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At 8/29/07 04:07 PM, Jindo wrote:

At 8/29/07 03:59 PM, st1k wrote: Rhys hasnt been here , I dunno where he got to.

Ah, that sucks.

I saw something about a friend of yours starting some kind of sponsor thing?If you remember who he is, and Rhys shows no signs of life, I might give him a try :).

Ok , ive found out hes on vacation! Hell be back next week. And what friend of mine >< i know about 100 newgrounders. And I HAVE a life guys xD!

St1k Having a Life?

It's true, st1k has absolutely no life whatsoever. He sits at his computer all day and makes the same flash game over and over again and talks to all the NGers ever imaginable online. I think he probably nonstop IMs the flash mods too. Just watch the clock day movies about him :P. He hates blacks! When will he get a life? No one KNOWS!

Sorry st1k, I thought it was necessary!

At 8/29/07 10:30 PM, st1k wrote: Ok , ive found out hes on vacation! Hell be back next week. And what friend of mine >< i know about 100 newgrounders. And I HAVE a life guys xD!

Meh, I've forgotten who or where, but you introduced him to Newgrounds not too long ago saying that he was looking for games to sponsor :P.

I guess I can wait a week xP.

MoFunZone.com +++++

Sponsored Game: DestructoTanks
At first we went to quite a few sponsors, they either didn't reply or gave gave us offers below our intended target.
Then we went to MoFunZone, and instantly we could see that they were interested and we decided to continue with them.

Seriousness: +++++
Felt confident throughout the whole process, no messing around - straight to the point.

Money: +++++
Very happy with the money, comfortable to negotiate with and offers what the game is actually worth, instead of offering an insanely low amount first.

Efficiency: +++++
Not only did they always reply, but as this was out first game, we received some great tips which made it much better.
Without this communication the game definitely wouldn't be as good as it is.

Social: +++++
Very nice to deal with, never seemed annoyed even though we sometimes caught them at a busy moment.

At 8/30/07 03:31 AM, Jindo wrote:

At 8/29/07 10:30 PM, st1k wrote: Ok , ive found out hes on vacation! Hell be back next week. And what friend of mine >< i know about 100 newgrounders. And I HAVE a life guys xD!

Meh, I've forgotten who or where, but you introduced him to Newgrounds not too long ago saying that he was looking for games to sponsor :P.

I guess I can wait a week xP.

Oh!!! gameprison.com yeah , hes looking for an awsome game :] just throw me a aim at mrst1k and ill introdouce you 2 if you want. Or just email him :] and el i hate you ><

Collective review for:

CrazyMonkeyGames, 2D Play, AddictingGames, MuchGames, ArmorGames, BlitzGamer, DumpGames :

Either they are too busy to check their email for the past week (nearly 2 weeks for some) or they don't have the courtesy to reply when they don't want to sponsor.

GameGecko:

Seem reasonable, but will only sponsor games smaller than 1mb at the moment.

FlashPortal, Hallpass:

Willing to offer high and are very trustworthy but be prepared to only receive emails for a few hours a day, making the entire process take several days.

LegitGames:

Didn't reply to me for a week until I emailed again (since my friend got a response from them within 20 mins). Told me they didnt have enough money to sponsor games even though they were discussing a deal with my friend.

I've had a pretty lousy sponsor experience, its taken me 12 days from finishing and emailing loads of sponsors to actually get this game released. :(

Hey Guys!

I've spent a tremendous amount of time over these past months researching sponsorships and other ways to capitalize on your game. I still have a LOT more work to do but I believe it has reached a point where it will have value to other developers. So I wanted to release it now and start getting additional input from people as I more forward.

In addition to my thoughts I also have a writeup from John at CrazyMonkeyGames and Greg from Kongregate. There is also a article from Simon at Ezone.com (a succesful independent game company) that will try to convince you that a sponsorship is not the best approach.

