Posts Tagged ‘professional game’
August 31st, 2009 | 
Author: Flash web games are created with vector images and action script programming using Adobe Flash software. Different types of flash web games have been developed to satisfy players of all ages from kids to adults, some popular game categories are sports, adventure, virtual casino, music, action, word search and learning games.
In the past, computer games usually have high CPU and bandwidth requirements because of the use of large size bitmap images. With the increasing popularity of web based games in recent years, Flash has become the mainstream of web game development tool.
There are several benefits of using Flash to create web games versus using other types of software. One important advantage is that Flash games load a lot faster than games developed with other software programs because it is 100% vector based. Flash also comes with many built-in animation effects, which makes it easier for developers to program a colorful, fast loading, smooth running gaming experience for players. Flash compiled animations use very little memory and bandwidth, without compromising on the quality and features of the games. The Flash developer kit from Adobe is also relatively inexpensive as a professional game development software. All these factors have made Flash the best web game development software for web programmers, and made web game easy to develop and addictive to play.
Online web games are not just for kids. According to Casual Games Market Report 2007, an estimated 200 million consumers play casual games online every month. Many of them are adults who do not regard themselves as gamers, or fans of video games. Casual games typically are a flash mini game, played on a personal computer online in web browsers. They are usually extremely easy games, like a shooting or golf game that can be played entirely using a one-button mouse or keypad, the overall skill required to play the game is much lower than a traditional game. Players should be able to able to open and play the web game without reading a lengthy introduction to the product. This simple and easy to play aspect of flash casual games has helped grow the industry rapidly.
Flash is a great authoring tool for developing an interactive a web game or casual game. An experienced flash animator can develop a mini flash game within several hours with high quality image and animations. Another advantage is that flash player is available for all types of browsers on different operating systems including PC, Mac, or Linux, through a web browser or standalone (e.g. on a 3G phone)
How to make a flash mini game if you are not a game design artists? You can consider create flash games using available flash game templates. Flash game templates are ready to use mini flash games with full source code files. These flash game templates can be customized, modified using Adobe Flash. So you can easily add your own name, logo, text, link or even replaces the graphics. You can buy flash game templates from commercial websites or search online forums for open source flash game source code samples.
Many flash games are developed for free distribution in order to drive traffic to a website and increase a website stickiness. For example, a sport website selling golf clubs, tennis rackets, fishing equipments can put related mini flash games on website for their visitors to play. When a website makes a free flash game available, it would attract a lot more people to visit the website and stay on the website longer. This can help website to increase customer loyalty, brand awareness, and potential to earn revenue from sponsor ads or product sales.
There are also many revenue potentials for flash games. Most casual flash game are distributed for free after development. And for some popular flash games, they are usually licensed to a large company base on sponsorship or ad revenue share basis.
Visit our flash game template website at http://a4flashgame.com to download flash game source code file (.FLA), templates and custom game samples including flash bubble game, puzzle game, interactive world map game and memory card games.
Article Source: Make a web game using flash game source code templates
If you’re a gamer and wish to become a paid game tester, then you’re in luck, as the video game tester requirements are quite lax these days; hence, nearly anyone can get a job testing video games for pay.
Here are the most basic video game tester requirements….
Must be at least 18 years old. This requirement can be bent depending on the gaming company hiring you. Although they are typically few and far between, there are in fact companies out there hiring gamers whom are below the age of 18.
Must be an avid gamer with plenty of experience. In this day and age, who isn’t a gamer? A couple of weeks with Halo, Final Fantasy, Oblivion, and/or any other highly popular games and any person can call themselves an “avid” gamer.
Must be upgraded to next-gen. If you’re not playing next-gen video games nor own a next-gen system (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii), then you’re WAY behind when it comes to video game testing jobs. Since many developers have “at-home” testing opportunities, it is vital that you get up to speed and into the next-gen race. (If you don’t have a next-gen system, you need a high-end computer)
Must have high-end computer. If you’re more of PC gamer, then having a powerful computer is of crucial importance. A powerful PC means you will be able to put any of the developer’s games to the test without worrying about your own hardware problems. (If you don’t have a high-end computer, you need a next-gen system)
Must have a video game tester resume. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been testing (or trying to test) games, you simply must have a professional looking resume. Professional game testing is a job, so you can’t expect to get by with just a smile and a “can I test games for you?” mentality. Remember, your resume doesn’t have to be breath taking — it just has to be professional and well put together.
The above video game tester requirements are really all you need to get started. In fact, some of those requirements might be null & void when it comes to certain developers. That being said, don’t be afraid to submit your application/resume just because you don’t meet a certain requirement — you never know what exceptions a gaming company is willing to make!
For more in-depth information about video game testing and what it takes to be a professional video game tester, try visiting http://www.GameTestingParadise.com, a very popular website that can help you jump-start your game testing career.
Article Source: Give Up If You Don’t Meet These Video Game Tester Requirements
Professional video game testing is obviously a lot better than most other jobs out there. However, being a paid video game tester, like any other job, does have it’s downsides. Admittedly, these downsides are few and far between, but they do exist and each & every tester has to put up with them.
