Results of 3 months of hard work

Hi Internet,

3 month since my last post and a lot happened in those last 3 months. First I'm a new Dad, (that's why i couldn't update this blog), and second, I've discoreved a lot of better ways to monetize flash games then those written in my last posts.

First, three letters your need to carved on your fore-head : FGL.
Yup, FGL (http://www.flashgamelicense.com/) is the better thing I've seen for indie developpers in the last 6 months.

FGL, is a web site where you can upload your game (finished or not) and let others developpers and/or sponsors see your marvelous work. Then, sponsors can bid on your game for different type of licence. (Here is an explanation of differents type of sponsorship) If you are patient enough, you wait 1 month before concluding any deal to let sponsor having the time to respond.

PLUS, if your game seems worthy, workers of FGL will probably help you for the marketing/promotion/distribution of your game. They can advise directly to an important list of sponsors that your game can direct a lot of trafic on their site, which lead sponsor to bid on your game.

The FGL services are free, but they ask for a 10% commission on the revenue you make with your game. Totally worth it, because with their help, your game can easily make the double or triple of cash. Which was my case :P.

So, i've uploaded my new game on the site, and i've waited. But, I made an error :
- I've update the game before it was finished : As Chris of FGL suggest, you should upload your game when it's at least 80% completed. Once someone see your game, they hardly will check it again, and since your game is on the front page when it's firstly uploaded, you must take this time to impress the most sponsors possible.

I'll stop this post right there for now, go check FGL right after you've seen these lines. In the next posts, i'll try to explain how best you can use those services. Bottom line : FGL ROCKS.

[EDIT] In the previous post, I said that I would talk about my clown game, Popo and Bobo, you can play at http://www.addictinggames.com/popobobo.html. The game was made in 4 hours, but I still like it. I try GameJacket and I didn't liked it so much. One good thing : Yes, it's true they will give you an advance if your game worth it, but don't expect to have any advance with a crappy quiz.

Still, the services are brand new, so I'll keep an eye on it. Anyway, now the best way to make money is to make your game, DO NOT PUBLISH IT ANYWHERE, and put it on FGL. Once there, let the wises guide you.

Flash Experience #1 Part 2 : Complexes Burgers

I've launched the game about a week ago. So now here's the result :

MochiAds : 23,881 impressions, 15,06$


So, first of all, I sended the game on Newgrounds and on Kongregate.

Newgrounds : The game scored 3.20/5, and didn't go on the front page. I got 1300 in three days. But, after 2 days, I got no more impression because the game was too difficult too reach.

Kongregate : The game scored 2.3/5, almost the same as Newgrounds, got 1000 imporessions in 3 days after that, it was over.

Most of the people didn't like the music (as I expect ;P). But the part that interested me, was that most of the people didn't know what to do, even with the in-game tutorial. So that help me to rearrange the game a little.

So after those 2 defeats, I found that page from mochiland : 45-sites-to-submit-your-flash-games. I found it very interesting so I started to send the game on every single site. Here is my first error, i rewrote the description of the game like 5-6 times before i've started a .txt with all the info needed.

So after that, I got not very much more impressions except for one site : http://www.hallpass.com/.
On the peak, I had 5k impressions only on that site. which gave me 3$ a day.

Also, http://www.addictinggames.com/ ask for a non-exclusive sponsorship, I've learn the difference between a non-exclusive and a exclusive sponsorship. Here's a piece of the addicting games e-mail :

· Non-Exclusive-
We will license your game non-exclusively for use on the AddictingGames site. In exchange for integrating our AG splash screen, in game logos, and high score system (if applicable) we will pay you $XXX. This non-exclusive license will be in perpetuity and AG will have the right to promote both itself and the game from its servers.
Please keep in mind, a developer can still sell a license to their game to any other site (and without our branding) and a game CANNOT have a Mochi ad in it.

· Exclusive-
You would gives us the irrevocable, perpetual, universe-wide, right and license, but not the obligation, to use, reproduce, store, promote, publish, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, and distribute the Content and modify the source code for technical compatibility with different platforms and media via Online Distribution on the Site (the “License”).
Beginning on the Effective Date and continuing until 7 days following the Launch Date, the License granted above shall be exclusive (“Exclusive Term”). Following the Exclusive Term, the License shall continue on a non-exclusive basis for the remainder of the Term.


So, at large, an exclusive sponsorship you give your game (You keep the IP) and a non-exlucisve involve that you take game game, tweak it a little to put the ads of the site, and you still can sell it on other site.

I verified for the non-exclusive sponsorship whcich appeared like a trap to buy your game to me, but you can see the game Dinorun on different sites with different brand on it. Miniclip, addictinggames and Newgrounds are exemples.

I found that post too on Mochiads : flash-game-monetization-making-money-the-pain-free-way
which explain different and concurrent way to monetize a flash games : A MUST-SEE

Conclusion for that experience :
- Just don't rely on site you know, submit as many as you can.
- Make a folder with the following infos of your games
Icons on different format from 50x50 to 120x120, jpeg and png
Description
Intructions
Controls
Authors comments

- Make a contact list with all the email address of interesting portals (Check at 45-sites-to-submit-your-flash-games.)
- Learn from comments of player. 90% of them will be : "Awesome Game" or "Worst game ever!", but some will be interesting.

Next week, I will launch my second game named Bobo & Popo. That time, i'll try with GameJacket.

Flash Experience #1 part 1 : Burger stats

Here is the game : http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/452085


Here some stats about the game itself :

It tooks me :
3 days of programming
- 1 day of development
- 1.5 days of polishing
- 0.5 day to plug MochiAds and add the leaderboard + tests

3 Days of visual
-1 day of devlopment
- 2 days of polishing

0.5 Day for music & sounds, all made by mouth ;)

for a total of 6.5 days (8 hours/day).

The game is made in AS2 and it's terribly badly coded :P, but it work ! Also we offer it in two languages : French and english.

I chose MochiAds because we are able to put ads on the start of the game AND inter levels which was more suitable for that game. Also, MochiAds offer a great way to make a leaderboard really easily, it took me like an hour to read the doc, make the visuals and code needed.

So here we go. I'm waiting for the the response of MochiAds to send the game overywhere on the Internet and share the stats.

Flash experience #1 part 0 : Burgers are coming...

In the next posts, I will talk about my experience with publishing my first game, involving Rusty, the burger cooker. I'll try to cover :
- How money did I get
- Which portals I used
- Which publishers or services I tried
- Time involve in development/polishing/marketing
- What were my errors

The game is coming up in the next weeks, 15th august is my guess.
Feel free to comments !

First Step !

Hi there,

I'm a complete newbie to the Indie game development and I'll use this blog to show you what were my steps in that world.

So here we go ! Soon, I'll release some of my game that I made for fun, in Flash AS2 and AS3. I'll try to follow the steps of http://www.emanueleferonato.com/2007/10/28/experiment-monetizing-a-flash-game/ in his great blog.

So, whoever you are, feel free to comments this blog. Giving advices, references, books to read, great games or whatever could help us all.