Flash Game Monetization

Now on iTunes!

Took a while to fix all bugs and upgrade 'RS Defense' to it, but in proceed we fixed more then 200 bugs, added new kind of features, and had a great time.

If you d like to try - this week is a best one to do it: pride reduced to minimum, and promo codes still avaible.
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Q: How its possible to feature game in Mochi-feed for long time?
A: There is 2 kinds of games on Mochi-feed- premium, featured, rest. Premium - it has like few new games per month - so if you hit Premium Mochi Game - then your game goona stay there for while as featured.

Q: Best and worse your games?
A: 'Red Storm' games - they all best ones and worse ones. Hard to develop, hard to monetize. And still long road ahead to make them better =)

Q: iPhone, iPad conversions - are they worth it?
A: Really depens on Game. If you have 10 games - you need 20k$ to port them. Will take a year to release them, another year to make profit. For average games. But you can get lucky - and one game will outnumber the others. If you have extra cash and lot of free time - you should give a hit.

Q: How flash scene changed in last 3 years - is it easier/harder to earn money? Are there many opportunities? What are they? Is it easy for you to get sponsorships? How well paid are they?
A: All the same. Few options doesn`t work anymore - like selling the whole game with sources. It`s easy to get good sponsorship for me, but on the other hand I can release game by myself - and still to be happy.

Q: Did you had problems with people stealing your games? Not paying for sponsorships, closed versions, etc.?
A: There is few pirate sites, and one hack site. But till my revenue is positive - i`m ok with it.

Q: How much do you charge for site closed versions? Is there big market for them?
A: $500-$2000(no work ->lot of work). Very small market for them - almost few portals who consider buying url-locks. But if your game is top-hit - then you will get few extra offers. But prices gonna just upset you =)

Q: Can you write a little bit more about your deal with BigFishGames?
A: Standard url-lock deal - same as with others.

Q: Are you staying in gamedev business, or maybe move your focus to expanding audience of your portal?
A: For me developing games and running a portal - same thing.

Q: I'm interested in the first months of a game after it's publishing. What can a developer expect in this time?
A: Bug fixing, Balance tuning, UrlLocks sells, Money.

Q: How long time is needed to get back the money that a game cost?
A: Depend how much you spend on game - I usually try never spend more then 500$ per game. Preferably 0$ =)

Q: What book do you suggest for beginner who want to develop flash game ?
A: There is no good book in English about Flash Game Dev. Only Online stuff - sites, examples, sources.

Q: Best websites for learn flash ?
A: gotoandlearn.com, emanueleferonato.com, flashgamedev.ru

Q: Tool which is used beside flash ? And what flash version should beginner start ?
A: Depens what kind of game you going to develop. Check this article for tools that can help you.

Q: How many hours do you spend to build game flash in a month ?
A: I use flash 0-16 hours per day. Very Chaotic =( because i work at home.

Q: Is it worth it to start develop flash game if i start now ?
A: Yes, it`s the best time to start now - everything is ready. All you need to do is just to develop game - everything else is taking care of the 3rd parties.

The whole day I had been meeting and going from one table to another, from 10 am to 17 pm. Again my business cards ran out at the end of the day =( Next time I will carry extra 50 pieces.

I met King.com - I suppose everybody have known that traffic from flash games have been sending to facebook. Obviously, this is an attempt to catalyze social network traffic. For flash developers is a big plus - King gets more traffic, King pay more or buy more games.

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Among the most interesting lectures there were 3 the most popular:

1) The Future of Social Games: 2010 & Beyond - think aloud about facebook. Facebook credits perhaps will be an exclusive way of micro transactions. Twitter is not so interesting for game industry and it's not gonna change this year. ads-offers must disappear completely . Zynga - rocks! Zynga - rocks again. The last game from Zynga took 10m installations during a first week of with help of cross ads promotion in the other projects and marketing company in 2m$.
2) Games-as-Services: How to Avoid the Single Biggest Mistake Game Developers Make When "Going Social" - PopCap told about launch+development(8 iterations) and support (about 14 servers for Bejeweled Blitz atm). They talked a little about perspective for social games but the main point was social games development - unbelievable difficult with a lot of reefs.
3) Social Games: No "lightning in a bottle" - WildTangent talked about current obvious trend - everybody began making social games. But... not everyone is gonna be successful. Don't forget about publishing - if you have a good-quality product and publish it as it is, it's the same as to buy a lottery ticket. With great amount of opponents and obvious liders - chances of new studious are rather modest. If you have a good-quality product with evident development and business plan - you'd better start with a powerful partner who has not only his own social games but the other marketing opportunity like for example ads network or successful published products with 3rd developers. Otherwise you risk became ads banner of your `publisher` or just to be buried among the other games.

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50 days ago we released: Red Storm.

Besides it`s definitely awesome game, shiny and polished, in the best tradition of BattleTech/MechWarrior. I`d like to tell you more about development and benefit from it.

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