Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
views, or impressions, and the eCPM shows what that means in terms of your earnings. The
eCPM basically shows how well you're doing, rather than how much you've earned.
Viral Flash game developers learn very quickly the meaning of eCPM because the rates change
dramatically by region. For example, a viral game that is posted on a portal in the USA might get
a $.50 eCPM (that's 50 cents per mille), while the same game posted on a Chinese or South
American portal might get a $.01 eCPM. This is because the advertisers help set the eCPM rates,
and advertisers like to pay for the eyeballs that might buy their products. Since most of the
advertisers are in Western countries, Western portals will make you the best eCPM (at this point).
However, don't discount those other, non-Western portals. Players love games just as much on
those portals, and they are also more apt to pass around a viral game than some portals that give
you a better eCPM. Furthermore, some non-Western portals are accepting of game styles that
might not make it to the front pages of portals that pay high eCPM rates. For example, we have
found that very well made retro style shooters seem to be very popular in Asian countries, while
in some cases, racing games are all the rage in Eastern Europe. At the same time, zombie
games seem to be popular in North America. However, these are not rules, only guidelines. The
best idea is to look at any particular portal to see what types of games are popular so you will
know how it should be targeted.
The best and most universal system available for in-game ads in Flash games is Mochiads
created by Mochi Media (
http://www.mochiads.com
). Others, like CPMStar, exist as well, but we
will focus on Mochi for this discussion. These days, Mochiads are nearly as ubiquitous in viral
Flash games as Flash itself. It is also pretty well known that you don't necessarily make a ton of
money from in-game ads, as showed in our eCPM discussion. However, in some cases, the
money from ads is not the only reason for using them. Mochi Media offers many other services
such as usage tracking, high scores, encryption, distribution, versioning, and even micro
transactions using their Mochicoins system. We will touch on a few of these a bit later. Along with
Flash Game License (discussed in the next section,
www.mochiads.com
should be one of your first
stops when starting out in your viral Flash game career.
The best way to get started with Mochiads is to go to the site and create a developer account.
With your developer account, you add a game and get the specific code you need to insert an in-
game ad. In most cases, the code required is little more than a couple lines. We will demonstrate
Mochi ad integration a bit later in this chapter.
Along with in-game ads, Mochi Media offers a plethora of other services for Flash game
developers. Mochi High Scores allow you to add a robust, distributed high score system into your
games. Mochi Distribution will allow you to distribute your games through the Mochi Network of
portal partners, allows you to update your game on-the-fly without the need to send new versions
of the game to portals, and will also allow you encrypt your game while it is in their system.
Finally, Mochi Media has recently created Mochicoins their in-game microtransactions system.
Microtransactions
are a way to make money by charging players for things in your game (new
levels, new weapons, etc.). While Mochiads will take nearly any game submitted, Mochi Coins is
much more selective. However, if you do make a game that is good and lucky enough to be
included on Mochicoins, Mochi Media will prominently market it for you.
Obtaining licenses and sponsorships
We've been spending a lot of time telling you ways to get your game onto the screens of players
by using portals and ads both on the page and in the game, but there might be some very good
reasons why you do not want to do so right away. Why? Well,
unique
and
good
games are in high
