Porter's World

Click Through Rate

Recently a lot has been on my mind concerning the approach I should take when designing games. I’ve learned a lot as of late concerning shaping my games specifically for this industry, things such as the importance of mouse support and catering to the desires of casual gamers. Despite my knowledge of what works well, and what works not so well, I still have a desire to create retro styled games that stay true to the classics I grew up on. Despite the fact that I won’t be making as much money, I realized that games of that nature are the reason I got into game design; A few extra bucks (okay, perhaps a couple thousand, whatever, I’ll keep eating cheap Ramen) isn’t enough of a reason to stop creating games the way I love them. Such thoughts got me to asking myself questions such as, do sponsors care about more than CTR (Click Through Rate)? Do they care about more than getting their money back directly from the games they sponsor?

Many developers may be under the impression that the answer is no, but after a bit of thought, and a quick interview with Lars, the games acquisition manager of King, I realized there’s a bit more to it. My primary question pertaining to this matter was this; is sponsoring a game that doesn’t perform well in returning it’s sponsorship cost through click backs beneficial to the sponsor? Here’s what Lars had to say on the matter,

“CTR is very important, but not everything. The quality of the traffic is equally important because sponsors want traffic that like their site, and traffic that returns to play again. High-quality games, and a wide array of games, help with this retention since players only return if they like the games. Moreover, publishing high-quality games that end up with high ratings and front-page features (achievements, etc) obviously increase the brand presence of a site ‘out there’, which in turn increases the likelihood that previously acquired traffic returns. Hence, the answer is: No, CTR is not everything, you need quality and success to attract and retain visitors.”

It was refreshing to hear that there was indeed still a place in sponsor’s hearts for games that are of high quality, but don’t necessarily perform so well as far as CTR goes. The value of a game that is high quality and low CTR can easily surpass the value of a medium quality game that has a CTR of 40%. Having a very diverse game that can’t be found anywhere else is definitely something sponsors want. If you have something original and of decent quality, than it’s of high value, even if the money earned back directly from the CTR of your game isn’t nearly as high as other games. Sponsors want variety to attract the most players possible. If your game is in a genre that doesn’t normally do well among players as far as ratings, but is superb for it’s type, sponsors want that because there is in fact an audience for the genre, one they want to control. Sponsors want quality traffic, traffic that doesn’t just click an in game link because it was well placed, but traffic that clicks those links because they agree with the sponsors taste, traffic that will become a long time visitor.

As my original plan was, I shall continue creating games both to get myself enough cash to survive, and because I love doing so. I’ll mix things up between what sponsors want, and what I want. It’s good to know that even what I want has a place in the world if it’s of great quality, despite how well it may treat the sponsor directly with click backs, because to be honest, the flash industry has far too many rules for me to completely express my creativeness. The fact that Lars said that King looks for a great variety of games definitely backs up my thoughts on the importance of originality. If you find yourself having any trouble deciding whether to follow the various guidelines to help you produce more cash, or going with what your passion for game design wants you to create, think back to the above information, there is always a place for your game if it’s of good quality, despite all the rules.

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.

Inspiration

Game inspiration is one of the most important aspects of game design. Inspiration can be found in a wide variety of things, ranging from classic or modern games, to a real life event that you witnessed or read about. Such things help make the designer passionate about the project, and this passion generally fuels a much stronger creative process and higher willpower to complete the project at hand. No matter how well you can program, or how well you can do art, having proper inspiration will definitely boost the outcome of your projects.

There is definitely a difference in flash game design Vs console game design, but that’s an entirely different topic, one to come in a few days at that. Regardless of these differences, inspiration can be found nearly anywhere. I personally find games that reside on the classic systems to hold the most inspiration. Not only are these games the most fun and most challenging, they are the most diverse with their use of basic gameplay mechanics as well as creativity of combining those mechanics. Games such as Shatterhand on the NES executed elements such as platforming, customizable power-ups, gravity switching, boss battles, and much more, something that many games just don’t go to such lengths to do anymore, especially flash games. Although nostalgia definitely plays a part, I think there’s a deeper reason for why games like Super Mario World and Super Metroid are still remembered so well today, they were simply better games with far more thought put into them. I can’t think of a single modern game that captures my imagination as well as Little Nemo: The Dream Master did, and it’s reasons such as this that make classic games far more inspirational for me.

