Game Developers' Top Tools And Resources

Gianfranco Berardi is driven. After putting in eight to 10 hours of work at his day job as a programmer for a slot-machine manufacturer, he goes home, sits down at his computer, and starts his second shift: writing computer games.

He's yet to feel that any of his projects are ready for prime time, although he has entered game contests and has begun developing a network of other developers who give him feedback he can use to refine his games. And he is optimistic about his chances of eventually creating a marketable game. "At some point in the future I would like to do this full time, although at this point I still need a salary from another job," said Berardi.

In many ways, Berardi is a typical aspiring game developer. Although the demographics are all over the map -- ranging from teenagers in school to retired seniors starting second or even third careers -- they have in common a passion for games and boundless confidence that they will eventually find a home for their creations.

And the world is increasingly friendly to first-time independent game developers, as Web sites dedicated to helping them create, distribute, and make money from their offerings are springing up.

"We have all types of people visiting our site, from 13-years-olds just starting, to professional guys who worked for Electronic Arts and now want to go independent," said Chris Hughes, cofounder of Flashgamelicense.com, a site devoted to helping independent game developers monetize their products. "What they have in common: the need to connect with an audience and find a way to collect revenue for their work."

Berardi himself hangs out at Gamedev.net, where he's picked up both technical and business advice from experts and other developers. "The forums are especially valuable, as you have both first-time and experienced gamers discussing aspects of game development I never would have even considered on my own," he said. "The fact that these resources now exist makes it easier for people like me to break into what used to be a tough market."

Following are six Web sites that can help aspiring game developers get the resources, news, forums, and even sales and marketing help they need to work toward fame and fortune in game development.

Addicting Games

One of the largest online game sites in the United States, AddictingGames has more than 20 million unique visitors every month, according to ComScore. Acquired by Viacom in 2007, it is part of the MTV Online Network, and offers a broad range of Flash games.

Aspiring developers can submit games to the site, which are reviewed by a team of producers. "If we feel that a game is worth putting on our site, we'll respond within an hour of reviewing it," said Kate Connally, VP of Addicting Games. "We believe in quick turnaround and quick publishing."

Developers are offered money upfront -- from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars -- for Addicting Games to license the game; developers are then provided with suggestions for improvements and a software development kit to incorporate the Addicting Games logo and brand identity into their offerings. Every quarter, the top 25 games on the site get a percentage of the revenue Addicting Games has received from site sponsors.

"Most of our developers are in their teens and twenties, and the easy accessibility of Flash has enabled a whole new mode of artistic expression," said Connally. "We give them a way to get their games out into the public and actually make some money doing it."

Flash Game License

Flash Game License acts as a broker between game developers and game buyers. Founded by two former indie game developers, the site allows developers to upload their projects to a marketplace and be matched to "sponsors" -- anything from game publishers to corporations wanting games for their Web sites -- using a variety of pricing models, from selling the full source code and intellectual property, to placing in-game ads or revenue sharing.

"If you're on your own, you spend a lot of your time trying to find sites that might be interested in featuring your game: e-mailing people, hunting them down, and closing the sale," said co-founder Chris Hughes. "We understand that game developers want to focus on making games, not wasting their time on these other activities."

Currently, Flash Game License features thousands of games by more than 4,000 developers, which are perused by a carefully vetted pool of 1,000 potential corporate sponsors. It makes its money by taking a 10% cut of any deals that are brokered, "so developers don't pay a cent unless they have a signed deal," said Hughes.

Gamasutra

The winner of the Webby award for the best game-related Web site for the past two years, Gamasutra was founded in 1997, and is the online sister site of print magazine Game Developer. (Disclosure: Gamasutra is owned by United Business Media, which also owns InformationWeek.)

Gamasutra offers game developer news and features, forums, message boards, and a job posting board for both contract and full-time game developers seeking employment. With more than 450,000 registered users, Gamasutra has become a major marketplace for developer talent: because first-time game developers frequently need hand-holding or mentoring, this is an ideal place for them to find people with complementary skills, like audio, animation, programming, artwork, or testing, to collaborate with or to supplement their own strengths.

One highlight of the site is its education section, which provides detailed information on educational and training programs specifically for aspiring gamers, said Simon Carless, publisher of Gamasutra. "We also have an extensive 'getting started' section, in which we provide resources for aspiring developers, including survey results on salaries and other industry metrics," he said.

Gamedev.net

Containing a wealth of technical information for aspiring game developers, GameDev.net was founded in 1999 to act as an online community for game developers of all levels. International in scope, GameDev.net currently boasts more than 350,000 developers from around the world, and features news, feature articles, forums, job boards, and other resources for developers to build and interact with a community of like-minded individuals.

Berardi finds it especially useful for its technical resources. "The advice given in the forums is just excellent," he said. "You can get just about any question answered by experienced developers who are very generous with their time and expertise."

Kongregate

Widely considered one of the best places for aspiring gamers to hang out, Kongregate has been called the YouTube of the online game world. It brings together game players and game developers at a site featuring thousands of free games, as well as a broad range of community-building features such as forums, feedback, user-rating mechanisms, profile pages, and private messaging capabilities. Developers upload their games to the site, and Kongregate shares advertising revenue with them while allowing them to retain 100% ownership of their intellectual property.

"What really distinguishes us from other sites is our community," said Jim Greer, CEO of Kongregate. As the fourth-biggest Web games site in the world, Kongregate currently has more than 3,000 developers who have contributed 8,500 games -- a number that is growing at the rate of 850 new games per month. "If you have an exciting game, our members will recognize it, and reward you," said Greer.

Unlike other game sites, which offer developers a one-time licensing fee -- usually quite low -- Kongregate provides developers with the opportunity to get their games in front of a large audience and get valuable feedback in the form of user ratings and comments. At the same time, they share in advertising revenue for the site. "We help them build audiences through establishing achievement milestones and scores for users, which gets the users rather obsessively involved in trying new games by new developers," said Greer.

Revolution Games Network

A combination of self-publishing gaming portal and social networking community for developers and gamers, Revolution Games Network is currently in beta test, and is building an interactive community for first-time developers to develop, share, market, and distribute their games.

Owned by digital rights management firm ECD Systems, and based upon EDC's FairShare DRM technology, Revolution Games Network provides subscription-based services for developers that allow them to create a revenue-sharing business model encompassing sales, advertising, merchandising, and distribution.

"Because this is also a social network, you get a lot of people hanging out, and you can recruit them into helping you fine tune your game," said David Macias, executive producer of Revolution Games Network.