How Much You’ll Make as a Video Game Tester
There is no set amount that you’ll begin making when you start testing video games for money. Different companies pay different wages, so it’s hard to give an exact figure on what a beta tester can or will be paid. In light of that fact, don’t wholeheartedly believe ads that say game testers get paid up to $120 per hour. Although it’s not technically a lie, it’s not really truth either — Beta game testers are paid well, just not that well.
At a rate of $120 per hour, a tester would make $600 per day just working a minuscule 5 hours. Honestly, you’d be hard pressed to find a professional game tester that gets paid half that sum for a days worth of work.
Ball-Park Figures: The yearly salary of a video game tester can range from a low $18,000 to a staggering $80,000 or more. The monthly salary can range from $1500 to a high $6000. The weekly salary can be anywhere from $250 to a whopping $2000.
What you’re paid as a professional game tester relates directly with the developer you’re working for as well as the amount of work you can take on.
What You’ll Do As A Paid Game Tester
Unfortunately, you won’t just be playing video games all day long. In truth, playing video games and testing video games are two COMPLETELY different things. Although you’ll still likely have fun doing the job, it won’t be quite as much fun as you originally thought. Why? Because there is actual worked involved with the testing process.
Rather than just being paid to judge the “fun factor” of a video game, testers are paid to find what programmers can’t — bugs and glitches. Game programmers can easily identify the larger bugs & glitches, but when it comes to the smaller, less noticeable ones, developers rely on testers to get the job done. In light of that fact, as a video game tester it is YOUR JOB to play a video game as many times as it takes in order to locate and document all known bugs and game breaking glitches — locate AND document!
For more in-depth information about video game testing and what it takes to be a professional video game tester, try visiting http://www.GameTestingParadise.com, a very popular website that can help you jump-start your game testing career.
Article Source: The Awesome Earnings of a Paid Video Game Tester
Believe it or not, tens of thousands of people are getting paid to test the newest and coolest video games. Why is this? Because video game companies don’t want to lose money, that’s why!
Paid beta game testing is only possible because of all the bugs and glitches that can’t be caught by your average programmers. You have to understand that the job of the programmer is to create the game, not perfect it and locate any possible problems — that particular assignment belongs to a video game tester.
The game tester is the one that plays the game and discovers what makes the game good, what makes it bad, and/or what makes the game unplayable. Having said that, without video game testers, releasing video games would be a huge gamble; as developers would simply have to hope that the programmers made zero mistakes. After all, one tiny mistake could literally destroy a video game’s popularity with the gaming community.
What do paid beta game testing jobs entail? Basically, the game tester just sits down and plays the video game until he or she locates all bugs in his/her assigned levels — that’s their fundamental role. Admittedly, it isn’t as easy as just sitting back, relaxing, and having fun with a great game; but it is a pretty simple job none the less.
To be a qualified game tester, you have to have a great eye for detail, as that is what professional game testing is all about. If you can’t spot abnormalities, strange occurrences, and random glitches, then you have no chance of being a game tester, period. So, if you want to be a tester, start honing in on your awareness level.
Paid beta game testing is all about focus and concentration. If you simply play the game as though you were at home in your pajamas, you probably won’t be too efficient when it comes to tracking down bugs and game breaking glitches. You have to remember that paid beta game testing is a job, and no matter where you are while you’re working — whether it be at home or at a testing center — you have to act professional and take the job seriously.
For more in-depth information about paid video game testing and what it takes to be a professional beta game tester, try visiting http://www.GameTestingParadise.com, a very popular website that can help you jump-start your game testing career.
Article Source: Skilled Gamers Make Money With Paid Beta Game Testing Jobs
Currently the most popular free online games on the Internet consist of 2d games created in Adobe Flash. Popular with many free game portals, these games are often fun but can seem primitive compared to the complexity and potential of browser based 3d games. The tools available for you to develop games inside a browser consist of a lot of options but I will focus on 3 major software packages. As a professional game developer, I will outline some of the choices developers have available to them to create games that work inside a web browser and a brief overall history.
Browser based 3d gaming is an old concept first popularized with Adobe Shockwave which first materialized in 1995. Originally called Macromedia Shockwave, it was the first and most successful multimedia player format until Macromedia Flash (now known as Adobe Flash) came onto the scene. In the beginning Shockwave was created for making a wide variety of online media content but today has come to mainly focus on online games and their development. There is a difference between Flash and Shockwave development that is important to note. Flash files are typically faster to load and only consist of 2d graphics. Shockwave files are a more versatile development environment which allow greater complexity, more detailed animation hierarchies and more in depth overall interactivity. Shockwave is such a versatile tool that often it is disregarded as a tool to develop solely web content. A little known fact is some of the retail games I have personally worked on used Shockwave to create entire full length PC games such as CSI 2: Dark Motives and CSI: Miami.
