Good site for Virgil

[Karsten75]

Virgil, have you seen this "Lost Garden" article about Flash Game development?

http://lostgarden.com/2009/07/flash-love-letter-2009-part-1.html

[Karsten75]

Sorry to bump my own post, but the video is, in the author's own words "the Cliffs Notes for the two-part link above.

[Ordinaryman]

Loved the article.... very revealing..... and many of the things said about consumers, I have seen in myself..... except for one thing: "when a player falls in love with your game, money is no object"

wrong.

I love games, but anything more than $10 or $15 and I'll just go hit wal-mart for titles there.

my $o.o2

~OM

[knucracker]

I did read this article back a few months ago.  It was very interesting and I did take from it an absolute lesson:  You won't get paid unless you give your players a way to pay you.  Doing this isn't as obvious as it first sounds.  Does one direct sell, do subscriptions, ask for donations, provide premium content...  does one do a flash game, desktop game, both, neither (which would be console or iphone).  And does one use stores (gamersgate, steam, apple app store, xbox indie....)

Most people think you just need to learn how to program, then you write a game and make money.  Ha ha ha ha ha....  I wish it were that simple.... oh how I _wish_ it were that simple.  The easiest part of the whole business (for me) is the game concept and creation.  I love that half.... yes I said half (at best it is half).  At the day I complete a game I stand 10 feet tall towering above my accomplishment with sword and shield held triumphantly in the air.  The day after I complete a game begins the battle and several months later I'm usually on a knee with shield dented and pierced.

Getting people to play your game, and getting your game known can be really tough.  Getting sales is often a one day at a time activity.  Sometimes there are breakthroughs and the game pierces into the next level of exposure.  Creeper World did this.  Some combination of game coolness, persistence, game reviews, community, and flash game portals connected well enough for it to peek above the noise level and get noticed.  In this regards I am both lucky and thankful.  CW is a cool game, and I'm never shy about saying that.  Getting it noticed so many more people can share in this coolness is something I'm glad I was and am able to do. 

[Ordinaryman]

Well, I troll Armor games a lot... and I'm a monster for a good strategy game (spore still owes me for their crappy job)

I saw your training simulator, and played it..... then was delighted to see I could buy the full version :)
I've also taken the liberty to point several friends toward the training sim (and hopefully to buy the full game).

I wish more game developers were like you (maybe better looking)....

~OM