We chose Zombie Exploder by Javi Hernandez this week as the Flash Game Friday Winner!

We chose this game because it has great graphics, good game mechanics, and hey- its got zombies!  We will feature Zombie Exploder on the MochiGames homepage for the next week, as well as feature it in our publisher feed.  This is a really fun game and we suggest you give it a try- you’ll get hooked!  Congrats Javi!

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments

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Come Check Out A New Exhibit By SuperDeux

With work spanning toys to television, multi-media French artist Sebastien Roux aka SuperDeux’s kaleidoscopic expression makes its way to Kokoro Studio! SuperDeux creates works with unifying elements based on the simplicity of color and shape. Acting as catalyst, SuperDeux’s subversive commercial aesthetic carries borderline political messages while bridging urban aesthetic and commercial mediums. SuperDeux has set out to infilt…rate an over saturated market with the force of childhood fascination.

Sebastien Roux began experimenting with Flash animation and graphic design in the late 90’s. His work culminated in the form of superdeux.com, though Roux’s initiative was not originally intended for commercial use. Superdeux’s early work caught the eye of Pictoplasma, an online design catalogue considered to be the preeminent point of supply for advertising executives. Having recently relocated to San Francisco, California, Roux takes his previous fascinations with Flash media to new levels as Creative Director of mochimedia.com.

Several Superdeux designs are available in the form of toys, prints and t-shirts at kidrobot and other stores worldwide

To learn more about the artist please visit his website: http://www.superdeux.com/ or email him at : info@superdeux.com

“More” opens Thursday, September 2, 2010 from 7-10 pm at Kokoro Studio. The opening coincides with the monthly First Thursday Art event in San Francisco. The exhibition is also available for viewing during regular gallery hours, Tuesday – Saturday 1pm-7pm.

For more information about Kokoro Studio please contact info@kokorostudio.us/415.400.4110

kokoro studio
682 Geary St
San Francisco, CA 94102

kokorostudio.us

kokorostudio.tumblr.com

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As a result of our recent acquisition by Shanda Games (one of China’s largest gaming companies), Mochi Media is offering developers the opportunity to localize and translate your game for the China market.  With the help of our parent company we are offering this service at NO COST to the developer community.

Some background on the flash games market in China

The Chinese flash game portal space is dominated by sites such as 4399.com, 7k7k, and 2144.com.  Unfortunately, it is common practice in the Chinese market today to completely block all outbound links in games.  This includes the ability to click through on an ad, the “more games” link, and any other links you may have embedded in your game.  This is clearly a bad situation for flash game developers.

What We’re Doing

Mochi is offering developers free game translation services for the China market.  We see a significant opportunity in the Chinese market.  As you may see from your own Mochi analytics, your games generate lots of plays from Chinese sites, but these sites are largely blocking ads and all outbound links – so there is little, if any value being generated for developers today.  We want to change that by creating localized versions of these games and ensuring that they are not tampered or changed — and ultimately start making money for you as well as establishing your developer brand in China. Our China team is actively negotiating deals with the large portals.  We have recently completed agreements with 4399.com and 2144.com which will ONLY allow games coming from Mochi to retain their ads and outbound links.

Mochi’s Goal

We want your games to function in the same way in China as they do in the United States, and we are leveraging Shanda Games to help make sure this happens.  We want to legitimize the flash games space in China, offering games that have been localized and translated while protecting our developers’ IP and outbound links.  We see a great future in this market for flash games, and we want our developers to have the chance to start getting their games and their brands out there as soon as possible!

What You Get

You will get a FREE translated version of your game that will be distributed on the protected sites that Mochi has agreements with.  Your game will function correctly.  Your links and your ads will function in the same manner that they would for a game played in the U.S. Your games and your brand will get exposure to the Chinese market at a critical time…in Chinese!

What Mochi Is Asking In Return

In order to enforce YOUR rights as an intellectual property owner, we are asking developers to grant Mochi exclusive publishing rights to your translated game solely for the China market.  This gives Mochi the legal standing in China to go after sites and parties who seek to rip off, decompile or block links or ads within your game.  Mochi will enable advertising in your games and you will receive revenue share.

So What’s The Process?

We are expecting a large volume of game submissions for this program, so therefore ask that you please be patient as translation is a manual process.  That said, here is what you can expect in the simplest of terms:

1. You email us with a link to your game stating that you are interested in our translation services.
2. Once we get to your game (as we go through the “queue”), and deem it fit for translation, we will send you a letter of agreement to the terms and conditions of this free service.
3. You respond to the letter saying “Yes, I agree” and include a text file in either .txt or .xls formats with all the text from your game.  Include any images that may have embedded text, etc.
4. Once translation has been completed, we send you a file with the Chinese text that corresponds with the English version you originally sent (we will follow whatever logic system you create so that you know where the text is to be placed in your game).
5. You create a new version of your game, inserting the Chinese text instead of Enlgish.
6. You upload your new game in your developer account, and send us the link so that we can make sure everything looks okay. Do NOT mark your game for distribution until we tell you to do so.
7. Mochi publishes your game!

