Pixel Purge

Awhile back I took on a little bet with Ben Lowry, fellow game developer and founder of Playtomic. The name of the game I created for that bet was titled Pixel Purge. It’s come a long way since that time, and has turned into a rather successful flash game. Although the earnings for the game weren’t nearly what I was hoping for, I did learn more in the few months developing /selling it than I have with any other project to date. I’ll now do a break down of how I thought of the game, my expectations, what worked, what didn’t, earnings, and more.

ORIGINAL PLANNING

The idea came to me where nearly all good game ideas come to me, sitting in the mall eating Taco Bell. It was nothing completely original, in fact, I simply wanted to create a better version of a flash game I had dumped a few hours into myself. That game was Cell Warfare. Cell Warfare itself isn’t ground-breaking in any possible way, but it was at the time (in my opinion) the best arena shooter flash games had to offer. The first thing I did was play the game for a good hour or so, to get a feel of what worked and what didn’t. Here’s a short list of flaws with Cell Warfare, as found in my original GDD (Game Design Document) for Pixel Purge.

• The camera system in Cell Warfare was annoying. You moved closer to the edge of the screen at all times, not just when you reach the end of the arena. This feels cramped, and made the distance between the player and off-screen enemies unfair at times.
• The collision detection in Cell Warfare is horrid. The ink splotches in particular are nearly game-ruining.
• I found the yellow quick chasing enemies to be too fast. My deaths by them felt more cheap than my fault.
• Some of the achievements were just silly/annoying. Dying from each type of enemy is not an achievement, it’s failure.
• The game suffers extreme lag on older machines/laptops. Many people reported getting the impossible badge on Kongregate due to the slow down and their ability to navigate better while it lagged.
• The controls in Cell Warfare felt slightly loose. They weren’t that bad, but they weren’t spot on.
• At later levels in the game, some of the enemies have nearly impossible to see contrast with the background. This was reported by many users in reviews, and I noticed it myself when dying from an enemy I couldn’t see.
• The music didn’t loop too well.

That may seem like a big list, but I’m just being critical. Cell Warfare itself is a great game. It was made awhile ago, and has had a huge success on the web. That being said, the above were huge flaws. I wanted to create an arena shooter that addressed all those issues, and added to the core mechanic. Another game I looked at that was popular in the genre, was Amorphous+. While I’m not as big a fan of Amorphous as I am Cell Warfare, I did recognize it’s success as an arena game. The one thing I found interesting about Amorphous + was it’s inclusion of a Bestiary. Despite a ton of mockery from fellow game developers at the fact that I put in a bestiary for only 10 enemies, it was actually very well received in the wild and I’m sure it gave it a slight boost in ratings. The last game I found inspiration from, was Vector Effect. I had previously enjoyed playing Vector Effect for a long while, but felt it was a bit more on the Geometry Wars side of gameplay, which was not what I was going for. I did however like the upgrade system, and that heavily influenced my decision making when thinking of how to do my own. Aside from finding flaws with the above games by tearing them apart, I also took note of what specifically worked, such as the bestiary. Here’s a list of what worked in Cell Warfare as found in my original GDD.

• Easy to jump in and play.
• Clean menus.
• Addictive arcade feel.
• Achievements
• Increased power based on achievements unlocked.
• A sense of power is given to the player with every kill via screen shake, sounds, and animation.

There were other positive features about Cell Warfare and Amorphous +, but to me, those were the highlights. Lastly, I had to determine what additions I would add to the game. Here’s the list of additions as found in my original GDD.

• Add a combo counter to increase the sense of power for the player.
• Add the combo system into the scoring mechanic.
• Add a more advanced bestiary with back-story, stats, images, and unlockable data.
• Detailed data presented in game on total kills, deaths, shots fired, and other stats.
• Tighter controls.

In the end, not everything on these lists was included in the design of Pixel Purge, but all major issues were fixed, and most additions found their way in. Some additions were left out due to the growing size of the game, my interest in a sequel, and my lack of knowledge on exactly how well the game would be received. All in all, I think I picked a perfect place to cap what was going in, and what wasn’t.

EXPECTATIONS

My expectations for Pixel Purge were fairly high, but nothing outrageous. I had seen the success of similar flash games, read the reviews, old and new, and I knew that there was plenty of room for improvement, even among the best of the genre thus far. I knew that Cell Warfare had a solid 3.9x / 5.00 on Kongregate, a very high 4.1x / 5.00 on Newgrounds, and a solid 8.0 / 10 on ArmorGames. I figured with my addition, and the fact that the bar in quality had been raised since those games were created, that I had a fair chance at surpassing the scores on all sites by just a bit. As far as sponsorship earnings were concerned, I was looking to bring in about $5,000 with a primary sponsorship, and bring in another $1,000, – $3,000 in licenses and revenue. As far as viral spread went, I assumed that it’s high scores and views would correlate, I was wrong.

As the flash game market becomes harder and harder to stand out in, so does the reality of my financial expectations. To help pitch my game on FGL, I did up my first ever trailer. I’m not entirely sure how helpful it was for sales, but I’m decently sure it did indeed help. Either way, I learned my way around basic video editing, and it came out pretty well.

RECEPTION

As I had originally anticipated, the game was a rather large success (on some grounds, but not all, more on that soon). The game was originally released with a seven day exclusivity to ArmorGames, and had an 8.2 or so. Reviews were great, bugs were reported, and fixes were in place as soon as possible, all was well. We made a substantial number of improvements to the game during this seven day exclusivity, and this resulted in an even more solid product during the viral release. The score on Newgrounds upon launch was as predicted, in the 4.2x region. This won it a daily 1st place award, as well an an unexpected weekly 5th place award. On Kongregate it pulled out of judgement with a strong 4.2x as well, but when scaled, this was a much more successful score than on Newgrounds. All in all, it’s initial release was a huge success.

