HOW MUCH DOES A FLASH GAME GO FOR?

I am currently trying to sell a game to a couple of large sites, but I have no idea how much my game would be worth. Unfortunately, I cannot give out a link to the game. But,
I guess I am just wondering if anybody can either give me a range to work with.

Ideally, if anybody is willing to show me a game and how much it would sell for that would be perfect.

I want to sell the game, but I do not want to short sell it either.

Thanks very much.
Eds

The price of a product (game) will very from person to person and game to game.

So I would recommend determining how much your time is worth and then multiply that by the amount of time you have spent on the project.

The quality of the work should affect your rate as well.

Make sense? Well good luck with selling your game! :)

Don't take this offensively but, why on earth would someone want to purchase a game made in flash??? I can understand being paid for creating such a project for a company, but as far as purchasing a game for playable purposes, noway!

Flash isn't all that amazingly spectactular to build games with...

As you probably thought game prices vary greatly. It depends on the game, the time spent, are you selling the rights or just licensing?

Selling custom made Flash games and their rights tend to run $1000 to $15000. Depends on the complexty and demand of the game.

Hope this helps.

i agree with jobemjobem,but not with okiedokies.those prices can be higher than $150000.(for complex games)
moreover, the flash games (as other games) are not sold but "licenced" for time period and countries. Wich means that if someone want the exclusivity, the price can jump so far. maybe does it sounds weird for some ppl here, but that's the truth. don't forget that a good on line game make ppl come and come back lot of time on the site wich host the game. if the game is good, if there is a database high-score, and moreover contests !!!! the game can be sold high price.
just beware, more high will the price be, more you'll have troubles if there are bugs !!!

cheers.

First Off, I don't believe flash was mainly developed for creating games with ok, however there can be some interesting games created with it, but certainly none worth $15,000 dollars (LMFAO), come on, do you realize how nonsence that sounds!! Its very unlikely someones gonna go and create the 'Sequel To Doom' with it, haha.

And second of all, I certainly would not pay one cent to play any game online!

$15,000 dollars in monopoly money perhaps

flash was not created to make games, yes, but some crazy flashers succed to do it, even if they'rez not as good as half life. i said that cause we already sold flash game for more than $15.000 !! and don't forget that banners brings money. only a little yes, but multiply by number of times that the game is played ! the last game we did was played more than 110.000 times in 5 days (on a french website. france is a small contry).
[Edited by Akane on 10-04-2000 at 03:09 AM]

Hahaha, well you must be awfully rich then huh, please, this is almost as funny as watching an episode of Jerry Springer, I don't believe anyone out there has sold a game in flash for as much money as your 'Claiming' to say you have, I'm sorry I just don't buy it!

A 'Big Time' waste of money it would be if that were at all true...

GoodNight

ho i'm not rich !
this game required long time and a big staff, that's why it waxs expensive too. I don't mind if you don't belive, but i mind if you laugth at me. you don't buy it ? why would you buy it ? How can you know what motivates some companies to buy games ? btw : you don't even know those games.

cheers anyways

There are two main formats to make online games. One is Java Applet which demands very strong programming skill. The other is Flash by which even a newbie like me can use to make game. ( http://photohunt.hk.st )
I want to analyse the advantages and disadvantages for these two formats. So bear with me.
Believe it or not, there are people out there in the world selling online games written in Java. The advantage of Java is that if you can command Java you can do whatever you want with it, like making very realistic fire and water. But the weak poing is that it takes a lot of programming experience to modify the game even if you get the source.
I am not a game designer, but I am quite a game player. I surf the web for online game on a regular basis and find that games written in Java are very funny but not always good looking on the outside. With Flash, the look of the game can be very very interesting. People are attracted at first sight for sure. Generally speaking, Flash games are more beautiful than Java games, and interactivity is stronger with Flash.
But like Okiedokies said, Flash is not a programming designed for game. So people can never use it to make games which give too much challenge to our CPUs. Flash runs very slowly when there are a lot of moving objects on the screen.
Okiedokies, if a game can attract 110000 in five days, do you think $15000 can be considered as low price? That is about 10 cents per visitor and we are talking about just 5 days.
Of course, a pure Flash game is nothing more than a toy. But for a Flash game with database to store players' data, the word "toy" should be replaced by the word "system".
I think online games regardless what they are made with are nothing more than features to attract visitors. So I suggest selling games on a visitor basis. That means the more visitors you can generate the more you earn.
Just my opinions....

