Porter's World

Both Games, Different Designs

Throughout the last few years I’ve studied what works in the flash gaming community and what doesn’t. There is without a doubt a number of tactics to be followed to ensure that your game is fit for this industry. Such tactics exist because there is a clear difference in how game design for the flash industry works when compared to game design for console systems. Everything from the difficulty to the controls used must be thought out differently when developing a flash game, not doing so could result in a great game, in the wrong market.

As much as I hate to admit it sometimes, there really is a difference in flash game design in comparison to console game design. Games developed for flash must be far more casual in most cases, and even when not casual must be developed entirely differently in other aspects. The controls in your game must be very clear, and very simple to use. Most flash game players don’t have enough hand eye coordination to press two or three different buttons as well as the arrow keys or WASD keys to move, it’s just too complicated and takes more time to get used to than most players have or are willing to give. Aspects such as difficulty must be decreased significantly in order to appeal to the majority of players. A good way to go about this is to make what you think is easy, hard, and move from there.

Flash game players have far less of an attention span compared to console players as well, for numerous reasons. Firstly, they don’t pay for your game, so they don’t feel compelled to stick around and get their money’s worth out of it. Secondly, there’s a lot more games out there, every day tons of new flash games come out, if your game doesn’t impress them very quickly, they’ll move on to the next one without thinking twice. Another reason your first impression must be so important is due to a games pre-release exposure. Flash games get very little exposure before release, if any. Console games will have trailers, articles, tons of talk among gamers for months to come, some times years. This allows users to have more patience when trying out the game, because they know it gets good from what they’ve seen. With a flash game however, they don’t know what’s coming, and if you don’t impress them right off, they’re not about to stick around and find that out.

The above brings quite the issue to any developers plate, especially those in favor of retro games. Many developers such as myself have a craving to develop games in the style of NES and SNES games, challenging, minimal instructions, and fun. The issue with this however, is that although such a game can be a top notch game in general, the flash industry isn’t always the best place for it due to the above reasons. If someone was to develop a new IP and have it play nearly identical to a hit SNES or NES game, it will do alright in the flash industry, but never live to it’s full potential in comparison to a non-flash platform. Games such as these just aren’t meant for the web, at least if you’re looking to get the money the game quality deserves. Such games in my opinion belong on systems such as the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, or perhaps on Xbox Live Arcade.

With the above in mind, I urge all developers to really just develop what they want. I’m in no way saying you shouldn’t make  games such as Tower of Greed or Raider Episode 1, I’m simply warning you of the financial consequences of doing so. I myself will never stop trying to perfect a balance of both, but it certainly isn’t an easy one and I’ll lose out on a lot of potential revenue in the process. Either way, with the above knowledge you can further your planning methods in game development when trying to maximize your profits for your final product; remember though, it’s not all about the cash, making games for fun is where it’s at.