As weeks passed, the game continued to live strong. We had launched with medals on Newgrounds, and were then given four badges on Kongregate. We also got a very accurate, and mostly positive review from JayIsGames. Youtube videos of people playing, hacking, and reviewing the game were also popping up, which is always fun to see. We got a ton of PM’s from users on sites saying they loved the game, wanted a sequel, and many even listed suggestions. After about 3 weeks in the wild, we’ve hit a little over 1 million views and 1.7 million plays. Views are how many times the game is loaded, plays are how many times people actually jump into a game. For more stats on that, you can view the public reports. The scores as of writing this are finally starting to set in stone, and are as follows. Newgrounds is sitting on a very high 4.45 / 5.00 rating, with a review score of 9.5 / 10 with over 350 reviews. Kongregate has a very solid 4.14 / 5.00, a very respectable score. ArmorGames has the game sitting on a very high 8.3 / 10, nothing record shattering, but definitely way above average. All in all, the scores are excellent, the reviews make me proud of what I do, and the game is loved by most who play it.

WHAT WORKED

As we’ve seen, the game is a pretty huge success in the eyes of the players. So what exactly made it work? Well, if you go back to the beginning of this post, you’ll see most of the answer. All the fixes that were noted from other games, and all the features added are what makes this game tick. Most importantly, the game is easy to jump into and play. The menus are neat, the controls are simple, and there really isn’t much that can confuse even the slowest of people on the internet. You may be thinking that the gameplay and graphics are the core factor in this game’s success, but I assure you having simplistic controls and making the game accessible is just as, if not more important than anything else.

Next we have the genre. From my research, I found that action games that stayed simplistic did incredibly well. Cell Warfare and Amorphous+ were tried and proven examples. I knew this was more than coincidence, it was factual. I stayed true in design to these games, and as anticipated, it worked. The game was very action-packed, had large enemies, and great explosions. I’ve seen some pretty horrible games add the above and be relatively successful because of it. Add those features to a good game, and you get success.

Lastly, this game has enormous amounts of polish. Most people glancing at the game don’t even notice the sheer amount of detail in the game, but I assure you it’s there. Here’s a small list of polish that helps this game stand above the rest in the crowd.

• The thunder and lightening effect adds huge ambiance.
• Silhouetted enemies in the background add great detail (watch closely when lightening flashes).
• Intro story with pictures, text, and voice acting.
• Particle effects on the main menu buttons when hovering add a sense of high production value.
• Parallax scrolling gives the game world more depth, making the player feel more immersed.
• Explosion effects are randomly generated and not a single animation.
• The large blue particle effect ring when leveling up adds a sense of accomplishment to the player.
• The level-up sound when leveling adds a sense of accomplishment to the player.
• The screen shakes when taking down larger enemies, further immersing the player into the game world.
• The upgrade menu spinning adds a great deal of polish to what would otherwise be a boring, unoriginal upgrade menu.
• 50 achievements give the player a reason to keep playing, and reward them while doing so.
• The added bestiary adds back-story to the world, and the enemies that live within it, further immersing the player into the game world.

There are definitely more touches of polish in there, but those are most of the big ones. Weather this list looks impressive or not, without the above, Pixel Purge wouldn’t be half the game it is. All of these features combined, and only combined, are what makes this game as successful as it is.

WHAT DIDN’T

As you can see, a lot went well with the game. That being said, some things didn’t. The most complained about feature of the game is that we only gave the player a single life. For one reason or another, the idea of giving the player 3 lives or more never occurred to me. I myself am a pretty hardcore gamer, and believe that when you die, you die. That being said, I kept the game on the difficult side, it’s just what I like. As far as the games success goes, adding some extra lives probably would have helped the game be a bit more casual.

While we’re on the subject of casual, I’ll now add that I basically bombed that in nearly every possible way. The game may have been easy to jump into, and easy to play, but that’s about all I did right as far as casual gaming goes. Not adding a campaign was probably the worst decision made in the entire creation of the game. The reason this wasn’t added is because the entire project was supposed to be much smaller in size, and it just wasn’t part of the formula. Keeping it as a simple arcade game meant small, at least, that was the plan. The reason a campaign mode is needed in this kind of game, is because casual gamers need a short-term sense of gratification. Killing enemies in Pixel Purge is rewarding. There’s a giant explosion, a sweet sound effect, and particles fly everywhere. That only lasts so long though, and the next sense of achievement is getting a high score, when you die. There’s nothing between those points, nothing to keep the player satisfied and feeling achieved every few minutes. Adding a campaign would have solved this issue entirely. In addition, it also would have allowed me to scale the difficulty much easier, create some more unique gameplay, add some bosses, and an actual ending to the game. The voice acting intro to the game was great, but the story basically ends there. Players felt cheated when there wasn’t an equally awesome ending to the game.

Lastly, the viral distribution of the game leaves something to be desired. If you look at the public reports, you’ll see that the game only has a little over 1 million views. Many games that are significantly worse in the eyes of the player do 20x the amount of traffic Pixel Purge is pulling. There are a number of reasons this happened, and the most valuable part of this entire project was learning them. First off, having a space theme for this genre of game greatly reduces sponsor interest and viral distribution. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but a space theme hinders a games success more often than not. Proof of this would be comparing our last game Traverse, to Numz. Numz has a very similar rating to Traverse, however it’s viral distribution and earnings far exceed Traverse. Although the above reasons do hinder the viral distribution of the game, I believe there’s another reason the actual views are so low. If you look at the public reports, you’ll notice that the average play time is above 18 minutes for each user, that’s rather impressive. I believe that the replay value that was added, just wasn’t enough. The views mostly consisted of players leaving right off, or staying a full 40 minutes to an hour and beating the entire game in every possible way. In a sense, it’s possible the game was so fun that it was beaten in a single play and left little reason to come back for the average, casual player.  Between the difficulty of the game, the lack of a campaign mode, and the space theme, Pixel Purge just isn’t all that casual and doesn’t offer a reason to keep coming back, and that’s what killed it’s earnings.

EARNINGS

The actual time spent working on the game was roughly 3-4 weeks of solid 8+ hour days from two people. Keep in mind that I’m not an advanced programmer and still have a lot to learn, so every project for me is a combination of work and learning, more so than for most people. In the end, the money earned was barely worth half the time spent.

