Game complete: Now what?

[Ken Rogers]

I have created a game that I am very pleased with. It has a pro version also, which is not so much a game as a simulation of something that is real. For now, I am only focussing on the watered-down "game" version. I believe it could be a money-maker. I am in need of advice on how to launch it online.

I understand that encryption / obfuscation is an important step, although expensive. Any good program recommends?

I seem to be having issues with MochiAds. Some of my buttons do not work when played through their encrypted version of my game. I wrote the game with a document class and external class files. There is no main timeline. MochiAds documentation tells me that I must place code on the timeline.

My game is nearly 1 MB in size, when you factor in the external sound clips. If the game gets really popular, what will my hosting fees be like, and are there options as far as game hosting goes.

I am wondering if I would be better off making a website and loading it with Google Adsense. Or perhaps giving out a free 10-minute demo, with an invitation to buy. Problem is, how would I deliver the "full" version to the customer? Sell the customer a URL link to a page containing the full-version .swf? Or sell a link to a downloadable windows projector .exe version?

Lastly, how do you create a pre-loader for a game that is not written on a timeline?

Ken

[xdeath]

well first of all, make sure you have your own fade-in screen on your game, a menu and a preloader.
now once that is done if it's good and you want it to go on-line i would suggest going to newgrounds and trying to get in contact with armor games my bosses friend did that and he got sponsored like 500 dollars to put his intro screen on the game so yeah try putting it on sites like newgrounds or other popular flash game sites and get it's popularity up.
and make sure you give this thought see many people that want to go freeware be smart and release a version of the game that is really short so people are interested and then it leads to a short movie trailer which makes people interested in paying for the real thing.
but yeah i would really recommend giving this thought.

[Ken Rogers]

Good ideas, thanks.

[jason2d]

Hey Ken,

If you like I can put the free version on my site, then the invitation to buy could be added. Check it out and let me know if your interested - www.the-dude.co.uk. (http://www.the-dude.co.uk) If nothing else, it's free promotion!

J

[NickZA]

Ken

From what I hear, MochiAds is hugely popular with developers and for good reason -- their business model apparently rewards the developer far more and they are *supposed* to be easy to integrate with / have good support for their clients.

If I were you, I would seriously consider refactoring my game to work with MochiAds. Contact them and find out how best to debug the problems you're having, they'll likely be supportive.

Well, this is my point of view as someone who has not yet used Mochi but intends to very soon. Let us know how it goes -- be interesting to hear if you get good support from them.

As for preloaders, typically the approach is to have all your library assets in an external swf, load them into your main swf and use getBytesLoaded() to determine what to do next. Actually hold on... here's a great article I found the other day on doing preloaders for portal sites where your game needs to be in a single swf:

http://www.8bitrocket.com/newsdisplay.aspx?newspage=10807



-Nick