Part of the appeal of Director for an authoring tool for game development is the wide install base it enjoys in mature markets such as North America and Europe. Adobe has given the number of Shockwave ready Internet-enabled PCs at 60%. Over 480 million Internet-enabled PC’s have installed the Shockwave software making ease of access for Shockwave games a great benefit for developers. Also the ability for developers to create external plug-ins called “Xtra’s” opened the door for greater flexibility in development. Combined with the existing years of documentation and tutorials out there, Adobe Shockwave is a great option for game developers. The downside to Adobe Shockwave is the outdated networking support and lack of certain basic graphical elements such as 2nd UV coordinates and CBV coloring.
New to the 3d browser based game stage is the product known as Unity. Unity features a much richer tool set solely focused on creating interactive games. The graphical engine integrated is leaps and bounds above the quality found in Adobe Shockwave player. Unity boasts multi-platform capability which means it can be used to create products for Windows, Macintosh, Wii,Web-browsers or Iphone. Unity’s decision to focus on creating a versatile game authoring tool is clearly evident by its superior proprietary tool sets for navigation and placement of game objects. The terrain tool set included with Unity is almost reason alone to justify the purchase price, as you are given the option of paint brushes to sculpt out realistic landscapes, blend life-like textures and generate lightmaps to enhance realism. As a games artist, I know that a lot of time is spent creating these type of landscapes and this is a huge time saver.
The ability for developers to create products that can be simultaneously ported to Wii and iPhones make Unity an extremely powerful tool. This maximizes the return on time invested with multiple products. Unfortunately until the release of Unity 2.5 which has been under development for almost a year, developers would be forced to work in a Mac only environments which is not usually what small developers use.
Another authoring tool available similar to Unity is Stone Trip’s Shiva. This tool is a graphical user interface tool and can also create products for Windows, Macintosh, Web-browsers or iPhone but not the Wii easily. In fact almost all of the same features offered by Unity are matched by Shiva including that exceptional terrain editor. A free version is available for anyone to try out which is also a nice feature for cash strapped independent developers. This free version is limited only in that you cannot publish the final version but gives anyone the ability to try before they buy. The only downside I can see to this great product is the format competition it currently is up against. Of course this obstacle can be overcome with the right products developed or a great title released.
With a bit of patience and doing the appropriate research, independent game developers have more choice now than previously in creating 3d browser games. These are not all of the available options but just three of the more interesting ones I have come across.
Derek Young co-owns Switchin.net – a games portal which receives 1.7 million unique visitors a month. With over 5 years of professional game development experience he can always point you towards some good 3d games
Article Source: Creating 3d Games In A Browser
Every child has a dream of becoming somebody awe inspiring someday. Some would want to grow up to become a lawyer. Some would want to become a doctor. They would say: “I want to become a doctor so that I could cure sick people!” For boys, I guess what tops on this “when I grow up list” is to become an astronaut: everyone seems to have undergone the astronaut phase. (Case in point: Toy Story where Buzz Aldrin replaced the cowboy toy) Some poor souls want to become lawyers. (only heaven knows for what reason!) A few noble ones would want to become teachers– “So that we could mould the minds of the future!” (Pretty mature reason for a child.) For girls, the most favored profession is: “I want to be a famous actress or a fashion model!” It figures. Most of them are vain. Hehe
But as far back as I could remember, all I ever wanted was to be involved in games. I love games. I love the feel of being transported to a different world. I am perpetually amazed how a game could make you forget the time and make you forget a problem. Do you have a problem with your love life? Play counterstrike! Imagine that the evil and vile love of your life face on a terrorist and shoot it with a machine gun. Exterminate! Obliterate! Oops I am sorry. I am getting out of line here. Anyway, I have been envious of professional game players. They go from one tournament to another and earning money while playing computer games. Then they get to win really cool prizes like a top of the line PC or the latest release mobile phone. Talk about lucky people.
I have mentioned that I love playing games. Unfortunately, games do not like me. I suck at playing games. No matter how long I have played at a game, once I reached a point where I know the basics, I do not seem to improve. My friends almost always kick my ass in whatever games we play. In Defense of the Ancients (a popular game mode in Warcraft III), my friends would make it a tradition to hunt my character for I am an easy kill. They would say: “Hey guys! Check out the free 200 gold here!” and they would just laugh.
I know then that if I can’t be a gamer I would be a game developer. Blessed with an eye for details and syntax construction, I studied IT in college. Flash has been my favorite software and pretty soon, I began developing flash games for Bratz games. After graduation, I was formally taken by the company that makes Bratz games and I try to update the Bratz games site. I try to make Bratz games fun and simple to play and pretty soon positive comments flow my way. My little nephews and nieces love playing Bratz games and I found great satisfaction in my work every time I see them smile.
Lea Smith is a bratz dolls enthusiast and she loves to play various Bratz Games . She is also the webmaster of www.bratzgames.biz wherein you can find tons of great online flash games to play.
Article Source: Tales of a Bratz Game Developer