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Puzzle Games (Games)

Making A Fortune From Casual Games 74

Posted by Zonk from the big-bucks-in-bobble dept.
hapwned writes "In yet another interesting article from the Escapist, Allen Varney has a piece on the ludicrous amount of money you can make from small, downloadable flash-type games that most Americans play. From the article: 'Which American designer personally made the most money last year from computer games he or she designed? Not the most money for a company, mind you, nor for a studio or licensor, but individual, take-home, taxable income. Was it a famous game god? John Carmack, Will Wright, Sid Meier, Warren Spector? Probably not. It was probably some guy you never heard of who wrote some little shareware game you never heard of. Those "casual games" - the puzzles and Mahjongg tilesets and card games and Breakout clones and match-three Bejeweled-type things - are downloaded, and sell, in numbers some game gods only dream about. Over the lengthy life of a successful casual game, the independent ("indie") designer can make serious, serious money - high six-figures and low sevens. Personally.'"
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Making A Fortune From Casual Games More

Making A Fortune From Casual Games

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  • I'd get into making SWF games, but.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepplesNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @04:45PM (#13439130) Homepage Journal

    I'm currently a homebrew GBA game developer, and I am considering trying the SWF platform. Is there any decent SWF authoring software that's less expensive than Macromedia Flash and suitable for developing games?

    • I'd get into making flash games, except for the whole fact that I hate flash and it seems to have a high learning curve. I can't think of any cool uses of flash that I've ever seen. Cool as in "useful", that is. And "useful" as in "couldn't have been done any other, less complex way without a plugin".
    • Flash is primarily useful for its installed base. Their language overhaul a while back has left it as an in-between mess, fit neither for content creators nor programmers. It's buggy, limited, and has nothing strong enough to recommend it in spite of these flaws.

      I would investigate other platforms if I were you. Developing games for a casual audience requires some sacrifices, but at some point a bad tool will prevent you from ever completing a usable product.

      • I would investigate other platforms if I were you.

        Which platform would you suggest first for casual games? Java applet? Java stand-alone program? C+Win32+DirectX?

        • Re:I'd get into making SWF games, but.. (Score:5, Interesting)

          by startled ( 144833 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @07:20PM (#13440482)
          Depends what you're doing. For most casual games, you need a web-playable version, so you don't lose 50% or more of your potential audience because they don't want to download a demo. If you're targeting a different platform or niche, these requirements may be different (preinstalled on a mobile phone, downloadable on XBox Live, downloadable on Steam, whatever).

          Java's a bitch because everyone's got whatever old version of the VM came with Windows, each version of which has its own bugs. The bugs aren't horrible, for the most part, but you'll end up with a bunch of VM installers on your box to handle bug reports. Java also doesn't give you much for free for game development, and any decent libraries for it will just increase the size of your download, but it's a possibility.

          I want to check out the Popcap framework as soon as I get time, because my experience with their plugin from a gamer standpoint has been great. It was a quick, smooth install, and the games look nice, so if it's easier to use than Flash and more reliable than Java it may be a winner.

          If you go downloadable, you can get stuff like Torque 2D; my post and a response are here:
          http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=155159&c id=13009806 [slashdot.org]

    • Re:I'd get into making SWF games, but.. (Score:5, Informative)

      by josath ( 460165 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @07:16PM (#13440444) Homepage
      hey tepples - i know you from gbadev/dsdev

      i am personally a flash developer (though not games, we do applications).

      If you don't mid doing everything through code, without the nice macromedia gui, there is a free, opensource flash compiler:

      http://mtasc.org/ [mtasc.org]

      Check osflash.org for some nice tutorials on getting the compiler set up (as well as other useful tools). They show you how to use Eclipse, but personally I'm not a big fan of it.

      http://osflash.org/doku.php?id=tutorials [osflash.org]

      Flash 8 has gone into beta, and will be released in a couple weeks...But with mtasc, you can already compile flash apps that use the new features! (A few new features: realtime effects like blur, shadow, convolve, displacement. Pixel-level control of bitmap data.)

      Info on flash 8: http://osflash.org/doku.php?id=flashcoders:undocum ented:flash8 [osflash.org]

      Some random things I have written for flash: http://rorexrobots.com/flash [rorexrobots.com]

      ActionScript (the language of the flash player) is fully OOP, with classes, inheritance, interfaces, and error throwing/catching. It is similar to java, in that it is compiled into bytecode which is run by the Flash VM. In fact, if you wanted to, you could write code that looks a lot like java.