It’s THAT simple!

In Summary

We are offering to localize / translate your game for the China market at NO COST to you.  You will receive ads revenue and traffic back to your site via your embedded links for the effort.  All we ask in return is that you grant the Mochi China team the exclusive China-specific publishing rights for your game so that we can protect YOUR rights as an intellectual property owner.  You will still retain complete ownership of your game and the publishing rights are for China ONLY.  We are asking for these exclusive publishing rights as it helps us enforce the “allow ads and links” policies with sites who are currently blocking those links.

Ready to submit!?

If you would like to submit your game for translation, please send it to: translation [at] mochimedia.com

Q: What does the Mochi China team need to translate my game(s)?

A: All we need is a text file from you (.txt or .xls preferably), organized in a such a way that when you receive the translated text you will know where to implement the new text into your new version of your game.  How this is logically organized is completely up to you.

Q: What happens after I send Mochi my game text file?

A: After you provide us the txt/xls file of all the text in your game, we will send it to the translation team in China.  They will provide all of the Chinese equivalents of your text in a new file.  You will then replace existing text in your game with the translated text, leaving you the ability to customize and make sure everything fits the way you want it to.

Q: Will the Mochi China team just translate my game and keep my original design and style? They won’t do any changes inside game engine and ads showing engine (number of ads, liveupdate, preloader ad), right?

A: No design changes, JUST text.

Q: WiIl I have any control on this translated version in my Dashboard (for example ‘Chinese translation’ as new active game in my Dashboard panel)? What if they will do something wrong (for example broken link to my website)?

A: You will have FULL control over this version.  No links will break because we will only be supplying you text.  You can still publish your live updates no problem.

Q: How long would it take them to translate my game and publish it?

A: We can’t give you a guaranteed timeline. We ask that you submit your game and you will be placed in the queue for translation.  We’ll contact you if we require any other details or provide new information for you.

Q: I see big traffic numbers from Chinese sites in my dashboard reports, but it generates very little ad revenue compared to the number of ad requests (for example United Kingdom has less ad requests, but generates more than 10 times more money). Does it mean that people in China see ads in my game, but they are not able to click it?

A: Yes, Chinese CPM is generally lower than the English-speaking countries.  But, we estimate it to be 6x better than one year ago which is a good trend.  And, yes Chinese users would be able to see the ads for the games Mochi translates and publishes. Some sites that take games “illegally” block all outbound links so clicking (this includes ads and links to the developer’s site) won’t work.

We also now have a China-based team who is much more prepared to source local advertisers than we are here from the US.  Over the medium to long term, you should expect eCPMs to increase.

Q: What kind of protection would Mochi China team use to protect my game against decompilers?

A: Unfortunately, Flash games will not be able to stop a very dedicated and committed hacker from decompliling your game.  Using services like Mochi Live Updates and SecureSWF will definitely assist in deterring commonplace hackers.

Since you are giving the exclusive publishing rights for your game to Mochi China, they will use their influence in China to get your game removed from sites illegally distributing your game.  They will then supply the legal version, with new text and working links for example, to those sites.

Q: Is this initiative available to all game developers who use ads from Mochi?

A: While we would love to offer this service to any developer who wants to get their game translated and into the Chinese market, it is still a manual process and is not something we can offer everyone.  It is recommended that you submit your game anyway and you will be placed in the queue for translation.  We’ll contact you if we require any other details or provide new information for you.

Q: Are there any examples of games that have already been translated by Mochi China team?

A: No examples yet, we are just starting this program. Be one of the first!

Q: What font should I use after it is translated?

A: MSYH.TTF

Q: My web hosting company blocks most users from China as they say China is a security risk. So I wouldn’t see a great deal of profit from the outbound links anyway – unless I change my hosting company. This seems to be quite a common issue from what I’ve heard. It’s not just the great firewall of China, it’s also many western hosting companies pretty much blocking all Chinese users.

A: We are sure some will get through no matter what but I would think you could work with your host once the new version of the game is live in China. The Flash game space is an up and coming market in China, so putting your signature/mark is very important.  While the traffic to your site may or may not be “important” at this time, having proper copies of your game distributed in China will bring value to your development team name.

