Making money from (monkey) flash/html games

Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Discussion/Making money from (monkey) flash/html games

Shagwana(Posted 2011) [#1]
As the topic states, what options are available for making money from flash games. I have to say I don't fully understand how this market works, so any advice is welcome.


Supertino(Posted 2011) [#2]
I guess the money comes from ad revenue I guess the big sites give the game makers a % of their ad revenue based on how popular your game is.

Probably best to ask your question here http://forums.indiegamer.com/


Cartman(Posted 2011) [#3]
As Supertino mentioned, IndieGamer will have that information. In fact there is a discussion going on right now on Flash and ad revenues.


GW_(Posted 2011) [#4]
Flash is not an option until the resource issue gets fixed. No portal will host the game.


xDxReaper(Posted 2011) [#5]
Zynga are known for making ALOT of money from Flash games, particularly the ones in Facebook. Just my 2 cents.


Indiepath(Posted 2011) [#6]
Zynga are known for making ALOT of money from Flash games, particularly the ones in Facebook. Just my 2 cents.

They sure are, and very little of it comes from advertising.....


Wiering(Posted 2011) [#7]
If you have a good Flash game, it's easy to make money from it through ads (you earn a tiny bit of money whenever your game is played, like $0.0002).

I've been doing this for about two years via Mochiads ( http://www.mochimedia.com/ ) and I'm now earning about $35 a day from advertisements (from these games: http://www.mochigames.com/developer/Wiering/ ). I really like this a lot more than selling shareware, since you don't have to do much more after setting up your game. There are thousands of portals that will then pick it up (if it's good enough). No more need for customer support (handling orders, lost registration keys, fraud payments, etc), so you can simply focus on writing new games. And I'm getting far more exposure: no idea how many people play my shareware games, but from these Flash games I get a total of about 1 million plays per week!

Some people prefer sponsoring, you can look for sponsors at FGL: http://www.flashgamelicense.org/ (there are several models, but usually you kind of "sell" your game to a sponsor, put their logo into it and/or let them make money with it from ads. Personally, I think keeping all the rights yourself will be better in the long run.

You can also sell virtual goods inside your game with micropayments, I have no experience with that, but people seem to be making a lot of money that way too.

As _GW pointed out, the resources problem does need to be fixed.


Indiepath(Posted 2011) [#8]
What is the resources problem? Do you mean all resources need to be packed into the complete .swf?


GW_(Posted 2011) [#9]
What is the resources problem? Do you mean all resources need to be packed into the complete .swf?

Yes.

But there is also the issue of integrating 3rd party API into a monkey project.


Hima(Posted 2011) [#10]
@Wiering
How many games did you made to get you $35 per day? I don't make much from ads but that's probably because I've only finished and released two flash games.
-----------------------
Just want to add that releasing a game with ads doesn't mean you can't sell it for sponsorship. There are people who will buy your game and put their logo on it. I think this is called 'site-locked' version, meaning you have to limit the website that can put this version of your game to, mostly to the customer's website. You may need to implement custom API according to the customer needs as well. In-exclusive site locked version can be sold as many time as you want.

I think many people choose to find sponsorship first, because exclusive sponsorship pay a lot, and then if they can't find one they release it with advertisement. Some sponsor might not pay you much at first but they might pay you more when your game reach a specific number of play.


Shagwana(Posted 2011) [#11]
Also, how long did it take you to develop each game to earn $35 a day?.

This way of life sounds very appealing, would love a spot of passive income :)


Raz(Posted 2011) [#12]
$35 a day from ads is very impressive Wiering, congratulations :)


FlameDuck(Posted 2011) [#13]
Making money from ad revenue is a poor strategy. You want to make money on a Flash game, do what all the people making money off flash games do. Make it free to get addicted, but make you pay via microtransactions or lead generation, for all the cool (and once you get far enough, necessary) stuff.

Also, watch this.


JD0(Posted 2011) [#14]
As far as monetizing html5 games go.. atm it seems like the only monetization is done by writing books about creating html5 games and creating engines :)

This blog is great for those wanting info on monetizing flash games
http://www.emanueleferonato.com/category/monetize/

Just as those have said, the best ways are micro transactions, lead generation (many do well by advertising their premium PC/Mobile games within their flash games), game sponsorship, in-game advertising is typically more like icing on the cake with Flash games.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is niche portal creation, where you create a portal yourself around specific types of games, and monetize through advertising, and upselling premium games.

Emanuele goes through a lot of real numbers on his blog.