Where we are today

Over the past three years, we have been working hard to improve in-game ads monetization for not only US and UK based audiences, but for other global markets as well. During that time we’ve developed partnerships in strategic regions, ranging from Canada to Western Europe to China, to better monetize our Mochi Ads inventory (and therefore, developer revenues in these markets). The net result is that we’ve been able to grow our global net eCPM by 177% since January 2009. But we still have more that we want to do…

Where the market is going

Online Video is HOT! According to a recent study by eMarketer, online advertisers will be increasing their budgets for online video ads 400% by 2015. Currently, online video takes up 63% of advertisers’ online budgets. Online video is also eating into more traditional TV ad budgets. The percentage of online, as a percentage of both TV and online, is expected to increase 46% by 2015- in other words, the bites online video is taking from TV will keep getting bigger. Why am I mentioning all of this? Because Mochi Media already has a premium ad product that shows video ads, so we are in a good spot.

The online ads market has been growing in size and evolving in complexity. New industry standards, such as VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) and VPAID (Video Player Ad Interface Definition), are helping bring uniformity and greater flexibility to the marketplace. Those who cannot support these new standards are not being considered as highly by advertisers & marketers for their future ad buys.

Where we’re going

In order to stay competitive and to continue to increase revenue for developers and publishers, we’ve worked to adopt these new technologies (VAST and VPAID). These standards help us grab more deals at better rates, because it unlocks more inventory and gives advertisers more flexibility as well as better reporting. We’re also pursuing partnerships with market leaders in strategic regions to better monetize global traffic. In fact, we have just created a strategic partnership to focus on selling Mochi Ads in Brazil! Other markets of interest for us include the Far East and Eastern Europe.
As we continue on in 2012, Mochi is redoubling its efforts to get back to our ‘core’ business: ad-serving and distribution. We’re confident that both developers and partners will benefit from this renewed focus from Mochi Media.

Thank you for reading my post. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or suggestions.

- Joe

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FGS 2012 Advisory Board Interview Series

This is part five in a series of interviews of the Flash Gaming Summit 2012 Advisory Board. This is your chance to get to know the folks who determine the content of Flash Gaming Summit, getting their thoughts on both the conference and the games industry in general. This week’s Advisory Board interview features Chris Benjaminsen, co-founder of PlayerScale.

For more information on Flash Gaming Summit, including passes, speaking, or award show information please visit the conference website.

Introduce yourself- who are you, how big is your team, and how do you participate in the Flash games industry?

Hi, I’m Chris Benjaminsen, one of the founders of PlayerScale, a company providing hosted Services and API’s for large publishers and game studios. We also allow indie developers to use our tools via Player.IO.

What did you do before?

Before founding PlayerScale I helped found the flash games community Nonoba.

How did you first get into the Flash games industry? Tell us about your path.

Before PlayerScale and Nonoba we ran a production agency called BeIT for several years. BeIT focused on producing realtime multiplayer and social games for clients.

What drove you to create Player.IO, and now PlayScale?

PlayerScale and the Player.IO tools is build on a love for making games. The services and API’s we now offer all started out as our internal tools used to build our own games.  Today we choose what new services and features to create based purely on popular demand by our developers. Our started goals is to empower developers.

What has been your single biggest challenge in the Flash games industry? How does it compare to the types of challenges you face today?

The single biggest challenge we have had to overcome was simply making money from flash games. Historically almost all of the revenue in the Flash games industry has been in the hands of the portals, making it almost impossible for developers to do more than minor hobby projects.

What has been your proudest moment since joining the Flash gaming community?

My proudest moment where seeing the success of Kyle Champ’s game Shell Shock Live. Kyle where the first of many indie developers that are now making a living purely from their Player.IO powered games.

What is it that you love the MOST about the Flash games industry?

The amount of creativity. I am blown away by the amount of new cool ideas and games created by the developers. It’s no surprise to me that many of the old flash games can now be played on Mobiles, Consoles etc.

What do you like the least?

Seeing developers have to give up their dream of making games. Typically because they where unable to make a living doing so.

How has the industry changed since you fist joined?

When we first started out there where hardly an industry, anybody who could make a reasonably good game would be guaranteed an almost endless amount of traffic. Today the shear volume of new content makes it very hard for developers to create a hit title.

How do you think Flash game developers are “Maximizing their games” today? What could they be doing better / differently?

We are finally seeing developers taking control of their games. Developers today are much more aware of the value of what they create.

Where do you see the Flash games industry going? What’s in store for the future?

I see the industry growing beyond flash and flash portals. HTML5, Mobile & Facebook has forever changed the market for the better.

What part of Flash Gaming Summit do you most enjoy or look forward to?

Meeting developers, studios and portals. Always great fun.