Please let me know what you think of site!
Flash Game Sponsorship

At 8/30/07 04:33 PM, st1k wrote: Oh!!! gameprison.com yeah , hes looking for an awsome game :] just throw me a aim at mrst1k and ill introdouce you 2 if you want. Or just email him :] and el i hate you >

Yes, there, just one problem xP, I don't have aim, and my email has been known to be dodgy xP.

I'm willing to get aim and give him a try xP, though I can't promise my game is totally awesome, its just got a lot of good response from people.

At 8/31/07 09:58 AM, AdamSchroeder wrote: Please let me know what you think of site!
Flash Game Sponsorship

Great stuff!

AdamSchroeder,

Great link! :) Been skimming around, and I wish you could've expanded on this:
Negotiate.
95% of the sponsor's initial replies will go like this "Nice Game. How much do you want?" I believe the perfect answer is something like "Thank you so much for your interest in my game! Honestly I don't know what the game is worth so I'm sending it around to several portals including you." Offering a number puts you a weak position as they might simply accept it. You don't really know what your game is worth. $500 might seem like a lot to you but maybe another portal would pay $1000, $1500, $2000 or more!

If you could give tips on how to negotiate when you don't know what your game's worth is, that would be great. How about trying to see what other sponsors offered you and use the highest price as the starting bid. Well, course, that wouldn't work if all of them asked you how much you want. >_>

Or maybe ask around forums like NGG, but only provide pics or even a gameplay video. I'm sure the vets here can do a good judgement on the price of your game.

At 8/31/07 10:56 AM, WolfAkela wrote: AdamSchroeder,

Great link! :) Been skimming around, and I wish you could've expanded on this:
Negotiate.
95% of the sponsor's initial replies will go like this "Nice Game. How much do you want?" I believe the perfect answer is something like "Thank you so much for your interest in my game! Honestly I don't know what the game is worth so I'm sending it around to several portals including you." Offering a number puts you a weak position as they might simply accept it. You don't really know what your game is worth. $500 might seem like a lot to you but maybe another portal would pay $1000, $1500, $2000 or more!

If you could give tips on how to negotiate when you don't know what your game's worth is, that would be great. How about trying to see what other sponsors offered you and use the highest price as the starting bid. Well, course, that wouldn't work if all of them asked you how much you want. >_>

Or maybe ask around forums like NGG, but only provide pics or even a gameplay video. I'm sure the vets here can do a good judgement on the price of your game.

Really its as simple as trying to get them to pick the first number. Once you have a number then you just share with everyone else your talking to and let people start making counter offers. :)

Although I wouldn't put much weight behind my judgements (at least at this current point in time) I'll be happy to look at a game and suggest a "Get at least this much for it..." if you want.

At 8/31/07 11:01 AM, AdamSchroeder wrote: Really its as simple as trying to get them to pick the first number. Once you have a number then you just share with everyone else your talking to and let people start making counter offers. :)

That's the advice I would give too, just say you aren't sure how much to ask for and you would like a figure. However when you do this you will most likely come across as clueless so a lot of sponsors will offer you a lot lower than what it's worth. That's why it's important to keep bouncing it between them until you get a figure you are happy with (or keep going to see if you can be more happy!).

If you could give tips on how to negotiate when you don't know what your game's worth is, that would be great. How about trying to see what other sponsors offered you and use the highest price as the starting bid. Well, course, that wouldn't work if all of them asked you how much you want. >_>

Well, I find that it works fairly well to give a price range, ranging from how much you would actually let them sponsor your game, to mor eor less the highest point. And then say that "probably closer to the middle" or the top, or the bottom, whichever you think is true, but don't forget to say that the price depends on what other portals say.

Honestly, I think this is the best aproach. It seems to work, though I haven't tried it extensively. It doesn't force you into a tough barginning position, but it doesn't corner the sponsor. Plus, after this, they probably offer a price themselves. (:

I just got an Invitation from MochiAds, and was wondering if they would be good to choose for a game? It won't exactly be a huge game, but should be decent? Or go with the others such as CrazyMonkeyGames and ArmorGames?

