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[Tumetsu]

There has been some topics about FGL I have read recently and in many of them there has been talk about how one should "cater the current whims" of the market to be able to succeed (or even sell anything). Other than that and few links I haven't seen much discussion what is the state of the market now, what is "in" right now etc.

Personally I'm getting grasp of Flashpunk and I have though about trying to make a game in summer and try FGL and so am interested in what would be ideal project to take and I'm sure I'm not the only one. That's why I'm asking if someone inside the market could share some insights into this industry.

So far I'm aware of at least these "principles":
- 30 second orgasm
- Casual gameplay seems to be preferred
- Development time shouldn't be much over a month if you want to get some profit
- Not every game is good for FGL

So what are other general tips one should be aware if they want to try their hand in Flash game market? What game genres seem to be most popular right now? Is there any good resources where one could investigate these kinds of things, other than probably FGL forums (have registered but not really explored yet)?

[moi]

on the market (ie: for money) of flash games there are two types of games: the ones that earn money(exploitationware) and the rest (shovelware)

[genericlogin]

Other things:

• Upgrades (weapons, armor, damage, etc) <----- MUST HAVE
• Bronze, silver, gold medal for how well you do in each level (hook for OCD people)
• Enemy kills must translate into gold/coins/currency of choice (you need them for your upgrades)
• Achievements
• Items unlocking by achievement
• Hard levels meant to challenge nerdcore gamers should also be made possible for casual player to beat by grinding for stronger items from previous easier levels
• More upgrades, even if just aesthetically
• Spend a lot of time optimizing the feel when bullets/knife/weapon of choice hit something, like blood splatter and deep bass + screen shaking, etc what have you

Most of the time awesome graphics are enough to get sponsored.

[bateleur]

I'm not an expert on this in any sense, but as a one-data-point observation: UpBot Goes Up got zero bids on FGL and then went on to score well on both Kongregate and Newgrounds, hit half a million plays inside two weeks and achieve an average play time of over 20 minutes (!!!).

Conclusion: Yes, there are definitely games that Flash gamers want to play but sponsors don't have confidence in.

[Triplefox]

Think of it like the most obnoxious banner ads where there are skeletons dancing over the 50 US states or "one weird old tip."

The point, in the average sponsor-mind, is to draw people in so they play for 5 seconds or so and then view or click on advertising. So the most important thing is not the game but the title, description, and icon. After that, it's how fast it loads. If the game is OK and brings players back, you have a shot at getting the biggest sponsor payouts, but the other stuff comes first. Sponsors have no idea how to judge virality, so you can't market your game to them on that.

Needless to say, if you want a strong Flash game development biz, you want to escape the sponsors and try for a premium model. This means either taking payments over the web to unlock features or a full version, or treating the free game as advertising for an App Store or console port. Robokill, Fantastic Contraption, Auditorium, and Windosill did the former; Canabalt, Solipskier, Line Rider all did the latter. As well, there are the even more numerous games going for the multiplayer + item store approach.

For a summer learning project, I would focus on making a strong free game that happens to satisfy the "sponsor instincts." If you want to be a real SEO-ing jerk about it, you can even put up an empty SWF on FGL, and claim 99% done, to research which titles and icons attract them the most.

Either way, you can premium-ize it later if you want by updating the game with a link to your own portal and a new version, since most sponsorships are non-exclusive and/or time-limited these days.

[Tumetsu]

Thanks for information everyone

@bateleur
Yeah, I have read about some similar cases here, though not that extreme and to me it is delighting that good games still have their chance on their own

@Triplefox
I hadn't thought it that way but what you say sounds reasonable to me. Taking micro payments is far beyond my reach for now since I think it takes some real time and resources to setup compared to what I have at the moment. If I ever get something worthwhile done, it would probably go to iOS direction like the examples you mentioned.

For a summer learning project, I would focus on making a strong free game that happens to satisfy the "sponsor instincts."

This is exactly what I thought about doing. I'd like to have some grasp of the things sponsors seem to like and make a game I want while trying to embed some of those things into it. If it will not sell I can just release it for free. Actually the thing I'm thinking about is to try my hand on this kind of thing, get some motivation from possible income and in ideal case actually get that income And of course learn some Flash

[Nix]

Just make a well-polished tower defense that has something to do with gems (or just has "gem" in the name), upload it Kongregate, and quit your day job because you'll have to spend all your time signing the backs of checks Kong mails you.

[Eraser]

I'm at a point where I'd like to play with flash as well and have already begun prototyping a casual game concept. What I'm wondering is if it would be better to attempt sponsorship or just release on kongregate for a first game... I'm afraid of spending time and money and just being one of those 1-2000 plays games, in which I doubt I would make back any money. Ah well, I'll continue reading articles on flash games.