In your opinion, why should people come out to FGS 2012? What should they expect?

Come to FGS to meet more creative game developers than you could anywhere else.

Thanks Chris, see you at FGS 2012!

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FGS 2012 Advisory Board Interview Series

This is part four in a series of interviews of the Flash Gaming Summit 2012 Advisory Board. This is your chance to get to know the folks who determine the content of Flash Gaming Summit, getting their thoughts on both the conference and the games industry in general. This week’s Advisory Board interview features Simon Lachance, co-founder of Berzerk Studio. Berzerk Studio is a highly successful game studio creating games for both online and mobile platforms.

For more information on Flash Gaming Summit, including passes, speaking, or award show nomination information please visit the conference website.

Introduce yourself- who are you, how big is your team, and how do you participate in the Flash games industry?

I’m Simon Lachance, co-founder of Berzerk Studio.  We’re a team of 7, (3 coders, 3 artists, 1 Game designer/Artist) making Flash games since the end of 2008. We have made over ten games up to this point, and recently launched our own Flash games portal.

What did you do before?

We, the 3 co-founders of Berzerk Studio, were working at the same Flash game company.  We always had the dream to start on our own, make games that we like and create a cool brand.  So we decided to quit our jobs and go full indie.

How did you first get into the Flash games industry? Tell us about your path.

As mentioned above, we were already working for another Flash Games company before Berzerk Studio.  That’s where we learned how to make a game from scratch.  After we founded Berzerk Studio, I was looking up “how to sell games” on the Internet (how to make a living out of it).  Our very first idea was to make a game on XNA and publish it on Xbox.  We had done a prototype of a Flash game ported on XNA that worked very well,  but we decided that it would have been too risky to start among the big ones.  Our strength was Flash games, and the XNA prototype would have taken too much time to make.

So back then, we did something hard but necessary-  we threw the 6-months-production-XNA-prototype in the garbage, and started another smaller game for the Flash market.  Our strategy was to create small but high quality games for the Flash market, build a reputation, a fanbase, and a brand to be able to sell on future console games.   That’s when we found Flash Game License (FGL).  Chris Hughes saw our prototype and contacted us, since then they really helped us monetize our games. You should really go see these guys if you want to know more on how to sell games and live from it.

What has been your proudest moment since joining the Flash gaming community?

It was when I went to Flash Gaming Summit (FGS) 2011. I’ve met a lot of cool people there- developers, publishers, portal owner etc. We exchanged a lot of great information on the games business. But the proudest moment was when I discovered that half of the people I’ve met knew Berzerk Studio and the Berzerk brand. There were literally people making the Berzerker’s scream from our intro in front of me saying “That’s the best intro ever!” I have never been so proud of our team.

What was the biggest challenge for Berzerk Studio in the early going? How does that compare to the challenges you face today?

I’d say the biggest challenge is monetizing your games. We knew how to make games, but to monetize them was something we had to learn. You have to make decisions when producing the games to make sure they sell well. The biggest challenge when you’re alone with no money to make a living, is time. You always have to scope small to make more games instead of risking to make a big game that won’t sell. Sometimes you have a really cool idea, but the time needed to create it is too long so you just have to leave it or save it for the sequel.

Describe the climate as a game developer today in terms of technology and monetization opportunity. How does it compare to being a game developer 2-3 years ago?

The biggest difference now is that you can think of porting your games on the mobile market.  The mobile market is way bigger than it was 2-3 years ago,  so it’s always best to think of a game that can be ported on the mobile market if the game does well on the web.  We chose Unity to port our games on iPhone and Android, which is a very strong technology that allows us now to port any of our games in 4 days.

What is it that you love the MOST about the Flash games industry?

It’s a very fast market.  You need to pump out games quickly, and it’s fairly easy to make a game that’ll be played millions of times all around the world.  It’s a very strong distribution tool for your brand.  An average Berzerk game gets 8-12 million plays,  sometimes 25 million.  That’s a lot of people that are exposed to your brand.

What do you like the least?

I’d say that it’s hard to make everybody happy.  Some players will want to tear it down, saying bad things about it. If your game is good,  people will ask for a sequel, NOW. If it’s bad, you’ll get tons of angry emails telling you what you did wrong.

How has the industry changed since you fist joined?

It’s pretty much the same.  You need a sponsor to distribute your games, it goes on thousands of portals and you start again. As said earlier, the biggest difference now for us is that we try to reach the mobile games market for games that worked well on web.

The theme for FGS 2012 is “Maximize Your Game”. How do you think Flash game developers are maximizing their games today? What could they be doing better / differently?

There’s a lot of ways to monetize your games.  Micro-transactions are one of them,  but knowing what and when to sell is a science. It’s important not to piss people off before they even play the game.  We have also found that translating our games in many languages is a really good thing to do, so you can reach new local markets.

