It is not sufficient to be good at Flash, you need to actually work on a variety of other abilities and skills as well, and so the Flash developer has to contend with things such as the creation of graphics, sound files, music. Underpinning all of this is the need to have the patience to actually plod through the project to its ultimate conclusion.

In short, games are very demanding items and they require a significant amount of hard work and commitment to ensure that they are successfully fulfilled. Not only is there the skeleton of the program (which is the code itself) but there is also the multimedia as well, such as the graphics, the sound files.

Given that there is so many different assets and elements to play with, rushing into the code head first is not a very wise or sensible idea at all. Whenever I plan on creating a new Flash game I will always start at the same place: pen and paper. In this context, the pen truly is mightier than the sword as it is directly responsible for identifying the direction of the game. Drawing out and outlining your thoughts and ideas on paper is crucial as it will help focus your energies more clearly.

Once you have managed to create a design the next logical step in the process is to proceed onto the writing of the code and the development of the game. Please note that the emphasis here is solely upon making the game as functional as possible, rather than worrying about the added extras such as audio and screen loaders. In fact, audio is only included during this stage of production if it is absolutely necessary, otherwise it stays where it belongs.

Upon the successful completion of the mock up part of the development cycle, I will then proceed to the graphics and audio. Please note that the design stage will directly determine how smoothly (or conversely, difficult) this stage is. If you are scrupulous and organised when it comes to the design stage then you will have no problems during this stage and you can quickly skip through it comfortably.

I only start to add the fancy extras if I am totally satisfied that the remainder of the course has been duly finished. All the little extras which are attractive to the user are great for winning them over, but include them too early on in the process and you will make more work for yourself.

Reading through this article, hopefully you will have came to appreciate that yes, a Flash game takes a lot of time and energy. That said, you can make the process exponentially more easy to achieve and complete with a minimum of fuss if you remain organised and modulate the code. By breaking down the workload into multiple tasks you will be able to delegate work and achieve work more easily.

If you have never actually written a Flash game entirely from scratch then you may find it a far easier and indeed more productive option to simply alter some existing Flash game code as opposed to trying to create a full scale version of the thing by yourself.

You may feel a little put off by the sheer volume of work required and involved in the process of making a Flash game, however as that charming cliché goes, you only ever get out of it what you put in. The money and experience you will acquire is very significant indeed.

Now, the most obvious way of profiting from Flash games is to develop them for clients. The freelance sites such as Freelancer.com or ScriptLance have daily listings for client requiring Flash game development work, but if you’re already doing any kind of web design or development work then you probably already have clients you can pitch. Not only will you earn directly from the project, but by adding that game to your portfolio you’ll attract more clients in the future!

Sponsorship is another way to earn from Flash game development. A sponsorship deal involves adding a company’s branding and links to your game (which can be either exclusive or non-exclusive) in exchange for a fee. The amount you’ll earn will depend on your game, and the sponsor you find but these deals can be quite lucrative.  Why not take one of the Viral Flash Games, redesign or reskin it, add some of your own features and submit it for sponsorship!

In game advertising is another option. There are several advertising networks to choose from, and the largest by far is Mochimedia closely followed by HeyZap. By registering as a developer you are able to embed their advertising code into your games which not only generates revenue, but can also get you exposure by listing the game on their publisher network.  We already have a number of customers who have taken our games, modified them to make them unique, and then submitted them to the MochiMedia network.

You can also monetise your games by simply hosting them yourself, and displaying adverts on the same page. Banner adverts, Adsense blocks or affiliate promotions are all viable ways of monetising the traffic that a good Flash game will generate.  In fact this is how I got involved in Flash games in the first place.  I created a few simple games back in 2002 which I hosted on a little site I called Kwikgames.  The games were so popular I crashed the server, and got into a couple of computer magazines, and the rest as they say is history!

Recently several companies have introduced micro-payments and in-game currency. This allows players to buy upgrades and items, and is a new and fast growing way to monetise games. While this method is still in its infancy, I predict we’ll be seeing more and more of this in the near future.  You’ll need a really solid game with good reasons for people to be shelling out real world cash for your virtual products, but lots of developers are getting into this right now and it’s definitely a growing market!

Finally, for a well developed game there is the option of a commercial release. A number of Flash games have already been ported to PC and consoles, and with the backing of an invester or publisher this can be a way for a small time Flash developer to break into the mainstream games industry. Of course PC and console games are not the only commercial options though, the ever popular mobile phone market can be just as lucrative and with the release of Adobe Flash CS5 porting games to the iPhone will be easier than ever, making this a very viable option.  If you’re looking at this as a long term goal then the time to start learning and building your skills is NOW!  Pull apart our games and learn from the source code, or head over and read some of the Flash games tutorials at FlashGamesClassroom.com to start your journey towards being an accomplished games developer!

So as you can see, developing Flash games can be a great way of making a profit, either as a complete enterprise, or as part of an existing design or development business. If you’re new to game development then start by following game tutorials, or modifying existing game code and in time you could be writing the next blockbuster!

FLA – Flash game FLA files (*.fla) are the editable source files which you open and edit when you’re creating or modifying a Flash game (or any other Flash project!). They contain all of the graphics, audio and data used in the project and are uncompressed. These are the files you need if you want to rebrand a Flash game, or change the graphics, or make any other changes!

SWF – Often pronounced as swiff files (*.swf) these are the published and compressed game files which you actually put online for your visitors to play. They are compressed so they can be quickly downloaded, and so they are not editable. To create a SWF file you first need to open the FLA file in Flash, and then select Publish. This creates the compressed SWF game file ready for use online.

If you search online for free Flash games to add to your website it will be SWF files that you find. You can quickly and easily add these to your site for your visitors to play, but they will have the original developer’s or owner’s lgos and links in them, so effectively you’ll be advertising for them!

When you buy the Viral Flash Games pack you get the full FLA game files. That means you can change those links and logos, or the graphics, or the audio, or any other part of the game for that matter! You will of course get sample SWF files too, incase you want to quickly test the games, but it’s the FLA files which are of value. Don’t worry about not knowing how to edit them, because the video tutorials bundled with the games take you through that step by step!

I hope that answers the question clearly. There are some other file formats associated with Flash, such as AS files (Actionscript) but you don’t need to know about them and they are not needed for the games on this site.