When the game went up on Flash Game License, it almost immediately received it’s first bid of $500. Bidding then climbed slowly, and eventually halted around $2,000.  The two competing sponsors were PlayedOnline, and ArmorGames. Bidding eventually drew to a halt, so I decided to personally message both sponsors to work out a final deal. I tried pushing for roughly $4,000, or a value of around $2,000 + a performance deal, but neither sponsor was up for it. I eventually got PlayedOnline to offer me $2500, and Armor to offer $2250, I chose Armor. The reason I went with the lower value and Armor, is because I felt that the Armor branding, distribution they could offer our game, and the relationship I would start with Dan, would be worth far more than $250. I still stick to that decision today, and feel that my new-found relationship with Dan of ArmorGames will go much further in the near future. I will admit that I was at first extremely pissed with the low value of the primary sponsorship earnings when I saw the games huge success on Newgrounds, Kongregate, Armor, and so on, but my realizations listed above about how the game isn’t very viral, casual and so on, quickly cleared that up.

Primary Sponsorship – $2250
Non-Exclusive Licenses – $1425
Kongregate Contests – $400 (Weekly 2nd and monthly 6th)
Kongregate Ad Revenue – $343

Total Earnings (To Date)- $4418
My Share (To Date)- $2209

CONCLUSION

The biggest disappointment with the entire project is that I was hoping for this game to be my lucky break. I was really hoping that Pixel Purge would bring us a bit more cash, and give me a chance to finally work on some more ambitious projects that I’ve had in mind for some time now. Although the earnings aren’t bad, a lot of additional post-production work went into raising the earnings to where they are now, which was more time dumped into an already finished game. Despite the somewhat low earnings, I did gain a lot of knowledge from this project. Hopefully with that new-found knowledge I can crank up the earnings on some of my upcoming projects, and eventually get to creating games I’d like to. Overall, I learned a ton, I’ve read hundreds of very inspiring reviews, and I know that I have what it takes to go big. This game may not have given me the break I’ve been looking for, but it’s definitely paved the way for such a thing to happen.

Porter Vs Benologist

At last, the results of the bet are finally in. Actually, they’ve been in for months now, and I’ve just been neglecting to share with the world what exactly happened. That being said, the bet did come to a close, and there are indeed results to be shared. The results aren’t nearly as clear as I wish they could be, but I believe I can work with what I got.

As I said, the results were a bit iffy. The main contributor to this issue is that the bet lacked any concrete rules. If there were indeed any at all, it was that I had to create a game by the end of April that was sell-able. This is where things get tricky. I did indeed complete a project by the end of April, which I felt could in fact be sold, but that quickly became subjective once it came time to show my work. I also created a game-breaking bug at the last minute where the grunt enemies are way too fast now and then. Before I get any deeper into this, here’s a look what I had to offer April 30th, the deadline for the bet.

Pixel Purge Bet Version

Pixel Purge Bet Version

As you can see, the game is nothing special, but it does function, has a few splashes of polish here and there, and in my opinion, could have sold. That being said, the game at that stage completely fell below my expectations. I did in fact spend half my time out and about with friends, but I knew I should have been working, so that’s my own fault. The other reason the game fell short of my expectations is because I added a lot of support into the foundation of the game to expand upon it. I never had any intentions of selling the game after completing the bet, I planned on expanding the game to something much greater from the very start. Truths and excuses aside, as far as the bet was concerned, I should have stuck to the original goal and nothing more.

As I mentioned, I never had any intentions of selling the game as it was at the end of the bet on April 30th. I did in fact continue to build upon the game as I previously stated, and eventually turned it into what is now known as a rather successful game by the name of Pixel Purge. Pixel Purge is in every way superior to the original prototype, and was definitely worth the continued work I put into it. If you’re interested in reading more about the final version of Pixel Purge,  check out my follow-up Pixel Purge Postmortem (Coming soon).

Pixel Purge Final Version

Pixel Purge Final

Lastly, on to the results. Looking at my version specifically completed for the bet, I see how much it lacked. It’s a glorified prototype at best. However, it does have a decent title screen, working high scores, great controls, a variation in enemies, power-ups, an arcade leveling system, and a bit of polish here and there. All in all, it’s not that great, but hey, most flash games aren’t. As far as the original terms go, I personally believe the game could have been sold for a few hundred bucks. It wouldn’t make thousands, but that wasn’t the bet. If some rules had been laid out, I would have worked a lot harder to meet whatever guidelines were created, but those didn’t exist, and I met what I believed was needed. At the same time, the game does lack horribly to my standards, and I never actually proved it was sell-able. In the end, I’m going to have to call the entire bet a fluke. There were no real rules, there was no real panel of judges, it just isn’t possible to come to a fair conclusion. Bet aside, the entire situation was a huge success to me since it forced me to get back to work. I learned a lot in the process, and that’s worth a lot more than the pride or $100 I would have got had this been declared a victory. On a side note, I also didn’t drink for far more than 2 weeks for awhile (As were the terms of me losing). This had nothing to do with the bet, but I’m sure Ben is out there somewhere grinning with pleasure at the thought of a pseudo-victory.

Compared to Consoles

Ever played an amazing flash game, I mean, a truly excellent game, that just happened to be built for flash player? I have, only a few times, but they exist. I came across yet another one of those games recently, Remnants of Skystone, and I realized something, something that really disappoints me and pushes me away from this industry at times. Flash games that are of insane quality, often get judged far more harshly, and on the same level you would expect from a console game.

What happens, is that the game has so much polish, and so much content packed into it, that it works it’s way into the players minds to be treated as a console game. The player becomes far more picky, far more judgmental, and completely loses any ability on how to compare this new, quality game, to the far less quality flash game they played a half hour beforehand. This results in players dropping a 3 or 4 vote (often times lower) on Newgrounds or Kongregate, when they just handed out a 4 or 5 to a game half as well put together or polished just moments before.

It’s almost a compliment to receive such harsh judgment, but at the same time, it can be a punch in the face. For instance, if you don’t grasp that your game is so great that it’s receiving the effects of this odd psychological anomaly, you’ll likely be very angered by the reviews and less-than-deserving scores. The real insult comes when you see one of those games that directly attacks the addictive and power hungry nature of players, with a higher score. It’s annoying both as an observational player, and as a developer to see this sort of thing happen; it’s just discouraging.

