So, how much is a game worth ?

[jide]

But really, what is the market for uncostimized games? If you make a game, what company would want to PAY to put it on their site? I haven't seen many websites that do this (other than Shockwave perhaps). Do yall have any examples?

[mbenney]

^^ hello squize

sorry jntw

[RazoRmedia]

didn't jeff minter write some mad game about multicoloured camels and aeroplanes.

I also remember something about a rabbit!?

[Storm]

Yep, take a look at his site: LLAMASOFT

[Squize]

Yeah if he had a commercial bone in his body and stayed away from sheep and substance abuse nobody would be asking who he is

Hi [m]

jide miniclip.com will buy games from you for their site, have a look for some of the threads by Rob.
He does things in a very informal manner and is good to work with.

Squize.

[jide]

What's the highest games go for on MiniClip (from all of your experience)? Also, how is Miniclip making moneY?!! I dont see how there could be a sufficient market for people wanting to pay to play flash games, especially the majority that I saw on miniclip(sad to say but its true )

[Asclepeos]

ehh.. miniclip is appealing to lowest common denominator now. So I'd rather try to pawn off my game to companies.

[Squize]

jide:"What's the highest games go for on MiniClip".

Mate this isn't really the place the bring up actual amounts for so many reasons.

Quite a few people on the board have sold games to miniclip ( There should be a sexy little Space Invaders appearing on their soon ) so they do actually buy them.

I believe they make their money by advertising and re-branding but to be honest I don't really care. How they make their money is up to them, like how I make mine and you make yours, if you know what I mean.

Squize.

[jide]

I just asked because if they are paying for games, then just sticking them on their site for people to play (and for Newgrounds users to steal) then they would quickly go out of business :O. Based on what you said they work kind of like agency that uses the work of freelancers.

[Squize]

They re-brand the games, shove their logo in etc. so I guess having the odd one or two on newsgrounds will just be an advert for them ( Plus they use their own hi-score backend which I figure would screw up if the swf was ripped and just posted elsewhere ).

Yeah, just email Rob if you've got a game you're working on. Nothing to lose mate, although going back to my earlier posts, if the genres already been done...

Squize.

[Cowien]

how much you got on you?

[Squize]

About a fiver more than you, but twenty quid less than mBenny

Squize.

PS.Mate this isn't really the place the bring up actual amounts for... etc.

[Flecko]

For a couple of years I've been making stuff in Flash for free. I'm a high school student, and I've always just done it for fun, but more and more I'm thinking about money - not even because I need it or have anything to spend it on, but because I just want to feel recognized for the amount of time I spend on it.

So right now I'm working on this thing (instructions here), and at the cost of sounding conceited, I'd say this game beats the hell out of most of the stuff that ends up on big sites like shockwave and miniclip - the stuff people get paid for. How much is a game worth? Well, if all that absurdly mediocre "proffessional" work brings in $5000 a game, I'd say a hell of a lot. But for all the effort I've put into this, I've raised a measly $67 in donations towards the cost of buying SWF Studio so I can add all the features I want to (I charge $3 for access to a much newer version of the game, but it'll all be free when it gets finished).

[siriuss]

Some interesting points in this thread, more and more it seem to be a brave decision to go freelance and try and break new ground yourself. As has been mentioned before, it's all about who you know not what you know - get the contacts and your laughing.

I work on web projects for a government agency and have seen thousands of pounds thrown at the BBC design department to produce content for the sites, with varying results. Recently £10,000 was spent for a game (done in shockwave but achievable in flash) that was shockingly bad and never even made it onto the web, but they are still our main source of external work.

My point - if you setup/go through a company with the right contacts then these games are worth a hell of a lot, but without the site customers to sell to they are worth more sentimentally than on paper.

[mrpauly99]

having read all the comments, (some of which make depressing reading! surely someone wants us) it got me thinking.

has anyone tried cold emailing some of the larger companies with ideas? ie 'heres a game i made wouldnt it be cool if i redid it to base it around tvshowX mr bbc man'. or something a touch more formal. if some of these companies are throwing 10,000 at bad games that never get published maybe it could be worth a shot. if you have id love to hear what reply you recieved, if any.

[mrpauly99]

i tell you what would make great reading:

Flogging a game (or dead horse?) - The Diary

one mans/womans struggle to make more than a luncheon voucher out of weeks of toil. email extracts, inner thoughts, psychological profiles - who's up for it?

[siriuss]

Originally posted by mrpauly99
having read all the comments, (some of which make depressing reading! surely someone wants us) it got me thinking.

has anyone tried cold emailing some of the larger companies with ideas? ie 'heres a game i made wouldnt it be cool if i redid it to base it around tvshowX mr bbc man'. or something a touch more formal. if some of these companies are throwing 10,000 at bad games that never get published maybe it could be worth a shot. if you have id love to hear what reply you recieved, if any.

The problem is that payments like that are for custom built games, made to order. Cold calling wouldn't sell your current game (unless it was exactly what they wanted) but it may raise your profile enough for them to consider you for later contracts. However, I know people who have done that for all round web work, including site design etc and have had very few responses from 100's of cold calls/emails. With a more niche market like games I imagine the responses to be even less.

God I sound negative, sorry.

[tonypa]

Originally posted by mrpauly99
i tell you what would make great reading:

Flogging a game (or dead horse?) - The Diary

one mans/womans struggle to make more than a luncheon voucher out of weeks of toil. email extracts, inner thoughts, psychological profiles - who's up for it?

Yes, and sometimes years later it could be published as a book, then as movie and finally as computer game made with Flash 2009 MMX Games Developement Edition

[ant512]

Part of the problem with cold-calling for websites is that companies tend to want support - they want to know that if they want the website changed or updated they can get someone to do it, or at least tell them how. By going to established businesses they have a fairly strong guarantee that the company will still be around a few months later to fix all of the bugs they've found in the meantime. Employing an unknown freelancer removes that guarantee.

Flash games are different, in that you'd run it for a few months and then change it for something else to prevent the site becoming stagnant. If the game was relevant to the site and the company was looking for a game at the time, you might have more success cold-calling with Flash games than full-blown websites.

I think one of the major problems with selling Flash games, though, is that you can bet that someone else has already made the same game, or is prepared to make one, for nothing. Pay-per-play Asteroids clones are all very well, but who's going to want to pay for it when they can play another Flash version elsewhere for free? Or they can download MAME and play that instead? I have no intention of ever charging for any of my games, regardless of how long they take to create (6 months for IK+ so far).

In summary, I'd suggest that anyone who does release games for free is effectively undercutting the commercial market.

[BlinkOk]

Flash games are different, in that you'd run it for a few months and then change it for something else to prevent the site becoming stagnant.

brilliant idea ant512. make a game (just like the comic strips) where you add a new level each (month/week). what a powerfull product it would collect players just like a snowball!