    • If you are a university student then you can get a discount rate from the school bookstore or http://www.journeyed.com/home.asp [journeyed.com]. I got my copy for $99 this way.

      Of course you can only use the license while you are student and can't make any money from your projects made with it...It's a great learning tool for non pirate types.

      • If you are a university student

        I've already graduated with a B.S. in computer science and thousands of dollars of student loan debt, and I've been looking for a job for the past 29 months. Even local retailers posting part-time minimum wage jobs routinely turn me down. What should I do to get a job so that I can afford the full version of Flash or so that I can afford to go back for my master's?

        • Wow.. and I'm feeling down after 9 months of not getting a job after graduating. You, sir, are a real trooper. I salute you.
        • If you actually put all that on your resume when applying for that job, I'd turn you down too.

          • If you actually put all that on your resume when applying for that job

            For one thing, I didn't put the debt on my resume nor the exact period of unemployment. Here, I'm discussing my situation, not applying for a job. For another, is "Bachelor of Science, computer science, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Class of 2003, 3.0 GPA" too much to put down in the education section?

            • I'd leave the GPA off if it is less that 3.5.

              I know that at least with many public schools 3.0 is the minimum GPA they accept for teachers, so it isn't something I would advertise.

              Maybe in the CS field they are more generous in their acceptance though.
        • hey man, i was in the same boat as you two years ago. don't worry about the loans for now; just get somewhere and get some experience. i moved to prague. the economy here is great and there is a constant demand for developers. i'm returning to the US for a while but i can put you in contact with people here that can help you. don't expect much money (i don't make much more than 1000USD per month rigth now), but you'll set the foundation for a future career wherever you choose to be.

          • i moved to prague.

            Currently I have been recommended not to move out of Allen County, let alone Indiana, let alone the United States, let alone North America, let alone the Anglophone world. How long does it take to learn Czech if one is past the so-called "critical period" (ages 2 to 10) for language learning? And how can I show that I can live on my own away from my parents and away from the "assisted living" environment of a university residence hall?

            • to be honest with you, i've been here for two years and i still barely speak czech. it can be frustrating but it's just not required in prague. most companies are doing international work and so they require english skills. czech just makes it easier to communicate with your co-workers. many times, official company policies say that everything should be done in english. to answer your question directly, if you study and actually use the language (neither of which i do), you can be FULLY communicative wit

              • why have you been told not to move?

                I have never lived alone, always with family or a college roommate. I have never learned to drive, although that might not be as much of a problem in Europe. The vocational rehabilitation agency I'm working with is limited to the State of Indiana, and my case worker is not sure that I would qualify for vocational rehabilitation assistance under the different rules that apply outside Indiana and especially outside the United States.

                let me know if you'd like my help.

  • Not suprised (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @04:53PM (#13439203) Homepage
    Makes sense to me for two reasons. First is that we all know how much money it takes to make a new Mario or Halo game. When you take a little game like the ones PopCap makes (my favorite place for such games) it's easy to see why that's true.

    But the bigger reason is accessability. My mom has purchased a couple of these games. They are simple, not twitched based (the ones she buys, she's not good at that kind of stuff), and easy for her to find and buy online. She can play them for a quick few minutes, or spend more than an hour playing them. In every way they are more accessible than a big console game.

    And these are basically the same kind of games a cell phone games which are also exploding (and what do you expect when many of them cost $5 A MONTH to play here in the US).

    I've tried my hand at it, and I intend to do it again. I'd love to be the next person to make a little game that goes BIG to become the next Bejeweled or Snood. My little game is on my website [foobarsoft.com], and you just need Java 5 to play it, if you're interested.

    • Gave your game a quick spin. Nice foundation, with additions and lots of tweaking you could definitely have yourself a Popcap-type game.

      The only negative (sorry if I'm telling you anything you already know) is the game being keyboard-controlled. One of the defining features of a Popcap game (and one of the reasons for their success IMO) is that it's controlled exclusively by mouse.

      • Thanks for trying it. I figured that it would need tweeking, but to be honest I got a bit bored after spending tons of free time on it for a week so I'm on another project temporarily.

        As for the keyboard, I completely understand. I whipped up the keyboard during testing (I tend to be a keyboard person). I asked my Mom to try it once or twice and that was always the first thing I'd have to tell her: the mouse doesn't work yet, you have to use the keyboard.