I know I’m not the almighty judge who gets to decide what is and isn’t a great game, but I’m going to lay down my personal and well thought out opinion on a few games, and give some examples of what I’m talking about.  Let’s take a look at the most recent victim of this behavior, Remnants of Skystone. The game’s quality is absolutely amazing for a flash game. As a game in general, it’s still impressive. It has it’s flaws, I won’t deny that, but as a flash game, it’s among the best that the flash platform has ever seen. Despite this, it’s current score as of writing this, is a 3.88 on Kongregate. Here’s what really gets me, I’ve seen dress-up games with a score almost as high as this game. This might be fine and all, if the character customization screen alone wasn’t one of the best dress-up games I’ve ever seen; that’s not even looking at the RPG elements, the exploration, the platforming, the art, the towns, the quests, the co-op play, the “float” customization (your personal room), and so on. My point, single elements of this game are better than most flash games out there, and as a package, it’s amazing; yet it’s judged on the level of a console game, and put below many lesser games by score as a result. Another great game that suffers the wrath of this effect, is Drift Runners 2. The game itself is one of LongAnimals best, is significantly better designed than the first game, yet has extremely low ratings and reviews compared to the first, and what what you’d expect to see from it. There’s a few minor faults such as oil spills not effecting the opponent cars, but such small flaws shouldn’t outweigh the quality build this game offers. Those games aside, I’m sure you’ve all encountered an amazing game with reviews dropping zero’s because of something tiny, while the rest of the game is excellent; be it your own game, or one you played.

Overall, there really isn’t too much you can do about the issue, it’s just a bit of human psychology that’s out of our control. The best thing we can do is make sure that every little aggravating wrinkle in our game is removed before launch, because it’s those tiny things that will somehow change the votes of players, despite the amazing features the rest of the game has to offer. I guess we developers should just sit back, and accept the compliment, as backhanded as it may be.

Porter Vs Benologist

Greetings fellow members of the flash game industry. Word on the street is everything this blog has to offer isn’t all it’s cut out to be. Ben Lowry, AKA FlashGameLicense member Benologist, founder of SWFStats, has called me out on my lack of actual work. My perception of our numerous debates, simply put, is that he claims I’m all talk, and no action. Although I’ve created or co-created Stabika 1, Stabika 2, Stabika 3, Dominus Void, Gravibounce, Tower of Greed, Traverse (being released this week by Ninja Kiwi), and a few others that were contract work or not worth mentioning, there may be some truth to that statement. I in absolutely no way work “full time”. Creating flash games is indeed how I pay my rent (with very little help from revenue earned on this site), however I live a very affordable lifestyle which requires very little funds from me. I simply work enough to get by and enjoy a very social life; which is exactly what I’ve tried to accomplish. That being said, I in absolutely no way feel that my lack of releases disqualifies me from sharing (and knowledgeably so) anything on this blog.

So here’s what’s going down; Beno decided that it would be great to give me the rest of the month to come up with something sale worthy. I’m to do everything except for the art, which my partner Andrew will cover. If I’m to succeed in creating a game “sell-able” by April, he’s going to give me $100 USD. If I fail at doing so, he can continue to run his pompous mouth to me about how I never work and I’m all talk, and I’m not to consume any amount of alcohol for 2 weeks. Although I could easily win this bet on a technicality of creating something incredibly simple and “sell-able”, I’m actually going to knock something out of decent quality; at least by the standards of 2 weeks worth of game development.

Before you guys get the wrong idea about the relationship between Benologist and I, let me explain a bit about how this bet came to be. First off, Benologist is a business man. He makes games for money, and almost always no other reason. I almost always make games for fun, unless I’m in need of quick cash, in which case I’ll pull something together to get me some rent money for a few months. Having these different views creates a lot of tension between us during conversation, and very often results in a heated debate. These heated debates generally just die down, with either me or Benologist going back to work, or Benologist choosing a new target within the FGL chat room to badger. Either way, the relationship between the two of us isn’t exactly mortal enemies, sometimes it’s just fun to have a rival or pseudo enemy of sorts. That being said, he does talk a lot of crap about me, and he is an arrogant prick, egotistical, and an ass more often than not, and if I didn’t talk just a little bit of crap about him, this wouldn’t be nearly as fun, so let it begin; compliments to JJWallace for the wonderful art below,

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how the bet turns out, I love proving people wrong when a worthy opportunity arises. In addition, I don’t need that $100, and to prove this, I’ll be framing the check or $100 bill he sends and sharing it with you all as soon as it’s in my hands. Overall, I’ll take this opportunity to not only prove him wrong, but to grab some extra cash for myself. I’ve already got an idea of what I want to do, so it’s about time I stop writing this and get to work. Check back often, as I’ll be updating my progress every few days up until the final day on April 30th. If you’re taking sides, or just have something to say, be sure to do so; can’t ever get enough entertainment.

What Not To Do

One of the biggest mistake game developers make, is having a game that isn’t fun, even though it is in fact playable. Sometimes this is caused by something rather simple, such as the game running sluggish. Although lag is a huge issue in many games, that’s not what I’m referring to, I simply mean the game plays too slow, the action doesn’t come fast enough. If ever there was something you don’t want to do in game design, this is it, because today’s players have even less patience than those of the past. In addition, you’ll find yourself working weeks, even months on a game, only to have absolutely no sponsor interest, and not an idea why such is the case. If you really think this doesn’t apply to you, read on. Notice I didn’t say “One of the biggest mistake new game developers make” in my opening statement, that’s because even world famous companies make these mistakes, everyone does time to time.

The best example of a game that has been entirely broken from sluggish gameplay is Final Fantasy VI on the PS1; it came with Final Fantasy V in the Final Fantasy Anthology collection. Final Fantasy VI, as many of you may know, is one of the most impressive RPG’s of it’s time, and by no means a bad game. Aside from being impressive, it also had a lot of random battles, which was fine on the SNES, but absolutely horrid due to load times between battles on the PS1. It never should have been ported in my opinion; the down time spent just waiting is so immense that it honestly ruined the game, I didn’t play more than an hour into it. I’ll remind you that when I first got it, I was psyched to play one of my classic favorites again, and have no problems with turned based battles and random encounters; the remake however, was unplayable to my standards. Although the above issue is mostly due to hardware, the company was aware of the issues before releasing the game, it was just poor judgment on their part to ever port the game.