Where do you see the Flash games industry going? What’s in store for the future?

Free small games will always be there.  It’s a great distribution tool for ads or showcasing your brand. I can’t see it going away anytime soon. Although, with Stage3D and the mobile market growing up, Flash games might finally have an impact on the mobile market.

What part of Flash Gaming Summit do you enjoy or look forward to the most?

Meeting people! Shaking hands and discussing business is my #1 plan at FGS.  If I have time, I’d also want to hop on stage to share my experiences, but there’s so many things going on here at Berzerk that I may not be able to!

In your opinion, why should people come out to FGS 2012? What should they expect?

“Maximize your games” pretty much sums it up.  Increasing revenue for each of your games is what you want, if you want to make games full-time and continue improving your games.

Thanks Simon, see you at FGS 2012!

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FGS 2012 Advisory Board Interview Series

This is part three in a series of interviews of the Flash Gaming Summit 2012 Advisory Board. This is your chance to get to know the folks who determine the content of Flash Gaming Summit, getting their thoughts on both the conference and the games industry in general. This week’s Advisory Board interview features Jakub Dvorský, founder of Amanita Design. In case you have been living under a rock, their game Machinarium has been a huge success on iTunes, specifically hitting #1 on the iPad. Machinarium was also a Mochis Award Show winner at FGS 2010 (Best Game Art category).

For more information on Flash Gaming Summit, including passes, speaking, or award show nomination information please visit the conference website.

Introduce yourself- who are you, how big is your team, and how do you participate in the Flash games industry?

My name is Jakub Dvorský, I’m visual artist and game designer. In 2003 I founded the studio Amanita Design, which is now nine employees strong. We are focused mostly on developing independent games (built in Flash) but sometimes also on other projects like films, music videos or some experimental stuff.

What did you do before? How did you first get into the Flash games industry? Tell us about your path.

I grew up on 8bit computers and started making my own games when I was 15 on my first PC, I was in grammar school at that time. Later I went to the Academy of Arts in Prague to study animated film. When I was finishing the academy I created my first Flash game (Samorost) as my thesis project and later the same year founded Amanita Design.

What has been your proudest moment since joining the Flash gaming community?

I’m most proud of assembling our team – a bunch of great friends, professionals and passionate creators.

What was your biggest challenge early on with Amanita Design? How does that compare to the types of challenges you face today?

When I started making Flash games I was alone so the biggest challenge was programming – I was doing it myself which was very tough for me even on a basic level, my head is just chaotic for this kind of work. Nowadays we have a couple of excellent programmers so the biggest challenge is probably game design, more specifically how to make a game entertaining, challenging, accessible, new and original.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for game developers who are trying to make a multi-platform “hit” game? What should they be focused on?

The game must definitely be fresh, distinctive and original and at the same time perfectly executed and polished. Sounds easy right? :)

What is it that you love the MOST about the Flash games industry?

It’s easy to create a simple game and publish it on the web or as an app, so any idea can be quickly transformed into a real game and can be played by thousands of people all around the world. This is really  great because you can immediately see if it works or not and you can also improve your game according to the feedback you get from your players.

What do you like the least?

The bugs in Flash.

How has the industry changed since you fist joined?

The whole scene has changed, it was a completely different world when I started with Flash games. When I was searching the web for interesting interactive stuff, there were just a few really good websites and only a couple of games worth mentioning, nowadays there are tens of thousands of games, experimental interactive projects, art projects, websites and portals.

The theme for FGS 2012 is “Maximize Your Game”. How do you think Flash game developers are maximizing their games today? What could they be doing better / differently?

I’ll be repeating myself but I think the developers should try to be more original and brave, they should experiment more with art, game mechanics, narrative approaches and with the whole medium which is still unexplored and waiting for young adventurers who wants to create something really new.

Where do you see the Flash games industry going? What’s in store for the future?

A more interesting question to to me is “where is the games industry is going”? I think the future of the games industry is extremely bright because the medium will be broader and more serious in many ways. I see really big potential for creative people from various disciplines from artists, writers, designers and musicians to programmers and engineers.

What part of Flash Gaming Summit do you enjoy or look forward to the most?

The best part of almost every game conference or festival is always meeting other developers and players in person.

In your opinion, why should people come out to FGS 2012? What should they expect from the conference?

Similarly to my previous answer answer, the most valuable part of conferences for me is meeting some interesting people in person. It’s sometimes much more influential than weeks of reading, surfing or watching videos on the web.

Thanks for your thoughts and insights Jakub, see you at FGS 2012!!