        Thanks for the feedback though!

  • Maybe I'm missing something here, but is there the slightest factual basis for this claim that seems to be pulled straight out of the author's ass? I mean, it may well be true but he doesn't seem to have the slightest idea whether it is or isn't.

    Or is there a second page that I was unable to access?

    • "Next" button at bottom of the screen.
      • So there _is_ another page? I apologize to the author's ass, then.

        In my defense, I have a "Previous" button at the bottom of the page, but no "Next". The page looks misrendered, though, so I'm probably getting cut off at the right. I'd consult the PDF, but can't get it to open...

        • Re:"Probably"? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by daviddennis ( 10926 )
          The article uses a truly awful flash-based reader. I had a hard time getting past the first page, too.

          It's a great article but they should really dump that Flash, especially since lousy Flash font handling makes it a great deal harder to read than a HTML site. Why do people insist on spending weeks or months to create an interface that's worse than what already exists in standard HTML?

          That being said, horizontal scroll all the way to the right side of the screen and you'll see "Next". You have to have a
          • I don't think it has anything to do with Flash. Looks like some pictures in a table, and they just DHTML/CSS the text over the correct area of the images.
          • Or click on the Text link to read without all the flash.
            Here's a shortcut

            The Escapist - Casual Fortunes
            http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/8/14 [escapistmagazine.com]
          • I beg your pardon? Where did your see the flash? It's well laid out XHTML1.0 + CSS.

            Actually, it's so well done, it even validates [w3.org] by w3c standards, something your own site [w3.org] doesn't.

            I can even read "The Escapist" in links!
            • I'll take your word that the subject site does validate, and that it's not Flash, but there's no question that a lot of people have a very hard time navigating it.

              If it's hard to navigate, does it really matter that it validates?

              And if my site is clear and easy to navigate, does it really matter that it doesn't validate?

              I looked at the validation report, and for the most part it's things like attributes that should have been quoted that I didn't quote. I do that because I find the page easier to read and m
              • David, the point of validation is that an SGML parser can effectively process and output your page on any display, or convert it in any other dialect (RSS, et al).

                Usability also means "usable in any situation", which in turn means "with any hardware/software that complies with universally accepted standards". Note the "standards" part.

                A lot of code wizards I know don't take the time in making their personal pages validate, RMS is an example. But then, don't criticize people that put effort in doing thing
  • Linkage [escapistmagazine.com] for the text-only version for SMS/people-with-a-800x600-resolution/aversion-for- the-current-design/people-who-like-scrolling.

  • Mobile gaming next (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bogtha ( 906264 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @04:57PM (#13439249)

    Seems to me, small, simple time-wasters will be just as big a market for people on the go soon. Mobile phones and PDAs are just as capable of running this type of game, and you can play them when you are stuck on the train or whatever too.

  • I must say that I'm barely surprised by the news. After all, these are the kind of games you can play for five minutes (or 24 hours) without getting bored, without thinking too much ... they're perfect for the five minutes coffee break from work and for the "I don't feel like doing anything" days.

    They have the power and magic and elegance of simplicity without being too dumb. They cater for the widest variety of consumers ...

    And though I wouldn't personally shell out a single cent for any of them (the f

  • Classic "Long Tail" play. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by zentinal ( 602572 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @05:13PM (#13439368) Homepage
    Sorry about using the currently overused new business / new economics buzzword, but this seems to me to be another variation on "The Long Tail" (see: Wired [wired.com], Chris Anderson [typepad.com], Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]), where you build a business based upon selling many different things with relatively low demand at relatively low volumes, instead of a small number of blockbusters at huge volume.

    While this makes horse-sense to me, I'd still like to see some numbers. There have to be some examples out there. I wonder if ringtone sales work the same way?

  • Quick math! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Time to create graphics and gameplay for a simple arcade clone:

    I've done it in 120, lets be extravagant and say 320 (2 whole months).

    Set a cheap price: $5

    Set a goal for wages: $50/hr

    So the amount of money you want to bring in for your game, disregarding the tiny amount of advertising you might do, would be about 320*$50. At five dollars a game, thats just 3200 copies.

    Sell 3000 copies of a game people already love for dirt cheap and make $50/hr? Sign me up!