Final Fantasy may be a console game, but that doesn’t mean that flash games can’t suffer the same consequences. In fact, flash games are more susceptible to failing because of this, due to the low patience of casual gamers. As some of you may know, I review a lot of games over at FlashGameLicense; you would be surprised how many games suffer from slow paced gameplay. Slow gameplay issues I’ve encountered vary. I’ve seen action games where the tank moved far too slow, sliding puzzle games where the block moved too slow, games where the player could outrun the bullets shot by his own weapon, and more. As cool as a game could be where you have some power that allows you to slow down time and run around bullets, that wasn’t what this game was going for, and that called for very obvious failure. You may think all of these are novice mistakes, but there are some very professional games out there with this issue, some that suffer horribly, others that could have benefited from an increase in speed in certain aspects.

All of this may sound like another novice mistake that you’re probably telling yourself you’ll never do, but I guarantee that somewhere in your future works, there will be a time when one of your games is severely hurt, or hindered by such an issue. The biggest reason for this, is that most developers generally don’t even notice these issues, this is usually due to a curtain of illusion that is thrown over a developer when they work on their own games; we as developers become oblivious to some of the most obvious faults with our games and will never notice them until told by an outside source. If you ever suspect that you’re game could in fact suffer from such an issue, take a look at Four Second Frenzy or Grid 16, they are fast paced from start to finish, exactly what the market loves. You may be thinking, well I have a puzzle game, or a defense game, same applies; even tower defense games,  such as Flash Element TD 2 offer the ability to speed up the game once you’ve got things under control. No matter what genre your game is, there are always moments when things can get dull, not always due to gameplay elements, but how slowly they’re presented. No matter how open minded about your game you think you are while testing, get others to test the game and give you feedback; you’re far better off being surprised with testers catching sluggish gameplay, rather than your players when the game goes live.

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

Music Sources

Every great flash game needs top notch music in order to fully succeed. If you’re reading this, I’m sure at one point or another, if not now, you’ve wondered where you can go to get great music for your flash games. There are tons of sources, some free, some not. Some are widely known, while others are known only by myself and a few others, up until now. I’ve mentioned the importance of game music numerous times, by utilizing the below sources, you can take those teachings, and apply them to your games.

Let’s take a look at some of the more well known sources. Somatones Interactive Audio may be a bit on the more expensive side for audio, but there isn’t a chance in the world that you’ll walk away feeling like you didn’t get your money’s worth. These guys know what they’re doing, and they do it flawlessly. They have more experience working with music than anyone else in the flash game industry, and it shows. They’ve worked with companies such as Disney, Konami, Nickelodeon, Sony, Ubisoft, and plenty more. Keep in mind that the work they do for you is exclusive to you, meaning your game will have custom music that no other in the world has. Visit Somatones and check out their work and customer feedback, if you can afford their rates, it’s definitely worth it.

Another great source for music is ibaudio. These guys have a huge library of royalty free music for a very reasonable price. You can purchase music for any genre and feel you desire, some for as low as $10 a loop. Music is purchased using credits which you buy from the site, buying in bulk can save you up to 40%. In addition, you can purchase a 1 year subscription for a one time payment of $213.69; this allows unlimited downloads, which is definitely worth it for anyone pumping out multiple successful titles in a single year. On top of that, any music downloaded during your year subscription may be used by you in the future, even after your subscription is up. Keep in mind the music can be used by you, and only you, any abuse to this system is of course illegal. If you are somehow not finding exactly what you need throughout there massive library, you can also request custom music, they’ll work closely with you to negotiate pricing and get the exact music you’re looking for.

Another great source, despite being less catered towards game music, is Stockmusic. They have an expansive library of music, most tracks being in the $30 range. All music is of excellent sound quality and very professionally done. The site as I said doesn’t exactly target game music, but they offer an amazing search tool that will let you find exactly what you’re looking for. You can also legally alter the music in order to create loops, add echo, or any other reason you may find, so despite the music not being perfect for games right off, it shouldn’t be an issue with anyone who knows how to do basic audio editing. Stockmusic also offers custom music. If you chose to do this, you will be working closely with a composer who fits your genre best, and are supplied demos of the works as they progress, allowing you to suggest changes and customize the music to your liking. I haven’t had any direct experience with these guys, but they definitely look like they know what they’re doing.

Audiosparx is an ideal source for anyone looking to find quality game music. I suggest filtering to search for loops as they’re much more suited for games, but that’s up to you. Rates definitely vary on this site, but the quality is consistently high. Be sure to view “B” rates, these rates pertain to the license you’ll be using in order to legally put the music into your games, distribute them, and profit. These guys have experience with the big guys in the industry, with music in games by companies such as Midway, Atari, EA, and more.

MusicLoops is another great place to find royalty free loops for your game development needs. All tracks are in the form of a loop, so little to no editing will be needed on your part. With a large variety of genres, there’s not a feel you won’t be able to find. The majority of music is roughly $20-$40, which isn’t much for a fitting piece of quality music. A clean design, variety of music, and affordable rates, make this an excellent addition to any list of sites to search when looking for affordable audio for your projects.

Now we’ll take a look at another company I actually have experience with. Partners In Rhyme is an excellent source for virtually all genre’s of music, including seasonal genre’s such as Halloween and Christmas. Each package includes various tracks, each with an incredible assortment of loops, track edits, multiple duration cuts, and the occasional stingers. Some packages will even come with bonus content, including various additional loops and sound effects, some of which you may find even more useful than the original content you purchased. Packages are places at various prices, most resting between $80-$90, which is well worth what you’ll be getting from these guys.

Another site that caters directly to flash games, is Twune. The music is of decent quality, and all packages go for a flat rate of $75. The convenient part of buying from Twune, is that all the editing is entirely done for you. Each package includes multiple loops cut from the same track, allowing you to have multiple loops throughout your game, all with a similar sound. The selection is a bit smaller than some sites, but they’re still growing. Overall, the convenience of multiple loops coming in a single package is convenient, and definitely worth checking out.