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FGS 2012 Advisory Board Interview Series

This is part two in a series of interviews of the Flash Gaming Summit 2012 Advisory Board. This is your chance to get to know the folks who determine the content of Flash Gaming Summit, getting their thoughts on both the conference and the games industry in general. This week’s Advisory Board interview features Daniel McNeely, CEO, Armor Games.

For more information on Flash Gaming Summit, including passes, speaking, or award show information please visit the conference website.

Introduce yourself- who are you, how big is your team, and how do you participate in the Flash games industry?

My name is Daniel and I help run Armor Games with a bunch of talented indie developers. Our main team consists of 11 people.

What did you do before?

Before Armor Games I use to work in a cubicle for an online advertising company. It was a great experience and it taught me a lot about running an internet company. While in the cubicle I got addicted to several web games and decided to start a portal with a unique theme.

How did you first get into the Flash games industry? Tell us about your path.

I got introduced to many talented developers through the oldest and coolest portal around; Newgrounds. Through interacting with the developers, I found a community of people who were passionate about gaming and it inspired me to find ways we could partner together.

What was the biggest challenge for Armor Games in the early going? How does that compare to the types of challenges you face today?

The biggest challenge early on was finding a reliable webhost and someone who could manage our servers. My background isn’t in database management so finding qualified people proved to be challenging. The biggest challenge faced today is adapting quickly to the changing landscape of gaming. (Social, HTML5, etc)

What is your process for determining content for ArmorGames.com?

We play the game and see if it we enjoy it.  :)

How do you determine which game developers to work with? Is it just the developers making the best games? Anything else?

We work with a variety of developers and are open to partnering with anyone who has a talent and passion for gaming.

What has been your proudest moment since joining the Flash gaming community?

Some of my proudest moments are seeing those around me succeed. I love seeing Fancy Pants on Xbox Live or Jmtb02′s ‘Achievement Unlocked’ featured on every gaming blog, or Joey and Con’s ‘Crush the Castle’ passing 500 Million plays. Being able to share these things with the coolest people I know, makes my life very rewarding and enjoyable.

What is it that you love the MOST about the Flash games industry?

I love meeting developers and seeing the unique things they create on the platform.

What do you like the least?

Not being able to work with every developer who approaches us. We have a limited budget so turning developers away is my least favorite part.

How has the industry changed since you fist joined?

There’s been a lot more competition and the landscape has changed with the introduction of Social Games, the App Store and HTML5.

The theme for FGS 2012 is “Maximize Your Game”. How do you think Flash game developers are maximizing their games today? What could they be doing better / differently?

They maximize their games by never sticking to the status quo. The games I see released get better and better each year.

Where do you see the Flash games industry going? What’s in store for the future?

I see the games industry continuing to grow. I think developers will become less dependent on a single platform as HMTL5 and other technologies emerge.

What part of Flash Gaming Summit do you enjoy or look forward to the most?

Meeting indie developers.

In your opinion, why should people come out to FGS 2012? What should they expect?

To experience a community of people who are focused on making the world a more enjoyable place; one play at time.

Thanks for taking the time Daniel, see you at FGS 2012!

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FGS 2012 Advisory Board Interview Series

This is part one in a series of interviews of the Flash Gaming Summit 2012 Advisory Board. This is your chance to get to know the folks who determine the content of FGS, and hear their thoughts on both the conference and the games industry in general. This week’s Advisory Board interview features Carl Trelfa, Co-founder of thePodge.

For more information on Flash Gaming Summit, including passes, speaking, or award show information please visit the conference website.

Introduce yourself- who are you, how big is your team, and how do you participate in the Flash games industry?

Hi, my name is Carl Trelfa, chief Code Monkey at thePodge.  Our team consists of 3 people: Me, Jim and Sarah – we’re good friends and have been for years.  We make games!

What did you do before?

Over the years I’ve done a lot of jobs – most of them not worth mentioning, but immediately prior to setting up thePodge, I worked for a couple of Flash Games development companies – most notably Nitrome, where I worked for about a year.  Before that I worked for a web development agency and also worked on some freelance projects.  Jim and Sarah both have worked freelance in the past as well.  None of us like working for other people!

How did you first get into the Flash games industry? Tell us about your path.

