Sponsorship Question

So I’m wanting to get a sponsorship for my first game and these are the things I’m hoping for:
I would like to retain the rights to upload the original .swf file to Kongregate and Newgrounds.
I would like to keep the “Aftershock Studios” Logo at the start and main menu of the game.
I would also like to incorporate MochiAd’s, although I can disable them for the sponsors site.

You can:
- Have branding at the start, main menu, “Wave over” screen and credits.
- Distribute the “MochiAd’s” version of the game to sites other than Kongregate.com and Newgrounds.com.
- Have me implement YOUR sites API/High Scores.

Am I missing anything? And is this a reasonable request? How much less would I get if I included the rights for me to sell individual secondary licenses (ones without branding)

Those are all reasonable requests. FGL has options for who uploads to NG and Kong, as well as locations of developer branding placement. You can negotiate these with the potential sponsors directly after they have placed a bid and get them to change their bid.

Something important to note: do not put those notes on your game. Let all and any bids flow in then contact individual bidders about anything you might have a problem about. Most will be willing to listen to you and change stuff up.

And finally, don’t mention anything about “your site’s API/Highscores”. Sponsors will let you know if they have an API so you don’t need to advertise that you’d be willing to do this. It’ll be in the bid terms.

unknown when u say ‘bid’ where exactly would you post all this information to be auctioned on?

FGL has a service for selling games, with a bid system for sponsors to purchase your game.

A sponsor’s bid would look like this:

You can see it includes sponsor API in bid notes and what not.

Alright- question. It says “Mochi Version after 2 weeks”. Is there someway that I can just have it so that if it’s not on the sponsor’s site it will have Mochi?

Those are in private notes, stuff the sponsor custom wrote in. You’ll have to chat with the bidder to get that changed. They’ll probably be pretty strict on whether its Mochi or CPMStar and deadlines of release for both of these.

@RTL_Shadow, I don’t know why you are so attached to mochi ads though. Personally, I suggest, as UG said, to put the game for sponsorship and wait to see the bids you get. A lot of sponsor don’t want ads in their games (but this mean that they pay more, so it’s as good for you). And often, if they want ads, it will be CPMstar (which pay as good as mochi and look better in a game). Of course, you can always insist to get mochi ads, but I don’t suggest doing it.

Anyway, just upload your game on FGL and wait too see what happens. There is always place to negotiation. ;)

Maybe put the ads in, send the game in for bidding, find out what sort of bids you are getting, determine what sort of price you may get for your game and say you will remove the ads should your game get to a fixed price?

Also, how good is FGL at selling games? I read about FGL. Apparently it has an EasyLicense, which apparently condenses transactions. But is it worth getting? And what sort of gaming companies know about it?

I think EasyLicense is reserved for higher end devs selling quality games that go well in a batch package for sponsors. Quality games that they know people play and do well on sites that these sponsors want to buy in mass quantity. (Think sponsor wants X number of physics games).

FGL definitely boosted my own team’s revenue at least 100x and I believe Sanchex can say the same. I was looking at $0-$20 collectively from my games on Kong then looking now in the several hundred dollar range for each game on FGL. Its safe to say that the 10% commission I’ve paid on all my sponsorship is more than I earned in the first 3 years of game programming combined.

Well, EasyLicense is available for everyone, but there is an additonal 10% fee, so I don’t suggest using it.

But except that, FGL is definately an awesome place as UnknownGuardian said. If you have a bad game, it won’t really help though. But if you have a good unreleased games, it will give you a lot of exposures from tons of sponsors, and probably some good bids. All big sponsors are on FGL (kongregate, newgrounds, armorgames, NotDoppler, maxgames and a lot more). But again, nothing is magical, you need a game with high quality.

Stay away from Maxgames and Mofunzone. Well, Gamebuilder can tell us more about Mofunzone, but Maxgames is a no-no.

Wouldn’t it be best to contact sponsors individually before going on FGL? That way you don’t have to pay the 10% commission.

What about a trailer/demo? Do you think hosting a trailer/demo on Kongregate (or maybe my own site if I get one) would be a good idea so sponsors know what they’re getting?

Originally posted by lSWATLLAMA:

Stay away from Maxgames and Mofunzone. Well, Gamebuilder can tell us more about Mofunzone, but Maxgames is a no-no.