    • Re:Quick math! (Score:5, Informative)

      by ggambett ( 611421 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @08:11PM (#13440902) Homepage
      A couple of mistakes with your reasoning :

      1) Making games of that quality is a lot harder than you think it is. A "simple" game like that can take a 3 or 4 person team a whole six months, not 2. You'd be surprised to know the time it took us to make some of our games (see sig)

      2) Selling 3200 copies of a game is a lot harder than you think it is. A game that sells 100 copies a month from your site is considered successful. Sure you can sell a lot more copies if you associate with the big casual game portals (RealArcade, Yahoo Games and the like) but you'll get less than 30% of the net sales if you're a first-time developer.

      • Re:Quick math! (Score:3, Informative)

        by Phemur ( 448472 )
        Indeed. Here's another example. Three friends of mine started a shareware game company. Their first title was an Asteroids like game, with better graphics, cool features like purchasable ship powerups and multiplayer support. It took about 6 months to deliver (although admittedly, they only worked 4-6 hours a day).

        It did sell, but only at the sum of 200-300$ a month. Nowhere near enough to support 3 people.

        The other thing to consider is competition. Visit Rocket Download and see how many games are liste

  • Exactly! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by blueZhift ( 652272 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @05:29PM (#13439503) Homepage Journal
    Forget about going head to head with EA, or Ubisoft! If I can just make beer money with little flash games, I'll be quite happy. Seriously, with little overhead and some quirky, addictive games, the small timer can do quite well picking up quarters that the EA's cannot really afford to reach. That's what I mean by conquering the world one pixel at a time. Now if I could just get those titles finished!
    • You wont believe but, there is a game called Tactics Arena Online from a Canadian guy I think. (the webpage is www.tacticsarena.com or www.digisonline.com

      I consider it a nice flash game. Although I think it is not really simple as it has a client/server architecture. It is kind of like chess but with other features. I started playing it (as it is free to signup) and then *upgraded* to a _Gold_ account ($10 a month i think), but after some time it really was swallowing my time (quite addictive).

      So, I think t
    • This exactly is what a freind of mine has done.

      He began his career in game creation by doing odd things in flash just to pass the time in some classes. Also, due to some administrative efforts to curb time-wasting computer activites by blocking game sites (har). He then started a small website leeching a local band's webspace. His site eventually outgrew itself using game indexing services and the band alerted him of this when he got stuck with a 100$ bill. He then found someone who bought his site, now he

  • I'd love to do this. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BigZaphod ( 12942 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @05:32PM (#13439535) Homepage
    I've thought about trying to enter this world for a long time, but I frequently run up against two problems:

    1) lack of long term attention span
    2) artistic ability

    The closest I've ever come to a functional game is demonstrated by the stunningly cutting edge and innovative game, PigShooter [spiffytech.com]. (I use the worlds "stunningly", "cutting edge", "innovative", and "game" somewhat loosely...)
    • Have you tried Reiner Knizia's Samurai? It's based on the board game of the same name and is a very high quality independent video game. By the same token, there are several official versions of Carcassonne available for the PC that have extremely high artistic values.
    • The closest I've ever come to a functional game is demonstrated by the stunningly cutting edge and innovative game, PigShooter. (I use the worlds "stunningly", "cutting edge", "innovative", and "game" somewhat loosely...)

      That's pretty funny. You've clearly a little *creative* ability, which definitely counts for something. The whole "my bullets are flying pigs with wings" bit is pretty inspired at least. Now you just have to work on every single other aspect of the game...

  • huh, found a distribution model... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kisrael ( 134664 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @07:09PM (#13440391) Homepage
    To me, the interesting part of this is the implication that FINALLY a business and distribution model has emerged. Apparently not quite "micropayments", but it's interesting that games can get the attention they need, and then get people to fork over some dough... ...besides the spur of Internet distribution via fancy websites, is the model much different than what Id used back in the day, here are some levels, pay us for more?

  • Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mbourgon ( 186257 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @07:24PM (#13440507) Homepage
    IIRC, totally written by one guy. And sold at least several hundred thousand units, spawned what seems like a dozen sequels and expansion packs. Chris Sawyer.

  • Sounding like a broken record.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by rubberbando ( 784342 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @07:30PM (#13440555)
    If you want to develop for Windoze, I'd still would recommend GameMaker [gamemaker.nl] by Mark Overmars.

    Its easy to use and quite powerful. 2D games are a breeze to make and since version 6, you can now make 3D games as well.

    The GML programming language is very simular to object oriented C so you can make your games as complex as you would like to.

