FGL Developer FAQ
Q. What can FlashGameLicense.com do for me?
A. First and foremost, we give you an easy and effective way to put your game in front of Flash game sponsors -- sponsors who are actively looking for games! Finding a buyer for all your hard work just doesn't get easier than that.
Secondly, we help you connect with the Flash game development community. You can view and play games that other developers have chosen to share, and offer them your feedback on their efforts. If you choose to, you can solicit feedback from other developers for your own games.
Q. Can other developers see my games?
A. Not if you don't want them to! By default, only authorized sponsors can see your games. If, however, you'd like more feedback from a wider audience, you have the option to allow other developers to view your games. We've found that feedback from sponsors and other developers alike can really be beneficial in the final polishing stages.
(Note that even if you allow other developers to view your games, they cannot not see any information about bids or licensing deals. That's just between you and the sponsors!)
Q. What do I give up to use this site?
A. Nothing! You retain all rights, title, and interest in any games uploaded to this site (assuming you owned them in the first place). You can remove a game at any time. While your game is in the bidding area of the website, you must agree to the terms of service, which will oblige you to follow some simple rules and courtesies, but these are straightforward and won't affect your rights or options.
Q. How do I sign up as a developer?
A. Signing up as a developer is very easy. Just head over to the developer sign-up page and create an account. Once you do, you can upload your games for sponsors to buy and bid on!
Q. Why is my game still pending approval?
A. Most games are approved within 48 hours, however, some may take longer if we have difficulty with it and need to pass it up the chain of reviewers to reach a decision. If you received a Private Message from an FGL administrator, you should Reply to that private message! Your game will remain in a "holding area" until we hear back from you.
Q. My game is approved but it's not showing up in the search feature.
A. If you haven't made your game visible to developers, then you won't be able to search for it from your developer account. As long as you have made your game visible to sponsors, they will be able to see it.
Q. Why is there significant frame loss on some games hosted here?
A. The slowdown is caused because we do not use the "wmode" parameter to the Flash control. This is intentional - at this time over half of existing game sites do not use this feature. We want sponsors to see how the game will look on their site, not how good it could potentially look. Until more sponsors use this feature, we can't use it. There are a number of reasons it isn't used: ignorance of the feature, problems with integration, and problems with accessibility are the most common.
Q. Is there a way to get private feedback from potential sponsors as to why my game isn't a good fit for them?
A. Yes. There is a feedback box for sponsors on the same page as the game. If a sponsor is interested in your game but has questions or requests before bidding, they're able to input that.
Q. My game has multiple files. How do I upload all the files it needs?
A. Your game should be entirely self-contained. Most sponsors will not want a game that is not contained within a single file.
Most sponsors are hoping that your game will be successful (naturally), which means it will get picked up by hundreds of other websites across the internet. This is great for you (because more users means more ad money) and great for your sponsor (because that means there are more websites showing their sponsorship ads). However, most portal sites can't support files with more than one SWF. Multi-SWF games are therefore too hard to make "viral" -- they end up only living on a few dozen websites at most.
If you absolutely have to support multiple SWF files, you can link your primary SWF to secondary files that you host yourself on a dedicated server. However, most sponsors will expect you to host those files for them indefinitely! If your game is very successful, you'll need to make sure you have a decent amount of bandwidth.
FGL doesn't directly support multi-file SWFs at all, and we encourage you to refactor your game to be a single-SWF file that is less than 10mb in size. Perhaps multi-SWF games will become more acceptable in time, but in today's Flash business, they are trouble.
Q. How long does it usually take to get sponsored using FGL? How long should I wait before giving up?
A. A typical sponsorship takes between a week and one month, with some games getting sponsored as late as three months after being live on our site. We recommend you wait at least three weeks.
Q. How complete should my game be before I can expect bids?
A. Most sponsors are only willing to bid on a game that seems complete. You can upload your game prior to this point (in order to get feedback from developers, or to use our First Impressions service, for instance), but you should not request that it be put up for bidding until you are 100% done with it. Most sponsors only ever look at a game once. If they aren't impressed, they won't come back. You only get one chance to make a good impression, so make it count!
Q. The bidding system is really cool, but wouldn't it be faster to email sponsors directly?
A. FGL has a lot of registered sponsors that you probably wouldn't even think to email, who would probably only find the game while it's on the site. Many sponsors have said that developers have been emailing them with a link to their game on FGL. We recommend leaving your game up for at least 2-3 weeks. If your game is 100% complete and doesn't seem to have gotten attention from larger sponsors after that time, send them an email linking them to your game view page on FGL.
Also, sponsors get an email every time a new game is uploaded to FGL. We also personally play all the games, and if a game stands out to us, we pass it along to sponsors who we think will be most interested.
Q. How do I make more people click on my game?
A. Make sure your thumbnail, short description, and screenshot are eye-catching and interesting. You might have a great game, but if your thumbnail doesn't show off the quality of the art, and your description doesn't make the game sound exciting, then a sponsor with only enough time to play a couple of games will pass over yours and click on another.
Q. Can I delete my game and resubmit it? Now that it's complete it's a lot better than when I first submitted it.
A. It's better not to resubmit your game since we email sponsors when new games arrive. If they start seeing games they've already seen listed as new it could get annoying. The best thing to do is to let us know. We have ways of bubbling games to the top if we think there has been enough change, and we can even show an improved game directly to sponsors. Just use the Feedback menu option.
Q. Do games get stolen from FGL?
A. It is extremely unlikely, but it isn't impossible. We recommend site-locking and encrypting your game. Our website provides a free site-locking and encrypting service that works as long as your game is on our website. (It is kindly provided free of charge by Kindisoft.) However, this simple encryptor is only compatible with 95% of Flash games -- certain features of Flash are not supported. If your game does not seem to play properly on the website, consider purchasing a full Kindisoft product. The stand-alone Kindisoft products have much broader support and work with nearly all games. Use the special coupon code "FGL25" to get 25% off the sale price, making this purchase quite economical.
You will need to purchase an encryption product anyway when your game goes live -- it is highly recommended that you never release an unencrypted game onto the internet, because it is extremely easy for others to steal your code and market it as their own. We've chosen to endorse Kindisoft because we've found their encryption product to be the best on the market.
Q. How do I know I can trust a sponsor?
A. We work hard to make sure that all sponsors who can bid on your game are serious professionals. In order to access the bidding area, the sponsor must either work for a high-profile game portal, or, if they are starting a new website, they must deposit money into an escrow account with us to prove that they are serious about spending money on games. We can also work closely with you to settle disputes. Most problems are simple misunderstandings; of the thousands of deals FGL has facilitated, scams or tricks are almost unheard of.
Note that there are also a second category of sponsors, who cannot view games in the Bidding area, but can buy non-exclusive site-locked licenses in the Game Shop area. We are much less strict about letting people into this area, so that you have the broadest base of people to sell site-locked licenses to. The vast majority of these people are upstanding businesspeople (many of them will eventually move up to the bidding area), but they are often very new to the Flash industry and may not quite understand how things work. Please be calm and courteous with all sponsors, and if you have any problems with a deal, use the Feedback menu item to get in touch with us.
Q. But I'm a developer *and* a sponsor! I want to do both!
A. No problem! Sponsor and developer accounts have slightly different functionality to better meet the needs of each group. So your best bet if you are both a developer and a sponsor of Flash games is to create two accounts -- one as a developer and one as a sponsor. Once both accounts are created and approved, you can easily link them together so that you can seamlessly experience all the functionality FlashGameLicense.com has to offer. (Linking accounts is an option under the "account" tab on your menu.)
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