i agree with wingyellow ! sometimes, flash games become more expensive if there are lot of players to connect. some times, , it is sold for a lower fixed price plus money with banners. btw, i forgot to tell thatthis game has flash banners in it (with allows more income for the one who buy the game) that anyone can change easily without working on the game source file ! this way, a company wich buy a game can pay it partially with partners. plus, we added some database administrator modules to allow them to manage the database theirselves !
of course, most of the flash games we know can't be sod for such a price , but some can. Do you only know how much cost banja ??? if you didn't believe me before, then you'd say i'm fool if i tell you that (wich i won't do btw)

ho eddie gun : you should show me at least a preview of the game and the features, if could help you (maybe) to estimate the price. need to know too how many ppl worked on it and how long =)
[Edited by Akane on 10-04-2000 at 05:26 AM]

I didn't bother reading the last few posts, but I just thought I give my two cents - as a person that rely's soley flash game production revenue.

Yes, I agree that you would never see a flash game being bought in a retail store, just because, well, it's not worth it. Right now, these game are only popular becuase they're on the net. And for something that has to be downloaded, they are pretty cool.

The most I've charged for a game, actually is was a 3 game contract and it was $15000. Sites are willing to pay this (and it's a minimal expense to the ad's they have to buy), because it brings 25-30% more traffic their site.

Also, a professional game with an actual concept CAN be done by one dude, but in more times then less, it's done by 2-3 very tallented people. They all need to be paid.

Ciao-
Dave

Whats the big deal about having High Score Databases, whipdee do, and this talk about having a 'whole staff' create such a game, were talking about Flash ok, I mean Flash is very limited as far as what you can make with games out of it, it doesn't take but more then a single individual to build a game.

And if your talking about earning so much through the clicks of banner exchanges and so forth, perhaps that is possible,(certainly not over night, and unlikely for as much) but it just sure seems like a very good waste of money; and where are these games by the way, hmm?

I'm more inclined to believe someone who developes orginal coin op games for shockwave.com, if anything, these games would be worth paying a great deal of attention to, these are actually fun to play as with many others hosted on there site!

Hi OkieDokies… It’s thinking like that, which limits you not flash. Do you even know the limitations of flash? In addition do you know how much work it takes to make even the simplest of games?

Personally it amazes me that some one hasn’t mentioned an even grater price.

Flash is only a tool, with witch we can create any thing, we desire. So be more positive about it and you might just see beyond the limitations of your current horizons.

Meow…

Please, its not very difficult nor does it take extremely long to create a simple game, if your referring to point-and-click games, which are extremely dull, I mean honestly I don't think your gonna keep comming back day after day to play these games, much rather download one.

Anyways, like I said, show me a flash game out there that is worth a so called $15 grand or more..

The ability to have a multiplayer mode that can have up to a limited amount of players over a LAN or IPX network, or better yet Internet play, 3D Gamming Engines with very realistic graphics rendering, Full Length Audio Sound Tracks, ect ect ect

You think flash was intended to create such games with? Please

Show me a game in flash that uses these fundamentals..

Something is worth as much someone else will pay for it.

Thats pretty much it.

We are in talks with WB right now for a package of 12 games. Do you think we are going to ask only 15k? I think not.

It is worth much more to them then it is to you.

Flash is not the best chose for games no, especially state of the art games that would probably run slow on your computer any way. If that’s what you want to make I would suggest learning Visual C++, or any other lower level programming language.

The point is that games can be made with flash, and they sell! Because people play them!

Even when computers where just big calculators, people made games for them why? Beaus they could!

So don’t rain on a parade if it’s not what you wanted. Go find what makes you happy and fallow it! :)

Just note for the record: the gaming industry makes more money than Hollywood! WOW! :D

flash cat!
welcome!
forgot me?
that is demons!
:):):)

Did you guys say : $15.000 ???
http://savco.virtualave.net/eek2.gif

I might be missing the point completely but...

Flash games are not aimed at the same market as games you buy off the shelf in your local high street.

In my (very limited) experience the majority of flash games are played by people at work, bored out of their minds that need to kill some time.

They don't want 70 hours of games play, they just want a quick fix. The hiscore tables provide a target for these people to beat, this keeps them coming back... lunch time after lunch time!

