As many of you know and have already read, a large group of us headed out to Seattle to attend Casual Connect a week and a half ago, and we had a grand old time with those of you who could make it! Maya posted the full re-cap here of all of our events and festivities. The most rewarding part, personally, was the opportunity to hang out and have great conversations with MochiAds community members while we were there – Alex (axcho), Dave (critters), Ira (oml2008), Jon (johnhattan), Miles (pixeljamgames), Paul (preecep), Zach (innercircus), Chris (ch00se) from FGL, as well as the Nonoba team (benjaminsen) and many more.

Making Money Off Casual Games: The Pain Free Way

At the conference, I spoke about the many opportunities available for web game developers to monetize their games, as well as the opportunities and challenges for distributing them. I also included some data on the numbers that many developers are seeing in the marketplace, as well as case studies of successful Flash developers. The slides are below, and I’ll link the audio when it becomes available.

Here are some thoughts/take-aways from the talk.

Big Opportunities Are Out There: The web gaming industry is growing at a rapid pace, and prices and quality are going up with it. Sponsorships that used to cost $100s in the past are netting developers thousands, and in some cases $30,000+. This is a great time to be in the market.

Build Recurring Revenue Streams: A savvy developer should focus on building recurring, and un-capped revenue streams. The most successful developers that we see out there have managed to quit their day-jobs rely on building a portfolio of games, and making a little bit from each on a recurring basis, from sources like web-page advertisements and MochiAds. Building your own website and putting ads on it is often the tipping point for establishing your own personal brand, as well one of the revenue streams that helps push developers from hobbyist to full-time developer.

Feel Free to Experiment: New models for monetization and distribution are emerging every day. Don’t be afraid to experiment (and if you do – tell us about it!). Using MochiAds or building your own website and putting ads on it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t get a sponsorship or license, or negotiate for performance payouts if your game reaches a certain number of plays. Layer these ideas on and build a portfolio of many games that each pay you a little bit each month.

Enjoy! And feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions or comments.