Hi
I got some requests to explain how the flash games businness works, or at least my thoughts and expeciences in the matter, as i did few things on it.
The PostmortemI've recently worked with flex\as3 on a game called
Darkbase, making also almost all the graphics.
The game did pretty well and it's featured on hundreds of portals, and it already spawned a sequel even if i left the team, with one more in the works.
We started prototyping the gameplay and doing a one level demo that looked almost polished as the final version of the game.
Then we contacted a bunch of flash games portals ( i think they were crazymonkey, armor games, miniclip and some more).
We mailed the demo plus a PDF file with a page with two or three screenshots and a nice description of the game features, all with a fancy layout.
After few days we got some anwers, but not *that* exciting how we would expect, it was the end of the month, next to halloween, and the portals already used their budget for new games, so they basically asked to send some more in few weeks. We anyway kept in touch with many of them, and if i remember well our manager guy managed to call someone at crazymonkey via phone, discovering they still weren't able to try the game... When one of the guys at that portal finally tried it they really liked it and we were able to sell our product.
After finishing the game they provided their logo and istructions about their score system, they were always fast and reliable after that episode so i gladly recommend them if you're searching for a sponsor.
It's really all about making your first steps in this world, if you manage to find a sponsor (and if your first game is good of course) you'll be able to send more and more stuff later on.
A thing I personally hate but it's really worth the hassle is making sequels. You can add features listening to what your users thinks about the game, and improve your original idea on the next episode, you'll also be able to build a sort of fanbase, or at least you'll find people that already played and enjoyed your game playing also the sequel for sure.
Last but not least: your sponsor will be very glad to accept sequels of a successful game. Basically: easy money for you, as you can focus more on making the gameplay interesting rather than coding the game engine, and more fun for your players.
For example, I must admit that Darkbase 2 was even more appreciated than the first one, even if it featured worse music and some bugs that the first didn't had. The art direction was also a bit sleazy too, because they mixed old tiles and enemies made by me with new stuff. The very good thing, however, was that my ex team managed to listen all the requests players wrote on Newgrounds after the first game, so they made the sequel more balanced gameplay wise.
Profit!The best thing to do with flash portals is to contact them all, and to do a sort of bid.
If someone offers a bit more than others you can tell them gently that someone offered more (possibly without making names!) and they can then choose if offering some more or giving you the finger. Remember not to pull the rope too much and make it fair to keep yourself out of the unpleasant situation where you manage to piss off all the portals you're in touch with
Your sponsor\publisher will be your main revenue, and even if it will be a fixed sum you could be able to search for additional incomes contacting online markets that sells gadgets or tshirt or something on these lines, asking if they want to be featured somewhere on the game menu.
There are also ads services like mochiads, that permits to you to make some bucks during time from clicks\gameplays.
Some additional tips:-
make sure your game is VERY easy to learn, i was shocked discovering that a lot of people got stuck at the very start of my game, but unluckly you're not only dealing with experienced players, but also with a lot of casual gamers, so be sure to make a non intrusive tutorial or give short hints during the very first moments of the game.
-
Don't fear to be not original enough, it's true that a new concept or design can attract a lot of gamers, but if you see on the various flash games top tens, you'll see how they're full of metal slug clones, arena shooters featuring zombies or tower defence games. Do something you really like, but keep in mind that a very well executed platformer is better than a new gameplay idea that was rushed out of the door because lack of time.
-
Do not copy overused concepts. While it's ok to do a game on estabilished design lines, making yet another tower defence will lead the portals to make very low offers.
-
Graphic is very important, you don't need to have awesome artworks, even a minimal\abstract graphic style can work if done well, prefer bitmap based graphic to flash vector art if you're not skilled enough, if there's something worse than a bad drawn pixelly hero is a bad drawn vectorial one. Better than that, try to find a style, for example Dan Paladin has his consistent style, Edmund too.
-
Gameplay is more important than graphics. But remember that good graphics\animations HELPS gameplay.
Hope it helps\interests someone!
Developer