At 8/31/07 10:56 AM, WolfAkela wrote: AdamSchroeder,

Great link! :) Been skimming around, and I wish you could've expanded on this:
Negotiate.
95% of the sponsor's initial replies will go like this "Nice Game. How much do you want?" I believe the perfect answer is something like "Thank you so much for your interest in my game! Honestly I don't know what the game is worth so I'm sending it around to several portals including you." Offering a number puts you a weak position as they might simply accept it. You don't really know what your game is worth. $500 might seem like a lot to you but maybe another portal would pay $1000, $1500, $2000 or more!

If you could give tips on how to negotiate when you don't know what your game's worth is, that would be great. How about trying to see what other sponsors offered you and use the highest price as the starting bid. Well, course, that wouldn't work if all of them asked you how much you want. >_>

Or maybe ask around forums like NGG, but only provide pics or even a gameplay video. I'm sure the vets here can do a good judgement on the price of your game.

Hey guy's,

I'm Joe from MaxGames.com. I've just stumbled across this thread and although I'm not active on NG boards I just had to reply to this. I for one am soooooo guilty of the "Nice Game. How much do you want?" email lol. The truth of the matter is I have too many emails to respond to that it gets very difficult to go into depth about a game or getting to know the author via email. However I always give out my MSN i.d. in those emails and if a author adds me I'm always willing to be very social and do whatever I can to answer any questions or concerns the developer may have.

As for publishers like me not wanting to give out an offer, it's basically because the market is far too competitive. If I overshoot a sponsorship offer to developer "A" by a few hundred then I may not be able to offer a competitive offer to developer "B" whom comes along tomorrow. Every publisher has a budget that we are willing to spend on advertising each month and we have to make sure we don't go over it. There's also the fear of inflating the market on a certain game.

Most developers like to get as many offers they can from all the biggest publishers. That's great for the developer because then he can get the highest amount of money for his/her game. However you have to realize that in a competitive market like this that publishers like myself talk to other publishers very often. If you come to me and want to get your game sponsored and say give me a offer. My first order of business is to delay you and go around asking other publishers if they have been in contact with you and how much they have offered. This way I know what the dollar value is of your game and am able to offer you a competitive amount or if your other offers are out of my range then to inform you that I'm not interested. Also, the last thing any publisher wants to do is get into a bidding war with eachother.

So basically no one has any idea what to offer at first? Surely the best stratergy is too aim ridiculously high, so ridiculous they will not accept, then they will have to name a price, after that name a price maybe add 25% too it and compare with other sponsers until you get to a point where the price cannot be risen. This is just basic negotiating technique. I think saying you have no idea is a very bad idea, as they could offer whatever they want and lead you to accept it. Act like youve done it 1000s of times before and know exactly what its worth

go for sponsoprship. mochiads pays very very little.

At 9/6/07 11:24 AM, souled wrote: I just got an Invitation from MochiAds, and was wondering if they would be good to choose for a game? It won't exactly be a huge game, but should be decent? Or go with the others such as CrazyMonkeyGames and ArmorGames?

Or you could shoot so ridiculously high that sponsors just stop dealing with you all together.

At 8/31/07 09:58 AM, AdamSchroeder wrote: Please let me know what you think of site!
Flash Game Sponsorship

That is awesome. Really interesting and helpful :)

Has anyone got any advice on writing my initial sponsorship request email? Would anyone mind sharing a letter/email they wrote which was successful? I always feel something is missing from my emails which is why I don't get replies :(

Also, does anyone know of any good UK-based sponsors? It's a pain having to cash foreign cheques.

Subject: Game Sponsorship

Hey,

My name is _____ and I'm looking for sponsorship of my game ________. A link to the game demo has been included at the bottom of this email. Here is a link to my NG profile so you can view my past work. I'm looking for anywhere between $500 and $1,000 for the game. I have inquired at several other publisher sites.