I used the classics as my first example, but that’s definitely not where your inspiration needs to start or stop. I find inspiration in many other games, flash games included. A small list of games that have really reached out to me and sparked my creative process include (but are not limited to), Castle Crashing the Beard, Chronotron, Closure, Don’t Look Back, Drakojan Skies Acolytes, Fishing Girl and RaidenX. All of these games are top notch in production value, but most importantly are incredibly inspirational. When I look at Castle Crashing the Beard, I instantly think of River City Ransom for the NES and what could be done to combine these two games. The smooth 2D fighting Castle Crashing the Beard offers, combined with the RPG elements, variety of attacks, and explorative gameplay River City Ransom offers would create one of the best flash games the net has ever seen. It’s this kind of inspiration that game designers need, they need to be able to look at a few different games, figure out how to combine the best elements those games offer, and then evolve upon the idea. If developers would just stop repeating what’s already been done and proven to work, and just take a risk like designers of the past did, we would see modern games that rival, or even surpass those of our past.

Games are definitely a great place to find inspiration for game design, but believe or not it can easily be found elsewhere. Inspiration can be found basically anywhere, such as books, movies, dreams, and even a real life situation. A simple day dream can turn into a full fledged idea if you can relate the scenario to a game you’ve played before, or if you can pick a few basic mechanics that would fit well with the scenario. For instance, if you day dream about jumping over tall buildings in giant leaps, you probably don’t want to build a puzzle game, you may however look into what popular platforming tricks have been used and think of how you can turn the concept into something fun. As far as real life scenarios go, I’ve caught myself staring off at a scenery over the lake that had fog over the mountains, and then proceeded to coming up with a random RPG oriented world with a fair amount of depth all pertaining to this one scene. As corny as that sounds, it’s a great place to start. That idea, combined with a game I played on a PS1 demo disk nearly 10 years ago sparked an even further  idea, one I’ll eventually bring out someday.

As you can see, inspiration can be found basically anywhere if you’re looking for it. Not everybody can remember every mechanic of NES games they played 10 years ago, or stare across a lake and get a brilliant idea, but with a bit of work and desire, I’m sure there’s plenty of inspiration to be found. Game design is as open as writing, it’s not set in stone. Just because things have been done, and certain things continue to be an unofficial standard, there’s nothing stopping  you from going completely out of the ordinary and pulling something new together. All in all, there’s plenty of inspiration to be found; if you weren’t seeing it all that clearly before, perhaps this article will open the way.

Key To Moving Forward

I’ve been a rather active member in the flash community for some time now. I know a lot of people, I’ve helped a lot of people, and I’ve done it all for the learning experience and because I’m a nice guy like that. I’m not a crazy believer of karma, but there’s definitely a great reward to be had to anyone who maintains a good reputation in any community. Whether it be friends, sponsors, or strangers you help out, the good deeds definitely do come around.

Not too long ago I stopped working with my last partner for a number of reasons, this left me in a place many developers should always try to avoid, alone. Although I continued to work on my own, and have learned  a lot since then, it’s always better to have a partner or partners to work with, it’s just far more productive. Yesterday I was contacted by a friend out of the blue with some very good news, a partnership of sorts that would have me back in a group environment and working on set in stone projects. This isn’t so much a success story as it is a lesson, so let’s take a look at how this happened. I met this particular person many months ago on the FlashGameLicense forums, to my memory the time we first clicked as friends was when I expressed a certain opinion on my reason to switch from AS2 to AS3. Since then we talked a lot, reviewed each other’s games and so on. This is a single contact, but it paid off.  This kind and honest behavior of many months ago has now put me in a much better position than I would have been had I never done such things.

