5 Ways To Improve Your Flash Game
It’s hard enough thinking up a concept for a Flash game and then following it through to the end. With these simple tips, I’ll show you what makes a good game great and what you can do to improve your game’s appeal to both players and potential sponsors.
- Add a highscore table
Everyone loves to be known as the best at something. Adding highscore tables to your game will give players to chance to show how really competitive they are, prompting longer playing time and returning competitors. A game I made with Jimp, ‘Sperminator‘, was released X days ago and has had a player who calls himself ‘vendeg’ submit a score every day since the game was made public. So a big shout out to Vendeg.
- Include Achievements
Developers are getting savvy to the fact that achievements can improve a game’s overall acceptance on the web, and more and more games have started to include these. The biggest gaming site on the web, Newgrounds, has even developed an in-house medal system encouraging their user base to play games and earn medal points. It’s a fun, intelligent and extremely marketable attribute to add to your games.
- Don’t use ads, if you can help it!
Sponsors don’t like pre-game ads unless they are their own. Players don’t like pre-game ads full stop. If you are going to go down the sponsorship route then the prospect of selling a game with soft drink adverts plastered over the front isn’t what potential buyers of your game want to see. If the portal willing to sponsor your game says you can keep them, then do. While you’re at it be cheeky and ask if you can increase the premium of the license if you were to remove the ads. Just to see what happens. If you plan on releasing your game DIY style, like I did with ‘pixelBOMB‘, then you’ll want to monetize it through as many channels as possible, and adverts are an extremely viable opportunity to do so, so only consider this option if you are searching for a buyer for your game.
- Ideas over graphics
It is a much debated subject in the online Flash game industry, but when you consider the many succesful games floating around the web right now, Bloons for example, there isn’t really anything spectacular in the graphics department. The reason this game is succesful is because it’s addictive, fun, and at the time of it’s release, a unique concept. “But I’m not even a great coder!” I hear you cry. Well that’s fine. Take for example ‘pixelBOMB‘ once again. It’s so simple it numbs the brain. However, I have recieved better reviews and scores for that game then I have titles I have worked on for weeks. Why? Because it’s a fresh idea, a simple concept and it’s addictive. It’s also aesthectically pleasing. It doesn’t need amazing graphics, as long as it’s pleasing on the eye.
- Optimize Prime!
And so the final tip. While it is hard to think up 5 solid, fool-proof ways to improve your chances of creating a succesful web game, I think the point of optimization is impotrant. Web and casual gaming is all about impulse, so when a player browses the web and sees your attractive thumbail shouting “Play ME!”, he is going to click on it. However, the internet is a place of instant gratification and people will not be prepared to sit around for ten minutes while you’re game loads all it’s sounds, music and filters. It’s best to head into your publish settings and make the quality of said files as low as you can without compromising the game, and maybe even remove un-needed objects alltogether. This will decrease the size and loading time of your game’s .swf file. To optimize an .fla is also easy and can make life easier for you while developing such games. Just head on over to File > Save and Compact to save the .fla file and Flash will remove all history and clutter going on in your file. However, it does remove your ability to undo previous corrections before the save, so use it when you’re sure you’ve hit a good point in development and won’t need to look back.
Update: Vince has commented that he’d like to see more information about how thumbnails affect your gameplay hits. This is certainly true, and every effort must be put into making different size thumbnails of your game. If you made a 48 x 48 icon for your game, then when it comes to submitting your game to a site that requires a larger thumbnail, like 100 x 100, make sure you don’t just resize it. Make a whole new thumbnail! This will promote gameplays and can attract many people to your game that otherwise wouldn’t have been that interested.
Well there you have it, a list of 5 things to help improve the quality of your online game creations and possibly make it more appealing to potential sponsors and players alike. What do you think? Drop a comment for any ideas that you’ve got for making a better game.
~Chaz
(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Thank you. I using promote my arcade games
Nice article, but I think for newgrounds submissions, you should talk a little more about how the icon affects the number of plays it will get. If I see a flash with a crappy or without an icon, Some people won’t play it, no matter how good I hear it is. But if the icon is vibrant and appealing, then more people will play it.
Hi Vince, although this is briefly covered in the ‘Optimize Prime’ section of the article I will add a little more information regarding pretty icons and how they affect the game’s hits. Thanks.
Great article, this had given me some good ideas for my game creations.
I’ve been reading a few posts and i’m adding your blog to my rss reader , thanks !