What to think about if you plan to get sponsor?

[Outcast]

I have not made any game yet (apart from a couple of games i made about 10 years ago in the old Klick and Play program)

I am planning of finishing the game i am doing right now tough, and would want to try to get a sponsor for it, thats the way i have understood with my little knowledge is the best way to get some money for it.

The problem is that i have basiclly no idea on what you should think about when doing this, and i dont want to wait until the last minute when its done to figure it out.

The only thing i know (?) is that i need to convert the file into SWA format and then upload it to the FML site so it can get bids from sponsors.

I have no idea about how to protect the game tough and other things. I know there is some free protection program on FML that you can get and that you should "sitelock" your game, whatever that means..

I would be very happy if someone could explain what i should do. Is there some difference if what i must do to protect and sitelock a game made in MMF versus a game made directly in Flash for example? And how does this FMA protection program work? I have read some information on FMA but it seems that all is directed to Flash developers so it would be nice to have some input directly from MMF developers also..

I would be very happy if someone could enlighten me!

[Olivier]

To get a grasp of how sponsoring in the Flash games market works, I recommend reading the FAQ and the FGLopedia at the flashgamelicense.com website:
http://www.flashgamelicense.com/view_library.php?page=fgl-faq
http://www.flashgamelicense.com/view_library.php

[Outcast]

To get a grasp of how sponsoring in the Flash games market works, I recommend reading the FAQ and the FGLopedia at the flashgamelicense.com website:
http://www.flashgamelicense.com/view_library.php?page=fgl-faq
http://www.flashgamelicense.com/view_library.php

Yes i have done all that, but i think it wouls be interesting to hear from mmf developers directly, because i imagine there is a bit different to protect your game in mmf vs flash? or am i completly wrong? Also i did not find any information on exactly how you should sitelock and use the protection program.

[Olivier]

Our MMF-made Flash games seem to be naturally protected, thanks to the way that they are generated, or compliled or whatever.. by MMF.
So there isn't really a need to add another layer of protection (like Kindisoft or else). Several people have written about this on the forums, but I can't find the posts.

About sitelocking, please read this thread:
http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=196030

[Eliyahu]

One of the first steps is to buy the SWF Exporter for MMF2, if you haven't already.

[Jeff]

One of the top steps would also be to make a good game

[Eliyahu]

That too. I saw a list on FGL of things to include in a good polished game, I think it'd be a great first step to look at the list. Hold on, I'll go get it, it's in a private section of the forums for if you've submitted >1 games.
Here it is:

[size:8pt]*Parallax Backgrounds(Different Layers of the background are moving at different speeds)
*Items on the screen that do nothing but add aesthetics to (Clouds, Bubbles, Etc..)
*Particle effects added where needed
*Transitions between different screens (Fading In/Out, Coming in from the bottom of the screen)
*When a screen displaying how much score/money you earned after a certain time period have it start and 0 then rise up until it gets to the actual number
*Sound effects when an event happens
*Background Music
*Button Hover Effects
*Tremors
*Glowing Items
*Font Choice
*Health Bars
*Game talking to you
*Red Flashing Effect when you get hit by an enemy
*Enemies flashing white when you hit them with something
*Blood spouting from an enemy when hit
*Death Animations
*Explosions when appropriate
*Displaying How many points you earned on the screen (+10 showing up somewhere when you kill an enemy, or the words “Headshot” appearing when you get a headshot)
*Indicators telling you what enemy is about to come
*Don't leave any ugly solid color backgrounds, change them to stylish gradients
*Instructions being displayed at the beginning of the game
*User Interface being readable and using more than just plain numbers (Gauges, Bars, Etc..)
*Item Descriptions and upgrade graphics
*Simple and intuitive to navigate through the game.
*Pause Button, Mute Button, Quality Button
*Logical Controls
*Changing from Day to Night (all the above are suggested by Kaitol)

*When you jump on an enemy to kill it, the main character bounces a little bit
*When you get an achievement,a little box displays this event for a few seconds on the screen
*Shake screen when your character makes an important weapon shot, such as a critical hit
*Tooltip
*Storyline
*Auto-pause when game loses focus
*Input/controls management
*Platformers - no hopping, only hops if you press (as opposed to hold) the jump key again
*Non selectable text[/size]

A lot of them may seem silly or inapplicable, but it's still a nice list to go through and check off what you have and what you CAN add. Also, I wouldn't listen to the recommendations of using gradients instead of solid colors. Neither are good, in my opinion...Unless it's more than a basic color 1 to color 2 gradient. But a more detailed background is better.

[DavidN]

A lot of those aren't really Flash-specific, but giving a game some polish certainly helps if you're planning on putting something up for sponsorship... what a lot of the list seems to say is to make your game feel 'alive' - make things react, visually and aurally, to you, rather than keeping anything static.

[Eliyahu]

The list doesn't need to be Flash-specific, but for a flash game, polish is very important, and those elements will make it better. Some may not be quite so easy in MMF2 but I found the list interesting and I think it's a good start to making a good game. Polish is very very important, that's for sure.

[netninja]

Those are some good tips mostly... except for "*Don't leave any ugly solid color backgrounds, change them to stylish gradients" as you said :P