Here’s another example of how a good personality and reputation pays off. My last sponsored game Tower of Greed was through Lars over at King. Aside from business, Lars and I spoke rather casually and got along well. We kept in touch after the game was released and eventually started talking about future titles. The positive nature of these conversations and the games success have lead to a new relationship with a very high up sponsor. Good attitude here has lead to a partnership of sorts that can’t be gained any other way.

In addition to the above, helping random strangers in the flash community can also pay off. As some readers may know from previous posts, I gained my first flash development partner through helping out a complete stranger. He was asking a question in the Newgrounds Forums pertaining to some coding in his new game, and I tossed him the code with an explanation of how it worked. Two weeks later I saw him again asking yet another question, I answered it yet again and we then talked of working on the game together. This eventually lead to many projects and could potentially lead to more down the road.

In the end it’s rather clear how important being a positive member in the community is. There’s always times when you yourself will need help, and you’re much more likely to find that help if you’ve been out there helping others when possible and maintaining a positive image. Benefits include finding a new partner to work with, having connections with sponsors to sell games much quicker, or just having some place to go to chat with people who share common interests. Either way, maintaining a good reputation is definitely worth while and can eventually be key in moving your career forward.

Here are this week’s useful links posted by me, for you, check them out,

1.) Portals With Revenue Share: A look at a few portals that offer revenue share plans for developers.
2.) Every Flash Game Must Have: A look into what Vortix Game Studios suggest every flash game should have.
3.) Are You A Risk Taker: An interesting article on taking risks in the gaming industry.
4.) The Flash Games Micro Transactions Debate: An interesting debate regarding micro transactions in the flash industry.
5.) 3 Ideas For Your First Flash Game: A look into some of the easier games you can design to get yourself started in the industry.

Check back with the Prince often, because I love you.

Dolphin Olympics 2

Dolphin Olympics 2 is easily one of my favorite flash games of all time. It’s got one of the best balances of exploration, casual gameplay, as well as hardcore gameplay. The graphics are great and the controls are simple. This balance of traits is something every flash game should aim for, and there are few games that pull it off as well as Dolphin Olympics 2 does.

Exploration has always been an aspect of game design that I feel I give more credit to than most developers. There’s something amazing about beating an area of a game and waiting to see not only what happens next, but where next is. What enemies are there? What does the world look like? How is the music there? These questions drove me to play games as a child, as well as inspire me to develop games now. The exploration in Dolphin Olympics 2 is probably it’s strongest characteristic, most players don’t see it coming. You start off jumping around in the ocean with other small fish, but as you learn how the game works, you’ll quickly be jumping out of the water and into space, with enough skill that is. I was amazed when I saw the moon for the first time as I got high enough into the sky, never did I think the game would allow me to reach planets deep in space, nor did I think the amount of skill needed to do so possible. From the moment you see the moon for the first time, there is a certain thrill that drives you to keep going, “What’s next?” will be running through your head and a rush of curiosity and adrenaline will easily make you lose track of time. This feeling is powered by exploration, the need to see what’s next, to me, a key element in game design that is often never taken into consideration.

Another less known element, but increasing in popularity, is relaxation. To emphasize this point, we’ll  look at a popular video game company that’s been around forever, Nintendo. Believe it or not, Nintendo actually has plans to expand their market to target people looking for relaxation. They want to create games that serve the purpose of relaxing the player. During E3, Miyamoto spoke of games that would help you relax and fall asleep at night being in the near future. Although Dolphin Olympics 2 has been out for some time now, I believe such an element has already existed within the game. Perhaps not strong enough to put you asleep, but definitely to a point of relaxation. The simple controls, awesome sound effects, and casual gameplay, create a great atmosphere for anyone who doesn’t want to jump deep into a game and just wants to casually mess around with no real fixation on the game.