Everyone has seen that Chinese sites like 4399 and 7k7k generate huge amounts of gameplays.  The potential is there and that is why Mochi is scaling its China presence.  Additionally, working with legitimate parties like the Mochi China team may help deter flash pirates in China from literally stealing major elements of your game and recompiling it as a new game.  The Mochi China team plans to move aggressively against this kind of behavior for the games it helps translate.

Q: What if the text is embedded in images?

A: Send along .jpeg’s or .gif’s of these and we will handle it (along with the text transcript)

Q: Do you mean that the ecpm in China can increase?

A: The eCPM for China itself should, theoretically, increase (though the overall eCPM will lower).  The bigger picture, and this is up to you if you want to share, is that potentially more games that get spread legally (having links in, ads, etc.) can increase the likelihood that advertisers see the value having their advertisements in games, which could ultimately increase the eCPM for China more so.

Q: How many games can I get translated?

A: As many as you want!

Q: Do I have the right to sell non-exclusive versions of the English versions of the games to any other chinese portals?

A: If you are being paid an UPFRONT amount for that site license, then you should do it.  If it’s just another free deal, then we would advise against it as it would dilute Mochi China’s ability to enforce the IP of the developer.

Q: There are some elements in may game that may be difficult to translate, with numerous levels, etc.  How much can Mochi translate?

A: We will handle these on a case-by-case basis.  Don’t worry if your game seems complicated to translate, we will work with you to find a method of translation that will work.

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2010. | Permalink | 13 comments

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Featured Game Of The Week

I am happy to announce this week’s Featured Game on MochiGames: “Happy Fun Balloon Time” by 2Games!  This game was chosen because it is well made, challenging, and of course lots of fun. The object is to hop around on balloons, popping them as you go, and finish each time on the golden balloon to advance to the next level.  Check out the game here.

Congrats 2Games!

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments

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We are happy to announce that we have kicked off a Featured Game Program that will showcase one game per week the MochiGames home page!

The Mochi Team will be choosing a new game weekly, where the “Featured Game” is added into the top rotator. We don’t have specific criteria for being a “Featured Game”, its just our way of appreciating the good games out there that don’t always get the attention they deserve.

This week’s winner is: “Ghost” by psturgeon.  Great job on a great game!

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments

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At long last, we are very excited to announce the launch of the MochiSocial API!

MochiSocial has been in beta for some time, but is now readily available as another tool in your Mochi Media toolkit. The purpose of this new product is for you to incentivize game play through social interactions. This is a great opportunity to grow your game and your brand virally as well as create better experiences for your players!

Key Highlights Of MochiSocial Include:

• Players can send invites to play your game to THEIR friends on THEIR social networks. A key advantage to MochiSocial here is that this single API supports 4 different social networks! (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and MochiGames). These invites result in higher virality of your game and penetration into networks you might not have been previously able to get into.

• Players can post their game play to their various social streams, such as Twitter and Facebook (”I just played X game” with a link back to that game)

• Players can send “Gifts” to their friends as an incentive to join them in playing your game (and can be rewarded for doing so). Castle Wars 2 is a good example of this, where you can send a “Gift” (invite your friends to play the game) and you each receive 100 “keys”

• Virality- players can post their achievements across their various social graphs, exposing your game to their networks

• Developers can now communicate directly with their players in-game!

• Developers will see “Social Data” show up on your dashboard as metrics that you can follow in your dev accounts.  You won’t be able to access information from other networks (like Facebook or Twitter), but you WILL have access to the data generated while they are playing your game. For example, you will be able to see how many “Gifts” were sent from your game, how many “Fans” you have or how many “Messages” have been posted in your stream.

Some Numbers From The Beta

• Total Messages Sent (aggregate of: Invites, Stream Posts, Leaderboard Posts & Gifts Sent): 472,518
• Total Gifts sent: 663
• Total Gifts awarded: 2,340

So, what does it all mean?  What it means to us is that it works.  There are quite a few factors that go into “why a number is what it is”, and there is always the variable of how MochiSocial is implemented in the game.  That said, one number that is quite interesting is the ratio between “Total Gifts Sent” and “Total Gifts Awarded”.  2,340 gifts were awarded vs. 663 sent.  Even if you factor in the award given to the initiator for sending the gift, it is almost a 2:1 ratio in awards given.  What this means: gifts are posted to social networks where anyone can pick them up and come to the game.  In this case, the average return for every gift sent has been 2 new players.

Remember:

The key values to socializing your games are the ability to go “viral” (the spreading of your game by your players) and getting your players to play with their friends vs playing alone. People who play together, stay (in your game) together.

Other good case studies on how to use MochiSocial include Crazy Go Nuts 2, Bloons Tower Defense 4, Jade Monkey Social, Kingdoms At War.

