"Grammar Nazis are everywhere". There, that's be $5... But seriously, it's my almost-OCD tendency to spot and want to fix errors that started me proofreading. And I have great respect for anyone posting in another language than their native one - my German would be unreadable. But I also like money...
I dunno, "Grammar Nazi" is singular there, so "is" I think is the right verb. He just needs a "The" at the beginning, "The Grammar Nazi is everywhere."
You joke but I had someone post in my blog with that nickname (Grammar Nazi) correcting some mistake I did (I don't even remember which one). I agree that such big mistakes are a bit too much even for non-native speaker, however some people are really... grammar nazis I remember once a guy did a review of "The Flower Shop", commenting like "is clear that the writer is not a native english speaker, bla bla". A pity that the game in question was entirely written by a collaborator of mine who is an american girl and writes very well.
I'm with you, misspelling and grammar issues bother me too, but dictionaries don't catch everything. They won't fix weak to week or that to than. That's why for projects that intend to earn money I hire not only proofreaders, but writers, because I know that even if I don't make spelling mistakes, my English won't be as smooth and natural as for native speaker. But let's end spelling issues chat and get back to topic: how to make more sales
Have you ever read The Long Tail? Sure, major hits bring in major money for portals like Steam or BFG, but the sum total of all the failures adds something like 30% to the bottom line. What Amazon has on BFG is the recommendation engine and embedded reviews. If you want reviews on a BFG game, then you either have to sift through the forums or go somewhere like Gamezebo. I'm surprised that you guys haven't banded together to form an Indie Co-op.
Well, I haven't read The Long Tail, but I've heard about it. It's even my actual business strategy. I'm sure recommendation engine helps to sell more (BFG has it too, but a bit different). Too bad Amazon sales are sooooooooooooo low. Indie Co-op. idea sounds cool, but it's probably more complicated than it sounds. On the other hand I released Grey Alien game recently, so it's not like nobody is doing anything about that.
Yeah I thinks it's cool if indies can team up and promote each others games if they have a similar audience. Also I was reading about Indiecity the new indie portal that is coming online soon. It sounds pretty professional, but of course time will reveal all.
Here's a handy list for every developer: Do not let portals put their logo your game without a license Make free versions of your games that are complete and not demos Put advertisements in your games like mochiads Sell premium versions of your game with extra content at your own price Add micro transactions Sell licenses to portals for between 1,000 and 50,000 USD If a portal is selling your game for 5 bucks how much of that do you even get? You're better off telling portals that if they want to keep users coming and they want to sell your games with their logo then they need to buy a license. It's that simple, and it already works in the flash world. The flash game movement isn't going away, and the games are starting to be feature rich, some even lightyears beyond games you can buy at BFG. Eventually, this portal model is going to die.
Who says that one day flash portals won't start demanding their logo, a cut of the sales, etc etc too? you can never know.
They already do, it's called an exclusive license, which used to be very popular but not so much anymore. In fact the tide is turning the opposite direction. Before 2007 there was only a full rights IP license, and an exclusive license. Now there are by far more licenses available. You see, they pay for these licenses. a new game oming out called learn to fly 2, cot an exclusive license offer for $20,000 USD. but also a primary license bid for $15,000 USD.. As more and more games come out using flash, unity, etc, with portals offering free games and making profit with ad revenue, this old indie portal model (ie: BFG) is going to die off completely. I give it 5 more years. TOPS
The problem with licenses is that they are flat fee. I'd rather risk earning not much than not earning as much as I could.
I'm not sure this sponsoring model is profitable for flash portals. I'm not sure they're getting their money back. We know that kongregate was getting money from investors and they admitted (after they got bought up by Gamestop) that they were hemorrageing money. they were basically throwing VC money out the window, in order to grow big and fast and get bought up. This is probably the model for most of the big portals. Do these portal get enough traffic back to justify paying $10k+ on a TD game? I'm not sure. At least I know that most small, non-funded portals can't go that route. Maybe someone in the knows will correct me, I'm just making guesses here. Anyway, even if the model is sustainable most of the devs on FGL are wasting their time and not getting any bids. Personally I prefer taking my chance directly with the final consumer rather than trying to please some middlemen.
You can sell a Primary License, then followup with sitelock licenses, and then bank off ad revenue if it goes viral. Many developers go this route, and the great thing is you can plug you mobile version for sale as well. Slopeskier for example, did a primary license and also sold a mobile version.. In two months they earned over $80,000 USD. http://mikengreg.com/blog/2010/10/2-months-of-solipskier-app-store-sales/ @electronStar, I can't say I buy your skepticism, looking at the increasing sales stats on FGL.
Hehe quoting some cases like that is nonsense. Reminds me of the first blog posts about the iphone appstore "fart app made 500,000!" and so on. Not saying you cannot make good money with Flash, sure you can, but it's not the magic goldmine that you're describing
Well if you noticed portals like Kongregate are now actively promoting MMO / games with MT (using their currency). So yes, while before I wasn't sure, now I think it's becoming profitable for them (like for Nexic).
Yes for in-game purchases and microtransactions it might be worth it I think, but most flash portals don't host mtx games