I’ve always been into making games, since I was a kid – I taught myself to code when I was pretty young.  About 10 or so years ago, Jim and I set up a business where we made online games using Java (way back before the industry had really got going properly).  We did OK, but we both ended up getting “proper” jobs.  I got really fed up of doing work that I felt wasn’t making use of my skill-set (you know, stuff like working in call centres, fixing people’s internet problems) and decided to give freelancing a go.  I was pretty late into Flash to be honest, my first sponsored game was Extreme Sketch-Pak way back in 2007 – sponsored by Bubblebox followed by 3D Super Snowboarder and Santa Caught Christmas. Next I decided to make a Flash games portal, www.ussgames.com, which helped bag me the job at Fish In A Bottle (with thanks also to RobotJAM for that!).  I then came to realise that web design wasn’t really my thing. I really wanted to get into making Flash games full-time, and that’s when I saw that Nitrome was looking for coders – so I applied and spent a year there.  While working at Nitrome I kept in touch with my old friend Jim and we decided to make another Flash games web site, www.gamebods.com. The goal was to give this a nicer design than USSgames, and we would concentrate on having higher quality games as well as keeping our users (check it out – you can earn points and build your own Bod, which serves as your site-wide avatar!).  After a while I felt I was just scraping by (living in London is expensive!). As much as I loved working at Nitrome, I always wanted to work for myself- so Jim, Sarah and I decided we’d go ahead and set up our own game dev company…and here we are now, almost 2 years on!

Why did you decide to form thePodge? How did you guys find each other?

I think I pretty much covered this already in my previous answers, although I should add that Jim is a really great graphic artist and Sarah’s character design is awesome, so we thought between us we’d make a good team.

What challenges did you encounter going from a solo developer to working in a team? Do you have any advice for developers who are thinking of making a similar decision?

I don’t really think there were any challenges to be honest.  My art and graphics are not great so I tend to prefer working with an artist – if anything it means we can work on bigger projects.  If I were pressed to name a challenge, it might be trying to divide up the work effectively- the coder tends to become a bit of bottle neck towards the end of the project.

What is the single most difficult challenge facing game developers today?

I’d say making original games that are intuitive and also hold people’s attention.  You’ve got to be original, easy to play and interesting enough to hold the attention of people with 3 second attention spans.  Flash games are ten-a-penny to the average online player, if it doesn’t grab them immediately then they will go play something else.

Do you have any advice for developers who want to form a small team?

Just go for it.  It’s hard to give up the security of a full-time job, but there is nothing more rewarding than working for yourself, doing something you love!

What has been your single biggest challenge in the Flash games industry? How does it compare to the types of challenges you face today?

Getting games sponsored is always a challenge.  The industry has changed since I first got in to it – the sponsorship model probably makes it easier for developers to make some money, but to be honest I’m not sure it’s the best model in terms of long term income.  Probably building up your own site is the best way to go, which is obviously a challenge in itself, but I think should lead to more long term benefits.

What has been your proudest moment since joining the Flash gaming community?

Probably winning a Mochi Award with Inferno Meltdown last year.  We were not expecting that!

What is it that you love the MOST about the Flash games industry?

Making creative and original games.

What do you like the least?

Silly comments on games.  Sometimes we get people saying we should do things in our game that are already there and often the players don’t consider what would happen if we implemented their idea – some of them are just downright silly and would completely break the game or just make it so easy it wouldn’t be worth playing!  It’s impossible to please all the people all the time…although, to be fair we get a lot of very good comments as well and really good suggestions – a lot of which have made it into City Siege 3.

How has the industry changed since you first joined?

Companies like Mochi appeared and gave us in-game advertising!  Now anybody can make some money from their games.

How do you think Flash game developers are “Maximizing their games” today? What could they be doing better / differently?

I see a lot of Devs these days with splash screens at the start of their games, which in my mind is essential – everybody can make their branding more visible in their games.  We’re currently looking into ways to encourage click-throughs to our site, people signing up for our mailing list (which you can do within our games) and keeping them playing.  How do you get somebody to carry on playing the game even if they have already played all the way through?  We have an answer – in one of our latest games, Firebug, you actually earn a Golden Jellybean every time you complete a level perfectly which you can then spend on silly things like hats for the bug, alternate skins, tilesets, backdrops, and all that stuff.  We also offer a 5 bean incentive to click through to our site and a 10 bean incentive to sign up to our mailing list.  A lot of iPhone games work in a similar way – just look at Jetpack Joyride, it’s literally the same 30 seconds of gameplay over and over, the main incentive to carry on playing is to collect the coins and buy a new jetpack and the new jetpacks are purely cosmetic! Firebug is coming out very soon, look for it on our website!

Where do you see the Flash games industry going? What’s in store for the future?

That’s a bit of touchy subject with Adobe dropping the mobile browser plugin, but I see that as a positive – if players can’t just play our games in their browser, then they have to buy them in the app store, which is a good thing.  I’ve personally never missed not having Flash on my iPhone!  I think we’ll see a lot of 3D games soon – I might add that a lot of them will be rubbish, 3D doesn’t make a good game.  Hopefully we’ll see some good 2D/3D cross over type games (Paper Mario style, maybe or just interesting effects like in K.O.L.M.) and some amazing stuff using Molehill to accelerate 2D games.

What part of Flash Gaming Summit do you most enjoy or look forward to?

I think maybe the Mochi Award Show, but I’m sure there will be some very interesting speakers as well.

