If you've read my previous blog post you'll know that one of my first experiences with making games properly was with flash games.
I thought it might be interesting to have a look back at how they did and give you an idea about what the returns were like for someone, who like me, didn't have a "HUGE" success with their games.
With all the games I mainly monetised them through Mochi Media, which has since shut its doors, and the stats that I give are from a spreadsheet that they sent me when they finished (on the 25/03/2014). The games may have had more views since then but they are untracked. All games shipped with a pre-game ad, and some of the later games might have had a mid-game ad as well.
The Bank Job
As I've previously said, The Bank Job was started and finished within a week or so and was mainly me learning how to use Flash. The game was definitely not a big success but there were a few people who did like the game and even a few people who ended up doing some speed runs of the game (crazy). I released the game on the 20/09/2008, to the various flash game portals around the web, and throughout its lifetime it accumulated 113,282 plays earning me $82.69.
The Factory
The Factory was based on a stand-alone shareware game from way back that I used to play on Mac in the early 90s. I spent a bit longer making this game as I really wanted it to be fun to play. The game was released on 08/10/2008 to a good reception, with one of the biggest problems being the complexity of the game. People had a hard time figuring out what they were meant to do in the game so I later added a tutorial level to talk them through it. This was the first game that I actually got paid for a site-specific version of the game, 1 person paid me $100 for an ad-free version of the game with their logo on it that was locked to their site, easy money! The game ended with 815,468 game plays earning $479.69 from advertising.
Carver
Carver was based off a mechanic that was posted on a site that was attempting to create 300 different game mechanics. I feel that with a bit of extra work the game could actually be a really great game, I really love the mechanic. The game was released on the 17/12/2008 getting 146,332 game views and earning $42.11 in advertising and $100 for an ad-free version.
Factory Redux
At this point Factory was doing really well, but I didn't really love my graphics so I decided that if I got someone to redo the graphics for the game I could re-release it and possibly get more coverage with the better graphics. So I hired someone to redo the assets for $200, re-skinned the game, added a few extra features (and 3 more levels) and released Factory Redux on the 15/01/2009. While it wasn't a flop, it didn't get the reaction I was hoping for with a lot of people being disappointed that the game wasn't a sequel. Again I managed to sell an ad-free version for $100, making up some of the investment. The game got 697,105 game views and earned $179.72.
HangWord
After a break, I came back when I heard of a game competition for word-based games. I created HangWord which was literally hangman and submitted it on the 12/07/2009. While I didn't win the competition the game did get 245,411 views earning $53.98.
Space Shapes
The next game was an attempt to clone a popular genre of endless space shoot-em up called Space Shapes. The main thing I was actually building it for was to test out an AI mechanism for automatically adjusting the game difficulty based on the skill of the player. It worked out pretty good, but ramped up way too quickly. It was a complete flop gaining only 48,782 views and earning $18.01.
Summary
And thus ended my experiences with flash games. Not the biggest earner but I learnt a few things and it is definitely part of my history so that's why I've left the games up on the site.
| Game | Plays | Earnings |
|---|---|---|
| The Bank Job | 113,282 | $82.69 |
| The Factory | 815,468 | $579.69 |
| Carver | 146,332 | $142.11 |
| Factory Redux | 697,105 | $279.72 |
| HangWord | 245,411 | $53.98 |
| Space Shapes | 48,782 | $18.01 |
| Total | 2,066,380 | $1,156.20 |