Most games aren't over $1000. They are under $750. I see so many game being sold for under $500. The most I paid for a game was $450 and it is a great game IMO. The ones that go over $1000 are the really high quality games that get newgrounds.com's "Game of the day" or "Over One Million Plays" lists.
People have been talking a little about buying games. I know a lot about this so heres the answers to a coule things that have been asked: Original Flash games usually cost between $50 and $1500. It can go for more. Ive had a game get $3,500, but this is VERY rare. Games that cost $50 are normally a bit of a waste, but not always. They usually aren't high quality, and many game sites may not put them on which is your goal. The more sites that put your game on, the more views to your site. Many game sites buy a ton of really cheap games when they could buy one large game that could do much better than all the others combined. When you buy a game it will probably be your job to promote the game. Search and compile a list of a bunch of game sites with Submit pages to submit the game. Most aren't automatic. On sites like newgrounds, let the author submit if he wants to. Normally when sponsoring, You'll get your intro animation to play (If you dont have one, it will probably just be a still picture of your logo) that can be clicked onto your site, and a button on menu and game over screens. For me, on average, The click through rate from the game is between 7-10%. So in other words, 7-10% of people who play the game will click through to your website. Thats at least what Ive experienced, and it really depends. As for in game ads, most developers won't let you put them in unless you either split the profit or pay them extra. Currently the only Flash game ad network is mochiads.com. The CPM is usually anywhere between $0.06 and $1.00. CPM depends on what country the views are coming from. a good CPM is around $0.60, but Ive had it as low as $0.03. THis CPM is Much better than normal site CPM since it counts when the game is on other peoples sites, not just your own. I make games for my own site, gamestergames.com but have also made games for other peoples sites. My game block bash hasn't just passed 2 million views. It's been getting a steady 60,000 views a day, and usually gets around $30-$40 in in game ads. So far its made over $1,000 (In a few weeks. Its going up a good amount every day.) If you have any questions about it feel free to ask. -Kyle
Flashgamelicense is a good site, like said before. The guy who started that sites a really nice guy too Anyways, youll probably get a ton of responses if you make a post on the Newgrounds forums (Flash section) saying your a sponsor looking to sponsor games. Thats a very common spot for flash artists who are looking for games to be sponsored. I'm a flash artist too. I have one large game thats done as well as a smaller one that could go very cheaply if you're interested. Both are posted at Flashgamelicsense. -Kyle
After reading the few above mosts from mine, I may also consider sponsoring some games for the Games Dash site that I work with. What about if you sponsor a game and it doesn't become that popular because you can't promote it much. Once you sponsor the game does that mean you get your branding put into the game and it stays there no matter what happens? Also, does it mean that no one else can also use that same game as it would not be worth it much if you are putting your branding in a game so that other sites can use that game and you find that they already have that game on all their sites from another site also sponsoring it. Just wondering if you made that game yourself or you sponsored a game and then put the in-game ads into the game?
It all depends on what kind of sponsorship you do. I do exclusive sponsorships (My logo is in the game and nobody elses can be other that MochiAds which I my not want). There is a Co-sponsorship which is when 2 or more sites pool in to sponsor a game with all there logos in the same game but nobody else can. Non-exclusive means that they sell the game over and over with different peoples logos in it. From my experience you can't distribute these. You can also do an exclusive sponsorship with additional Non-exclusive sales allowed but every other license sold has to have your logo and link in it. When you bid for sponsorship make sure you tell the developer whether you do/don't want MochiAds or if you want them but they have to be your code and not theirs.
I don't think it is that easy to make money from a game. Make a game. Then sponsor and yay money. I don't think so. You forgot the promoting game part. You want sites to add your game. That you have to work a lot for.
Anyone want to do a link exchange with me? I am getting roughly 100-200 uniques a day. sitewide linking only. Send me a private message if you would like to.
I just finished releasing 3 new exclusive game and one of them has sent over 2000 visits to my site today and there is still 4 hours until the tracking resets for the day. I have over doubled yesterdays plays and I couldn't be happier. Wait yes I could. I would be even happier if my MochiAd earnings on the game I made was more. My one week alexa rank went from over 350,000 to 271,512 today. If you have the money I strongly suggest having a pregame animation with your logo in it made for flash and then sponsoring some really good games. Graphics and sound effects are a nig part of a games success. If anyone wants to add any of my 5 games you can download them here http://www.kingdomarcade.com/free-games-for-your-website.html . The really popular game is Star Ship, but I have disabled the download link because the developer has taken the comments from NewGrounds and decided to make more levels and fix some things that people were complaining about.
this game is available if anyones interested in it for their games site. PM me if you are interested.
My site has gotten a new design. I think its a lot better than the old one, but still probably need to make changes. Anyways, I have a question. I make games for my site, and that is the only way we get traffic. Ive made 3 games for it so far, and its gotten a good amount of traffic. What I wanted to know, is how can I get traffic to the site other than making games? What do other game sites that dont sponsor games do to get huge traffic? -Kyle
I am doing SEO now and it is bringing in around 400 UV per day. I started SEO in November and would have more success if I was more active in it and chose better keywords. Another way is game plug exchanges. Those have done nicely for me. What I do is I submit my link to the big arcades and then plug a bunch of their games to get high on their list so they send me tons of hits. When you make a game make sure you submit it yourself as much as possible. Here are some of the best sites to submit to http://mochiland.com/articles/45-sites-to-submit-your-flash-games . Also try MochiAds because that is more money to put into advertising. I am gaing to make a sequel to my first game and use the advice of the game developer that made a game I sponsored which sends me over 1000 hits per day (non unique). He uses a Russian company to make fantastic graphics for his games and he only pays them 50% of his MochiAds earnings. By the way I like your new design but the black text is hard to read. Also game images are really user friendly. Oh and one other thing. Add a addthis.com button to all of your game pages in a very visible, but not distracting, location. I am getting many reddits, diggs, del.isio.us, and powerful stumbles because of this.
A other good way to get traffic to your arcade site is using arcade banner exchange, many arcade site use them to bring new traffic to there site.