    The forums [gamemaker.nl] are also a great resource for people just getting started.

  • Three words... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @10:54PM (#13442242)
    Show me numbers. Or, what is next?

    While these one-hit wonders are nice in the short run, lets face it. These kinds of games are hit or miss. For every Bejeweled, theres hundreds, if not thousands of other games out there that get almost no public attention.

    • So our every other games. And just about every other product in the world. Even big, well funded companies like Microsoft and Apple release stuff that just doesn't sell.

      The point is, you're probalby more likely to get rich making a little game like this on your own than you are working your way up through the big game publishers/developers.

      And even if you don't have a big hit, what are you out? Probably just some free time, and hopefully you had some fun and learned somethign while making the game. I don't

  • Which American designer personally made the most money last year from computer games he or she designed? Not the most money for a company, mind you, nor for a studio or licensor, but individual, take-home, taxable income. Was it a famous game god? John Carmack, Will Wright, Sid Meier, Warren Spector? Probably not. It was probably some guy you never heard of who wrote some little shareware game you never heard of.

    Probably? But who was it really?

  • Target Audience (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ozTravman ( 898206 )
    The target audience for the big games is largely computer enthusiasts, people with high spec machines who know how to play games. These are also people that are more likely to circumvent copy protections. The target audience for the small games is more casual gamers, office workers with too much time, mum's and dad's that just use the PC here and there. These people are less likely to know how to get these games without paying and are not to fussed to shell out $10 to unlock a small shareware game.
    • Agreed. I would also like to add that the complexity of modern would contribute to the sales of these types of games. For example, I finally tried Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the Xbox today. While I am enjoying the game, I still can't get over the fact that the beginning of the game had to include a lengthy tutorial that lasted at least 30 minutes.

      Do games really need to have so many features? I yearn for the days when I only had to pick up a controller and start playing, without having t
  • IIRC, he did most of the development for BC3000 on his own. I know that Take2 did some work and provided some artwork for it, all controversy aside it seems he did quite well off of it.

    LK

  • success story (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Alban ( 86010 ) on Wednesday August 31, 2005 @03:37AM (#13443705)

    Good, so we've heard the success stories (which is all the author really mentions). What about the legions of shareware developers that just make a decent living (nothing wrong with that) without making a fortune? And what about the ones that soon have to find something else to do when they can't pay their bills?

    It's just like rock bands. You only hear about the successful ones. You never hear about all the very decent bands that, 20 years later, are still playing in ordinary bars in front of an audience of 3.

    (trivia: The Police once played in front of an audience of 2!)

  • I hate hype-speak (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kwoff ( 516741 ) on Wednesday August 31, 2005 @05:25AM (#13444053)
    Give me a break, "most Americans" do not play Flash games. What do you base that on?

  • Small games, "big" money... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cr0sh ( 43134 ) on Wednesday August 31, 2005 @02:50PM (#13447861) Homepage
    Something that I have found interesting is the following game/game engine (note, it only works with IE currently):

    TRIGLAV RPG [smokymonkeys.com]

    This game (and the engine behind it) utilizes some really nice DHTML footwork to create something real close to the isometric look and feel of Diablo and similar games.

    Another game I found while looking around:

    DHTML Arkanoid [schillmania.com]

    This one appears to work with all browsers, and even has nice sound effects.

    Both of these examples show that you don't necessarily need to have Flash or know Java to create these types of games - it is possible to do them using only browser-based technologies and/or some server side work.

    Just to throw in another "buzzword" - AJAX-based gaming!

  • Fluff article (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31, 2005 @03:24PM (#13448117)
    That article is just fluff. That's why they put those large pictures in the background. To distract you from the fact that the actual article is barely informative.

    OK, I'll switch rails here and get more specific: The article makes it sound like:
    A. It's easy
    B. EVERYONE gets rich.
    C. EVERY independant and/or casual game sells crazy numbers.

    This is so far from the truth. And the writer avoids the key reasons WHY some casual games are huge hits: MARKETING. It's quite easy to sell huge numbers of a game like Bejeweled when it's featured on SO MANY (All?) casual game websites.

    Now if Joe Shareware writes a game that's got ALL the key points a good original game requires, does that guarantee the same sales as Bejeweled?! Of course not! No one will buy Joe's game if no one has heard, seen, or played Joe's game!!! This is true of any commodity. Making the public aware your product exists is half the battle.

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