People often ask me how I make money developing flash games since they are free for people to play. Hopefully this short article will offer some insight into how to monetize flash games and provide some data that might be of use (or at least interest) to other developers or people wanting to make money from flash games.
The short answer is that almost all of the money in the flash games industry comes from advertising. I make some money from having adverts in games and I have a site (BadViking.com) where I also show adverts. Sites with bigger user bases are able to make significant amounts of money by showing adverts. In order to obtain those user bases these sites pay to sponsor games (among other things).
What that means is that they pay for the right to have their logos and links put into a game. Because of the viral nature of a flash game it will quickly spread to many sites (provided it is good enough) and will be played several million times generating a significant amount of traffic (and therefore advertising revenue) for the sponsor of a flash game.
Of course it doesn’t always work out that way. Some games will flop and the sponsor could make a loss so they have to choose carefully which games to sponsor. Make a good enough game though and you could certainly net a very nice sponsorship deal which is what can make being a flash game developer profitable. At the short end of the spectrum there are games that go for a few hundred dollars but at the other end there are games that can sell for tens of thousands. Primary sponsorship deals make up almost 70% of my revenue.
It doesn’t stop there though. Most sponsors allow you to sell secondary licenses of your game. In these versions of the game you switch out the branding for that of another sponsor with the condition that the new version is locked to one site and is not allowed to spread virally. Obviously these sell for less than the main sponsorship but are still a valuable source of income and currently account for 10% of my revenue.
The rest is made up by advertising, whether that be in the game or on my website. The one source that we don’t get any revenue from oddly enough is our user base. We rely on the users to generate advertising income but they don’t actually give us anything in return for the right to play our games. In some ways that does seem like an untapped source of income but on the other hand it would be a huge shame to have to make users pay for the wealth of free games that can be found on the internet.
It seems though that we are on the verge of change as micro-transaction systems are starting to crop up in many of the top quality games on offer. Happily this does not mean that we are about to see the end of free entertainment on the internet. Almost the opposite in fact. Every day free to play games with higher production values than ever before are being developed.
I myself have implemented micro-transactions in one of my newest games, Toxers. Players can spend a bit of money to buy extras for the game such as fun weapons or in-game currency. I had been hopeful that this could be a great additional source of income without compromising the free to play philosophy but it seems that the majority of players do not share this viewpoint.
Some people do pay for some of the extra content in Toxers which is great but the income from that has been somewhat disappointing. It is hard to tell whether Toxers simply wasn’t the right game for micro-transactions. Certainly there have been some big successes with micro-transactions but we will have to think hard about whether they are worth the extra effort spent developing the additional content in future games, not to mention the negative response from players who don’t appreciate the idea of spending money in flash games.
As a professorial developer myself I feel your plight. I just started looking into flash games myself and that caught my attention of your article.
I played Toxers (off Kongregate) and it was one of the best produced flash games I have ever seen on that site. There was so much depth to that game and it had such high production value. Kudo’s for making such a great game. I haven’t seen an RPG that drawed me in since Caravaneer.
The funny thing is, I was playing for half an hour and died because I didn’t realize there was an equipment tab in al’s store. Also at the time that I was playing I’m not sure if the premium store was an option, or at least I didn’t see it. Even if I had known about it, I probably would not have paid for a premium weapon unless the game became so difficult that I needed one. I like a challenging game, so why would I buy something to make it less challenging. Also there isn’t enough incentive to pay for the premium equipment as the game can be finished within 2-3 hours.
Now if you had charged for an extra one or two episodes like the doom business model (I realize this would probably be a great deal of work), but I would have put down some real cash for that.
I hope you continue to make another game like Toxers and maybe only provide 1/3 the game with the ability to pay for the rest.
Hi Meatbucket,
Thanks for your response and really happy to hear that you enjoyed Toxers. The reason you didn’t see the premium content on Kongregate is because they don’t allow external micro-transaction systems so we had to remove it from there.
It’s interesting to hear that you think an episodic model would be a good way to go. I’ve shied away from that in the belief that players would view it as a demo and would feel that they were being cheated out of a portion of the game. In a game like Toxers where the main idea of the game is to play it through to its conclusion and beat the final boss, players would be very irritated if they had to pay to see the game to the end. Still, I could see it working if done properly and in the right game.
Incidentally we have just finished a game that is fairly similar to Toxers called The Legend of the Golden Robot which is basically an RPG where you play an Indiana Jones style artefact hunter. In my opinion it’s a better game than Toxers but we will have to see what the public thinks :) It should hopefully be released in a couple of weeks I’d imagine.
I’m not old enough to get a job, but creating flash games is confusing. Could you e-mail me a few tips if you’re not busy? (or post)
Hi Leonardo,
You’re right, it’s not easy to make flash games. The main thing to do is to learn Actionscript 3. Or at least learn the basics. Then you can pick up new techniques as you go. To learn AS3 there are tons of resources on the internet or you could get a book to help you. And you’ll need a copy of adobe flash… which isn’t cheap! You can get a trial version for a month which you could use to see what you think. Or you can use flash develop which is free (but less intuitive for beginners to use).
It’s hard to know if that’s the sort of thing that you were after or not when you say ‘tips’ but hopefully that helps. Just post if you want more info and I’d be happy to point you in the right direction.
nice articles.
i’m curious about badviking.com revenue,seems like its monetize using adsense. how much you get per day from the ads on that site?
i also developing games and have my own portal but the conversion rate is very low if the visitor is come from link that i attached on my flash game.
thank you
Yes BadViking.com is monetized using google adsense. I’m not going to share exact figures but I will say that the revenue generated from those ads is currently pretty low. You need a very large number of visitors to make any decent money from ad revenue alone.
As I see it there are two strategies for indie game developers:
1. Self sponsor your own games and rely on ad revenue – this is risky but could potentially be very rewarding in the long term as your site grows.
2. Focus on getting games sponsored – this is the method I am currently going for. The up front money is too much for me to turn down at the moment and run the risk of making very little through self-sponsorship.
Bet of luck making games!
Could you please give an estimate of yur monthly or yearly income. I know it probably will vary, but it will be helpful to know the know how much you make on average.Thx Imma goin to check out yur game.
Thanks for the post. Nice info.