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments

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The Mochi Media team had a great time in Seattle, and we hope those that were able to make it out enjoyed the conference as much as we did!  There was a lot going on this year, including great session topics, lots of action on the floor, parties in museums and aquariums, and even a sumo wrestling match.  I thought I would put together a quick recap of Casual Connect from my perspective to make some sense of all the madness!

Thoughts and Observations:

• There is a ton of interest in mobile (no surprise there) from the industry in general, particularly with Android and iPhone.  Everyone is trying to figure out their “play” in this ever-expanding and increasingly competitive space. Don’t forget we are running “Made for Mobile” Android contest, more details here!
• There was quite a buzzzz going on over the Mochi Game Developer Fund. We had a lot of 1 on 1 conversations with devs about their current and future projects.
• Virtual currencies as a way to monetize was a pretty hot topic, with sessions drawing large audiences. Mochi gave a presentation on this (see picture below), offering up some pretty nice data for those in attendance on some of our lessons learned in micro-transactions with MochiCoins.
• Here is a comment from Josh Larson (President and COO here at Mochi; Casual Connect veteran) on the progression and continued importance of the conference: ”Casual Connect used to be about the casual downloadables business, and you can see how it’s shifted to online, social and mobile.”
• We continue to see interest from publishers, both large and small, seeking casual flash games content for their users.  We are working hard to bring some of these great household names into the Mochi Publisher Network…stay tuned!

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments

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Thank you to everyone who gave us feedback on the new ad container. Believe me, we listen very carefully to what each one of you has to say and truly appreciate your input. With that feedback in mind, we have changed things a bit and have re-designed our re-design to better meet your needs. For those of you who didn’t catch the first go-round, you can catch up here.

Here is a screenshot of the new version (ignore the acorns in the top two images, the black background on the bottom will be the standard look).

What we’ve changed:

• We have removed the link to your MochiGames Fan Page from the container.
• We’re still going with the new loading bar.
• We no longer have sound controls in the bar.
• We’ve toned down the Mochi branding.

Let us know if you have any more feedback on the new container!

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments

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We are excited to announce the Made for Mobile developer contest, brought to you by Mochi Media and Adobe! Create games for the Android mobile platform that run in Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 for a chance to win. We have more than $15,000 in cash prizes up for grabs (plus free copies of Adobe CS5 given to the top 3 entries) AND contest submissions will be showcased on Mochi Media’s mobile-optimized site MochiGames. The Made for Mobile Contest comes after the recent release of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for mobile, which allows games built with the Flash Platform to be played on the Android mobile platform for the first time.

“We are very excited Mochi Media is bringing this contest to the game development community,” said Ricky Liversidge, vice president of marketing, platform business at Adobe. “Talented developers can now take advantage of the latest Flash Player 10.1 features to reach consumers across mobile and other devices.”

Contest submissions will be judged on game criteria including aesthetics, usability, performance, creativity and coding quality. Click here for more information on official contest rules, prizes, and judges.  Submissions are due by midnight on September 24, 2010. Winners will be announced in early October.

Yes, we know there are other contests running simultaneously to this one! But hey, who’s to stop you from submitting games to both contests? Get started!

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments

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We are currently in the process of redesigning/refreshing our ad container to make the user experience consistent across all of our games and ad formats (static, flash, video, skinned video, inter-level). We’ve added some great new features to improve the overall experience to benefit both the game player and you, the game developer. We’d love to hear your feedback before we go live with it, here’s a link to screenshots with the new-new features!

1. The old loading bar is now much smaller and turns into a “Play Game” button after 15 seconds. Users must select the “Play Game” button to continue into the game. This will help improve ad performance to maximize your revenue and introduce a consistent user flow to start playing all games on the Mochi network.

2. The “powered by mochimedia” has been replaced by the Mochi logo which displays “powered by mochimedia” only when you roll over the logo. We want to minimize text surrounding your game to ensure that your users concentrate on your game.

3. We’ve added volume control to the bottom bar.

4. We’ve added a brand new top bar that features your developer name and clicks through to your fan page on mochigames.com. We want to make sure everyone knows that you developed the game they are playing and give them the opportunity to explore more of your games and become your fan!

Notes:
1. Flash 6 and below games will no longer be supported so no ads will appear in these games. Ads in these games will call the adskipped function from now on.

2. We will use your MochiGames fan page display name as your developer name in the container, so please ensure that your display name is the name you’d like us to use. If not, please follow these steps to change your display name:

• Step 1. Log into your Mochi Pass developer account
• Step 2. Under the “My Account” tab, select “Fan Page”
• Step 3. Select Edit on the right to edit your Display Name
• Step 4. Save your changes

UPDATE: We have been listening you your thoughts, and have an updated version for you to view. Click here to check it out.

© Colin Cupp for MochiLand, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments

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