How To Profit From Flash Games Development
Over the past few years casual gaming hsa taken the Internet by storm. Browser games, an in particular Flash games are now more popular than ever, and with that increase in popularity comes an increase in demand. If you’re a Flash designer or developer, here are 7 ways in which you can cash in on this growth in the market.
Developing games for client might sound like a difficult market to break into, but in fact there are lots of companies out there looking for simple Flash games for their marketing campaigns. By starting with small, simple projects you can “earn while you learn” and slowly build up a portfolio as your skills develop.
If you don’t want the obligation and deadlines of working for clients, sponsorship mighht suit you better. This allows you to develop a game at your own pace, and once completed your sponsor pays you to embed their branding and links into the game. The amount you’ll earn will vary, depending on the company which is sponsoring you, and the quality of the game.
Taking it one step further, you can monetise your own games without needing a client or a sponsor. Networks such as Mochiads allow you to embed adverts into your games, and publish your games on their network which gets you both revenue and exposure at the same time.
Another way to monetise games yourself is to simply publish them on a website, and add banner adverts or Adsense to the site. In fact, this was how I accidentally got involved in the games industry back in 2003 when I put a few of my own games on a site with some banner adverts. Little did I know that would lead to a full time career in the games industry!
The most recent innovation in monetising Flash games is in game micro-payments. Several networks now offer facilities for this including Mochimedia and HeyZap. Facebook is believed to be developing a similar system, and this looks like it will be the model of choice in the future.
Finally, perhaps the most obvious, and certainly the most glamorous way to capitalize on the success of a good Flash game is to release a commercial version. Whether it’s a downloadable PC game or a port to an entirely new platform, such as the Nintendo DS, the Xbox Live network or the iPhone, a well designed unique game with the right marketing can be a real success, and open the doors into the mainstream gaming industry.
So as you can see, developing Flash games can be a great way of making a profit, either as a complete enterprise, or as part of an existing design or development business. If you’re new to game development then start by following game tutorials, or modifying existing game code and in time you could be writing the next blockbuster!
Find Flash games tutorials, articles, book reviews, game source code and more at FlashGamesClassroom.com or download Flash game source code to learn from, modify, edit, rebrand and create brand new games at ViralFlashGames.com