Indie Game Development

Localization in FlashDevelop

2010-06-30T16:38:00.005-03:00

I explained how to internationalize a flex application on this early post.
Now I want to show you a simpler way of localization within the IDE which I am applying to my new game: ZummBallz.
It is really simple and consits on declaring "Additional Compiler Options" in "Project -> Properties... -> Compiler Options"

I created the folder locale with to subfolders, en_US and es_AR (you can add any other locales, it is just an example), which contain my resource bundles. Then I added the new options:

-source-path+= locale/{locale}
-locale=en_US,es_AR

Zummballz Teaser

2010-06-14T12:20:00.002-03:00

I am working on a new physics/math game called Zummballs. The game is based on PhysBallz adding some basic math operations to make it more interesting.
My idea is to finish the game and try to find a sponsor.
This is my first game since my previous experience developing a seasonal game.

Watch the teaser.

Seasonal Games: My experiencie with Valentine's Day

2010-06-09T16:13:00.002-03:00

I developed a one day game (which I'm going to write as a tutorial in future entries) for testing how effective it is to create seasonal games. Here it goes my experience:

Game Development

I developed a Ragdoll Avalanche Clone. Where you have to dodge hearts and have a time limitation of two minutes to succeed. No music, no sound. I finished it in one day.

Game Distribution

Mochiads

I submitted it on 2/4. But they approved it for distribution on 2/10.

Flash Game Distribution

I submitted it on 2/9. I forgot to check it for distribution, I did it on Friday 2/12. Big mistake...
They approved it just February 15th. Yes, one day after Valentine's.

Massive email submission

I sent emails to a list of about 90 portals based on this early post.

Kongregate

According to my Mochibot's log, the best moment for submitting games is on Friday's from 10AM to 2PM. So, I decided to submit my game on Friday 2/12 at 10 o' clock =P.

Newgrounds

Same as Kong.

Nonoba

Same as Kong and Newgrounds

Monetization

Until Friday 19th:

Mochiads:	$6.78
Kongregate:	$0.34
Newgrounds:	$0.01
Total:	$7.13

So, after a week in the wild, I earned $7.13.
Well, as you can see, the money earned wasn't the most important thing on this process. I learned a few lessons which I want to share with you...

Lessons Learned on...

...game development

For next seasonal game, I will work more than one day, let's say a week for the entire development. I will probably hire an artist and put some music on the game. The advantage of creating a seasonal game is that it can be skinned for another important day or easily turned into a classic game.

...game distribution

Due to the simplicity of the game- again, I made it in ONE DAY-, I didn't take the risk of submitting it to the major sites, where the most of the visitis/ad impressions come. Submitting it to the top game portals would have increased my visits.

...monetization

I shoud have released the game about a month or fifteen days before Valentine's. I think it would have performed better.

Curious Facts

Looking at my Mochibot's statistics, I noticed that the game was being served on Kongregate before I submitted it. The guy leave exactly the same game and submitted it with another name. Thanks God I am using Mochiads Version Control: I added a Copyright notice on it, and a few seconds later, the game was showing a "Developed by Nicolás Cavallo..." legend. I talked to the guy, he told me that he didn't know the game was mine. He was collaborating with another kong user who probably stole my game. Uff...

Well, that's all right now. I see you on Easter for more Seasonal Game experiencies.

Game Distribution: 90+ email addresses for distributing your games

2010-02-16T11:44:00.001-03:00

There are a lot of email lists around the web. This is the one I most recently used for distributing my games. It is updated -I used it last week-. I removed those emails that no longer exist or that told me to go to their submissions page instead of sending them emails to that address.
Well, here it is:

