How to Access Freeware Game Content for New Children's WEbsite

credilimit

Hi,

We are looking to source about 20 free games to upload on a new website we are developing for children. No revenue will be generated for the first 18 months to determine feedback etc.

Question: could anyone recommend a suitable source for Freeware games aimed at 4 - 10 year olds and how the licensing of such games actually works.

There are numerous websites claiming to offer Freeware games without any restrictions but once the game is activated the user is restricted to a short time before they have to register on one of the main game developer companies.

We are very limited on budget hence the need for freeware game content to begin with.

To clarify, we are looking to access free game content that can be used on another website without any licensing commitments etc. Full credit would be given to the developer etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Kilgore__Trout

Are you looking for games to imbed in your site, or games that can be downloaded from your site?

credilimit

We are looking for games to embed into a website for users to play with.
Thanks

Kilgore__Trout

Don't know much about game portals, so can't guarantee that this info is a fair representation of the state of things. You may run into difficulty finding decent freeware titles. Even very simple games can take weeks to get into good running order, and usually require some degree of cost to the developer. Not saying they aren't out there, but may be difficult to get people to give away their games in exchange for credit.

AFAIK, the way flash style games are licensed is either (i) bought outright from the developer (could be exclusive, non exclusive would obviously be cheaper), or (ii) ads shown at some point during game and advertising revenue divided up. In terms of buying a game outright, it's probably not what you're looking for, but to give you an idea, I've heard costs of 100 up to a few 1000 for better, more polished games.

Revenue share may be an option, guessing developers who aren't exclusive to a single portal would be happy to have their game on as many places as possible. Guessing from your post, that you're testing the water and don't want to form a company till you see how things go, which you would need to do if you're going down the revenue share route.

If revenue or buying outright aren't going to work for you, you could try contacting individual developers, explaining your situation, and see what happens.

Torakx

I think for the most part, the kind of people who would be interested in this for cedit would be students and recent graduates.
If you would like to get in touch with a college that is involved with setting up students for start ups, I can pass your info on one of the CEO's.
It sounds similar to a company I did my work experience with, except they were making html5 games for branding purposes using gamemaker to export for their website/portal.

I am still learnign the trade myself so couldn't fire out solid polished games that fast yet.
But If you would like the contact, I am happy to pass on your info.
You can send me said info in a private message here if you are interested or query me on that more there.

Best of luck!

credilimit

Thanks for the feedback Kilgore and Torakx (PM sent)

We actually have 7 games already which have no license obligations.

There are several websites which offer developers the 'opportunity' to upload their own games for a share in advertising revenue. The most popular of which is http://www.fupa.com

Other similar websites include:
www.games.com
http://www.freeonlinegames.com

All the websites above offer the user with free game content with the developers receiving little and in some cases no revenue at all (there are several forums detailing developers experiences with the above sites)

The games we are trying to source are secondary to the main offering of the website but they we are trying to source good quality and interactive game content!

Cheers

ChRoMe

credilimit wrote: »

we are trying to source good quality and interactive game content!

Cheers

Then you are going to have to pay for it.

credilimit

ChRoMe wrote: »

Then you are going to have to pay for it.

We actually already have some free games but you could be right that a price will be paid for better quality games.

The fact there are literally thousands of quality games made available (in many cases for free or for a small advertising-fee share) by developers there are options - it's just a matter of figuring out the how!😉

Torakx

And that trend will probably continue with the release of more engines with free editors and now more and more free licences.
Free to play focussing on player bought ingame content and advertising is getting extremely popular.

credilimit

Torakx wrote: »

And that trend will probably continue with the release of more engines with free editors and now more and more free licences.
Free to play focussing on player bought ingame content and advertising is getting extremely popular.

That's probably true. What I'm finding is the most challenging aspect of using Freeware games is the licensing agreements which is often missing from the relevant folders. Don't want to use what is suppose to be a Freewre game only to find later it wasn't!!!

Torakx

Good point, you do need to be carefull.
I could be wrong, but if your using games that are average and fired out onto sites, you may find the profit gained from them is not enough to merit being sued, but just as guess!
Don't take my word on that lol

Maybe at the start you can go that route and when you become profitable, be extremely wary of licences.
But maybe someone with more experience in business could help us on that question.

credilimit

Yes, you're right about the need for legal intervention when agreeing to licenses but the main hurdle is to first identify the license in the first place!

With Open Source games the actual license appears to be invisible with little information freely available about the exact conditions under which the game can be used.

The quality of the games is not of paramount importance but it will help!

Cheers again