Earning money via advertisements is just one, very easy, way to bring in revenue from a game but, as already discussed, it is not likely to earn the game developer very much money unless the game is extremely popular.
An alternative way of making money from a game is to obtain sponsorship from a publisher. There are several different types of sponsorships, and it's a good idea to carry out full research before committing to a contract, but the most common types of sponsorship are explained in this section.
Tip
Sponsors may offer varying terms and will often have their own customized sponsorship deals. Please ensure that you fully understand the terms of any contract that you enter into, taking professional legal advice as appropriate. The following explanations are offered only as a guide to some of the types of sponsorship that are available.
Sponsors will pay you to put their logos and web links into your games so that each time your game is played on the Internet, the player will see the sponsor's logo and will have the opportunity to click through to the sponsor's website. The benefit to the sponsors is that displaying their logo raises the profile of their brand name, which leads to more game players visiting their website. The sponsors may then earn revenue from advertising on their website, or they may encourage their website visitors to spend money—for example, they may sell premium mobile games.
Typically, a sponsor will be a game publisher—they will specialize in branding games with their logo, and will encourage as many players as possible to visit their website and play games branded with their logo. However, other organizations not related to the computer games industry do sponsor games in order to promote their products, although this is less common.
Each sponsor's terms and conditions will vary but, in broad terms, there are three main types of game sponsorship.
With a primary sponsorship, also known as a non-exclusive sponsorship, a sponsor will pay the game developer to brand a game with the sponsor's logos and with links to the sponsor's website. The game will then be released publicly for display on as many websites as possible. The sponsor derives maximum benefit when the game is very widely distributed—it's not untypical for such a sponsored game to feature on many thousands of Flash game websites and to receive millions of gameplays! It is in the sponsors′ best interests to ensure that the game is seen by as many players as possible, so they will make their best efforts to have the game promoted extensively.
The benefit to game developers is that they receive an up front payment, and their game can achieve a very high profile within the gaming community—that's free advertising for the game developer's skills, which may then lead to further paid game development work!
An additional financial benefit to the game developer is that primary sponsors will often allow the developer to include advertisements in the game, so the developer will receive revenue from the advertisements in addition to the initial up front sponsorship fee.
Primary sponsorship will usually provide the game developer with the benefit of exploring revenue opportunities from secondary sponsorships.
Secondary sponsorships can provide additional income from a game that has already received primary sponsorship! The game developer can receive sponsorship payments from secondary sponsors who wish to pay for the game to be published on their own websites with their own branding. With this type of sponsorship, the developer will remove the primary sponsor's branding and will site lock the game to the secondary sponsor's website.
Because secondary sponsorships target a much smaller audience of game players, fees are much lower than they are for primary sponsorships.
As we might guess from its title, an exclusive sponsorship is exclusive! With this type of sponsorship, the game developer sells the sponsor the exclusive right to publish the game, which means that, in effect, the game developer is paid an up front fee for implementing the sponsor's branding in the game. The game developer then hands the completed game over to the sponsor so, effectively, the game becomes the sponsor's property.
While this type of sponsorship can be far more lucrative than a primary sponsorship, the game developer has no further opportunity to earn any money from the game.
With an exclusive sponsorship, the developer may be able to retain intellectual property rights to the game, which means that, if the original game is very popular, the developer could create a sequel using the same game characters and graphics.
The details of most sponsorship deals remain private for contractual reasons, but some information about sponsorship fees are freely available on the Internet. For example, at the time of publishing, Armor Games—a major player in the Flash game publishing industry—states on its website, that typical sponsorship payments range from $1,500 to $7,000. They also advise that they are prepared to pay more for higher quality games! More information about sponsorship by Armor Games can be found at armorgames.com/page/sponsorship.
Investigation within various industry-related Internet discussion forums indicates that typical fees for secondary sponsorships range from a few tens of dollars to the low hundreds of dollars, although higher amounts have been paid for top-quality games.
We can see that, for well designed games, the earning potential is quite great—there are certainly many developers who make a full-time living from game development. However, we must temper our enthusiasm, and understand that although the market for games is vast, there are many people attempting to earn money from game development. Nevertheless, we shouldn't let the possibility of competition put us off. If we develop games for fun, then any money we earn is a bonus and, if we are planning to make a living from game development, it's better to know the facts before starting a project!
Understanding the different models for sponsorship of games is vital but, equally important, is knowing where to find sponsorship!
FGL.com, formally known as Flash Game License, is a popular market place dedicated to bringing together game developers and sponsors. In essence, FGL allows developers to auction their games to an audience of sponsors. However, the developer is not obliged to accept the highest bid (or any bid)—the developer can choose which, if any, bid they consider to be the best overall deal. When a deal is agreed, the developer pays a commission of 10% to FGL.
While FGL was originally dedicated to marketing Flash games, it later rebranded in order to widen its scope to include other gameplaying platforms such as iOS, Android, and HTML.
FGL.com is a valuable resource for game developers, and it's certainly worth visiting the FGLopedia (www.fgl.com/view_library.php), which contains information about sponsorship and licensing models, a guide for new game developers, and other useful useful resources, including information about how to maximize sponsorship revenue.
Before openly marketing a game on FGL, developers must firstly have the game approved by an FGL employee to ensure that it meets the required standards. Once a game has been approved (usually within 72 hours according to FGL), the developer can choose to provide access to other developers in order to receive feedback about the game. This is an excellent opportunity to receive constructive criticism and advice from professional game developers—the FGL community has an overwhelmingly positive attitude with helpful advice being offered by game developers, many of whom have already successfully received sponsorship for their own games.
If appropriate, and it usually is appropriate, the game developers can then make the suggested improvements to their game and upload it again in order to elicit further feedback. This process can be repeated as often as desired until the developer is confident that his game is ready for marketing, at which time it can be made visible to sponsors, who can then start to place bids.
Do take the time to become part of the FGL community—review other developers' games and offer your own feedback!
Another way to obtain sponsorship is by directly contacting sponsors and cultivating relationships with in the industry. Many sponsors are happy for developers to contact them directly, and provide information about how to approach them with regards to receiving sponsorship.
Some examples of industry-leading sponsors, together with their contact details are given in the following list:
- Miniclip—corporate.miniclip.com/page/view/developers
- Addicting Games—www.addictinggames.com/game/upload.jsp
- King—www.king.com/support/partner_program.jsp
- Armor Games—armorgames.com/page/sponsorship
Always communicate with sponsors in a professional manner, and understand that some sponsors will receive communications from hundreds of developers each week, so they may take some time to respond—patience is the key!