What Is an Advergame? Types, Metrics and a Fast Template Route
A plain definition, the six common kinds of advergame, how to rebrand a finished game in days instead of months, and what to count once it is live.
An advergame is a game made to promote a brand, product or message, where the brand is part of the game itself rather than an ad shown around it. The player chooses to spend a few minutes with your logo, colours or product, and that attention is the point. This guide stays practical: the kinds of advergame that exist, how to make one quickly from a ready game, and what to measure.
We are a game studio that has sold templates since 2013, including on CodeCanyon as the author polargames. Everything said here about our games comes from their item pages and manuals. We name no brand campaigns, because we would rather not repeat stories we cannot check.
Advergame: a working definition
Three things make a game an advergame. It is commissioned or adapted by the brand. The brand shows up inside the play: in the art, the characters, the objects or the words. And it has a job, such as launching a product, keeping a campaign page alive or giving people a reason to stop at a stand.
Two nearby ideas are often mixed up with it. In-game advertising places an ad inside someone else's game, like a banner in a racing game, and the game belongs to the publisher, not to the brand. Gamification adds points, badges or levels to something that is not a game, such as a loyalty app. An advergame is a whole game, and the brand owns or licenses it.
Six types of advergame
We group them by how the brand enters the game. The type you pick decides how much of the game has to change, and so how fast and how expensive it gets.
1. Skin on a known mechanic
A familiar game, such as stacking, block puzzles or solitaire, dressed in the brand's colours, logo and title. Players need no tutorial, and the work is mostly art and text. This is the fastest type to make from a template.
2. Product as the hero
The product becomes the ball, the piece or the character. Think of a drink can as the object you stack, or a mascot that guides the player. It needs new artwork and a check that the new shapes still fit the rules.
3. Your own content
The mechanic stays and the words change: a word search with words from your category, trivia about your product, clues that mention your launch. The brand speaks through the content. Word and trivia games make this cheap, because their lists live in data files.
4. Sponsorship placement
A sports or table game where the sponsor owns the venue: the stadium board, the table cloth, the course. It suits sports brands and match-day campaigns.
5. Habit game
A small game with a daily puzzle or a daily challenge on a brand site or app, built to bring people back. It works when the brand wants repeat visits more than a single burst.
6. Event game
A short game on a touch screen at a stand or a launch, where people play in front of others. Rounds must be short, rules obvious and the reset quick. We cover the hardware side in a separate guide on kiosks.
How to make an advergame fast from a template
Building a game from scratch means design, art, code and testing before anyone plays. Starting from a finished game removes most of that: the rules work, the levels exist and the game already runs on phones and desktops. Your work becomes rebranding and checking. Here is the order we suggest.
- Pick the type first, then the game. A skin needs a mechanic people already know; your own content needs a word or trivia game with data files; a sponsorship needs a sports game.
- Play the live demo on the devices your audience uses. Refunds stop once you download (unless the template has a defect we cannot fix), so decide before you download.
- Read the item page section called Customise it. It says which changes are a text-file edit and which need a rebuild with Node.js and npm.
- Collect the brand kit: logo files, colour values, the title, texts in every language you need and any audio you have the right to use.
- Change one element at a time and reload after each change. Keep IDs and save keys stable unless the manual says otherwise.
- Upload the game folder to a static host, on the campaign domain or a subfolder, and test it at phone width.
- Put your measurement around the game before launch day (next sections).
For a skin on a known mechanic with a settings file, most of the time goes into the art and the approvals, not the code. A product-as-hero version takes longer, because new shapes and sprites have to be drawn and tested against the rules.
Your brand kit, before you touch the game
Rebranding goes fast when everything is ready before the first edit. Collect this list first; it is the same whatever game you choose.
- Logo files in the sizes and formats the manual asks for, with a transparent background.
- Colour values (hex codes) for the main colour, the accent and the background.
- The game title as players should see it, and the browser tab title.
- Every text the player reads, in each language you publish.
- Music, effects and fonts you have the right to distribute, or a decision to keep the bundled ones.
- A unique save name for this game, so it never mixes progress with another game on your domain.
Which of these change with a text editor and which need a rebuild depends on the edition. Tenguin, for example, keeps title, logo path and accent colour in a settings file with no rebuild. Our separate guide to branded game examples maps each format to its files.
See Tenguin and its settings file
What to measure in an advergame
Our editions ship no analytics, forms or tracking: progress stays in the player's browser and the games make no calls to tracking services. That is good for privacy reviews, but it means measurement is something you add on the page that holds the game, with your own analytics tool and your own consent notice.
Decide the numbers before launch. A short list beats a dashboard nobody reads:
- Reach: visits to the game page, and where they came from (campaign links, QR codes, social posts).
- Start rate: of the people who reached the page, how many pressed play. A low number points to the page, not the game.
- Time with the brand: time on the game page is a rough but honest proxy.
- Return visits: if you chose a habit game, people coming back on later days is the result that matters.
- Action after play: clicks on the button next to the game, coupon codes used, sign-ups on your own form.
Sending events from inside the game, such as level finished or score reached, means editing the source. Your developer can do it with the readable code, or we can quote it as custom work.
When a custom advergame makes more sense
A template is the fast route when a game you like already exists. Ask for a custom game when the product has to change the rules (not just the look), when you need accounts, a shared ranking or events sent to your analytics, or when the brief calls for a game nobody has made yet.
We take commissioned projects with the client's brand. Scope, price and timing are agreed in a quote; we do not publish a price list for custom work. Send the goal, the audience, where the game will be published, the brand kit, the languages and the deadline.
Ask for a quote for a custom game
Licence, white label and invoices
- One purchase gives a perpetual licence for one end product, yours or one client's. Another campaign product or another client needs another licence.
- White label is allowed: your brand replaces ours. Third-party notices, such as font licences, stay with the product.
- You may change the code, art and audio inside your product, but not resell the template or its code on its own.
- Support lasts 6 months, or 12 with the extension at checkout, and covers installing, using and fixing reproducible defects. Customisation is quoted separately.
- A Brazilian nota fiscal on request, or an invoice for buyers abroad. Each licence comes with a certificate your client can check online.
Until 30 November 2026 a Black Friday promotion takes 15% off every template; from 1 December prices return to list. Buying several templates in one order adds a bundle discount (5% for 2, up to 20% for 5 or more), applied after the promotion.
FAQ
What is an advergame?
A game made to promote a brand, product or message, where the brand is part of the play: its colours, characters, objects or words. It differs from in-game advertising, which places an ad inside someone else's game.
What are some types of advergames?
The common kinds are a brand skin on a known mechanic, the product as the hero, games built on the brand's own content (words or trivia), sponsorship placements in sports games, daily habit games and short event games for touch screens.
How long does it take to make an advergame?
From scratch, it is a full game project. From a template, the game already works, so the time goes into art, texts, approvals and testing. A skin with a settings file is the fastest case; new characters or rules take longer.
Do your games collect player data or leads?
No. As shipped, progress stays in the player's browser and the games call no tracking services. Forms, coupons and analytics go on the page around the game, added by you.
Can an agency use one template for several brands?
No. One licence covers one end product for one client. An agency running the same game for two brands buys two licences, and the bundle discount helps when they are in the same order.
Are advergames only for big brands?
No. A rebranded template costs from $5 to $59 at list price, plus your own time or your developer's. The bigger cost is usually the art and the campaign around the game.