Wouldn’t it be best to contact sponsors individually before going on FGL? That way you don’t have to pay the 10% commission.

Well, maxgames and mofunzone don’t have the best reputation, but they usually pay well. :P

Anyway, some developers contact sponsors individually to sell their games outside of FGL, but we are talking about high ends developers with a lot of contacts. And even them, they usually use FGL. It’s way better to use the site and pay the 10% commission than to not use it. You’ll be able to get way more money with FGL. I sold 4 games on FGL, and I was always happy to pay the commission. ;)

Originally posted by jasonjie88:

What about a trailer/demo? Do you think hosting a trailer/demo on Kongregate (or maybe my own site if I get one) would be a good idea so sponsors know what they’re getting?

Well, when you are looking for sponsors on FGL, you post the complete game there. So you don’t really need a demo, since they can play the full game. But a trailer can always be a nice though. For the trailer, you need to host it on youtube and link it to your game on FGL.

Its hard to build up a list of many sponsors that’ll respond to emails in the first place. That huge list of emails they have in the google docs list? Like 2 might read it. And 1 might check out a game. FGL has many more sponsors that will look at your game with less effort.

Are the hours that FGL saves you from emailing worth 10% of your sponsorship value?

Could you have gotten such a high bid without the numerous competing sponsors possibly in bid wars over your game?

Usually only more experienced developers with personal contact info and reputations for quality games will have a less difficult time on their own, taking the risk that they aren’t getting less than they would have from FGL.

I haven’t heard much about Maxgames, but did hear Mofunzone is generally a no-go unless you want to take 50% upfront and have a higher bid slightly.

Trailers are always good. 1 minute of video may be what the sponsor wants to see instead of spending 10-15 minutes playing your game. It always helps when attracting sponsors, especially through email. I’ve started sending trailers and pictures in my emails out to sponsors. Seems like a few more check the vid than the game.

EDIT: Ban Sanchex for ninja posting. I wish I could move his post below mine but sadly there is no such feature. >:(

Originally posted by UnknownGuardian:
EDIT: Ban Sanchex for ninja posting. I wish I could move his post below mine but sadly there is no such feature. >:(

Lol

Just a note on EasyLicense: There are no costs for the developer attached to it. All it means is that the sponsor pays you through FGL. Which is nice since sometimes sponsors can be a pain with paying, but FGL themselves are very quick.

Oh and also, all my sponsors so far have paid the 10% commission fee.

Originally posted by lSWATLLAMA:

Stay away from Maxgames

I’ve never heard of Maxgames being a problem. They’ve sponsored some high quality games.

Age of War.

What about Age of War? You mean they are keeping it exclusively on their portal? That would be a problem with the developer not communicating with the sponsor or the terms of the sponsorship license. Plenty of sponsors have exclusivity periods.

I didn’t know that Age of War was exclusive to maxgames. I thought I’d played it on other sites. I don’t know the details, but the developer said in an old blogpost that he was ripped off by Maxgames and that they wouldn’t let him make a third.

How would using FGL get you more money? Can’t you just negotiate straight up with your sponsor instead? Say you sent out a mass-email to a few hundred sponsors.

It would be cool if Kong sponsored more games. :P

Can’t you just negotiate straight up with your sponsor instead? Say you sent out a mass-email to a few hundred sponsors.

You might get 10 views and 3-5 clicks to your game. But thats it. FGL will get you 30+ clicks.

I sent an email to sponsorship@armorgames.com a week or two ago. I told them about my new game, and I attached some screenshots of the game. I guess I should have let them actually play the game. I didn’t think of that at the time. Of course, I didn’t get a reply, but I plan on emailing them again. xD

Originally posted by Sanchex:

@RTL_Shadow, I don’t know why you are so attached to mochi ads though. Personally, I suggest, as UG said, to put the game for sponsorship and wait to see the bids you get. A lot of sponsor don’t want ads in their games (but this mean that they pay more, so it’s as good for you). And often, if they want ads, it will be CPMstar (which pay as good as mochi and look better in a game). Of course, you can always insist to get mochi ads, but I don’t suggest doing it.

Anyway, just upload your game on FGL and wait too see what happens. There is always place to negotiation. ;)

I would like mochi ads because if ~150 flash sites end up stealing my game I’ll profit from it.