1. How old were you when you started?
About 15
2. How long have you been making flash games for?
5 years--ish
3. Did you do any sort of animation or programming before flash games?
Programming, no. I spent a while learning to animate cos I wanted to make cartoons for a while before I wanted to make games.
4. What kind of flash games do you specialize in?
Arcade action games, and comedy games. I don't consider that they're made in Flash at all, I just make the games I'd enjoy playing. A lot of people make Flash games based on market research, but I'm not smart enough to be into that.
5. Do you have difficulty making any kind of specific flash game category, if yes, why?
I can't do physics-based games, or really anything interesting with physics. This is mostly because I'm focussing on animation more than scripting.
6. How hard was it for you to get into making flash games, what was the learning curve like?
I learned to make games by downloading already-made games and pulling them apart, so I got the satisfaction of playing a working project straight away. I've bin doing this so long though and I'd still never call myself a good programmer. The learning curve of how to make games is way more interesting than the learning curve of how to use Flash- You can do a lot without being an expert.
7. What got you wanting to make flash games in the first place?
When I was in school I wanted to grow up to make cartoons. At some point I realised that there were a lot of cartoons on the internet, and they were all clearly made by individual teenagers. So I thought it'd be fun to join in and try n make something I could be proud of.
After a while I just realised I was more interested in games, and luckily Flash does both.
8. How long does it take for you to complete a flash game?
Oh god- I've spent a few days on some games and months on others. It depends how much game you wanna make.
I went for a while making 1 game a month to get some steady income.
9. How many flash games have you made so far?
About 26.. I think. Some are huge, some are small. There's tonnes of others that I just deleted or decided to put down.
10. Are any of the games that you've created well known?
Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar got a lot of attention, I got a lot of really cool fanart from that, I'm really happy with how it came out and it really turned me on to the idea of making comedy games. Right now I'm making No Time To Explain with this great marketing guy I met; We've got loads of attention from the games press, we're the fastest Kickstarter project to ever reach it's goal (just trippled it, oh my god!) and we've got a bunch of deals with games distribution services to sell it this Summer. The project's growing like the crazy right now.
11. Have you made any money off these flash games, through winning prizes or sponsorship or another method?
The first few games I made I submitted into these huge contests that MaxGames.com would do every year. They'd give away loads of money, but luckily for me nobody ever entered!
I made a steady living getting games sponsored for a while, ad revenue comes in from Newgrounds and Kongregate every month, and like I said just recently we'll be selling No Time To Explain when it comes out. We've already made money on that from distribution deals and the Kickstarter. Way more than I ever would from sponsoring it.
12. Do you use more than just flash / actionscript to create flash games?
No. Sometimes I use After Effects to make trailers.
I use Audacity a lot.
13. Have you run into any legal trouble with any of your flash games?
No, thank god! That sounds horrible.
14. Do you have any sort of physical condition due to your excessive use of the computer such as arthritis or a back problem or something else?
No. My hand hurts sometimes and I don't know why.
15. Would you consider yourself a professional?
No, never. That's terrifying, don't say that.
16. Do you consider this a likely avenue for a future career?
Wow, that's a difficult question. I got into this as the whole sponsorship/ads market was blowing up and I'm really lucky for that, but now it's really getting saturated with cloned copycat games, cheap games, video ads, and you can't really rely on just making a great game and getting paid for it as much right now. Having some business accumen is getting more and more important, I'm actually breaking out of web games and teaming up with people with the marketing skills I don't have.
Is it a good idea to start making games? Yes. Can you make a living from it? Definately! Should you jump into Flash games to pay your bills today? ...You should really think about it first!
17. Did you start this type of hobby as a passion? If yes, do you still have the same drive as you did when you started? If not, what was your reason for starting this type of hobby?
Yes. And-- y'know I'm feeling kind of fatigued from making so many games that haven't kicked off, and I can't tell if it's because I don't put the effort into getting exposure, or because my games are just bad.
But anyway this game right now is crazy-popular and I just don't feel that excited about it. I'm not staying up all night on things like I used to any more, I don't know if it's the game, or where I am, or what I'm expecting.
18. Finally do you have any tips for newcomers?
Nope!
Make sure you get some excercise! Don't forget that you have a job where you literally sit down all day, and that energy is just gonna stick around. Excercising makes people feel good, it's a fact.
