Anyone have any experience submitting games to Kongregate?

TheExAm

I've been learning Flash recently for the purpose of making a game, or more accurately porting an unfinished side-scrolling shoot-'em-up I made for a Java final project to ActionScript/Flash (ActionScript's syntactical similarity to Java helps loads), and I've been looking over Kongregate's submission policy, which so far seems like a pretty sweet deal. I put up a game, and make money depending on how popular it gets. What's not to like?

Well, I'm the wary type, and that means I'm looking for as many Kongregate success/horror stories as I can find. So, anyone submitted to Kongregate before, or have a friend who's done it? How much have you/they made off it?

Oh, and secondary question, if you've got any suggestions for fun gameplay mechanics or control improvements to my game (Java .jar version), feel free. I still need to flesh out the animations with some frames in between frames that are a bit too far apart, and change how the enemies are faced (right now they're actually puttering backwards if you pay attention to the relative movements). That's not including adding proper enemy ships of different types, adding real death animations and explosions, and stuff like that (painting animated sprites is HARD), powerups, and removing unnecessary features added to meet class project specifications. But I digress, right now I'm trying to get the controls nice and tight, and find ideas for future gameplay elements to implement after the extant parts are ported, because let's face it, it's a shitty, sparse game as is, which I spent more time painting the sprites for than coding. That's about it.

NotYou

Ok, let me explain how flash game developers make money. Generally, they make a game that they think will be popular, and then someone pays them to sponsor it. You undoubtedly see lots of games with the kongregate logo or the armor games logo or any number of logos popping up before you play. This isn't because those sites made the game, but because they paid to sponsor it. Besides paying for their logo, they probably also paid to have exclusive access to your game for a week or two.

I've attached a blog post from a website where you can auction your game off. It explains about how much money flash game developers made in 2009: http://www.flashgamelicense.com/blog/2010/01/looking-back-at-2009-trends-and-statistics/

Here is also a story from a VERY successful game developer and how he made money: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27924/InDepth_Behind_Flash_Game_SteamBirds_Revenue_Deals.php


Read both of those.

Now, as to your original question. Kongregate is a very developer friendly site and shares more profits with developers than almost anywhere else. However, the money you make off of ad revenue is pretty miniscule unless you're getting millions of hits a day.

Anyways, I feel like that's enough info to get you a better understanding of the whole she-bang.

TheExAm

Very useful info, thanks. I'm not counting on this for income at all, just curious about how much some people pull in.

Also, it looks like it might be a good idea to switch to ActionScript 3. Unfortunately, the Kongregate tutorial I'm following to get the basics focuses entirely on AS2.

Caelum Militis

If the Kongregate tutorial you're following is the Shootorial, here's a link to the profile of the person who put up the AS3.0 Shootorial.

TheExAm

Caelum Militis wrote: »

If the Kongregate tutorial you're following is the Shootorial, here's a link to the profile of the person who put up the AS3.0 Shootorial.

Oh awesome, thanks.