In addition to many of the large companies, there is an endless source of freelance musicians just dying to have their music heard by the world. These musicians are incredibly talented, and for the most part, unknown to everyone other than their friends and family. Despite their lack of popularity, these musicians have incredible talent, and will likely be known for it in the future. For the time being however, they lack exposure and are eagerly awaiting to hop on board a project.

A well talented individual that falls into this category is Mike Taylor. I met Mike when living in the wonderful rolling hills of Moscow Idaho. After meeting him, I found out that he was incredibly talented at the piano, as well as doing his own compositions in various other genres. He can do a variety of music, such as techno, trance, ambient, classical, 8-bit, and so on. As far as the flash industry goes, his music can be heard in Dominus Void and Tower of Greed. Dominus Void features features various tracks from multiple artists, track two being Mikes, while Tower of Greed was composed entirely by Mike from scratch. As you can hear, it sounds very authentic to the days of the NES, so much in fact that it sounds as if it could have appeared in a popular title in the early 90′s. Mike is always looking for custom music work, and will listen to all of your ideas and suggestions to make sure the music fits your exact needs. He’s a huge perfectionist, so don’t be surprised when he scraps something you’re proud of and comes back the next day with something far more impressive. His rates are incredibly affordable and definitely worth what they add to your game. He’ll help decide a fair price with you depending on various factors, all of which you’ll both discuss and plan out beforehand.  If you’re interested in having Mike do some work with you, you can contact him via Newgrounds PM, or email him at miketaylorandhisimaginaryband@gmail.com; I know, it’s an awesome email address.

Another excellent, and unfortunately lesser known artist, is Yiannis Ioannides. I met Yiannis recently while browsing the forums over at Newgrounds. I listened to his music and felt a strong urge to get in contact with him and talk business, so that’s what I did. Yiannis is an incredibly skilled musician who is currently studying film scoring and jazz composition at Berklee College of Music over in Boston, MA. He’s passionate about composing game music, and specializes in music that consists of jazz, electronica, world, classical, ambient, soundscape etc. He’s looking for work and would be more than happy to compose for all sorts of games, from young, colorful, interactive games, to darker, serious, professional games. Rates vary from project to project, and will be negotiated prior to completion. Definitely give his music a listen and keep him in mind for future projects; he’s got a lot of talent just waiting to be put into your future works. You can reach Yiannis for questions and work by emailing him at yioannides@berklee.net.

If you’re looking for some music on the cheaper side of the spectrum, perhaps free, there’s always the Newgrounds Audio Portal. Contrary to popular belief, nearly all of the music on Newgrounds is free. There are a few things to keep in mind however. You must always contact the author of a piece you wish to use, let them know of your project, and always request permission. They’ll decide on the terms when responding to you, but 99% of the time artists are just looking to get some exposure, and are thrilled to hear that their music will be used in a game. They’ll generally ask that you mention them in the credits, as well as link to them on the credits page if possible, which is more than acceptable. The audio portal offers a lot of music in various genres, so you shouldn’t have any issues finding some good music. Seeing as it’s an audio portal run off of user submissions, you will have to filter through a lot of lower quality music in order to find what you’re looking for, but that’s the price you have to pay if you don’t feel like forking over some cash.

Another free source is Incompetech, a website run by Kevin MacLeod. Kevin has a large library of royalty free music that he has composed and recorded himself. You can search by genre, or by mood, giving you plenty to work with when it comes to getting the right feel for your project. Kevin doesn’t charge anything for his music under the creative commons license, but greatly appreciates donations as all artists do. The only thing actually required of you is to list his name in the credits, as well as the piece(s) used. If you like what you hear, Kevin can also compose custom music for you, rates are negotiated on a project by project basis.

As you can see, there’s plenty of sources to get amazing music out there. Until recently, I was one to just go out and get free music and do my best with it, which has never hurt, but after doing the research for this article, I can’t stress how important quality music is. I had always thought that I did a fantastic job selecting music for my games prior to this article, however looking back, I did great, but these services offer a quality that cannot be matched for free. If the above prices sound a bit high, consider the fact that the value great music will add to your game is far more than you’ll be paying. If you can’t afford exceptional music from the above services, perhaps land a sponsor, then point out some music you would like to add to the game; chances are they’ll pay you the amount needed up front (out of your sponsorship money, or in addition) to let you boost the value of the game. If you do find yourself using the above sources, or any for that matter, always check the license agreements for the music you are purchasing, this is extremely important and cannot be stressed enough. All in all, you now have an incredible list of sources to find excellent flash game music, all at varying prices that should be affordable to everyone. I definitely hope to hear an increase in the quality of music in all of your future games, don’t let me down.

Becoming A Game Developer

Becoming a game developer is hard work, really hard work. There are however a few advantages to becoming a game developer that other careers in the world just can’t offer. In order to become a lawyer, you have to go to school, lots of school. In order to become a doctor, you have to do the same. To become a game developer however, you just have to be passionate, have an internet connection, and have the occasional motivation boost.

In the previous chapters of becoming a game developer, I spoke of what abilities will help you excel as a game designer, as well as gave some tips on how to analyze games to further yourself as a game developer. By now you may be wondering what it takes to actually get the job, to actually enter the industry and get a paycheck for your hard work. Sure you can make games, but how do you sell them? How do you get hired? When it comes to flash games, you’re good to go from the start. Unlike other careers, you don’t need credentials, you simply need to know how to make games, and do it well. Anyone in the world can start creating games in flash, selling them, and earning some very nice cash. It takes a lot of work, and I mean a lot, but it is within every single person’s grasp to do so if they choose. I started by making games for fun, but I soon found out that I could get paid for what I was doing. Bottom line is this, you don’t need a college degree, you don’t need to find a boss to hire you, you can self teach yourself and become your own boss overnight.

