getting game ready for FLG

Hi,

I am very close to finishing my Flash game (made with MMF Developer).
Before I release it on Flash Games License I want to make sure I have everything covered.
I have searched the forums, but find some of the information fragmented, could you please help me with the following:

Site locking - I far as I am aware this locks the game to one fixed site. If I want to put my game onto FGL how do I site lock it (on FGL), are there any tutorials and is there a specific extension or object I need to use?

APIs - If my game gets interest and bids how do I make sure I can get the bidders API into my game. I understand that some companies request/require their own API to be intergrated. If I can't intergrate their API does that mean they will not be interested in my game. Also could you tell me what these APIs cover, is it high score tables etc.

Preloaders - If a company does win/bid on my game, how would I incorperate their Preloader. I have seen some posts about Preloaders and it seems to be a case of bolting on a copy/replication of their Preloader/logo animation.

If anyone could help or advise on these issues it really would be appreciated.
I don't really have any coder/action script knowledge. So any advice on setting these issues via MMF would be helpful.

Thank you

Just some quick answers:

- Site locking: you should find examples here on the SWF forum, but basically you can do it with the Flash Player object by comparing two values: Right$(Get domain (or something),20) <> "flashgamelicense.com" --> end game.

- APIs: custom API integration is not possible with MMF2 for a regular user. Your only chance is to hire an extension developer to make an extension which can access the API. Even if you don't want to integrate APIs, it doesn't necessarily mean that the sponsors would not be interested in your game. Not every sponsor has APIs to use. You can naturally accept only bids that suit your capabilities and resources.

- Preloaders: I believe there has recently been a major breakthrough in this area in form of extensions that allow external swf's to be bundled with the MMF2-generated swf and can be used as preloaders as well. I haven't yet tried those out, but check the beta extensions forum. The other option is, as you said, to re-create the preloader in MMF2 which can be really time consuming.

If a sponsor requests an API you can either ask what it does and replicate it in MMF2, or get someone else to create an extension for you. There are a lot of sponsors that only want preloaders and branding, no API, so you can hope for that :)

Also, sounds like we need a Flash Game tutorial x) I might have to write one.

EDIT: Also, I don't know what anyone else does, but I check all the checkboxes when I submit my game for bidding, saying I can implement APIs and branding, and will do a full IP sale and source (even though most sponsors won't care for an MFA). But I just do this to make sure I get as many sponsor views as possible.

And final tip, make a good icon. After you've made an icon, get advice on it. A good icon is one of the most important things in getting a sponsor to look at your game. If you can't make a decent icon, get someone else to do it. The better your icon, the more views your game will get, the higher chance it has of a sponsor bidding.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eliyahu

I check all the checkboxes when I submit my game for bidding, saying I can implement APIs and branding, and will do a full IP sale and source (even though most sponsors won't care for an MFA).

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Developers, take extra care of what full IP sale means. I couldn't find these exact words on FLG, but it makes me think of Exclusive Sponsorship. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
If you sell your intellectual property (IP) rights on your game, you'll probably lose authorship of the game and the ability to develop sequels/derivative products (not only games). This can be a big drawback if the original game is very successful. Well, you should discuss this with the sponsor so you better know what you do.

Olivier, that's what selling the IP entails, yes. Like Eliyahu, I tick that box, but if a sponsor wants to purchase the IP then I probably wouldn't accept less than 10x what other sponsors are bidding for a 'normal' sponsorship. Like you say, if the original game becomes very successful, I want full control over sequels, ports to iPhone, Android, creation of merch related to the game. Giving up the IP means you pretty much walk away from your game for good, some game developers refuse to do that on principle, which I do understand.

Oh, and just because that box is ticked, doesn't mean that any sale made includes the IP. The sponsor must specify they are bidding for the game and the IP in their bid. Like Olivier says, make sure you both understand what giving up the IP means and check things twice with your sponsor.

Yep, you can still choose whether to accept or reject the offer. Although worth pointing out that I've never had one of those offers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MJK

- Site locking: you should find examples here on the SWF forum, but basically you can do it with the Flash Player object by comparing two values: Right$(Get domain (or something),20) <> "flashgamelicense.com" --> end game.

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What? Who told you to do that? That won't work at all. If you do that, someone could set up a domain called istealgamesfromflashgamelicense.com and they'd be able to play.

Hi,

Thank you for your help/comments, they have explained a lot, especially the API issue.

I have looked through the forum for 'sitelocking', but things don't seem to be working for me.

I have my 1st frame, which I have put aside for the Preloader. So on this Preloader frame I have the 'Flash® Player' object.
In the editor I have a 'Compare two general values' event, which reads:

Enter expressions and choose comparison method...
GetDomain$( "Flash® Player" )

Equals

"http://www.clickteam.com"

The action is 'Jump to next frame'

I have compiled my .swf and dragged and dropped it onto a 'FireFox' browser window, but nothing happens.
Could you please help and tell me what I am doing wrong. If it is something obvious, I'm sorry (I am a noob to the Flash exporter).
I'm guessing that I'm not doing this right, but how do I get my .swf to run on a site (a site that I have sitelocked it to). I don't have my own wedsite, so I assumed I could use existing names/sites in the 'GetDomain$( "Flash® Player" ) = ' values.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

The domain is clickteam.com, not http://www.clickteam.com

Ah, thanks for the correction.

I have created my .swf with the new domain.
But when I drag and drop my .swf onto the firefox browser window nothing happens.
How do I get the .swf to run/check it is on the correct (sitelocked) webpage.
Where am I going wrong?
Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

When you drag it onto the firefox browser, it is being run from localhost, I believe.

The domain includes all subdomains, including the www subdomain. Test for != "www.clickteam.com"

About sitelocking to a specific domain, please see this post. I've just edited my post so that the code is more accurate.

I recommend a String Object which shows the result of Get domain while you're testing things.

DEKE15: It looks like you're trying to check if the game is running on clickteam.com. You obviously can't upload games here to test it. I'd recommend uploading it to FGL to test it out (so test your site lock code for flashgamelicense.com) and unchecking all the boxes so that nobody can view your game.

Steve

Thank you for the replies, I wasn't sure how to get the sitelocking to work. I now understand that I need to upload it to a site (flash games license). Thank you for clearing that up for me.
I will get my test versions of the game up on FGL.
Can you upload as many (test) versions as you want to FGL i.e. replacing the previous version and then when you are happy - it can be shown to sponsors etc?

Yes, this way players and devs may test it and give advice until you finally activate bidding