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[Arowx]

I think by Fad you mean technological fashion, and yes everything changes.

I can guarantee that I will earn something, the problem is how to make enough to turn game development into a living, hence my challenge!

I use Unity and using it I can build games for the Web*, PC, Mac, Android, iOS so the the question is given my limited skill set (see games), timeline, and low budget where should I focus my very limited resources?

*Althoough it sounds like my Kongregate based web games might not be working can anyone else confirm this My Kongregate Games and let me know on Kongregate please not here via Kongregates bug reporting tool, thank you?

[tametick]

Works for me.

[Paul Eres]

i think unity is a respectable tool, but i'd encourage you to try to make more than web games with unity, instead make downloadable games that people can buy -- one reason for that is that unity web games require a browser plug-in which is not widespread, whereas unity downloadable games don't require that, another reason is that you can't sell web games (although you can put the demo on the web, which can be helpful, as with vvvvvv's demo)

i'd also encourage you to work with others; don't try to make games alone and do everything yourself. get an artist, get a musician, etc., and give them a % of sales. it may seem like you have to earn more money to make up for that, but talent is multiplicative: it's far easier to make $100,000 with a team of 5 people than it is to make $20,000 by one person working alone

[mirosurabu]

I'm not sure what Paul is talking about. Flash games do connect developers with players. Of course, if you treat games as if they are distractions you'd get no following, but that's certainly not unique to flash games. It has nothing to do with web platform itself.

The disadvantage of flash sponsorship is that sponsors want to invest in games that have a lot of viral potential. A niche game, by definition, has no viral potential. So, if you make a very good niche game and try to sell it to sponsors you'd get less money than a generic tower defense clone would. Consequently, a niche game would get less interest from flash players, but that's also stemming from the nature of these games. So these virality-based models don't quite work with niche games.

[Paul Eres]

i meant in terms of the players and the dev not having to go through a third-party (such as a portal) in order to communicate with one another. to me, people posting on a game's forums on a game developer's website or exchanging emails with the developer is much more community-interactive than exchanging comments on a flash portal comments section

and, as mentioned, with flash portals, when you release a new game, there's no way to contact all the people who played your previous games and tell them about your new one, so you don't really get as many long-term fans who follow your work

[Arowx]

OK lots of conflicting views appearing this is my plan complete the little game HMS Lightning, release it on Kongregate, port it to Andoid, IOS, Mac and PC and see how it does on each platform, reveal the sales stats on my blog.

So if you support a platform what can I do to maximise sales of HMS Lightning on that platform?

Video of HMS Lightning the game - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8Sa7xmkPzw

Beta version on Kongregate - http://www.kongregate.com/games/Arowx/hms-lightning-beta2

[mirosurabu]

and, as mentioned, with flash portals, when you release a new game, there's no way to contact all the people who played your previous games and tell them about your new one, so you don't really get as many long-term fans who follow your work

You don't have to limit yourself to flash portals. If you have a blog (or a forum), these people will find you and follow you. Take a look at this. Sponsors don't mind that so as long you don't compete with them (i.e. you are not trying to become a flash portal), so it's pretty much the same as with downloadable games.

Saying you can't build a fanbase through flash portals is like saying you can't build fanbase via YouTube.

[Paul Eres]

i wouldn't want to rely on players finding my site -- it seems like that'd happen only with a tiny fraction of players

but i'm not saying it's impossible, just harder. the youtube analogy is good though: on youtube, people give up a lot of control, which is why a lot of popular youtube personalities first release videos on other sites where they have more control, and put trailers on youtube linking to those sites (ask a ninja, angry videogame nerd, etc.) -- e.g. james rolfe uses youtube to build up a community at cinemassacre

[mirosurabu]

With downloadable games, your players find you through reviews on various websites and word of mouth. With flash games they find you through reviews on various websites, word of mouth and flash portals. That's hardly giving up control to me.

Now whether you release on flash portals before taking the other approach is a different question.

[Paul Eres]

yeah but the issue is not how they find you, but how they find you again -- the retention rate. i still think downloadable games have a greater retention rate than flash games do, mainly because of email. when i release my next game i can email everyone who bought my previous game about it. when you release your next flash game you can't really email everyone who played your previous flash games about it

[Christian Knudsen]

To add to what Paul is saying, I also imagine Flash game players are a lot more casual than for downloadable games -- meaning they're even less interested in "following" a developer.

[Golds]

Paul, in 50 years you'll be in your 80's.  Direct sales are fine, but services like Steam and the Mac App store put your game in front of a large audience that are ready and willing to buy games.  I wouldn't dismiss that so flippantly.

Besides, there is nothing preventing you from building a game and selling it on your site through a payment processor like plimus, while also making it available on services like Steam, various App Stores, XBLIG, etc.

The most important first step for this guy is to just start finishing games, of any scope.

[Arowx]

Once I get a trailer out that people stop complaining about, note to self don't get side tracked!

Revamped trailer any typos?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcyYQM-gSI

[Paul Eres]

Paul, in 50 years you'll be in your 80's.  Direct sales are fine, but services like Steam and the Mac App store put your game in front of a large audience that are ready and willing to buy games.  I wouldn't dismiss that so flippantly.

i'm not sure how you see what i said as dismissing them -- i've made a flash game and have used game portals (direct2drive, impulse, reflexive) too, so it's not like i'm saying never to use them

what i said was that those things should be secondary tools, not relied on as one's primary business, and that the important long-term thing is building up your own site, community, audience, etc., and not relying on third-party sites/publishers/distributors, because if those decide to push you away and you are relying only on them you can't really do anything

just like if youtube decides to delete all your videos due to some random copyright claim, for instance: then someone who relied on youtube for their income would be out of luck, whereas someone who had an audience outside of youtube on an external site that they own would still have  their audience

and of course i'll be 80, and i'll still be making games in my 80s, and probably using the same website i do now, and have some of the same players i do now

[Alistair Aitcheson]

I think the best way to do things would be to have a browser version that you can easily port another platform such as desktop or mobile. A licensing deal from a portal is all well and good, but there's effectively a cap on your revenue from licensing, and it's getting lower and lower. It might be harder to guarantee an income from, say, iOS sales, but there's no cap on how much you can make from them. Which is why it's important, in my opinion, to be selling copies of your games rather than just licenses. But a web-based demo is a perfect way to get people interested without money or even downloading being a barrier.

In terms of building up a fanbase and a community, I don't think a personal website/forum is really going to cut it - especially in just a year. It's easier to join a community than to build one from scratch, it's so easy to connect with people through networks such as twitter. Having that 1-to-1 contact without having to have anyone sign up to anything (getting people to sign up to email newsletters etc. is a barrier to engagement imho) is important. Make a blog and put up interesting content - try to give something to an existing community rather than building up one of your own. Try to make friends with some games press and bloggers by offering up content and articles that might interest them.

If you have a flash game which has a link to your twitter profile then that's a pretty hassle-free way to engage a community via flash games.