As I said, I began creating and selling games when I was 18 years old, back in the days of living in my first apartment away from home. One of the greatest things about entering the flash game industry is that you can do it at any age. You can be 13 years old, have a passion for games, take the time out to teach yourself, and instantly hop into making games. You won’t succeed with your first game, at least not on the level you would like to, but practice really does make perfect, especially in the flash gaming industry. I really do wish I had been into this when I was younger, I can’t imagine how evolved my skills would be had I started doing this at the age of 14 or so. Granted I was messing around with flash 4, getting an understanding of the time line and flash IDE, but I never actually touched code until much later. If you’re a younger reader and interested, don’t get discouraged, keep trying and I assure you time and patience will bring you to a very nice place once you get things down. In fact, if you’re a younger reader, I encourage you to start your career early, even if just as a hobby. One of the hardest things I find in trying to make this a full time job, is the inconsistency of pay. Start while you’re living at home, or at the very least get a few thousand dollars to sit on before you go and pour yourself into the job, it may take longer to pay off than you anticipate.

Alright, so you don’t need credentials, your age doesn’t really matter, so how do you actually get started? Adobe Flash is a rather expensive product itself, a great tool, but a bit expensive. I suggest using FlashDevelop if the price of Flash it too high, it’s an amazing program that is better suited for your programming needs than flash itself, not meant for animating, but that can be done in other programs. If you read up on the FlashDevelop page, you’ll find instructions for downloading Flex and other programs in order to compile your projects, in the end, creating a completely free set up. Once compiled, you can either play the swf in the browser, or you can download the flash debug player. All in all, that’s about all you’ll need to get started.

There you have it, you’re ready to start programming games. You don’t need to be any specific age, you don’t need a $600 program, and you don’t need to go to school and earn a fancy degree in order to secure your position. You will need determination, more common sense than the average human seems to carry these days, and a lot of free time, but if you’re reading this I have confidence that you can pass the above prerequisites. Enjoying your job and becoming financially stable doesn’t come easy in this world, and most of the time your caught within the system of going to college and following the rest of the cycle. In the flash industry the opportunity is up to you, you choose how far to go. If you really want this to be your future, get to work and make it a reality, it really is entirely up to you.

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

Mushroom Madness

Mushroom Madness is yet another rare gem in the action oriented defense genre. It was only just days ago that I did a Momentum Missile Mayhem 4 Review, praising the game for standing out in the genre, but here we are today with yet another successful game of it’s kind. There may be some connection in having a successful game, use of the letter “M”, and using alliteration, but we’ll save that mystery for another day, and most likely for someone other than myself. That aside, this fantastic game is put together brilliantly, and is a top notch game, perfectly suited for the flash game industry.

Mushroom Madness, as I mentioned earlier, is a fantastic action oriented defense game. The object is simple, protect you’re mushrooms from hedgehogs, bears, and birds. You’ll achieve this goal by using your trusty swatter, an automatic gun, a shot gun, bear traps, and bombs. Hedgehogs will attempt to grab your mushrooms and run off with them, as will birds that swoop in; bears however don’t have the patience to eat when they get home, and have their feast on the spot. Like all good defense games, the game offers the ability to upgrade a few features that allow you to customize how you play. Upgrades include, stronger hits with your swatter, quicker recharge time for the swatter, longer stun duration, the ability to purchase new strikes with the swatter, more regular gun ammo, bigger radius for bomb explosions, more durable bear traps, and more shotgun ammo. The way you upgrade really effects the way you play, I know that when I tackle hard mode (which is unlocked after beating the game on normal mode once), I’ll be taking a much different approach. The balancing and difficulty are also spot on, I found myself in a constant state of enjoyment, slightly challenged at times, and never frustrated or bored, which is a very nice achievement on the developers part. This game won’t offer nearly as much strategy as Bloons TD3, rather more of a hands on defense feel such as that which can be found in Storm The House 3; which is great, because that’s exactly what the developers were going for. Either way, fans of both action and defense games will definitely be in for a treat when they give this game a play.

The graphics in Mushroom Madness are incredibly charming. At times, I almost feel bad about dropping a bomb on a poor defenseless hedgehog, but then I remember it’s just a game, that and a small part of my sick and twisted human mind loves doing it, so I can’t complain. The colors used in this game are very well selected, everything is vibrant and filled with life, that is until you drop another bomb on the hedgehog, then there really isn’t much life to be found at all. Hedgehog bomb jokes aside, the art really is fantastic. The sprites in this isometric game are very proportional and well animated, absolutely no flaws there.

As should be the case in all games, the audio is very well suited and compliments the art brilliantly. The music is very upbeat, charming, and sounds like it should be thrown into something fun, which is exactly what it does here. The sound effects are incredibly clear, everything from the wolf howls in the upgrade menu, to the sound of the shotgun firing away. In addition, the volume of each sound effect is very well balanced, something a few games occasionally miss out on doing. All in all, the music and sound effects were very well done, and definitely build up the games fun and enjoyable atmosphere.

There you have it, another fantastic game snatched up by King. There really isn’t anything bad about this game; the gameplay is incredibly casual, the graphics charming, the music high quality and fitting, all qualities a great flash game should excel in. In addition to the main game, there’s also a number of mini games to be unlocked as you progress, all of which are simple, yet add value. Lastly, for all those who are looking to get a bit more hardcore with the game, there’s a survival mode in which you can submit your high score, perfect for anyone looking for some competition. Bottom line, this game is of excellent quality, looks great, and is incredibly fun, definitely give it a play.

Momentum Missile Mayhem 4

It’s not often I find a flash game that really draws me in, Momentum Missile Mayhem 4 is one of those rare exceptions. There has never been an action oriented defense game that has successfully drawn me in like this game. Everything shines with high production value, the music, the graphics, the interface, and most importantly, the gameplay. I’m constantly ranting about how flash games are ridiculously watered down in difficulty, this game pleases me even there, offering enough challenge to have stolen a few hours of my life, hours that I’m not about to ask to get back. I know a lot of players as well as developers hate hearing about high production value, but this is one of the cases where high production value really deserves to be pointed out. The amount of polish put into this game is intense, and I’m certain it paid off in the sponsorship deal.