The game also stands out in it’s flexibility of both casual and hardcore gameplay. The game will at first to any player seem very casual, you jump around in the water and have a good time. However, as you get used to the gameplay, experienced gamers will quickly see there is a much larger goal at hand. It’s possible to gain momentum and reach incredible heights. This is perfect for both levels of gamers because the casual gamer doesn’t know such things exist, and therefore isn’t bothered with trying, while the hardcore player has a goal at hand that will challenge them indefinitely.

Overall, Dolphin Olympics 2 offers an amazing experience. The game has something to offer to nearly all players, something many games lack and lose a lot of players over. The game itself is oddly addicting and has players coming back even months later, which is very impressive for a flash game. Whether you feel like going for a swim, or stopping by the diner at the end of the universe, Dolphin Olympics 2 definitely has something for you to enjoy.

Here are this week’s useful links posted by me, for you, check them out,

1.) Bubble Tanks Arena: Hero Interactive gives our first look at the much anticipated game, Bubble Tanks Arena.
2.) What Do Sponsors Gain?: A look into what sponsors have to gain from sponsoring flash games.
3.) AS3 and OOP: A very nice explanation and look into some AS3 with OOP works.
4.) A Look Into Refactoring: Vortix Games Studio gives us a look at refactoring.
5.) GamerSafe Review: Freelance Flash Games talks about Flash Game License’s new project, GamerSafe.

Check back with the Prince often, because I love you.

What NOT to do

One of the most important things developers need to keep in mind when creating a game, is that you need to avoid annoying the player at all costs. Whether this be avoiding tedious level design, making sure your player doesn’t have to grind in your latest RPG, or simply making menu items contrast well so they don’t have to squint for navigation, you really need to make sure they don’t get bothered by anything. A very popular mistake many developers make is to combine mouse support with keyboard support, but make both mandatory on the same screen.

Out of all things a quality game can do wrong, this is probably the biggest. There’s nothing more annoying then dying in a keyboard controlled game, and having a menu pop up in which you must grab the mouse and press retry, rather than pressing enter or space to continue. There’s really no excuse for this, it’s simply poor design. It may sound minor, but small aggravations such as this really drive players away. Not only will players stop playing your game, they may even be so angered at the moment of quitting, that they’ll drop you a zero vote as they mutter how much the game sucks before leaving the page. This is clearly something you really don’t want happening with games under your name, it lowers it’s success and builds you a bad reputation.

We’ve now gone over what not to do, so how do we stay away from an issue as gargantuan as forcing the player to use both the mouse and keyboard in places where it’s entirely unnecessary? I have a few ideas, but I’ll share just one of them, don’t. When you design a game that uses either mouse or keyboard (but not both) for gameplay, stick to that throughout the whole game. If you play the game with the keyboard and you die, make it so you can retry with the keyboard, there’s no reason to have your user reach for the mouse only to press a button so they can start over. It’s highly recommended that you always add mouse support to increase sponsor click-throughs, but don’t force it, always permit the player to use what the gameplay uses, as well as the mouse.

It really isn’t hard to avoid, but far too many developers forget how annoying this can be to the player, which is a big mistake. I’ve seen some popular artists do this in some rather large titles, and although these games did great, I find it perplexing that such a great artist made such a novice mistake. That’s about all there is to know regarding this matter, pick a control scheme and stick to it, and always allow the mouse in addition to keep your sponsors happy.

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

Making Games For Fun

Game design to me is and always will be something I do for fun, as it should be for everyone. I know this may sound like incredibly obvious information, and it may be, but too many people don’t understand or practice the importance of this. The flash industry is full of people trying to score some extra cash, and it definitely lacks a fair amount of people designing games for the sole reason of bringing their ideas to life. There are many reasons for creating flash games, money should be nearly the last on that list. Game design should be about fun, not some extra cash.