In your opinion, why should people come out to FGS 2012? What should they expect?

Well the theme is Maximize Your Game, so I think any developer has something to gain from going.  We all need to maximize our income and generally get the most from our games.

Thanks for taking the time to chat Carl, this is great insight (and I’m looking forward to playing Firebug!). For more info on FGS 2012, please visit the conference website.

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Don’t miss your chance to connect with today’s most influential social media leaders at Socialize: Monetizing Social Media – West, October 20-21 in San Francisco. This two-day, four-track event gathers social media enthusiasts for comprehensive sessions, focused discussions, and diverse perspectives on gaming, mobile, marketing, media, and all things social!

The Socialize: Monetizing Social Media program features over 80 speakers including Owais Farooqui (Atari), Vivian Rosenthal (Goldrun), Chris Cunningham (appssavvy), and Megan Berry (Klout). They’ll be covering a wide range of social media topics and will be there to answer all of your questions. Gaming sessions include:

• Small and Medium Social Games Developers: Strategies for Success
• Building a Successful Social Games Distribution Strategy: Facebook and Beyond
• Mobile Gaming: The Next Stage of App Monetization
• Social Media’s “Wedding of the Century”: Online Video Advertising and Social Games
• Measuring the Health of Your Virtual Economy
• Social Games 2015: Where to now?

View the full program here.

Act Now! Mochi Media readers save 15% off of Gold Passports by using the code SZMOCHI. Register now for best rates.

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2011. | Permalink | One comment

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What Is Mochi London?

Mochi London has been held for 3 consecutive years now as a community-driven Flash game developer meetup averaging 8-12 attendees, and has traditionally resulted in open conversations with regards to Flash game development. Ernesto Quezada and myself have been to every single one, with Ernesto serving as the organizer the past two years. Well things changed in 2011 after Ernesto and I had a little conversation- we wanted this year to be bigger and better than before!

Who Are We?

I’ll start off with myself! My name is Chris Jeffrey, I’m a Games Developer based in the United Kingdom. I primarily develop on the Flash platform, however as of late I’ve also started porting games over to iOS & Android platforms as well. I’ve been using Flash for around 5 years in total and developed games casually for approximately 3 of those years.

However! More recently I’ve actually made a bold move and actually left my job to go full-time indie, so I’m really looking forward to having the chance to devote all of my time to development. Apparently the content I throw out can be somewhat successful, ranging from 4-8m impressions in their life cycle, but if you want to know more and hear me blabber on, head over to chris-jeff.com, where I dribble in the form of blog posts! You can also find me on Twitter.

Ernesto Quezada is a Games Developer/Publisher from El Salvador. He started using Flash in version 4 back in the late 90′s. In 2002 he moved to London. After learning a bit of English, in 2005 he went on to get his Masters degree in Digital Media at the London Metropolitan University. Even though he’s been working professionally as a Flash developer since 2006, his graphic design background still stops him from moving completely to the dark side so he’s still a bit scared of the command line which, anyway, he uses at work on a daily basis. He’s created about 30 games in the past 10 years (and has drank a lot of tequila on the way…). Check out his portal over at games-garden.com.

First meet up in 2008

Why London?

Exactly! It’s what I ask myself. Personally, Mochi Newcastle seemed much more appealing (I live in Newcastle). Honestly though London is a great place and we thought it would be a more convenient location for the majority of people, plus it has the added tourist incentive for people to see the sights and such. Previous Mochi London meetups have generally been with developers in and around the London area, so we didn’t feel a need for our 4th event to be anywhere else!

The Venue

Ernesto, the London local (and official Mochi London tour guide) received a really good tip on this one. After he checked it out and shared pictures of it with the rest of us, we knew right away that this was the right place. Plus, the venue itself was relatively close to a tube station and a pub. Perfect, right? The inside was just right for the crowd we’d anticipated, it seated everyone pretty comfortably without people being too cramped or too spread out. Kings College London also catered the event, which meant that we didn’t have to get catering from another vendor.

So a big thanks to Mochi with helping us out with the venue, food, & beverages for the event! :)

The line for lunch! Nom.

First Steps

We started to discuss potential ideas of ramping up the meetup and getting it to a level where we could potentially attract more attendees than just the regular handful. We toyed with the idea of getting sponsors and going down that route of making it more of an official conference than just a meet up, but that whole idea didn’t really appeal to us, we wanted a more official meet up, however still cater to the whole idea of it being by developers for developers. We settled on the idea that it would be best to get Mochi Media directly involved, especially since this was coming directly from their community! However, we still wanted to keep the whole conference style and not just sitting in a pub, so we threw ideas around about getting a venue and speakers and making a whole day out of it.
We were moving in a different direction from the typical meetups, a direction that I was really excited about! That said, we still liked the idea of our pub meetup (Being from Newcastle I guess maybe?) So we ended up including the pub portion as well and made it a two day event to keep with Mochi London tradition.