The gameplay in Momentum Missile Mayhem 4 is awesome, very awesome. The physics are spot on, the enemies interesting, and variety of things to do immense. The RPG factors within the skill tree system alone are enough to hook most players, the intense heated battles finish it off for the rest. There are a number of special skills to help you on the battlefield, some unlocked from beating bonus missions in the campaign mode, others you start with. Your primary projectiles can be upgraded to shoot faster, deal more damage, and contain more mass, which sends enemies flying further and faster which feels quite rewarding. By applying points to the gravity launcher upgrade, you can also unlock 4 other types of projectiles, all with unique properties and uses, and of course, their own level. Some of the more intense attacks have cool down timers, but that’s all just part of the amazing balancing this game has to offer. Aside from the starting and four additional types of projectiles you can get via leveling up the gravity launcher upgrade, you can unlock a sixth type by clearing a bonus mission which is unlocked roughly half way through the game, and believe me, you don’t want to miss this one. In addition to the six different projectiles you can choose from, you can level up your max shield and shield recharge rate, max energy and energy recharge rate, as well as nine other useful skills to help you dominate the battlefield. Despite the insane ability to upgrade and customize your attack strategy, you’ll find yourself using good old fashioned skill more than anything to stay alive in this game. This game is hard, not so hard it’s unfair, but hard enough to give you a few hours of gameplay if you want to finish the entire campaign, not to mention the sandbox and Armageddon mode. Aside from a few minor issues that make the difficulty unfair, rather than hard, the gameplay is presented perfectly.

The graphics in Momentum Missile Mayhem 4 are definitely top notch. The explosions look excellent, the textures on background terrain superb, and the various effects during special attacks are flawless. The enemy designs are each unique, and well thought out as well. They all vary in size, shape, and color, where as many games recycle designs and just swap up color and size. The most unappreciated aspect related to the graphics and design is probably the user interface, which is amazing. There is a lot of information in this game, lots of upgrade menus, lots of instructions, it’s just loaded. This game organizes all of that information and presents it in a way that isn’t overwhelming, which I applaud seeing as there’s so much to do and learn. All around there isn’t a single graphical flaw in this game, it’s well presented, well polished, and it looks excellent.

I’ve explained time and time again about the importance of game music, I’m proud to say that this game follows absolutely everything I have to say on the matter. The title screen music is relaxing, much like the calm before a battle. The level selection menu is more pumped, it hints that things are about to heat up, it’s time to prepare. Lastly, the gameplay music, a mild rock tune with a lot of energy, perfectly fitting the mood of the action packed battles. The sound effects are excellent, and none are missing. There’s sounds for menu hover, menu select, firing, blowing up, specials, explosions, and so on, they’re all there. All the sounds are incredibly fitting, none are too high pitched and hurt with headphones, and all are crystal clear. This game is a fine example of how audio can add to the value of a game by being exceptionally fitting.

All in all I’m very pleased with this game. I rarely find a flash game that I hold on par with games outside of the industry, but this one definitely goes onto my list of great games in general. I really don’t have anything negative to say about this game, there are a few minor unfair situations that can occur that are out of the players control, but it happens, and when compared to the amount of superb balance this game offers, I really can’t complain. If you’re looking for some great action, or some more hands on strategic defense, Momentum Missile Mayhem 4 is definitely the game for you.

Scribblenauts

It’s not every day that I see a console game that could become a flash game, and even rarer that I find one that is almost screaming to be turned into one. Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS is one of those rare gems, and it’s just blessed the world with it’s presence today. Scribblenauts is not only an amazing game, but it’s the first game I’ve actually looked forward to and felt was truly original since Portal came out with the Orange Box. If you’re unfamiliar with Portal, log into your steam account now and check it out, you can also try Portal: The Flash Version which is basically the same concept, but in 2D.

First off, let’s take a look at what makes Scribblenauts such an amazing game. The point of the game is to solve various puzzles, or reach the goal, to receive the magical that is a starite. The way you solve these puzzles is where Scribblenauts really shines. You can move around using the DS’s stylus, look around using the D-Pad or ABXY buttons, and last but not least, click on the note pad and write in anything that comes to mind. What does writing in anything that comes to mind do for you exactly? It brings it to life, plops it into the world in front of you, and begs you to interact with it in whichever way possible. You can write so many things it’s unbelievable, the database of items is absolutely massive. I’ve only played the game a very short while since it just came out, but already I’ve ridden a whale, had that whale defeat an angry lion, and used a rocket to blow holes in the ground to navigate to new areas. When I say you can write anything, I mean it. Admittedly (and this is nearly impossible to avoid) you can stump the system and come up with something it doesn’t have, but you nearly have to try to do so which is quite impressive; on top of that, it gives you options that are close to whatever you typed that wasn’t found, so you really can’t complain. After you create various objects, you can ride them, throw them, shoot them, combine them, and so on. If this doesn’t sound at all amusing to you, you’re anhedonic, and I’m sorry for your loss.

So you may thinking that the above is quite impressive, well, it is. So how does this relate to the flash industry? How can such an impressive game be moved to a platform such as flash? Easily is how. The entire game, although amazing, is basically a giant database of words, tons of simple art and animation, basic platforming, and a fine dose of Box2D or your favorite physics engine. The art has it’s own style, but is certainly something that could be seen in a flash game. It’s colorful, simplistic, and almost looks as if someone drew it with a tablet. The biggest draw back I see is that the game is 32MB, which would be a massive flash game, but I’m sure a lot of the file size are files that pertain directly towards communication with the DS and stuff of that nature. If not, the database of items could be loaded externally to reduce the file size to something acceptable. Regardless of the solution picked, it’s definitely doable. The game would undeniably be a huge project, but it’s one that could definitely shine as one of the greatest flash games to this day. The game really is perfect for the flash platform, and I’m almost surprised the company didn’t launch a mini game flash version to build up some extra hype for the DS release. It’s creative, it’s the most intuitive game since Portal, and it’s amazingly casual and laid back, which is perfect for the flash industry.

The most impressive aspect of the game is that game developers have once again created something incredibly original. After thousands of clones of great games, another company has stepped forward, used some creativity, taken a risk, and is now reaping the rewards for their work on an original concept. The most inspiring thought I get from the above isthis, yes they developed the game for the DS, but it could just as easily been you or I developing this game for the DS. Creative ideas that have yet to be thought of are still out there; leave the tower defense games and physics clones for someone else, and embrace the importance of originality.

Interested in picking up Scribblenauts? Buy it here –