There are many reasons to make games, and with these reasons generally comes 3 different categories that all games fit into. The first is practice games, games designed mostly to give the developer more experience as they evolve as a game designer. These games are usually started just so that the developer can dive into some new material to build their skills. In the end many of these games come out with a decent quality and it would be a waste not to unleash them upon the world. The second category games fit into, is games created to earn extra cash. This isn’t to say the developer didn’t have fun creating the game, however the original incentive and much of the planning of the game was highly based around bringing in some cash. The last category is games made for fun. A skilled developer creating a game entirely for the sake of fun will see far more success than the other two categories will, and, as the name implies, have more fun.

The developer creating games for fun truly puts themselves in the eyes of the gamer, and because of this creates everything exactly how the gamer would want it. Developers always try and view their games from an outside perspective of the gamer, but this is much easier said than done. The ultimate way to overcome this obstacle is to create your game because you’re passionate about it, you want to play the final version, you want it to have the features you imagine, you are it’s biggest fan and somehow in control of molding it exactly how you please. A successful game that was created purely for fun is Super Mario 63, a very huge hit on the net at the time of writing this. Another decent hit at the time was Stabika Episode 2, with over 1.3 million plays on CrazyMonkeyGames alone. I created Stabika for fun, I put in far more hours than I got paid for, and I didn’t care at all, it was a blast to make. I was learning, I was having fun, that’s what it should always be about. It’s this mindset that allows developers to create truly amazing games, games that go big and rise in the ranks of best games of all time.

As I’ve already said, this is common knowledge, but it truly isn’t practiced as much as it should be. I entered the flash industry making games for fun, with absolutely no idea I could be making money off of what I was creating. I was very picky about how smooth stuff ran, I was constantly upgarding features and I worked very fast, because I was passionate about my work, my fun. It wasn’t until much later that I found out I could get money for my projects and started seeking sponsorships. Regardless of the cash, I always try to create games that are fun that I’ll enjoy playing. I’ll admit that I take extra time thinking of how to increase earnings in the eyes of the sponsor, but all of this comes after one thing, creating a great game, for fun.

Sponsors Love Mouse Support

A very simple concept that is often overlooked is the importance of mouse support. As far as sponsorships go, you are far more likely to get a sponsor if your game is fully mouse controlled. A great game will always sell, adding mouse support just increases that chance, as well as the money you’ll receive for your sponsorship.

There’s a few reasons mouse controlled games do so well. The first we’ll look at is why sponsors love mouse support. Having mouse support greatly increases the amount of click-throughs a sponsor receives from your game. This is the entire reason the sponsor pays to put their name in your game, so it’s essentially the most important feature aside from your game being great. Even an amazing game without mouse support will find a lot of trouble getting a sponsor because it simply doesn’t give enough click-through back to the sponsors site. I spoke with Lars,( the Games Acquisition Manager for King.com) about why mouse support was so important and he shed a lot of light on the matter. My recently sponsored game Tower of Greed was a rare exception in Lar’s pickings, he generally only sponsors games that are mouse controlled, however this is proof that a great game can still recieve sponsorship if it’s built right. Although the game is entirely keyboard friendly, we did include mouse support for menus to raise the click back for King as well as make the game more user friendly.

That leads us to the next big reason mouse support is so important, it’s user friendly. Flash game players are not your usual gamers, unlike console gamers, flash gamers aren’t used to using a controller. I personally love keyboard controls, far more than mouse controls. As strong as my liking for keyboard controls is, I grew up playing NES, SNES and so on, and I recognize that. As simplistic as arrows or WASD with one hand ,and two buttons for jump and another action with the other hand may be to many gamers, many flash game players find these controls to be very confusing.

Overall using mouse support is something you should definitely do if you can. If you’re a beginner to the industry I highly recommend you use a game that is fully controlled with the mouse. It’s rough starting out and using the mouse for your control scheme will greatly boost your chance of finding a sponsor while you lack abilities in other areas due to inexperience. In the end, using the mouse for your game’s control scheme is going to benefit you, your sponsor and your players, so be sure to consider such things when planning a new game.