Flash Game License Issue

[tomsamson]

So yeah, i wanted to put up a game for licensing/bidding on flashgamelicense, filled out all the info and wanted to upload the game files then.
Then i noticed it still only allows to upload a single file for the game. I wondered that that is still the case but then just did the quickest solution i could think up, which was uploading the game to my own server and on fgl just uploading an swf with a big link to the game preview page.

Well, then i received a message from the fgl guys saying they don´t allow games hosted externally so if i did not want to host the game on their site i should remove it from their system.

I wrote them back trying to clarify that i was not unwilling to upload the game to their system, but that i COULDN´t upload the game because their system doesn´t allow that.

I hoped they would then maybe change their mind and allow the "workaround solution".
Also allow that as solution in general for all games made up of multiple assets and
work on a solution to upload games made up of multiple files ideally.

Instead i got a reply back stating "Unfortunately you can't upload several files on FGL, nor can you have a game that is just a link, so I will reject the game. Most sites will not accept a game with multiple files, so i suggest when you make games in the future you try and stick to one file."


I wrote em back again and waiting for a reply..

So, to sum up, this is actually not intended to flame FGL or anything like that, this is more to get the view of others on these questions:

-What is your experience with dealing with game sites, do those you like to work with accept games made up of several files?
Cause to my experience especially the bigger sites do

And another point i wondered about related to this:
-Now that there are various ways to make money with flash games for a while, which do you prefer?
Do you think it brings more money to actively endorse your game spreading freely accross lots of sites on the web or do you prefer doing one single licensing deal at a time with single sites?
Or something completely different?

Well, let me know, i´d like to know if its something worth discussing with the fgl guys and others more or there are actually clear benefits of another way that is more preferable

[bluemagica]

I almost have zero experience in this field, but from what I feel, games that really require multiple files , are the games which have more depth(no, I don't mean z-axis depth)! And they require a dedicated portion of a site to actually utilise the games potential, which most portals don't have, or want! Most portals are for quick games, which can draw in people, rather than keep them glued in, and those portals who may want this type of game, are a limited few big portals.......in this scenario, it's best to approach these portals manually!

[ch00se]

Hey there. Is there any way that you could host the files external from the swf and just upload the main swf to FGL?

I am one of the co-founders of FGL and I actually ran into your same issue when I ran my game "Gears" through the system. What I did, though, was host the external files on my own server. Now, my case may be a bit different as I was using php files and a database to store level data, but it did give me a good sense of two issues:

1) many sponsors do not want to host a game with mutliple files.

2) a game will not distribute even a fraction as well unless a main swf can be used and it calls files on your (or someone's) server. (or everything is just embedded in the single file).

I think a hybrid approach may be best. Creating one version of the game that is a single swf that uses external files that are located on a central server, and a version that is "bundled" that you can use to sell non-exclusive licenses to bigger portals. When Gears got on AddictingGames it actually took my server down a couple of times, so I wish I would have just given them all the needed files (however, in my case, they didn't want to support a database, and definitely didn't want a file on their server connecting to an external database... understandably).

I apologize if we've been a hassle in getting your game on FGL. The sponsors on our site have said they don't like being taken to other sites, though, and on top of that we've had cases of people changing their links to go to places that weren't appropriate. Another option we've allowed in the past, though, is that we can help you put together a video of your game and put it on FGL. Then in the notes of the game have a link to the actual game. This still isn't ideal (for both us and you) but it would be acceptable.

The best bet would be to put a single file on FGL and call your external files from your own server.

[tomsamson]

hey, thanks for jumping in, really appreciate the openness =)

Regarding just uploading just the main file and leaving the others on my server that could be a feasable workaround for various other games but wouldn´t work that well in case of this game (and probably again a good bunch of others that use similar features of flash as our game does).
The problem in this case without going into too much detail is that due to some "security restrictions" of the flash player sandbox one basically can´t easily apply all bitmapdata operations nicely on assets loaded from other servers than the game sits on. Therefore we couldn´t do various things we do in the game.

Regarding your list points 1) and 2) i totally agree and would therefore do a single game setup if it was the case that i WANT my game to spread wildly accross the web.
For some other games of ours that is the case so we have done em that way but in this case i´m more going for rather having the game on fewer sites who in return pay better for it because they get something more exclusive, so it would probably be more likely one of the bigger portals that supports multi file setup games anyway.

I understand that there´s probably no solution that is ideal for all, especially with the very varying goals of portals and developers (some may want quick fast spreading of games by just embedding a single swf while others may want bigger games or more exclusive deals and are actually happy when a certain game does not spread accross the net within a day for example =) ).


If its not too much hassle, then yeah, we´d probably go the route of having a video for the game there for now and then see further if/what to do next.

[EvilKris]

Tom you've really got to join the FGL community they've all the answers to every question you've asked... only problem is you actually need to have at least one game for sale/sold on there to access some of the developer boards.

From what I gather it seems like the concensus is that people first try to go for primary licenses (exclusive+) which will bring in the lion's share of the $$$, after which they also will be able to sell a few site-locked versions to certain domains.

If I was you I would bite the bullet and redesign the game to have everything sit within one file. Big hassle I know- but put it down to learning experience. May I ask what the necessity is for having external files anyway? Preloading levels?

There are some impressive bids for games that have potential on FGL so I propose you take whatever exertions necessary to get your game uploaded fully there- it's a sellers market.

Good luck, whatever your choice.

[tomsamson]

I actually already have several games on FGL
Just never dabbled with the community side of it a lot, maybe i should check it out
I think its a good idea to first go for an exclusive or timed exclusive deal and then maybe afterwards go for non exclusive and maybe ad driven spreading or similar.

I already have changed some games before from being multi file setup to single file setup and well, while its totally doable of course i´d rather not do it if it can be avoided because it can depending on the asset types and setup take a long while and then depending on why you had split them up in first place also make less sense for the game and make it work worse or load and stream in less ideal manner or turn into way more work when wanting to update particular parts later on.

Usually i split up bigger games for either loading/ streaming reasons (deending on setup can lead to shorter noticable loading times for the player and less bandwidth consumption for the game portal cause each player only loads what he plays, not a big file of which he maybe only experiences 10%)), ram reasons (nice when one can unload unused parts and the player has more ressources for what´s up now) and also maintencance reasons (nice to only change a single xml for a level for example and replace that instead of each time compiling a huge fla and uploading a huge swf). Then there´s also the part that if you want to initially sell a version of your game exclusively to a single or a few sites then its actually better when it takes more work to spread your game around wildly than grabbing a single swf from the cache )
(Of course once you want to spread it to many sites with mochiads etc its the opposite way round often so that´s an every coin has two sides thing )

I had some bids on FGL for my stuff before but none came to fruiton at the end due to either the bidder wanting to dump down the price he stated afterwards or wanting the full source and distribution rights to the games afterwards. Therefore i usually mostly license games with direct contacts.

This is probably me just being unlucky on FGL rather than a general case on FGL

Still i kinda got demotivated by that outcome so far so i hadn´t used fgl for a while and well, thought i could give it a try with this game again.

Thanks for the good words and suggestions, i´ll try several things one by one now and see how it goes and what works well