- Total weight
- 120KB
- Requests
- 8
- External dependencies
- 0
- Frameworks
- 0
- HTML4 KB
- CSS1 KB
- JavaScript3 KB
- Fonts18 KB
- Images94 KB
Average website: 2,311 KB and 70 requests on mobile, according to HTTP Archive’s Web Almanac 2024.
Back to the portfolio
Website live · app in testing on Google Play
Gum It!Mobile game · Android
Blow your bubble-gum bubble, dodge buildings and go further than anyone
A free mobile game and, behind it, a complete product: a leaderboard, an economy of gums that can only be earned by playing, prize draws and its own platform where any business books and pays for its ads. A native Kotlin app, its own PHP and MySQL server and a website in seven languages, all built by me.
- languages in the game and website
- 7
- steps to publish an ad
- 4
- of net profits to social causes
- 10%
- a year to play ad-free
- €2.99
The product, inside
Real screenshots of the live website.
Advertiser platform
Format and impressions, ad upload, payment and review. Tiered pricing and the VAT summary are calculated live.
The website on mobile
Download, languages and access to the advertiser platform from the same home page.
Home page in seven languages
Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.
On mobile
The same website, adapted to every screen: real screenshots on a phone.
Measured in production
The gumit.net home page, measured on 4 November 2026 with the browser’s own tools.
- HTTP/3 + Brotli compression
- Zero third-party requests: no CDN, no analytics, no Google Fonts
- Security headers: HSTS, CSP, nosniff, X-Frame-Options, Referrer and Permissions
- Alt text on 100% of images (3/3)
- WebP images
- Fonts served from its own domain
- Sitemap with 7 URLs
- Full semantic structure: header, nav, main and footer
$ curl -sI https://gumit.net
HTTP/3 200
strict-transport-security: max-age=15552000
content-security-policy: upgrade-insecure-requests
x-content-type-options: nosniff
x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN
referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
permissions-policy: camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()
What it had to solve
The game is simple on purpose. The hard part is making it pay for itself without breaking a single rule.
Hooked in seconds
One-tap gameplay: one point per building passed, and the bubble pops if it touches one.
Self-funding
AdMob ads, its own ads sold to businesses, and a yearly subscription to play ad-free.
No pay-to-win
Gums cannot be bought: they are only earned by playing and are used to enter prize draws.
Play by the rules
Nothing that puts AdMob at risk, a minimum age of 14 and prize draws for adults only.
Ads with no manual work
Booking, payment, invoice and refund are automatic; review takes one click.
Give something back
10% of net profits goes to social causes.
Architecture: native app and its own server
The game is a native Android app. Everything that has to be reliable —leaderboard, economy, purchases and its own ads— goes through its own PHP and MySQL server.
| Layer | What is there | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| App | Game, menus, high scores and player account (Kotlin, native Android) | Hand-made |
| Server | Leaderboard, gum economy, purchases and prize draws (PHP) | Hand-made |
| Data | Players, scores, gums, draws and campaigns (MySQL) | Hand-made |
| Advertisers | Booking website, accounts and live statistics (PHP and JavaScript) | Hand-made |
| Payments | Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay (Stripe) | External service |
| Ads and store | AdMob ads and Google Play purchases | External service |
How an ad gets published
Format
Full-screen image or video, always vertical 9:16 and watched in full.
Impressions
Packs from 1,000 to 100,000,000 impressions: the more you buy, the lower the price per impression.
Upload
The advertiser uploads the ad at 1080 × 1920.
Payment
Card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through Stripe, with VAT calculated by country.
Review
Approve or reject in one click; a rejected ad is not charged.
Publishing
Automatic invoice and live statistics: reach, visits, country, age and time of day.
What it does
The features you can find on the website today.
- In closed testing
One-tap game
One point per building passed; if the bubble touches a building, it pops.
- In closed testing
High scores and leaderboard
Each player’s best score and their position on the list.
- In closed testing
Prize draws
Entered with gums earned by playing; adults only.
- In closed testing
Ad-free
A €2.99 yearly subscription.
- Live
Advertise platform
Four-step booking, tiered pricing and a live VAT summary.
- Live
Stripe payments
Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay; invoiced on approval and not charged if rejected.
- Live
Advertiser accounts
A dashboard with each ad, its status and live statistics.
- Live
Website in seven languages
Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.
- Live
Legal pages
Privacy, terms, prize-draw rules, advertising conditions and legal notice.
Challenges and how I solved them
Real problems from the project, the solution I applied and what it achieved.
Monetise without risking AdMob
- Problem
- A free game lives on advertising, and a single breach of AdMob’s rules can cut off that income.
- Solution
- Every decision is checked against AdMob’s rules, and its own ads use a single, clear format: full-screen, vertical and watched in full.
- Result
- Income from AdMob and from its own advertisers
Selling ads without checking payments
- Problem
- Bank transfers mean checking every payment by hand and delaying publication.
- Solution
- Automated Stripe payments, invoicing on approval and one-click review; a rejected ad is not charged.
- Result
- Zero payments to check by hand
Advertisers from anywhere
- Problem
- It sells to businesses and individuals in any country, and each one is taxed differently.
- Solution
- The price calculates VAT automatically from the advertiser’s country and shows it in the summary before paying.
- Result
- A clear final price before paying
Draws with real prizes
- Problem
- Real prizes change the game’s rating and what each country requires.
- Solution
- A minimum age of 14 to play and prize draws for adults only; distribution excludes the countries whose rating did not allow it.
- Result
- Prize draws within Google Play’s rules
Tech stack
- App
- Kotlin, native Android
- Server
- PHP, MySQL, own API
- Website
- HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, seven languages
- Payments
- Stripe: card, Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Monetisation
- AdMob, Google Play purchases and its own ads
- Hosting
- Hostinger
Try it live
The website and the advertiser platform are live. The app is in closed testing on Google Play ahead of its launch.
Shall we talk?
If you would like me to show you how it is built inside, or you are interested in my profile, write to me.
Or, if you prefer, another channel: