Of course, the eCPM doesn’t matter – if the exposure is really low (as on Kongregate), you’re sunk.

So here’s the real point of interest to put it into perspective:

Theoretical earnings: $483.17
Actual earnings: $427.16 (i’m not including MochiAds and Kongregate, because you haven’t reached the minimum payout threshhold for either service – Mochi is $100 and Kongregate is $25. No idea what GameJacket is yet, but let’s assume that money is good … )

1. How many hours did you spend developing your game? (i’d like to calculate your hourly wages)
2. How long has the game been up on these services?
3. For interest’s sake, can we see the game?

Thanks!

If you have a lot of experience with the social networks, i’d love to hear more. i’ll welcome you to write a guest entry if you’re up to it. i’d like to make this series as complete as possible.

I didn’t realize you’ve been doing Flash stuff for that long. It sounds like you’re on the right path. I think the secret is to build up that portfolio, distribute your games across every network you can, and just remain patient. Over time your portfolio will speak for itself.

You should also consider test integrating your games with the social networks (Facebook, Myspace, Bebo).

Good luck!

My dirty little secret here is that i actually *am* a successful Flash game developer. i’ve been building Flash games professionally for eight years. Untold Entertainment has been operating for six months, and we’ve already built up a great client base – mostly MMO consulting and work-for-hire projects for television production companies. You’ll see a number of our recent projects appear on our site once the shows start airing in the fall.

We would love to do some original work, but we’re caught between two extremes. At one end, we can sign a deal with a publisher and place our soft n’ tenders in their hands until the project is over. The fail rate for that kind of venture is enormous, and a number of Toronto studios have shut down because of it.

At the other end of the spectrum, we could develop a game pro bono and self-distribute, praying that it will catch on. That’s an alright plan for students and gamblers, but for those of us raising families and paying off our gambling debts, it becomes a challenge. i believe that this build-and-hope model benefits players first and portal owners second, leaving developers to scrounge around for table scraps.

Flash Game License is actually an upcoming installment in the Pimp My Game series. That site gave me the idea for the series in the first place. i won’t spoil the surprise, but you’ll be astounded to hear the kinds of offers people were coming up with on that service.

There’s got to be a more predictable way to profit from original game development – i just haven’t found it yet. That’s why i’m writing this series. Here in Canada, you’re almost guaranteed to make your money back on a teevee show. Our cable services carry tons of channels, which need tons of content just to fill the space. Once you get a good chunk of your show funded by the Canadian government, you shop it around to international markets, translate/dub it, and see some kind of return. You might not see astounding profits, but you can reasonably expect to recoup the cost of development.

The nascent Flash game industry hasn’t reached that point yet, but i’ll be poised to pounce when it finally does.

MochiAds doesn’t require any sort of excusivity, so there’s little reason not to give it a try unless you sign away all of the rights to your game. You can always turn it off if you don’t like it for whatever reason.

The other part of distribution is that you have to upload the file you want us to distribute… :)

The one thing you need to realize is that just because you made a game, it is circulated around the internet, and you put mochi ads in it you ARENT going to make a ton of money. Think of the flash gaming world right now. There are 1000s of people putting 1000s of hours into building games. In order for you to make money you need to make a decent (definition relative) game, you have to market the sh*t out of it, and you have to be LUCKY.

Look at Bloons for example. The game itself isn’t even that great. The graphics are ok and the game play is pretty fun but that’s it. The Bloons guys just happened to get really lucky. They also happened to build a game that allowed them pump out tons of user generated levels and they have their own portal.

Another analogy is just a plain old internet website. Even if you spent a ton of time building a really amazing website with great information you still may see no traffic. Maybe you even Digg your site and get a decent spike but it just falls off.

The point is you can’t rely on or blame Mochiads for your success. If you really want to be a successful Flash game developer you need to figure out how the business works. Go check out http://www.flashgamelicense.com/ and get sponsored, build your own portal and make money off of ads around the game, submit your game to kongregate and nonoba, make deals with portals, enter and WIN contests, read some other blogs about monetization http://www.emanueleferonato.com/category/monetize/

BTW I played your game. I think you should keep up the good work and forge ahead..

The Dude

Some of the other companies playing in this space (Kongregate, GameJacket) go beyond the “standard stuff” by offering their developers a guaranteed rev split, which is why your terms of service had me raising an eyebrow.

i’m not suggesting that you mistreat your users. i’ll save a lot of these comments for another post, but suffice it to say, it’s a strange business model for devlopers. We eat the cost of development, and then donate our work to sites for free on the gamble that the game will earn money. That amount of money depends on how the game is distributed and how much fun it is to play.

i’m using this not-so-great game Two By Two to establish a baseline, so that i know i can earn *at least* x dollars on my next outing. But i can’t help but think that if i did develop a fantastic game, i’d be even more reluctant to just throw it out to rev share services like MochiAds for free. What i really want to determine is whether sites like yours are a viable option for developers, or whether there are far better ways to make a buck from Flash. (i strongly suspect the latter, but i’m trying to keep an open mind)

i didn’t realize that Mochi distribution was opt-in only. i have opted in now, and am happy to add an update to the article after a month to monitor the difference!

The reason why your MochiAds-enabled game hasn’t earned any money is because it’s only getting played on your site. You shouldn’t expect to earn more than a penny or two if you keep your game locked up on a URL that nobody knows about! If you want it to get distributed to MochiAds publishers then you have to opt-in for distribution. We don’t do anything without developer permission.

As far as revenue sharing goes, we give you 50%. We reserve the right to change it at any time (in either direction) which is why there’s no guarantee in the terms of service.