclips site is the one with the lil blue ninja character.
Cheers!
ALKEM / 21/12/2007 / 18:54
Vraiment,miniclip est incomparable comme jeux c,est le meilleurs,beaucoup de choix ,belle couleur,rapide etc (bravo)on ne peut s'en passer merci . AL
ahmed malik / 23/12/2007 / 12:09 / http://1234567
i wanna play the game
Toxinstudios.com CEO / 15/01/2008 / 07:47 / http://www.Toxinstudios.com
Wow yer that is an insperation!
I think Miniclip is going at its best and hope it expands in the future !
And also thanks for sharing this article it just made me want to go further here at www.Toxinstudios.com as i also host great killing and shooting games, check it out if you have 5 secs! :)
Thanks
Toxinhead
Stephen / 01/02/2008 / 20:05
Miniclip has the perfect combination. It not only has a great selection of games and clean site design which draw people in but also has regularly updated content to keep people there. It also does not stuff your screen with adverts like many other game sites do.
pdhdksh / 05/02/2008 / 23:05
Mini clip is awesome if you canget to it
Why can't I get to it ?
ERP / 17/02/2008 / 00:56
Other sites have Runescape illegally. Not just Miniclip. I wouldn't dare log on on them.
FurniFind / 02/04/2008 / 06:08 / http://www.FurniFind.com
I used to work for a gaming company that had a relationship with MiniClip. Rob Small is a stand up guy who has worked hard to build a fantastic business from scratch. I believe a key to their success has been their consistent addition of quality content and their attention to elegant design. Kudos to Rob.
Collin LaHay / 05/04/2008 / 21:12 / http://mixedmarketarts.com
Miniclip made a lot of boring classes in school fun! :-)
Mike Lawson / 08/04/2008 / 14:31 / http://www.trcreative.co.uk
Fantastic time killing website. Would love access to the CMS to see how it ticks!
Robin Vencel / 15/04/2008 / 02:12 / http://www.pencilkids.com
Yes, Miniclip is real quality, compared to some other gaming websites out there. I hope one day I can develop my own site www.pencilkids.com to even half the level of miniclip. Great stuff!
mandy jackson / 22/05/2008 / 15:34
club penguin rocks and the minimees can be so cute sometimes....lol
kyle / 22/05/2008 / 22:03
We need to be able to sign in
ashaly / 23/05/2008 / 00:05
i just love this website best game ever im pinkypie 07 in club penguin and most of all love seeing new sites so contact me
clio / 29/05/2008 / 14:50
i just love this website best game in club penguin and most of all love seeing new sites so contact me
Matt / 18/06/2008 / 14:00 / http://www.grintdesign.co.uk
Miniclip's new design really is great.
Iris / 10/07/2008 / 12:05 / http://www.profashion-models.at
I remember the first time I came to this website,play'd bush shoot out over and over again.
Sat there eating snickers bars.yumm.
watching this site grown,link'n these games to my site.
Life is good with miniclip,Keep it up the good work guys your doing great.
Bernd / 15/07/2008 / 05:14 / http://www.urkundenvorlagen.com
Its always been friendly and fun. keep up the good work Miniclip.
Günther / 16/07/2008 / 07:51 / http://www.gugl.at
Well, Miniclip is surely the best gaming site around, and, one thing they forgot to comment on the interview was that the forum has A LOT of ppl in it, and they must have about 1k posts every single day
bass / 18/07/2008 / 11:50
i wish miniclip was back i mean players mode so please bring it back cause miniclip rocks and is cool
THANKS
George Iansen / 26/07/2008 / 23:36 / http://www.gameslodge.com
Bush shoot out was real popular back then....
I love miniclip.com because they develop and sponsor new games all the time so online game addicts .... like me :D... have what to do at work everyday :P.
Thanks guys. Keep up the good work.
Dage / 31/07/2008 / 23:49 / http://miniclip.com/
Zeezac, you ARE correct.........when you click RuneScape link on miniclip, it brings you to a link on the runescape site....