Merlin Gore - Importance of personal branding - As you can see, I'm all branded, Huzah!

Speakers

Once we had the idea locked down, it was time to get the event pumped with solid content that would get the Flash games community excited about the event! For some, this can be a pretty daunting and time consuming experience- trying to get quality speakers with content people actually want is no easy task. My approach: I kept it real simple and just thought of what I’d want to hear! Sounds a little egocentric, but I’m an indie developer and I know exactly what I’d want to hear and from who- so why not get them to speak!? Makes sense, right?

Day 1 schedule! - Look how far we've come!

We ended up with a pretty strong line up of speakers, with content that covers a wide variety of topics within the Flash games industry. Perfect in my eyes!

• Iain Lobb (freelance Flash / ActionScript developer)
• Stuart Allen (creator of Gravitee Wars)
• Martine Spaans (Ubisoft, formerly of SPIL Games)
• Michael Hudson & Steven Gurevitz (CodeHeads / 2002 studios)
• Merlin Gore (Flash developer, FlashGameLicense.com)
• Mike Jones (Platform Evangelist, Adobe Systems)
• Colin Cupp & Ryan Nichols (Mochi Media)

Day of the Event!

A few of us kicked off the day a little earlier in order to get set up and also to ensure that everything was in proper working order. Registration opened at 9:00am and it wasn’t long after that when we started to see people arrive! Personally I felt really great when people started flooding in, as beating 8 attendees for a community event is a milestone for Mochi London ;). And they didn’t stop- we ended up with about 50+ people eager for the antics that the day would bring, in the form of presentations of course.

Mochi London 2011 - All the happy faces :)

I honestly feel the day couldn’t have gone any better, unless we actually went to Nando’s afterwards (inside joke and my personal obsession)!! All the speakers were started on-time and covered their topics extremely well. Questions were asked by engaged attendees, and they received some really in-depth responses. There were moments when the conversation moved from the presenters out to the audience, which was exactly the type of attendee interaction we were hoping for. Overall, the whole day was really informative and went exactly to plan (minus Nando’s, not fair!).

Day Two

The day that consisted of drinks and random chats about Flash game development, experiences and stat sharing! Exactly what Mochi London started off as, so this couldn’t go wrong at all! We totally kept up with tradition and met up at the Montagu Pyke pub which is where the first meet up was held! It’s a nice, open venue with a solid Sunday roast…and it’s reasonably priced!

We met up at 8pm and finished at around 10:30pm, then  went on the hunt for food! Of course, I suggested Nando’s (As always!), however we missed it by around 5 minutes, I’m not sure what I’ve done, but karma wasn’t on my side for that day! Or the day before…

Closing Thoughts

I personally thought the whole event went to plan- in fact, it couldn’t have gone any better as far as I’m concerned! This was a great step for Mochi London. We’re definitely going to be preparing for Mochi London 2012 due to the popularity of this year’s event! My hope is to be able to take it up another notch with more quality speakers who have a strong presence in the Flash games industry, as well as keeping the event as fun and informative as possible. In the end, Mochi London is all about the community.

So on that note, Mochi London 2012 anyone?!

Robinson and his heroic efforts at manning the reception booth, thanks Robinson!

I’d love to hear thoughts and ideas for next year, we want to make it even better! Feel free to contact me!

I’d also like to thank everyone involved in making Mochi London 2011 what is was on the day! From the Mochi Media team, to the speakers, and most importantly to the attendees who turned up- thanks everyone!

Presentations? We Have Presentations!

Check out the presentation slides from the speakers of Mochi London 2011

Mobile Gaming: Is It The Future? by Michael Hudson and Steven Gurevitz

View more presentations from mochimedia

Gravitee Wars Post Mortem by Stuart Allen of FunkyPear

View more presentations from mochimedia

Player Behaviour by Martine Spaans

View more presentations from mochimedia

Game Design for Game Developers by Iain Lobb

View more presentations from mochimedia

The Importance of Personal Branding by Merlin Gore

View more presentations from mochimedia

What's New At Mochi! by Colin Cupp and Ryan Nichols

View more presentations from mochimedia

Mochi London 2011

View more presentations from Mike Jones

Pictures!

Check out the pictures on Mochi’s phototstream to see pictures taken throughout the weekend!

Videos

I’ll be sharing the videos of the speakers in a later post as we’ve got to get all the footage in one place and edit a bit (as it’s recorded from a tablet). So keep an eye out! :)

 
Thanks for reading!