As far as games, heck, I can do so much more, with even the simplest of compilers such as QBasic, with the DIRECTQB Library, (which I might add, has made qbasic much more powerfull then it ever was), amazingly fast as well with the help of EMS.

High-level programming lanquages are much closer to English, Assembler is a low-level programming lanquage, C++ is more of a medium-level programming lanquage by the way, seeing that it has features of both types.

Just had to clarify that, why, I have no idea, hehe

Also, I'm not making this to sound discouraging to those who want to sell there games, By all means, ask for a million dollars, hell make it an even 2 million, but I truely believe its a little foolish and nonsence to ask 1000x or so greater then its actually worth. You may find yourself being laughed at severely.

All well and good but can you make those games immediately available to millions of webusers?

okiedokies : IPX games don't cost $15000, but several millions !!!!! don't forget that. i agree that simple click on the baddies game won't cost this price.
i can send you a link of one of our game, but you won't can play it cause it's whole french. here it is anyways http://www.normanet.com/jo, another one is http://www.normanet.com/betagame
ho these are not the best flash game of course, but not that bad either.

btw : did you see http://www.banja.com already ?
[Edited by Akane on 10-04-2000 at 04:35 PM]

You misunderstood me apparently, I wasn't referring to the cost of multiplayer gamming, but only to clarify that these are very very very unlikely to be considered in flash.

Nice games, but I really don't see anything jaw dropping about them, I mean you can only move your mouse back and forth for so long.

For curiosity, I'd like to see someone attempt this in flash:

http://ec.neozones.com/projects.html
[Edited by OkieDokies on 10-04-2000 at 05:33 PM]

Okay! Guys, give your evidents now. If you have a $15000 Flash game, show it to us.
Okiedokie, the games you are talking about take forever to download even if someone can really manage to make them.
I strongly suspect that you are trying very hard to convince us that Flash is not good. And I suspect that that is because you cannot command this software. I met someone like you back in Hong Kong who commented a lot about Flash and turned out to be someone who tried his very best to learn but to no avail. Please show us some of your projects to let us know that you are not fooling us around.
The click-through rate of banners is about 1 to 3%. And ad companies are willing to play 5 cents per click. That means if a game sold for $15000 can generate 110000 visitors within five days, it can earn back the cost sooner than you expect.

Well all of Ultimate Arcade's games that have gone for close to that price are protected by NDA's. So they can't be shown.

The most expensive one that I can show is this:
http://www.commonmandesigns.com/baseball.html

It is an early version of a baseball game we created for Texas Instruments. It is a little better now but I dont have the newer version on one of my domains.

When all was said and done this fetched 6k.

Oakidokies, you wonder why games liek this command a high price? Because look at what it is advertsing. Multimillion dollar equipment. If the use of this game helps sell even one of those products then they will have made their money bakc 1000 fold.

Big companies have big pockets.

by the way, there is only 1 technology that I can think of that downloads relatively quick AND gives you full 3d control and the possibility of multiplayer games.

Wild Tangent.

everyone should check them out: http://www.wildtangent.com

Kick ass game.

wildtagent.com is sweet, but these games were not developed in flash, these are not flash games ok.

I'm not trying to turn this topic into a brawling match nor am I disrespecting the usage of flash, and as far as developement with this tool, I'd like to consider myself far beyond average...After 9 years of expierence with Assembly, Lisp and Prolog and 6yrs with C, 2yrs with C++ and Vax/Vms and Dos, I like to think that I know a thing or too, this may hardly have anything to do with the matter, yes I know, however I am in the midst of finishing up a website devoted to this, what I love as a hobby; as what I do for a living I'm just your average everyday slot machine manufacture, hehe.

Anyways, I think I'll be putting my opinions to a close now.

If I might add; perhaps a great deal can be accomplished with flash, anythings possible and I hope you make a fortune!

Thanks for sharing, God Bless you all!

Okiedokies, is neozone your site? If yes, then you really can make games. Maybe we need to take your points under consideration.
But I want to ask you something. Can your game be played online? Not downloaded and played on desktop but played via internet connection. And is it cross-platform compatible that Mac users don't have to worry?
Cross platform compatibility is the advantage of Java language and Flash player. And this is one of the reasons why online games are always written in Java or Flash. If you find any online games written in C++, please let me know. Remember, we are talking about ONLINE game here.

i know wildtangent ! thier tehcnology is impressive. but still to much bug =(

I'm replying to the messages from Okiedokie on the first page after my post. I just don't have the time to read them all.

