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The one thing I think you missed from explaining the economics of the old Flash Game scene was Mochi. By getting you the pre-roll ads Mochi gave you a way of b

The one thing I think you missed from explaining the economics of the old Flash Game scene was Mochi. By getting you the pre-roll ads Mochi gave you a way of being rewarded on a per-play basis which A) bypassed the risjk of up front sponsorship number B) allowed absolute total amateurs to not even bother with sponsorship and just dump a game with Mochi ads onto the net, if it took off they would rake in the bucks. m Add on top of that the Mochi microtransaction infrastructure and I'd say Mochi was as important, if not more, than FGL for boosting the ouptu of games.

larsiusprime 5y ago
Mochi was mentioned in the article, but yes, I did gloss over it, thanks for bringing it up. I used Mochi ads myself!
OmarShehata 5y ago
I disagree that Mochi was as or more important than FGL. Perhaps this was true for developers who released a lot of games and could rack up consistent significant monthly views across on all their games. I remember a big question was always: should you self sponsor if you can't get high enough bids for sponsorship? If they're willing to pay $5k to put their ad on your game, why shouldn't you capture that revenue yourself? The answer was for most developers it was difficult to capture that value without some kind of centralized game portal where you could redirect this traffic and keep those users coming back. So even if the sponsor was paying $5k and still making money off that game, it was unlikely you could make anywhere near that amount just from Mochi ads or similar.
- Marazan 5y ago
  Oh for serious game devs FGL was absolutely the most important monetisation stream by some distance no doubt. But for people just starting out and, say, knocking out a game in a weekend, unpolished, raw Mochi was incredible. With zero effort (beyond spending a couple of weekends making games) I had 3 figure annual revenue from games that would have never ever gotten sponsorship. If you were a 16 year old hacking stuff together in Flash that would have been hugely motivating. That's would drove the sheer volume and variety of Flash games. If I could apply the knowledge I have now back to past me I'd have easily been able to get 4 figure annual revenue swiftly and that would have let me focus on putting the polish on FGL level serious sponsorship games. ( I did make one full stand alone game and it flopped, I've made more money from people playing the demo than from full game purchases)

larsiusprime 5y ago

Mochi was mentioned in the article, but yes, I did gloss over it, thanks for bringing it up. I used Mochi ads myself!

OmarShehata 5y ago

I disagree that Mochi was as or more important than FGL. Perhaps this was true for developers who released a lot of games and could rack up consistent significant monthly views across on all their games. I remember a big question was always: should you self sponsor if you can't get high enough bids for sponsorship? If they're willing to pay $5k to put their ad on your game, why shouldn't you capture that revenue yourself? The answer was for most developers it was difficult to capture that value without some kind of centralized game portal where you could redirect this traffic and keep those users coming back. So even if the sponsor was paying $5k and still making money off that game, it was unlikely you could make anywhere near that amount just from Mochi ads or similar.

Marazan 5y ago
Oh for serious game devs FGL was absolutely the most important monetisation stream by some distance no doubt. But for people just starting out and, say, knocking out a game in a weekend, unpolished, raw Mochi was incredible. With zero effort (beyond spending a couple of weekends making games) I had 3 figure annual revenue from games that would have never ever gotten sponsorship. If you were a 16 year old hacking stuff together in Flash that would have been hugely motivating. That's would drove the sheer volume and variety of Flash games. If I could apply the knowledge I have now back to past me I'd have easily been able to get 4 figure annual revenue swiftly and that would have let me focus on putting the polish on FGL level serious sponsorship games. ( I did make one full stand alone game and it flopped, I've made more money from people playing the demo than from full game purchases)