© ChrisJeff for MochiLand, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments

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The Mochi community event “All About Ads” has come and gone, thanks to everyone for stopping by! We hope it was informational, if not at least a little bit entertaining. If you missed it don’t worry- we have some wrap-up information for you! You can watch the recorded presentation, check out the questions from attendees, and/or view the slides below. Enjoy!

Watch The Recorded Event

Click here to watch the recorded session!

Supplemental Materials

• Ad terminology definitions
• Sales process chart

Post-Presentation Questions (answered in the recording)

These questions were asked, and answered, at the end of the presentation:

• TV is separated in different segments in this chart as opposed to internet, doesn’t that create an unfair comparison?
• How big was the impact of refusing low quality ads on revenue?
• What about ad revenue in INDIA?
• What is the minimum budget for advertising on the Mochi platform outside of the self-servce platform? Is there a video ad requirement?
• Is it possible to implement all Mochi ad products so that mochi can decide which one would be best for my game and disable some dynamically ?
• Do you have information about games that switched the ad type and how it impacted the revenue / players opinions ?
• Could you provide some information about AdBlock / NoScript and whether it makes sense to disable the game if the ad could not be displayed ? #2 Do you plan to allow LiveUpdates without Ad Integration ?
• Is it possible for a developer to refuse a required time limit ad?
• How can we take advantage of all Ad types?
• You mention hacking quite often, could you provide more information about incidents ?
• Any new formats planned for this year?
• Could you discuss what the differences are in terms of displaying ads across multiple mochi ad formats (pre-roll, interlevel, clickaway) for direct buyers vs self-serve? Are there any differences? Are self-serve only displayed in certain places? Is it all 100% randomized based on bid/ad buyer rates? Etc. If I’m currently running a campaign on self-serve, what is my benefit to moving to a direct buy campaign?

View The Slides

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments

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I am happy to announce the official release of the new Mochi Achievements API!

Mochi Achievements API Summary

Flash game developers can now implement a completely customizable achievements system in your games that is free, flexible, and easy to use. The Mochi Achievements API also gives developers the flexibility of 2 toaster sizes (toaster = achievements pop-up) and 9 toaster placement options so that your achievements system looks and feels the way you want it to.

Speaking of look and feel, there is no Mochi Media branding in the default UI, and we encourage developers to implement your own UI (using the Mochi Achievements calls) for a more seamless game integration. The default UI comes with an achievements list, toasters, and graphics for the locked and unlocked states of your achievements (but you can easily customize the “unlocked state” graphics in the default UI).

We have also included a points system (points related to the achievements, developer-determined) complete with progress bars. Your players can view their points and achievements progress as they’re earned/unlocked.

Who Should Use Mochi Achievements?

Developers:

• If you don’t have the time or desire to create your own achievements system, but would love to have a quality solution that gives you control.
• If you are looking for a solution you can completely customize, either with your own branding or even a sponsor’s branding- you can be as creative as you want to be.

Publishers:

• Take advantage of the Mochi Publisher Bridge for site-specific achievements, getting more value out of your community and your players.
• You can request that developers implement Mochi Achievements with your branding for sponsorships and site-locks.

Mochi Achievements Examples

Flying Candy, Papa’s Taco Mia!, big LITTLE plagiary 3, and Flood Runner 3 are all examples of games that are using Mochi Achievements in different ways to “achieve” the same goal. Check out the two example games below to see the contrast between the default UI and what can be done with a custom UI.

The first example is big LITTLE plagiary 3, which uses the default UI. The second game is Papa’s Taco Mia, which is using custom UI created by the developer along with the Mochi Achievements calls. Note that the default UI has no branding, while the customized UI can be made to look however you want it to (including sponsor branding).

big LITTLE plagiary 3 Achievements List (default UI)

big LITTLE plagiary 3: Achievement Unlocked (default UI)

Papa’s Taco Mia: Achievement Unlocked (developer customized UI)

Papa’s Taco Mia: Achievements List (developer customized UI)

What Makes A Good Achievement?

Most game creators would agree that achievements make games more engaging and encourage players to stick around (increase replays). But how do you know if you are making a good achievements system? Here are a few resources we thought were interesting on the subject:

• Extra Credits
• The Cake is not a lie, pt.1
• Achievements 101 by Greg McClanahan

Want to try it out? Here’s how!

1. Download the latest version of the Mochi API
2. Once you have the latest API, log in to your developer dashboard
3. Select the game to which you would like to add achievements
4. Select “Achievements” in the left-hand menu
5. You should now see the information to create and edit achievements.

This new tool is a direct result of the community giving us product feedback- you wanted it, we thought it made sense, so we made it. Let us know what other products and features you would like us to work on by visiting our product feedback forums.

Be sure to let us know what you think about Mochi Achievements- we want your feedback! :)

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments

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