I had an interesting conversation with one of my pupils over the weekend about whether Flash games development was commercially worth the effort.  His concern was that while he wanted to learn game development for personal reasons, he felt that commercial web design might be a better direction to focus in as it would be easier to get a job, or start a successful business in that field.

My answer was quite simple – there are thousands of very talented web designers out there, and very few good games developers!  Add to that the fact that casual gaming is definitely on the rise, and there are more and more posts on the freelance sites looking for developers every month and it’s clear that this is a growing industry and a better one to be involved in than web design in my opinion.  And I’d like to think that my opinion counts on this matter, since I’ve been a commercial web designer and Flash games developer for the past 8 years!

Anyway, we discussed several different approaches to making an income with Flash game development, many of which my pupil hadn’t considered, so here they are in the hope that more people find inspiration…

6 ways to monetize Flash games development (without getting a job!)

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 you don’t want the obligation and deadlines of working for clients, sponsorship mighht suit you better. This allows you to develop a game at your own pace, and once completed your sponsor pays you to embed their branding and links into the game. The amount you’ll earn will vary, depending on the company which is sponsoring you, and the quality of the game.

Taking it one step further, you can monetise your own games without needing a client or a sponsor. Networks such as Mochiads allow you to embed adverts into your games, and publish your games on their network which gets you both revenue and exposure at the same time.

You can also monetise your games by simply hosting them yourself, and displaying adverts on the same page. Banner adverts, Adsense blocks or affiliate promotions are all viable ways of monetising the traffic that a good Flash game will generate.

A very recent, and rapidly growing technology allows for in game currencies. While this is quite new there are already 2 networks offering the service and I’m sure this will grow tremendously in the coming months and years.

Finally, perhaps the most obvious, and certainly the most glamorous way to capitalize on the success of a good Flash game is to release a commercial version. Whether it’s a downloadable PC game or a port to an entirely new platform, such as the Nintendo DS, the Xbox Live network or the iPhone, a well designed unique game with the right marketing can be a real success, and open the doors into the mainstream gaming industry.

So there you go, six different ways to generate an income from your Flash games development.  In fact, why not start right now.  You could take the Flash Asteroids Tutorial I posted recently, modify that with your own ideas and pop it on your own website with some Adsense ads! Or how about grabbing some Flash Games source code, using some of what you’ve learned here to add new levels, change the graphics and put your own features in and submit them to Mochiads?  The opportunities are all there, you just need to pick an idea and run with it!

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