Email Addresses

3cr [ at ] buzzedgames.com
3cr [ at ] dabontv.com
abcarcade [ at ] gmail.com
actionflash1 [ at ] yahoo.com
admin [ at ] arcadehog.com
admin [ at ] box10.com
admin [ at ] oyunalani.com
albinoblacksheep [ at ] gmail.com
alex [ at ] mygame.com
Benson [ at ] geegame.com.tw
carlo [ at ] halohalo.ph
chrs1335 [ at ] hotmail.com
contact [ at ] digyourowngrave.com
contact [ at ] gamefudge.com
contact [ at ] tomatogames.com
dabontv [ at ] gmail.com
devang [ at ] doof.com
donovan [ at ] kidzworld.com
email [ at ] gameshot.org
ernie [ at ] reflexive.net
flashgame.net [ at ] gmail.com
flashgameyes [ at ] gmail.com
forcontact [ at ] playgamesclub.com
form [ at ] blifaloo.com
freegamesnews [ at ] gmail.com
fun [ at ] funnytowers.com
fungamelinks [ at ] gmail.com
game [ at ] spillgroupasia.com
gamedev [ at ] miniclip.com
gamefalls [ at ] yahoo.com
gamegod [ at ] freearcade.com
gamepressure [ at ] pro.gry-online.pl
gameprison [ at ] gmail.com
gamesolo [ at ] gmail.com
gamesreloaded [ at ] gmail.com
gamesubmissions [ at ] bigfishgames.com
greengamer [ at ] gmail.com
info [ at ] aspellen.nl
info [ at ] bigwigmedia.com
info [ at ] clip-monster.de
info [ at ] coolespiele.com
info [ at ] dragongamez.com
info [ at ] gamelog.nl
info [ at ] gamesheep.com
info [ at ] gamezhero.com
info [ at ] gamie.nl
info [ at ] gotoandplay.it
info [ at ] hatekonyan.hu
info [ at ] juegos.com
info [ at ] love4game.com
info [ at ] online-game.tv
info [ at ] oyunlar1.com
info [ at ] supergames.ch
info [ at ] supergiochi.com
info [ at ] xpogames.com
info2008 [ at ] coffeebreakarcade.com
submissions [ at ] gprime.net
jarkey_games [ at ] yahoo.com
juggernart [ at ] juggernart.com
mikemaxgames [ at ] gmail.com
mikep [ at ] ebaumsworld.com
minijuegos [ at ] gmail.com
mo [ at ] mofunzone.com
newgames [ at ] dailyfreegames.com
notdoppler [ at ] gmail.com
onlineflashgamez [ at ] gmail.com
onlinegameshq [ at ] gmail.com
selfdefiant [ at ] melting-mindz.com
support [ at ] gamefalls.com
support [ at ] onlinegames.com
vorarg [ at ] comcast.net
webmaster [ at ] 123games.dk
webmaster [ at ] 24hour.dk
webmaster [ at ] 4flashgames.net
webmaster [ at ] ajkul.com
webmaster [ at ] bootyarcade.com
webmaster [ at ] crazygames.dk
webmaster [ at ] dudelire.com
webmaster [ at ] famousarcade.com
webmaster [ at ] flashninjaclan.com
webmaster [ at ] gamershood.com
webmaster [ at ] gamesportal.org
webmaster [ at ] gamesquared.com
webmaster [ at ] gameweb.com
webmaster [ at ] hispajuegos.net
webmaster [ at ] parchis.com
webmaster [ at ] play.vg
webmaster [ at ] smashingames.com
webmaster [ at ] ugotgames.com
webmaster [ at ] yogames.net

New Games Network: Gameschart

2010-01-28T11:36:00.000-03:00

My LinkedIn Flash Game Developer's Group colleague, Barry White, started a new venture called Gameschart. Where by implementing a ver simple API, you can share revenue with other game developers by displaying a chart with the most popular games of the site. You can see an example here.

Let's start the campaign for equiping my Game Development Team (myself)

2010-01-18T10:13:00.004-03:00

Well, here's the thing: I decided to start developing casual flash games independently. For such a venture, I need to get some software to start producing really quality games. I always liked Open Source solutions and, in fact, I used Flashdevelop for my first two games (Tiki Taka and Mathix - Successions).
So... for starting seriously I will need a SWF Encryptor and Flash CS4.
In terms of money, I am talking about:

- Adobe Flash CS4 Professional: US$699
- Amayeta SWF Encrypt(tm): US$145

What's giving me a total of US$844

So, the goal for my next casual game is to cover the costs of this two pieces of software.
After that, I will be able to create and distribute even better games! So, imagine how far I can go! And the way of doing that would be through:

- Sponsorships (Probably a primary license and some secondary licenses.
- Some Mochiads Ad Impressions.
- Creating a page for the game and putting some Google Ads there.
- Put some Kongregate's Statistics to create some badges

Please stay tuned to watch how the story continues =P.

Cool stuff for developing games in OpenGameArt.org

2010-01-07T10:37:00.000-03:00

While I was looking for some material for developing a new game, I found OpenGameArt.org thru Nicu's Blog. It's a free online image gallery with cool stuff to develop games. I am very excited about starting a new RPG or platform game using some of the material that is in there. I hope you enjoy it

Mathix - Successions: Internationalization

2009-10-09T23:14:00.007-03:00

As I told you before, I sent my game to minijuegos. Pablo (from the Games Sumissions Team) liked the game and told me to translate it and to add some minijuegos.com logos.
So I decided to "internationalize" Mathix. Which means to allow the players to choose between both English and Spanish.
So this is the way I was able to do that:
I added a folder called locale in the root directory of my project.
There I created two folders: en_US and es_AR (just because I am from Argentina, that's all).
I put the resource bundle in my application's mxml:


        [ResourceBundle("messages")]

Then I tried to compile the code with FlashDevelop getting the following error:

Error: Unable to resolve resource bundle "messages" for locale "en_US".
Build halted with errors (fcsh).

I looked at several blogs and forums and the only thing I found was that I could not add parameters to fdbuild, but I could use the @mxmlc tag instead.

So I added this line to my application's mxml:

Using the QuickBuild option (Ctrl + F8) I was able to compile my code with localization.
So, once I had my code compiling and running, I changed every hardcoded label for the proper key:

Now, lets give the users the options to change the language:

For more information about this, please refer to the Adobe documentation at http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flex_3:Feature_Introductions:_Runtime_Localization

And this is the result.

Update: you can also use this way of localizing a flex application.

My very first serious casual game: Mathix - Successions

2009-10-08T13:39:00.001-03:00

Hi, I'm here to introduce Mathix - Successions.
This is a game where you have to find the missing number in mathematic succession.

I am currently working on a few things to be able to publish it on minijuegos.com
I hope you like it!

Start up

2009-10-08T13:32:00.000-03:00

As everytime someone's starts something new, I'm very excited about this blog.
here I will try to tell people about my experience developing, promoting and monetizing flash casual games.
I hope you enjoy the reading.
Please leave me your comments!