Game link...

Thank you,
blah blah blah

At 9/6/07 05:58 PM, JoeMax wrote: blah blah blah

I sent you an email but it's not as well thought out as that one

At 9/6/07 05:58 PM, JoeMax wrote: Subject: Game Sponsorship

Thankyou. Seems simple enough. So what thoughts do you, as a sponsor, have if the email is informal and jokey? Out of interest.

It makes no difference to me as a sponsor, all that matters is the game. I'm paying good money for advertising and I want to make sure my investment is in a quality game. Not just an investment in a well spoken developer.

At 9/6/07 05:58 PM, JoeMax wrote: I'm looking for anywhere between $500 and $1,000 for the game.

Wouldn't this just cause the sponsor (as a businessman/woman) to go for the lowest value you gave them? It seems silly to me to offer a range to any business minded individual.

Also Joe, what's the deal with the Flashportal/MaxGames cross over? Are they run by the same company? Is there any point me contacting both when looking for a sponsorship?

edit-undo: Try out gamegarage.co.uk, mousebreaker.com and 2Dplay (though 2Dplay never replied about my last game).

Just wondering, how would you get in contact with the people at FlashRage. I looked on the site high and low but to no avail. I found nothing about contacting.

At 9/6/07 07:23 PM, Shinki wrote:

At 9/6/07 05:58 PM, JoeMax wrote: I'm looking for anywhere between $500 and $1,000 for the game.

Wouldn't this just cause the sponsor (as a businessman/woman) to go for the lowest value you gave them? It seems silly to me to offer a range to any business minded individual.

Also Joe, what's the deal with the Flashportal/MaxGames cross over? Are they run by the same company? Is there any point me contacting both when looking for a sponsorship?

edit-undo: Try out gamegarage.co.uk, mousebreaker.com and 2Dplay (though 2Dplay never replied about my last game).

Hey Shinki,

By giving a dollar range like $500 to $1000 makes me believe that you sent the same quote to every other site. So now I know that if I really want the game I should offer around 800 to 1000 for the game where as if I'm just mildly interested I'd offer 500. This also saves me from having to go around and inquire with other publishers what they offered which will only delay you getting a reply from me.

Note: FlashPortal/MaxGames is owned by the same person but the employees of each site are different with there own advertising budgets. So send a email to both if you want a response from both. However MaxGames is holding a game contest right now so they won't be sponsoring too much since there giving away 40k.

Hey Shinki,

By giving a dollar range like $500 to $1000 makes me believe that you sent the same quote to every other site. So now I know that if I really want the game I should offer around 800 to 1000 for the game where as if I'm just mildly interested I'd offer 500. This also saves me from having to go around and inquire with other publishers what they offered which will only delay you getting a reply from me.

One important thing to keep in mind is that games have a different value to different portals. Some can make more from a game then another. Some might not have had a "good" game in a while and are looking for something great.

Some might have just gotten a boatload of venture capital and can sponsor games at a loss... or thinking very long term.

Many of the portals do talk with one another but ultimately they compete with each other and will only share so much information. Truly the best way thing is

-Make sure you game is immediately fun. If it take 2 minutes before it gets good many people won't play that far. [Helistorm 2 is said to be a great game by many people, most start playing and give up within minutes assuming its dull].

-Send your game to as many people as possible. You want to find the portal that really wants your game (for whatever reason) and the more people you talk to the more likely you are to find that portal.

I ended up getting 6 times more then my first offer for AR3. Granted, the game improved over this time period but if I wouldn't have shopped it around I wouldn't have gotten close to this amount of money.

You can read a lot more details here: http://www.flashgamesponsorship.com

I just emailed 9 sponsors regarding a new game of mine, I'll let you guys know how I get on.

I was wondering if anyone knows a contact e-mail for hallpass? Their contact form just doesn't work for me.
Thanks.