Game Geek Speak

There are some interesting things brewing for Flash multiplayer (and monetization, but that’s another post).

I’ve noticed the rise of several hosted solutions that intend to make the creation of multiplayer Flash games simpler. I’m all about using middleware. I have no ego or hangups about parts of my game code being “not invented here.” I just want to solve the problems robustly and with as little effort as necessary so I can focus on the real meaningful parts, like gameplay.

Here are services I know of. These all host your game, manage the servers, and offer other services around that theme.

Nonoba

Nonoba provides a multiplayer API, and while they seem to have some nice features, I was less than impressed with their lack of responsiveness in the developer forums. With this kind of thing, customer service is at the top of the list for reasons I will go with one provider over another. I don’t want to hit a snag and be left hanging. Some might be turned off by the fact that your server code will need to be C# (but client is Flash).

iminlikewithyou (now called omgpop)

UPDATE: I’m not sure they offer an API anymore. If they do, they’re hiding it really well. I couldn’t find it on their site.
iminlikewithyou has a similar offering, where they host the servers and give you a simple API. It doesn’t seem like a bad service, but I’m not sure how tightly a game using their API would need to be integrated with their website (it’s also a social gaming site).

Whirled

Whirled has a multiplayer API, although the games must be tightly integrated with the site. I find this strangely appealing, maybe because I like Whirled and the idea of building a game specifically to fit into it seems like a unique kind of challenge and opportunity to make something different. I’m also a big fan of that rascal, Daniel James, so there’s a lot of trust inherent in working with the platform. And, shoot, they give away a pile of money every few months to the best new games.

come2play

Come2Play offers a beta API and server hosting, too. The Api is currently limited to 2 players, but apparently they plan to support unlimited players later. They also may put ads in your preloader, although you will get 50% of that revenue. Their angle seems to be making it easy to put your games on social websites like Facebook or MySpace.

Neutron/Photon

Exit Games’ Neutron and Photon are a pair of APIs/services which provide high level features like lobby, chat, and even billing infrastructure as well as UDP/TCP networking (obviously Flash won’t be using UDP but Unity could) and full hosting for games. This seems like a very promising service, and it’s got a pretty impressive client list.

I like this trend! It tends to force you to be reliant on the service provider, but it also sweeps a lot of barriers out of your way. For small games, this could be a real boon.

But the obvious downside is the vendor lock-in, and also Nonoba and iminlikewithyou force your games to display their chat sidebar/lobby. I really don’t like that, but, again, considering what you get and the price (free!), this isn’t a bad deal for certain types of games.

I would not launch anything too ambitious on these services, but I might actually give them a spin for experimentation’s sake. They could be great testbeds for learning lessons to apply to larger projects, things like community management, marketing, development cycles (launch and inevitable updates), etc.

So what similar services do you know of that I have missed? Leave a comment, and let me know!

So, it seems that there’s been a disturbance in the Force.

Amazon (mega online retailer that we all know and love) purchased Reflexive (small casual game publisher/developer), and they repriced all the games to about $10 a pop.

It seems that there are two camps now: one says that casual games should be $10 and remain simple and brief, while the other camp maintains that indie games are worth more because of their uniqueness and craftsmanship. The significance here is that not long ago, casual games were considered to be indie games (mostly). By any standard, if you are making downloadable games, this is news.

But what is really changing is the business models. “Try before you buy” has been the dominant choice for downloadable sales for many years. Clearly, that is not as cut and dried now.

We little people can’t compete with Amazon on price. And I firmly believe that we should not compete on price with anyone, ever. Lowering your prices is rarely the right thing to do when you need more income.

Competing on price only works for commodity goods. If you have to choose between toilet paper from company A and toilet paper from company B, well, usually you are looking at the price difference above all else. It’s folly to use that strategy for selling games–unless you are Amazon so that you can afford to eat the tiny margins and try to make it up on volume. But listen to what I’m saying!! Are we talking about rubber flanges for a sink drain or video games?! It’s suffocating my soul just to write about it.

So the real shift here isn’t about casual or indie games. It’s about sales models.

Luckily, I am not planning to use a single sales model for my future games, and I think that is something that even downloadable developers need to examine: you can’t compete on price if it’s of the “try and buy” model. Find other ways to monetize and give value to your customers that they can’t get from a big shop like Amazon. Sure, it might be cheaper there, but they won’t get one-to-one interaction with the developers or personal service or a “deluxe” version with extra features.

It’s kind of exciting to read about how others are interpreting these changes. What’s your take?