Cell Your Game Contest Extended

Because many developers only recently were able to get their hands on Flash-capable Android phones, we’ve extended the deadline for the Cell Your Game contest by two weeks. The deadline is now September 20.

Flash on Android is looking to be an exciting new market full of opportunities. There are already more phones running Android than iPhone! Our contest is a great way to get your feet wet and start learning how to adapt your games for mobile devices. Currently we have around 70 qualified submissions. What that means is that if we get even double the submissions, every game will get at least $100! So if you haven’t entered a game yet… why not? And remember you can enter multiple games, you can enter previously released games, and you can find LOADS of help in our forum dedicated to the contest here.

Flash & Flex Developer’s Magazine Is Now Monthly

Flash & Flex Developer’s Magazine is now monthly! Read it for free here! FFD is a perfect resource for advanced Flash/Flex techniques, such as: ActionScript Development, Server-Side Interaction, Mobile apps and Games tutorials. Check the latest issues, became an author, win free books and tickets. Join FFD community! www.ffdmag.com

2010 Flash Games Market Survey

The 2010 Flash Games Market Survey is out. This important survey helps everyone understand trends in the market. Be sure to take it here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/fgms2010.

FGL Updates

Track game view origins

With the latest FGL update, you can track your game views to their source! Did a sponsor find your game from an email, a forum post, from browsing the FGL catalog? The Game Views screen now lists precise information about how viewers are finding your game!

New game catalog policy

We’ve changed our policy a bit to make sure that sponsors spend less time looking at games that aren’t really for sale. That’s a win for everybody!

This new policy requires you to log in to FlashGameLicense.com at least once per month. If you don’t, your games will stop showing up in the sales catalog until you visit. (You will receive an email if this happens.) Your game will also get hidden from the catalog when you accept a bid, receive a Buy It Now offer, or complete Last Call. Note that your game is simply unlisted — sponsors who already know about it can easily view it, but new sponsors won’t find the game in our catalog.

This new system is helping sponsors spend their time and money more efficiently, but as always, this policy isn’t inflexible. We realize there are many situations where an unlisted game needs to be listed again. If your game is unlisted and shouldn’t be, just drop us a note and we’ll get it listed again.

FGD Updates

FGD is undergoing a major re-work at the moment to make sure that FGD is as helpful to developers as it can be! Updates on the way include an easier upload process, more in-depth distribution, easy access to sites that can earn you money and a new opportunity for developers which will be kept secret for now!

To keep you informed on these updates, FGD is now on Facebook and Twitter, where you can stay informed and let us know what you’d like to see! Remember there is a suggestion thread for FGD where you can suggest features too!

GamerSafe Updates

New payment methods for gamers

Gamers now have even more options when wanting to purchase GamerGold. GamerSafe has partnered with SuperRewards and Zong to give players options for completing offers/surveys and paying via SMS.

Facebook integration

GamerSafe now has easy apis for interacting with Facebook. Gamers can now interact and challenge their Facebook friends. Be sure to check the GamerSafe docs to see the new APIs, and example apps coming soon!

FGL FlashGamingSummit and GDC news

FGS and GDC are fast approaching and we’d like to let you know of some things you should check out if you are planning on going.

Chris will be speaking on one of the panels at FGS: “Money in Flash: Next Gen Monetization of Flash Games”. This panel will be at 10am in the Robertson Auditorium.

FGL will be having a get together on Wednesday (the 10th) afternoon at 4:30pm. Location: Buca Di Beppo, 855 Howard Street, San Francisco. Anyone wishing to go, please email Chris to RSVP.  First round of drinks (possibly more!) and food are on us!

UPDATE: ALL FGS and GDC tickets that we had are now gone!

Announcing FGL Developer Competitions #5 and #6: Saturday, March 13th

It’s time for more competitions! This time we’re doing things a little differently. Normally we present you with a theme and then give you a certain amount of time to make a game. This time, we’re presenting you with a bundle of art assets and seeing what you can do with them! When the contest begins, we’ll provide a number of assets, and your task is to make a game from them. You can use your own graphics, too, of course, but like the theme competitions, your rating will depend on how well you use the graphics we provide. Competition #5 will be a 24-hour contest; Competition #6 is a one-month contest that begins at the same time as #5. (So theoretically you could participate in #5, and then keep improving your game for contest #6.)