[Nix]

Most sponsors want you to release on kong and newgrounds. Some require it. It wouldn't hurt to at least try to get a sponsorship, because you will almost certainly be able to upload to kong either way.

[beno]

The secret to getting a good bid on FGL is really simple:  Multiple cashed up sponsors have to want your game.

That means either the game is going to mesh well with their audience (worth a little), with a much wider audience outside their website (worth more), or both (worth most).    If your game is a poor fit for Armor, NotDoppler, SPIL & the other biggies then you will straight away be stuck with a best case scenario of smaller sponsors who're antsy about dropping more than a couple grand on a game.

You have to be mindful of their licensing habits particularly, this is the easiest way you can guarantee you don't get good bids - if you're going to go gory then SPIL are not going to bid on your game, if you're making your game too girly then Armor, ArcadeBomb etc won't.  Some decisions automatically disqualify you from certain sponsors before they even consider your game, so keep them in mind as you make them.

[jack_norton]

I'm not an expert of flash but wanted to warn people that is not so easy like it was a few years ago to get sponsorships to your games. Yes the quality bar has raised even for flash games 

[mirosurabu]

It's really just a basic causal game development common sense. You need to take care of the following: hook, theme, presentation, art, difficulty curve and content distribution.

Hook. The most interesting part of your game should be the very start of it and, if possible, the very end of it. Between these two interest points you can go up and down as you wish, so as long you don't repeat yourself.

Theme. Make sure your game has an interesting theme. If you're going to make a puzzle game, you gonna struggle with this one. Make sure you match the theme with gameplay i.e. girl themes don't go with shooters. Some sponsors have high confidence in certain themes (Armor likes medieval, Spil likes girl themes etc).

Presentation. Set the expectations for what's to come. In tight relation with previous two.

Art. Related to theme. Generally, sponsors have lower confidence in lo-fi pixel art. Girls only like shiny stuff.

Difficulty curve. Do low-raising one. Don't make your game too hard or else it will kill your game (yikes, casual folks).

Content distribution. Make sure you have new/different content every now and then. Keeps the interest curve from dipping too low. Do try and objectively evaluate whether two pieces of content are distinct enough! Do not deviate too much from the theme. Upgrade shops are the easiest (but also the lamest) solution to this problem.

That's pretty much it, as common sense as it sounds. Some people think that upgrade shops are a must, but I disagree.

The easiest way for you would be to take existing flash game and expand or put a twist on it.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention accessibility. Basically, controls should be as simple as possible. Make sure you have instruction screen before players start new game regardless of how simple instructions might be.

[Tumetsu]

Thanks again for replies! They have given me lots of thinking about!

Something I'm interested yet is where to look about these tid bits of what certain sponsors like. Here is mentioned that Armor games prefers medieval settings and SPIL don't like gore etc. Is this information that has to be gathered by just hanging around in scheme long enough and is considered as general knowledge?
Another one which interests me is what seems to be current trend, or more precisely what genres are most popular? Since casual seems to be big word still, I think puzzles seem to be "in"? How about RPGs, platformers etc.? I have seen many tower defenses lately too. In the end I probably make whatever I like but it would be nice to know which kind of games seem to be popular now other than "casualish"

[mirosurabu]

You get that knowledge by working with sponsors. Though, you can also infer it by browsing their portals. It gets pretty obvious when you see tons of medieval stuff.

As for genres, according to FGL, RPG genre is the best paid genre. I'm not really sure about puzzles. In fact, I'm lacking confidence when it comes to puzzle genre, unless, we're talking about physics puzzles. Mouse-controlled games are more popular among sponsors as they tend to have better CTR (click-through rate). Other than that, I don't really know.

[Nix]

I think that Flash game players are losing interest in platformers.

[mirosurabu]

What about Exit Path? Or does that not count as platformer?

[Nix]

What about Exit Path? Or does that not count as platformer?

Some do fine, or even really well, but I think that it's harder to get really popular among players.

[mirosurabu]

It has over 10 millions on Armor Games though.
Faultline was just recently released and was well received.
Robot Wants series was quite popular too, though I'm not sure how viral it was.
Elephant Quest is a top action game on Kongregate.
Cactus McCoy got on Miniclip.
Then there are Fancy Pants series, The Company of Myself, Depict1 and lots of other ones.

It looks like it's still doing well.

[bateleur]

Elephant Quest is a top action game on Kongregate.

As well as being the single highest rated game of all time last time I checked!