Being an indie flash developer has had it's perks. I've been able to code when feeling productive, and garden when I haven't. The creative freedom of designing your own concepts from start to finish is immensely rewarding, and positive feedback always strokes one's ego quite the treat. I've loved the majority of it. Only, with it's perks it has a crippling down side which makes me seriously consider getting into Electrical Engineering. The Benjamins - of which I am all about.

That's right, money. So far, my main way of getting said Benjamins was to build a game and sell sponsorship rights online. I have had 5 games sponsored. Not bad right? Well considering this is in the space of a little over a year sponsorships have come few and far between. To successfully be making a decent profit this way I would have to build a game from scratch, then successfully have it sponsored once every 4 to 8 weeks.

Now I consider myself an OK ideas man when it comes to Flash games - but realistically speaking, how long could I feasibly keep this up? Just exactly how many stink little puzzle games can I come up with? Sure, I can churn them out at the moment - but eventually the creative well will surely dry up. Considering I want to keep my games as original as possible this can be a problem. Also, by the time I finish a game, usually I'm in such a financial state that the quick lump sum that comes from a sponsor is instant relief. I'd jump at any decent sponsorship deal but is that really the right move?

So far I have had one great sponsor, who has collaborated with me, offered advice, and most importantly paid me! All 5 of my games have been through his sites. It's been a pleasure working with him, but now I've realised I can't keep it up. As much as I have enjoyed it, and as easy as it has been to secure sponsorship so far it's time to think of alternatives, and it's time to try and make faster, smarter money.

With my latest project, I'm going to bite the bullet and upload it to www.flashgamelicense.com. This is a service where Flash developers can showcase their work in front of prospective sponsors. There may be a fee involved, but having the game viewed by many more sponsors that I can get a hold of would definitely be advantageous. If it would be worth the possible costs or not is another matter, and a bit of a risk, but at this stage it's a risk I'm willing to take.

Now looking through all my old work files of half finished concepts and engines - I find my first real game. Now, not only do I have a full version that only needs niceties such as sound and menu content - I find the full Flash Lite version! Sure, this is outside my area of expertise, but why not see what happens? So I upload it to www.clickgamer.com and wait. Most of my games can be ported to Flash Lite anyway, so if this is a successful method - it's one I can repeat. With a day's work I can finish the online version and have another game uploaded to www.flashgamelicense.com.

It's a bit of a gamble and a nervous time. But when my current methods aren't working as well as I would like, it's time to mix things up. Time to forget about what's tried and true(ish) and try something else. After all, desperate times do call for desperate measures. All I can say is wish me luck...