These contests are tons of fun and the competitive nature is a great way to get motivated. Our previous contests have helped inspire the creation of dozens of great games that went on to find sponsors. Since we’re providing free art assets this time, hopefully it will be easier than ever to turn your contest entry into a financially successful product! Get all the details here.

New Preview-Player Accounts are Here!

The only way to make your game great is to get feedback, improve the game, and repeat. So we’ve created another way to help you get even more feedback. Preview Players are non-developers who are interested in playing and giving feedback. Players who join must:

• Be invited by someone else on FGL (like you!)
• Agree to an NDA, swearing them to secrecy about the things they see
• Be 18 or over (so that the NDA is applicable to them). If they are under 18 they need to get a parent or guardian to sign up for them.

So, what does this mean for you? We’d like to ask you to do two things today.

1. If you are comfortable letting preview players play and give feedback on your games, please go to your game settings and let them in! (It is under the “Preview Settings” button when you are viewing your game.)
2. If you would like to help us test the program, and know someone who can give good feedback, click here and invite them!

If you have other questions please ask away! The system is very simple right now; we’ll expand it as we see what works, what’s useful, and what isn’t.

GameTracker v1.1 Launched!

What is GameTracker? It’s a very simple API you add to your game. When the game is uploaded to FGL, the API activates and records details about every play session that happens on FGL. You can then view each play session in detail to see how far people got, what they did, etc.

GameTracker also works on First Impressions users. This makes First Impressions an incredible mine full of information! You can see exactly what level players reach in the first few minutes, where they die, what they don’t understand… and then fix it!

The GameTracker API is now officially in beta! This is a bug-fix update for the AS3 version. An AS2 version of GameTracker will be available soon (watch for it in the next newsletter). Get started with GameTracker right away!

Rate The Feedback You Get!

While you are viewing your feedback from fellow developers or preview players, you can now mark their posts as Great, Amazing, or Perfect. This earns them additional community points and helps everyone see what good feedback looks like! Please don’t misuse or abuse this system; we are counting on our developers’ professionality to allow the system to stay simple and easy-to-use. As a guideline, you should not give out more than one Perfect Post on a single game.

Zynga Job Opportunity

Zynga, the web gaming juggernauts behind Farmville, are looking for Flash/ActionScript 3 game developers who can demonstrate the following skills:

• Principles of vectors and collision detection
• Flash to server communication
• A working knowledge of the Flash display list

Zynga adds: “We have our own building in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco that has a high-energy buzz and yummy amenities (we provide lunch and dinner every day!). Find more information at our website, or follow us on Twitter.”

GamerSafe Updates

As always, we’ve been busy adding new and exciting features to GamerSafe, making GamerSafe even better for both developers and your players. This month has seen significant improvements to both the API and the website. Our biggest achievements are detailed below, but we don’t have the space to write about all of the great things we’ve been working on! Improvements include new features for the powerful LevelVault data storage API, the ability to fetch information about how a player performed in your other GamerSafe games, and many other improvements to the player interface and website. The Bridge API has now been fully rolled out and is live on every website, and we have many more features in the pipeline!

If you have any feature suggestions or feedback for GamerSafe, we’d love to hear from you! (You can just reply to this email with your thoughts or concerns.)

LevelVault Goes social!

LevelVault is the powerful feature of GamerSafe that lets you support user-generated content with no stress, no bandwidth costs, no hassle. And now LevelVault supports customized level-sharing links for your data. Your players can publish a share link to Facebook or Twitter with the click of a button. The share links will send players directly to your game; our API then allows you to handle the request in any way that you like. This new feature can be used for sharing levels, creating “Challenge” links, “Add friend” links, or viewing replays! Whatever you’re using LevelVault for, making your game go viral on Facebook and Twitter is now easier than ever!

Thanks again for using FGL, and we hope you’re having a great February! Wait, February is over already? That’s unpossible… oh, a “short month”? Uh… sorry for the late newsletter!

-The FGL Team