So what this Robot / Lizard thing all about then eh?
Well, I’ve been working at a professional level in the Flash development industry for about 6 years now. Mainly doing e-learning work, but I’ve also done a fair bit of games and marketing type work.
About 4 or so years ago, I had an idea that I’d like to build a big online multiplayer game, in Flash, just for fun. The dream was to be able to build something fun, and make a living out if it. The only problem was I didn’t think I’d ever have the time, or money to get it started, and I couldn’t actually see any way for it to make me enough to pay the mortgage every month. So, I ploughed on with my developer job and as the years have rolled by, it’s become apparent that there were other people thinking the same thing I was, only they actually did it, and made a fair packet at the same time (Club Penguin, Puzzle Pirates etc).
Now I’m not claiming that if I’d built my app, I’d have done as well as those guys, and I’m not about to start moaning about if only I’d done this and that. In fact, I’m really glad that they’ve proved that there is a viable market out there for Flash based games. There have been a few developments over the past few years that have got me thinking that there never was a better time to get into serious Flash game development then now, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.
Those developments were:
- The Flash player got good. Flash Player 9 and AS3 has made a huge difference to all of the projects I’ve worked on, no more clunky interfaces, nice smooth interactions and animations. Since it came along, Flash games have got better too and I have heard of a few independent game studios that are moving to Flash as a development platform, from traditional windows based development. Flash Player 10 and other technologies like AIR have made Flash even easier to use as a serious app development platform.
- It got a bit easier to make money from Flash games. Companies like Mochiads have arrived offering developers the opportunity to monetise their productions with in-game advertisements. This coupled with the many Flash portals like Newgrounds and Kongregate offering distribution to millions of players, means that with a good game, an independent developer can make a handsome sum. Emanuele Feronato has written quite a bit about his experiments in monetising Flash games, and I intend to conduct some of my own.
- I started a development studio. Over the past few years I’ve moved from being a salaried developer, to being a freelancer, to employing a couple of people. We act as a 3rd party “work for hire” development studio and build various Flash based apps under contract for other businesses. Most of the time it’s quite good fun, we get to work on pretty interested stuff (although usually we’re not supposed to talk about it), however the time has come to start developing some of our own IP, rather than someone else’s.
So in summary, Robot / Lizard Productions is my attempt to try to build games and apps for our (and our players) amusement. If we can make some money to pay the bills along the way, then great!
We still intend on continuing with our usual client work under our regular moniker (Like I said, most of the time it’s quite good fun), so we might not be able to get our works out as quickly as we’d like, but hopefully it will be at a reasonable pace.
Early next year we’re involved in a project that combines the best of both worlds, building a Flash version of a classic game we love. Watch this space for more info as it happens.
Dr. Syntax