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[Glaiel-Gamer]

No not for the developer. I see buckets and buckets of cash when I look at the mochicoins (microtransactions for flash games) service, especially once mochi makes it public and everyone and their grandma has a mochi account with coins to spend on it. Even simply doing an arcade style game (free to start the game, pay a quarter to continue when you lose) people will be like "it's only a quarter and I have spare mochicoins from that last purchase" and you WILL BE RICH* (*disclaimer: probably not).

It's not too bad right now when its in beta, but mochi will open it up to everyone soon enough the way they did with mochiads (that's the only way they'll be able to make significant money off of it). When they do, expect 99% of flash games (yes, even the good ones) to implement mochicoins horribly. You want to upgrade laser turret 2 in space defense? Well time to chalk up $1.99 US to do so! Here watch an ad while you enter your credit card information here.

Timmy, creator of space defense: "IM GONNA BUY AN XBOX WITH MY PROFITS!"

It won't just be the bad games that implement mochicoins though. I've seen plenty of good flash games completely mess up in implementing mochiads (such as popping them up in the middle of gameplay and keeping the score timer counting down while doing so).

But man, the profit potential is so tempting. I just don't know if I want to piss off my fans to do so.

[Melly]

In my next game, Kitty Defence, you'll be able to purchase new hats for your kitties, for just 2.99 a piece.

[Lyx]

Upgrade Complete - Reloaded

[Aquin]

I think if you have Mochi-ads pop up in the middle of a game...

well, sorry it's not a good game.  They may have a great premise and a decent execution, but it's certainly not a product I would recommend.

But I bet if you do it in a smart way, you can make a lot of money and not piss anyone off.

I dunno.  To be honest, I've never run into this Mochi service.  Clearly I don't play enough Flash games.  Where are you guys finding this stuff?

[Glaiel-Gamer]

I dunno.  To be honest, I've never run into this Mochi service.  Clearly I don't play enough Flash games.  Where are you guys finding this stuff?

Ever see a clorox commercial play before the flash game? That's a mochiad.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

mochi just assured me via twitter that the coins will stay premium (approval required). As long as that's the case and stays the case, I guess I'm happy.

[Aquin]

Um... I really have no idea what you're talking about.  It's weird, because I do play a lot of flash games.

Or at least... I used to.  Ever since Jayisgames started crashing my browser, I've stopped going to any of the sites in that bookmarks folder.

I'm so behind the times. 

[Lyx]

In case you're using firefox, that "crashing" probably was related to........ advertisers. Why? Because i'm using firefox with an adblocker, and haven't experienced crashes on that site.

Hmmmmmmm, about the whole micropayment thing.... We have arcades where you pay per play. We have full games which you pay completely for one time. We have small low-effort games for a low one-time price - but on the other thread, people are complaining that it locks out larger projects. On the other hand, it should be obvious that micropayment is an interesting route. Has anyone yet tried a "pay to unlock episode" model via micropayment? That way, a player would basically pay depending on how far he gets in the game.

[Aquin]

Nah, I'm using an Adblocker but the site still crashes.  I don't really know any other good websites that talk about new Flash games either.

I don't suppose you guys have some site that will keep me up-to-date on the latest Flash happenings?  I got a whole list of sites I read (like this one), but none of them really cover the Flash angle.

[AdamAtomic]

So they contacted me about this, and it sounds kinda cool from developer perspective, but I gotta say the amount of extra work to support something like this seems like a real pain in my ass?  I mean like figuring out what extra stuff to offer, going through and adding in all the support for it, figuring out how best to pitch that to the customers, etc.  And it all depends on how many people actually have accounts with mochi in the first place.  I dunno I definitely appreciate there being another option for getting revenue from flash games, and I totally appreciate them approaching me with a chance to test it, but as a game developer it just doesn't sound all that interesting I guess?  I dunno maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way...

* AdamAtomic makes note to self to add paypal support to flixel

[aeiowu]

So they contacted me about this, and it sounds kinda cool from developer perspective, but I gotta say the amount of extra work to support something like this seems like a real pain in my ass?  I mean like figuring out what extra stuff to offer, going through and adding in all the support for it, figuring out how best to pitch that to the customers, etc.  And it all depends on how many people actually have accounts with mochi in the first place.  I dunno I definitely appreciate there being another option for getting revenue from flash games, and I totally appreciate them approaching me with a chance to test it, but as a game developer it just doesn't sound all that interesting I guess?  I dunno maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way...

* AdamAtomic makes note to self to add paypal support to flixel

it's true it is. It's _really_ tough to make a game with microTX in mind since it can really end up making a lot of design decisions for you if shit is tied to gameplay. There's a lot to balance and I'm not comfortable with it. I'd rather keep it simple. I make a game, you pay me for making it. Period.

Unless of course you naturally have a game idea that works perfectly with selling pieces of stuff. Then go for it.

EDIT Actually... that arcade style thing might work great Glaiel. Why is that so bad?

[Melly]

A few possibilities for MT's I can imagine:

• Games that are made to be pretty much commercial, with you buying the right to play through the later levels of the game, with the free part as small as a demo.
• Meaningless cosmetic upgrades, even more so since most flash games aren't online and so you can't show off that you got so many greens to spend on your meaningless new virtual bling.
• In-game items/upgrades/accessories that improve your performance/give more options in the game. If it's online or has a competitive scoreboard it'd be fundamentally broken
• As an easy(?) way to accept donations

[Glaiel-Gamer]

EDIT Actually... that arcade style thing might work great Glaiel. Why is that so bad?

I'm going to try this actually when the fall conventions and deadlines are over. The first credit is always free. So you can restart as much as you like and not pay anything but continues will cost a quarter just like an arcade.

I'll tag a disclaimer on it to say it's to help raise money for closure development so people don't start hating on me.

[Aquin]

Damn, that's actually a really good idea!  Especially if it's possible to get really far on just one credit.  That'd make skill gamers go head-over-heels in love.

Would buying the number of credits be permanent or on a play-by-play basis?  ie. you buy 2 credits so now you always start with 3 even when you come back the next day?  In which case, it should probably cost more than a quarter.

Or not.  I dunno.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

Damn, that's actually a really good idea!  Especially if it's possible to get really far on just one credit.  That'd make skill gamers go head-over-heels in love.

Would buying the number of credits be permanent or on a play-by-play basis?  ie. you buy 2 credits so now you always start with 3 even when you come back the next day?  In which case, it should probably cost more than a quarter.

Or not.  I dunno.

I think people add mochicoins to their account, then use those to pay for microtransactions in all games using the service

I just need a decent enough shmup or run and gun game to do this with. Maybe a combination of the both.