http://gameschart.com/games/Princess-Maker-Avatar-RPG
This is exciting! Almost 400,000 hits so far. Our game has made 9th place at gameschart.com!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
What are the profitable indie game niches?
I wanted to make a list of profitable game niches here. Likely, people will argue about how niche they are, but I think this will be a good resource for devs.
1) Hidden Object / Time Management / Match 3
2) Single-player RPGs
3) Strategy War Games
4) Visual Novels / Dating-Sims
5) Princess Maker Games
6) Harvest Moon Style Games?
7) Religious Games
Please comment so that I can add more!
1) Hidden Object / Time Management / Match 3
2) Single-player RPGs
3) Strategy War Games
4) Visual Novels / Dating-Sims
5) Princess Maker Games
6) Harvest Moon Style Games?
7) Religious Games
Please comment so that I can add more!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Harvest Moon SNES - How Could It Have Been Better? What would you change?
Harvest Moon (SNES) holds a special place in my game catalog. After I played it to death, I ended up selling it on ebay for over $100.00. It was the only game that I ever made a profit on.
I'm thinking about making a farming game, but I have a lot of things to think about. The most important is how I could improve on the original concept of a game like Harvest Moon.
The recent versions of Harvest Moon have tons of things to do. I'm not sure if this is an improvement or a distraction from the core mechanics of the game.
The things that I liked about Harvest Moon:
1) Town Events (festivals)
2) Datable Characters with fairly different personalities
3) Building a Business (strategy)
4) Raising animals/pets
5) Watching the progression of crops
6) Finding things in the forest
7) Seasons
8) Giving Gifts
9) People visiting the farm
10) Random events really helped to break the monotony
11) End of Game assessment
What I didn't like:
1) The farming became particularly grinding after a while.
2) Sometimes I forgot to bring my dog in when it rained.
3) When I whistled, the horse wasn't that good at finding me.
4) The fence broke down pretty easily.
5) The farm was too large to manage (if you wanted to utilize the whole thing)
6) The guy got tired too easily
7) The hot spring was kind of far.
8) It was easy to get bored.
9) The cows were expensive!
10) I was left feeling slightly unsatisfied with the ending.
11) Story and side quests weren't particularly interesting.
12) No clear goals nor measure for success.
If you could play Harvest Moon again for Super Nintendo, what would you change and why?
I'm thinking about making a farming game, but I have a lot of things to think about. The most important is how I could improve on the original concept of a game like Harvest Moon.
The recent versions of Harvest Moon have tons of things to do. I'm not sure if this is an improvement or a distraction from the core mechanics of the game.
The things that I liked about Harvest Moon:
1) Town Events (festivals)
2) Datable Characters with fairly different personalities
3) Building a Business (strategy)
4) Raising animals/pets
5) Watching the progression of crops
6) Finding things in the forest
7) Seasons
8) Giving Gifts
9) People visiting the farm
10) Random events really helped to break the monotony
11) End of Game assessment
What I didn't like:
1) The farming became particularly grinding after a while.
2) Sometimes I forgot to bring my dog in when it rained.
3) When I whistled, the horse wasn't that good at finding me.
4) The fence broke down pretty easily.
5) The farm was too large to manage (if you wanted to utilize the whole thing)
6) The guy got tired too easily
7) The hot spring was kind of far.
8) It was easy to get bored.
9) The cows were expensive!
10) I was left feeling slightly unsatisfied with the ending.
11) Story and side quests weren't particularly interesting.
12) No clear goals nor measure for success.
If you could play Harvest Moon again for Super Nintendo, what would you change and why?
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Everyone's Pissed at the IGF (Indie Games Festival)
Initially, I thought it was pretty strange that Fez and Spelunky showed up at the IGF this year. Fez? That already won, didn't it? And Spelunky? That's like... 4 years old, isn't it (actually released in 2009)?
The integrity of the IGF is at stake and this is a terrible thing because the IGF is the one place where indie games that deserve to get press can actually get some decent exposure.
However, look what's happening to the indie dev community:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/164938/GDC_2012_Fez_Spelunky_Antichamber_earn_IGF_honors.php#comment141341
The worst part is that Fez does deserve some recognition, but this has been overlooked as people become enraged by the unfairness and perceived chronyism that has infiltrated the IGF. However, the outrage and personal attacks on Phil Fish, regardless of what he said, are completely over the line.
https://twitter.com/#!/PHIL_FISH
I feel bad for Phil. :(
The integrity of the IGF is at stake and this is a terrible thing because the IGF is the one place where indie games that deserve to get press can actually get some decent exposure.
However, look what's happening to the indie dev community:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/164938/GDC_2012_Fez_Spelunky_Antichamber_earn_IGF_honors.php#comment141341
The worst part is that Fez does deserve some recognition, but this has been overlooked as people become enraged by the unfairness and perceived chronyism that has infiltrated the IGF. However, the outrage and personal attacks on Phil Fish, regardless of what he said, are completely over the line.
https://twitter.com/#!/PHIL_FISH
I feel bad for Phil. :(
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Princess Maker Avatar RPG
We have a new dressup game over at kongregate:
http://www.kongregate.com/games/LexZ1/princess-maker-avatar-rpg
Check it out and let us know what you think!
http://www.kongregate.com/games/LexZ1/princess-maker-avatar-rpg
Check it out and let us know what you think!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
How To Monetize Adult Games (especially Flash)
We are dipping our toes in the adult game market, and we noticed that there isn't a lot of information on monetization strategies.
Converting freemium users to premium is probably the best way to make money, but if you don't have a premium version of your game, you might run into a bit of trouble.
Currently, there aren't any publisers that support adult games in terms of in-game ad services. (If this is outdated or incorrect, please comment and we will update this post right away). Newgrounds seems to be using CPM Star to advertise for adult games, but I'm not sure how.
However, there are some affiliate programs that sell adult products (at the bottom).
The best way to monetize adult games is to create your own ads based on affiliate links that don't require that they be listed on a specific domain. This means, as long as the user clicks on your link, you get credit regardless of where the game is played. Here are some recommendations below of adult friendly ad services.
Adult Friend Finder
Mr Skin
Prank Place
Totem Cash
Alt.com
Once you're finished, where do you post adult games? Right now, the easiest thing to do is search for "adult flash games" + "submit" to find contact forms directly, but if you have recommendations, we can make a list of the top sites here.
Converting freemium users to premium is probably the best way to make money, but if you don't have a premium version of your game, you might run into a bit of trouble.
Currently, there aren't any publisers that support adult games in terms of in-game ad services. (If this is outdated or incorrect, please comment and we will update this post right away). Newgrounds seems to be using CPM Star to advertise for adult games, but I'm not sure how.
However, there are some affiliate programs that sell adult products (at the bottom).
The best way to monetize adult games is to create your own ads based on affiliate links that don't require that they be listed on a specific domain. This means, as long as the user clicks on your link, you get credit regardless of where the game is played. Here are some recommendations below of adult friendly ad services.
Adult Friend Finder
Mr Skin
Prank Place
Totem Cash
Alt.com
Once you're finished, where do you post adult games? Right now, the easiest thing to do is search for "adult flash games" + "submit" to find contact forms directly, but if you have recommendations, we can make a list of the top sites here.
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