Making Bank (Part 1): Flash Games

During lunch hour, they whir to life on computer screens in high schools across the country. They can single-handedly drag down an office’s productivity (funny story about that one).

And while hardcore gamers lament their popularity — likening them to a firing squad casually taking aim at the industry as a whole — they’re still inducting non-gamers into the fold.

Flash games are — without hyperbole — everywhere on the Internet. From the microgames in the banner ads above your favorite Web sites to full-length RPGs that can suck you in for hours without costing a cent (again… funny story), Flash games have developed into a big business over the past few years.

However, as anyone who stayed awake in an econ class for more than five minutes can tell you, when supply goes up, prices plummet. Given the vast number of Flash games bogging down the Internet’s tubing, convincing anyone your particular game is a solid investment can seem like a hopeless endeavor.

But if the passion and the quality are present in a game’s design, profits aren’t out of the question.

“Game development is tough and it would be rather difficult to make games if we didn’t love it,” said John Cooney, Head of Game Development for Armor Games. “You can’t raise a pony unless you love ponies, and if we did, we would totally be Armor Ponies. We’re definitely geared toward what we love doing.”

Cooney and hundreds of other developers around the world have found a way to cash in on Flash games. It’s entirely possible to make a living in the field, but only if you’ve got a product other people will play.

“The Flash gameosphere is ridiculously impacted with games,” Cooney said. “If your game is just average, you lower your chance to get plays.”

Armor Games’ solution to the overcrowding is to offer additional content, such as extra classes for its zombie-centric RPG Sonny 2, when a game is played on the company’s homepage.

But even if a developer puts forth a solid offering and a killer hook, standing out is often akin to a sugar cube trying to draw attention to itself by dancing on a glacier.

Online game portals offer up-and-coming designers the exposure they need, and some, such as Kongregate, even share a cut of the ad revenue a game drums up. And at Flash Game License, the online games are bought and sold as commodities.

Still, some developers prefer to the solo route, if only to avoid the ravenous trolls who frequent the forums and comments pages of the larger portals.

“I think Kongregate is big enough to be used as a fair place to upload for early exposure and to help distribute a game,” said Chris Harris, game concept designer for Ninja Kiwi, “but there are times when you can’t help yourself and you read the comments and you think, ‘Why the hell do I submit here again?’”

Harris started his Flash game company (which turned three this year) with his brother. By promoting Ninja Kiwi’s more than 25 games on Kongregate, Harris said the company has made roughly 9 grand.

That’s nothing to scoff at, but compare that to the $30k per month the Ninja Kiwi homepage pulls in, according to a figure shared with Forbes last year.

Granted, there are additional costs to take into account (server space, copyrights to ward off imitators, etc), but Ninja Kiwi scores more every month than most journalism grads are expected to make their first year in the field.

So, how exactly do Flash game developers rake in the green? New ways of making bank are coming to light all the time, but three methods currently dominate the market: banner ads, in-game ads, and sponsorships.

Banner ads have been the bane of cyberspace since someone figured out you can advertise on the Internet. (Hint: the day after DARPA stole Al Gore’s idea and invented the damn thing.) But if sites generate enough traffic, banner ads are bound to bring in some revenue.

Both Armor Games and Ninja Kiwi go this route, but any cash to be had is hard won.

“For the time being, making money off ads is hard,” Harris said. “Competition for site visitors is fierce.”

Some developers prefer the interactive option, throwing an ad into a game’s loading screen, or sliding a plug in between levels. Sites such as Mochiads put the ads into games for developers, and then let them reap the benefits.

In-game ads can often work in tandem with banner ads, directing someone who enjoyed a Flash game back to from whence it came. That way, even a game hosted on a portal like Kongregate can redirect traffic back to a developer’s homepage, where people will hopefully click on something that catches their eye.

Jacob Grahn, mastermind behind Jiggmin, uses a script to automatically add Mochiads’ featured games to his Web site. More games equals more visitors. However, he said ad revenue from his homepage and games only take him so far.

“1,795,920 people have played Platform Racing 2 on my Web site,” Grahn said in response to an oddly specific numerical question. “Thus, it has been played 4.1754933404605995812731079335382 more times on Kongregate than it has on Jiggmin. That’s actually a good thing, because Kongregate has much higher paying ads than my site.”

A third option for developers looking for returns on their efforts is to license their work to a larger game portal, a.k.a. looking for a sponsor.

Some developers, like Harris, eschew sponsorships, hoping to keep their intellectual properties “pure.” But others, like Grahn and Peter Hargitai (Game in a Bottle), rely on it to make a living.

“For now, our site is merely a portfolio of our games,” Hargitai said. “The income from GemCraft alone on Kongregate is more than our total website ad income, thanks to the front page on Kong and their huge audience. Selling licenses of our games to various websites is the other main source of income for us.”

Sites such as Pogo are willing to shell out the big bucks to put their branding on a Flash game. Even Armor Games sponsors any new titles it finds promising.

Of course, there are many other ways to make Flash games profitable, from charging subscription fees to microtransactions (charging a few bucks to unlock premium content), with new methods being dreamed up all the time.

“The whole online gaming market is totally open — anyone can show what they can do,” Hargitai said, adding he got into the industry unsure if he’d be able to support himself. “There are no 200 page guideline books to follow.”

And while those who’ve found a way to make money with Flash games are aware of their good fortune, they know there’s more to the industry than cash money.

“I just like making stuff,” Grahn said. “I’d be equally happy welding cups together into umbrellas, but I don’t think I could make a living at it.”