The Creative Design Blog

Flash games have became increasingly commonplace in recent years but despite this, the creators of them seem fairly resistant to any real form of change. This is evidenced by virtue of the fact that they are continuing in producing the same tired material with no thought of expansion. A part of this can be explained by the fact that Flash games and the creation of them is a difficult process.

One of the major hurdles to cross in relation to the creation of Flash games is that you need to be proficient at Flash coding, in addition to a multitude of other skills. For example, the Flash game developer will need to cultivate their proficiency and experience with the creation of graphics as well as the development of audio. The following is a breakdown of the cycle that a Flash coder should adopt for the creation of a game.

First and foremost it is crucial that we appreciate that games of any description are very demanding, complex and difficult items to produce and this is due to the fact that they require a significant amount of different items included in them. This can range from audio to movie clips even to ordinary graphics.

Given that there is so many different assets and elements to play with, rushing into the code head first is not a very wise or sensible idea at all. Whenever I plan on creating a new Flash game I will always start at the same place: pen and paper. In this context, the pen truly is mightier than the sword as it is directly responsible for identifying the direction of the game. Drawing out and outlining your thoughts and ideas on paper is crucial as it will help focus your energies more clearly.

Once I have developed my design, I will then move onto the actual creation of the code. The sole purpose of this stage is simply to identify how the game will work, rather than how it will look. Whilst I will make use of holder graphics during this stage, this is more for a sense of purpose rather than actual commitment. Audio will also usually be omitted from this stage.

Once the dummy version of the game has been successfully written and exhaustively tested the next logical step is to then proceed to merge the graphics as well as the audio together. How well I completed the design stage will have a profound impact upon the successful completion of this stage. I will usually delegate a lot of the graphical work to an artist to ensure that I keep myself clear for the coding.

It is only when the game is for all intents and purposes “complete” that I will then proceed to add things such as level screens and the like. This means that I will keep the testing stages firmly under control, as they will not be bloated with unnecessary code.

Reading through this article, hopefully you will have came to appreciate that yes, a Flash game takes a lot of time and energy. That said, you can make the process exponentially more easy to achieve and complete with a minimum of fuss if you remain organised and modulate the code. By breaking down the workload into multiple tasks you will be able to delegate work and achieve work more easily.

If you have never actually written a Flash game entirely from scratch then you may find it a far easier and indeed more productive option to simply alter some existing Flash game code as opposed to trying to create a full scale version of the thing by yourself.

Developing games can be a lot of fun, a great learning experience, and also quite profitable if done properly. They can also be a real headache thoughg so my advice is to take it slowly, learn at a gradual pace and enjoy the journey!

Download editable Flash Game FLA files at ViralFlashGames.com and learn how to create exciting games at Flash Games Course

Flash games have enjoyed a major increase in their popularity in recent years and it now seems as if there is not a website on the internet which does not include a Flash game of some description nestled in its pages. Flash games are perfect for website owners because they help to raise awareness of their brand, attract additional foot traffic to the site and furthermore, help to reinforce customer loyalty to the website as well. Flash games should be part of any marketing campaign and they manage to fulfil so many different roles at such a low cost….little wonder then that they have become such a popular marketing tool.

For a very long time there was only two ways of actually getting any newly developed Flash game. You could either hire a qualified Flash developer to produce a game, or contract the work out to an appropriate party. Both methods shared one thing in common: they were very costly in terms of both time and money and so the popularity of Flash games waned significantly. Now, there is a much more cost effective way of achieving results – using editable source code templates.

The great thing about these flash templates is that they can be fully customized and tailored to your precise measurements, allowing you to conveniently place your website logo in the games and modify the graphics to suit your brand. This allows you to really get your brand across while visitors are playing your games.

These templates are fully alterable in every way possible and so the user can change the colors used for the scheme of the template, as well as altering the actual mechanics of the game itself making it more easy or difficult as they see fit. They can alter the characters or ethos of the game in order to match the theme of your website, add your mascot as a character – in fact anything your imagination can conjure!

While Flash games are bread for driving traffic and building brand awareness, you can also profit from them directly. All you need to do is to rebrand them for your client and charge a suitable fee. Alternatively, modify the games and embed adverts from networks such as Mochiads to be paid every time someone plays the game.

Download editable Flash games source files to learn from, modify, edit, rebrand and create brand new games at ViralFlashGames.com or learn how to earn a game tester salary by downloading the free guide to getting paid to play video games at BetaGamesTester.com

Over the past few years casual gaming hsa taken the Internet by storm. Browser games, an in particular Flash games are now more popular than ever, and with that increase in popularity comes an increase in demand. If you’re a Flash designer or developer, here are 7 ways in which you can cash in on this growth in the market.

Developing games for clients might be the most obvious way of earning money as a developer, but it’s surprising how few companies offer the service. I’ve been developing games for over 8 years now, and I’m constantly asked to work on new projects. There are lots of companies out there ready and waiting to pay you money to design and develop games for their marketing campaigns.

If meeting client deadlines isn’t your style, and you would prefer more creative freedom, then sponsorship deals might suit you better. This allows you to develop a game in your own style and at your own pace, and allowing a sponsor to embed branding and links into your game before it is published. This is often a win-win situation as the sponsor will market your game getting you extra exposure.

In game advertising is another option. There are several advertising networks to choose from, and the largest by far is Mochimedia. By registering as a developer you are able to embed their advertising code into your games which not only generates revenue, but can also get you exposure by listing the game on their publisher network.

Another way to monetise games yourself is to simply publish them on a website, and add banner adverts or Adsense to the site. In fact, this was how I accidentally got involved in the games industry back in 2003 when I put a few of my own games on a site with some banner adverts. Little did I know that would lead to a full time career in the games industry!

The most recent innovation in monetising Flash games is in game micro-payments. Several networks now offer facilities for this including Mochimedia and HeyZap. Facebook is believed to be developing a similar system, and this looks like it will be the model of choice in the future.

Finally, for a well developed game there is the option of a commercial release. A number of Flash games have already been ported to PC and consoles, and with the backing of an invester or publisher this can be a way for a small time Flash developer to break into the mainstream games industry. Of course PC and console games are not the only commercial options though, the ever popular mobile phone market can be just as lucrative and with the release of Adobe Flash CS5 porting games to the iPhone will be easier than ever, making this a very viable option.

As you can see, there are many opportunities for developers of Flash games. If you’re just getting started, follow some tutorials, buy some books, get yourself on a course or do whatever it takes to learn the skills as fast as you can, and you too could be earning a good income from Flash games.

Find Flash game tutorials, articles, book reviews, game source code and more at FlashGamesClassroom.com or download Flash games source code to learn from, modify, edit, rebrand and create brand new games at ViralFlashGames.com