Dude, A limition of a peice of software is only limited by the developers imagination and creativity.

Have YOU ever made a game?
Maybe instead of critizing those who make flash games for living, YOU should try to make a game that YOU think is worth 15 grand. And it usually takes a team of two people to make a really good game. The actionscripter and the illustrator/animator.

Finally, it's not JUST the game the client pays for, it's the fact that there are only a handfull of people that can do really good games in flash. It's suply and demand. Flash content is in HUGE demand right now. Everyone is doing Flash.

I'm just glad I got into it way-back-when ; )
Dave

For those of you doubting the complexity of games made with flash, check out the racing game at http://www.k1664.co.uk/beer/index.html

Anyway, it is not how complex the games are, but how fun they are to play?

Ben

FYI little ben,

that game was made with director, not flash

OkieDokies: Wake the hell up. This isn't about making the best games in the world, it's about creating little online toys and marketing gimmicks that corporations can use to offer something a little different than static webpages.

You may have 9 years experience with real programming languages, but you are obviously ignorant about A. Marketing and Business B. The current going rates for professional website development and C. That for every person who likes to play *real* games like Quake and is intelligent enough to get those games to work, there are hundreds of people who would rather just occasionally surf to a website and play something like Solitaire (these people include my parents, my grandparents, and little kids).

You're obviously the kind of person that thinks a website can still be created "for the special low price of $99!" and Windows took nothing more than a week of coding and a few icons.

I think you are seriously mising the point! Developing a (good) game in flash is no different to developing one for say the playstation. In order for it to be addictive and playable it requires the same formula that makes console games so good - a strong idea and the commitment to see it through. Now if you are serious about making a truely fantastic game in flash (one that would be indeed worth $15k) then you really do need a team of people who excell in different areas to make it work. For example, games that I have created (and sold for that matter) can be seen on http://www.dotcomcafe.co.uk/entertainment - i don't claim to have sold these for $15k+ and nor do I think they are worth that much - not in their current state anyway. However the website traffic to this site has almost doubled since these games have been posted and in turn that affects the revenue the site receives from banners etc. And if you're still not convinced and want to see a game worth $15k, then watch this space - I'm currently working on a title that I think might just shut you up once and for all...

Flash vs Playstation huh, very interesting. Me and few friends of mine here must haved laughed for about 20 minutes over your amusing comment towards a Flash game being no different to that of a Playstation game; utilizing the same imagination of creativity, but formulas? Ah, how about a cup of Java there to sober you up guy.

Theres not a game on this planet thats worth 15 thousand dollars if I'm hearing correctly, perhaps an actual acarde machine ofcourse, but, its not like someones gonna say, "Well, how about I just write you out a check here for 15 grand for that just so spectacular game of yours, hum de dum, de dum" now however you can make such an amount at a come back down to reality basis through the purchase of many a buyer, thats gonna have to be some frigging amazing game there, and in flash? BaHumBug.

Now as far as this so called game your making for $15k, (obviously its hear say) not only myself, but others as well, I'm sure you've brought forth a great deal attention, so you be sure to post a preview there asap huh. HaHaHa

The game host of Smash 'TV (old arcade game, you may be familuar with) "I'll buy that for a dollar!" Thats about what your flash content is worth. Ouch.

Show me a real 3D raycasting engine, and I might be willing to pay more. *And thats the bottom line*

okieman,

as i stated in an earlier post: a game is worth as much as someone will pay for it.

if i make a simple solataire game that takes me 3 days, and then shockwave.com wants it. they will show it for 3 months, they get 20millions ad impressions/month from games like mine. they make money, so i make money. they would gladly pay the small 15k compared to the bundles that they reel in. that is just one example.

jobemjobem, must you have that particular footer in every post? Makes it a little difficult to scroll in here.

Its like "Skeet Shooter" yes we know already...

By the way, would you be interested in selling that to me for 15 thousand dollars and 1 cent? haha
[Edited by OkieDokies on 10-17-2000 at 01:13 AM]

OkieDokies, check this out if you havent already,
http://www.3dgroove.com/

NOTE:
=====

Guys I would like to ask you not to be very harsh and personal...We did not have any flame wars here in Game Section. I would like to keep it that way coz the main fun is here and all of you proved to be a good people.
Tnank you for your understanding.

Mad_sci