Flash Games - How Long Do You Usually Play?

[Hurdarr]

Games I actually spent several hours and finished: GemCraft, Sinji and Sonny (tried the sequel but meh!) are some of the few titles I enjoyed playing until the end.

Mastermind: World Conquerer, Amorphous+ and Hedgehog Launch were also a blast to play.

While everyone praises about Desktop TD, I prefer Bloons. I don't know why, since Desktop TD is the king of the genre and it is superior to Bloons in (pretty much) every aspect. Design, features, replayability, etc.

Tonypa's Shooot is also quite addicting (although the following titles are a disappointment). Better than most shooters out there, even with the minimalist graphics.

I don't know about you, but most of the flash games I try out, I quit playing them after 20-30 seconds.

The reasons will vary but there are gorgeous flash games out there with great gameplay but somehow I get really tired of them, real fast. On the other hand, some developers create real simple games and they go viral.

Which makes me wonder. If I spent about a year on a game and didn't got as much attention as I expected - and them someone threw up some code with minimalist graphics in a few weeks and the internet raves about it - I would probably get disappointed, jealous and angry.

What games do you enjoy to play? Graphics don't mean much to me but I'm one of the few that thinks that way.

Just curious to know what other game developers think, since we play two roles (player and developer). How much time do you spend on each game (average?)

[congruent2006]

I probably spend wayyyyy too much time on Stick arena,
been playing atleast an hour a day if not 2 this week,
but i dont know if i would say it is the best gave ive playd.

Im still looking for / attempting to make that game that crosses ganres,

action games are too mindless, rpg games are boring, strategy games dont have enough oomp, just build things
and latida.
crossing the three however would be awesome. is one example.

wow that game u posted is interesting...

[Hurdarr]

Yah, I spent quile a while playing it.

Eh, Stick Arena...tried it out for 10 minutes, then got bored.

Nowadays, I find myself playing more "art" games, like: Don't Look Back, The Majesty of Colors and so son.

[Sietjp]

This can be merged with this topic http://board.flashkit.com/board/showthread.php?t=794492

[Hurdarr]

Hmmm...didn't notice that topic. I went a bit off-topic with my own topic, sorry.

What I wanted to ask to other game developers, who take their time to build their games (sometimes over a year), is it worth it? From a money perspective, if you can make 1 game per week, sooner or later one of them is gonna be a hit. Isn't it better than putting all eggs in one basket (game)?

Like I stated above, it seems a good way to make money from games is to focus on small flash games with addictive gameplay that can be built in a matter of days. Adding things like high-scores, achievements, badges, etc..., make the games more likely to go viral.

Even though I enjoy a good story, I always skip them when playing a a flash game. If I don't like the gameplay, there's no need to spend 5 minutes to read several pages of content. This only happens on flash titles though, which is funny.

I also really enjoy to read game's postmortems but very few people do those.

[Squize]

A game which takes a year is never ever going to pay for itself.

I don't really do the whole sponsorship thing, I'm in the world of adver-gaming, and as such I have to turn over a steady stream of projects to pay the rent.
For example the current game I'm working on was budgeted for 15 days dev, that's now slipped so I'm on day 20.
Doing this full time you can't really afford to have that slippage, as I'm also starting on the next project which means lots of late nights to kill the overrunning project off.

Time scales in the more corporate world are just as tight as trying to turn around a fluke hit in a week but with the added burden of client and design amends ( But of course whilst you've not overrun you're getting paid ).

This is why a lot of adver-games don't play too well. There's always time to alter the graphics, but never time to tweak the gameplay.

[ Just to give a more industry view on things ]

As to postmortems, we swapped one with the gamepoetry blog, so Urby's is here:
http://blog.gamingyourway.com/PermaL...249703385.aspx
And ours for "Invaders Must Die" is here:
http://www.gamepoetry.com/blog/2009/...ders-must-die/

We're planning to do another one for the game I'm just finishing off now, but yeah there is a shortage of good post mortems for Flash games.

Squize.

PS. Post 5555. I'm hoping that unlocks some secret board feature, otherwise all these posts have been a waste of time

[cody112]

Right now I am making an online game and I am planning on making it an mmo action game with all the features like character creation each have an option to give 1 of 3 classes. It will be stick figures. But it won't be like stick arena, it will be more side scroller like thing thing, but wth online play.

I will give it all sorts of features like combos of kicks and punches(even in mid-air), shooting modern weaponry/older time weaponry and swords/daggers. I also will add a leveling and experience system, I have the ability to do all of this and make it online because I know exactly what I'm doing.

More or less a fusion between gunz the duel and thing thing, but with my own stuff to it.

So how long would people play this by your guess?

[Squize]

"So how long would people play this by your guess?"

You want us to estimate how long people will play a game that we've not even seen and is explained in 6 lines ?

Possibly a tiny bit too vague there mate, although it's good that you know exactly what you're doing.

Squize.

[Hurdarr]

Well, I can honestly say many people HATE stick figures. I'm not fond of them either. On the other hand, you will probably attract a younger crowd. But there are so many flash games out there today, it's really hard to catch the attention of the players for more than one session.

[samvillian]

Sietjp, the threads are about a different topic. similar but this has a goal in mind lol.

Anyways, It is hard for me to play a game for more than 10 minutes, unless its pure genius (there have been some) I sometimes get caught up in my own games..

[cody112]

Well, I can honestly say many people HATE stick figures. I'm not fond of them either. On the other hand, you will probably attract a younger crowd. But there are so many flash games out there today, it's really hard to catch the attention of the players for more than one session.

So saying that what will be the most epic online flash game out there will not get a lot of people playing just because it has stick figures. Dude you don't understand how good it will turn out.

It will be like thing thing, but online and with some actual excellent hand to hand combat and mid-air stunts for more epic fighting. Not to mention it will have stuff like friends list, room creation, chat log, saves stats of users, and may even have emoticons in the chat. Now you can't tell me that isn't gonna be epic.

I tell you that this will be like thing thing + stick arena + epic *infinity ;-D

I will make a 3d one of it in flash as well sometime after I finish the 2d one, but with as many extra features as possible.

[Squize]

"what will be the most epic online flash game out there"

I'm really looking forward to seeing a wip demo on here then, hopefully soon.

...and back to the thread.

Squize.

[Hurdarr]

Just because the author thinks the game has potential, doesn't mean his audience will think the same.

I don't be want to be a downer, but every time someone says they will make an awesome/epic/ greatest ___________, it's always a disappointment. It's like the TV commercials, where everyone has the best product.

In fact, the developers who decide to try new things and focus on immersion and ambient have impressed me more lately.

Such titles as Knytt, Don't Look Back, The Majesty of Colors fit in the category.

friends list, room creation, chat log, saves stats of users, and may even have emoticons in the chat.

Heck, maybe I'm wrong and you're right. But I'm a bit tired when game developers boast about the "epicness" of their games and they don't have anything to show.


On the other hand, this seems one kickass game that would greatly benefit from the features you mentioned.