Citrus Engine released for free for learning

Do you know Citrus Engine?

It’s a Box2D library designed to allow game developers making 2D side-scrolling platform games, including a graphical level builder that allows you to drag, drop, and customize all of the game objects and art in your game.

These are the main features, as they appear on the official site: Read more

My epic fail with ClickBank

Are you tired of reading about success stories with people making over $20K a day?

Here’s something new: did you notice, during this month, two ads about Farmville secrets and iPhone application development? Here they are:

These two ads belong to ClickBank, an ad network which at the moment made its clients earn more than a billion dollars.

As you can see in these two pictures, I did not earn a cent.

Let’s see what happened:

The reasons behind a failure

When I signed up at ClickBank, I obviously decided to display ads having something to do with my blog… this means programming, gaming or monetizing.

The most “interesting” products I was able to find were:

* A couple of registry cleaners (??)
* A couple of PS3 scam backup system (scam because you won’t be able to play with your backups)
* A dozen ebooks about the ULTIMATE (yeah) way to make money with a blog, or with ebay, or whatsoever
* Some hosting services

The first question was: did I really want my readers to buy a useless PS3 backup system? Come on…

So i opted for a FarmVille guide, even if I am not a FarmVille fan and I hate people posting on Facebook they just found a cripple blind sheep in their damned banana field. All in all FV is a great viral game and I thought a guide would be useful for some addicted players.

The other choice was a guide to iPhone programming… why not… I have a lot of programmers among blog readers.

Why it did not work

Well, every blog has its niche readers. Programmers are quite smart… unlike blogging mogul wannabes, they won’t buy anything from one-page websites claiming to sell the “Ultimate Guide to [put your favorite topic here, obviously all uppercase]”

People like you are looking for real deals from real companies, supported by real case studies… that’s why I was one of the three most important MochiAds referral while I wasn’t able to sell a single ClickBank guide.

So it was a waste of time. Wait. It wasn’t

Thanks to my experience, if you have a programming blog you can improve your ads revenue looking for products you can really review, test and suggest, leaving “ultimate guides” to newbies.

This obviously is my personal story, and results may vary according to the niche you’re talking at.

Get up to $100,000 for your next Flash game with Mochi GAME Developer Fund

Imagine a Flash game sponsor encouraging you to use MochiAds, helping you to market and promote your game, reviewing and testing it putting his experience at your service and helping you to integrate the latest APIs in the most proficuous way.

For some developers this dream could become true because MochiMedia created the Mochi GAME Developer Fund: a $10 million fund that will help promising Flash and social game developers support their games through sponsorship, licensing and publishing deals.

The fund will assist small Flash game development studios and independent game developers worldwide in building world-class games and businesses.

You will find the details in the official page, with some FAQs. Here’s the four more interesting:

Q: What is the Mochi GAME Developer Fund?
A: The Mochi GAME Developer Fund $10 million USD fund for investing in promising Flash and social game developers through sponsorship, licensing, and publishing. The goal of the Fund is to assist developers in launching and building rockstar premium games on the Mochi platform, and to cultivate long term relationships with Flash and social game developers looking to build world-class games and businesses.

Q: What is the target deal size for the Mochi GAME Developer Fund?
A: The Mochi GAME Developer Fund intends to partner with Flash and social game developers on a sponsorship, licensing or publishing basis anywhere from $1,000 to $100,000. Additional consideration may be given to other types of relationships on a case-by-case basis. Generally, the funds will be given upon the achievement of certain milestones of the game development process. The specific milestones can be discussed with the Mochi GAME Developer Fund team.

Q: What types of games is the Mochi GAME Developer Fund seeking?
A: We are open to Flash and social games of all genres and gameplay types targeting all kinds of audiences. Particular attention will be given to games that have high potential to monetize via MochiCoins microtransactions, include social elements that may be enhanced via MochiSocial or are particularly great games.

Q: I don’t live in the United States. Can I still work with the Mochi GAME Developer Fund?
A: Absolutely! Flash and social game developers are located all across the world. We care less about where you live and care more about helping you build great games using the Mochi platform.

According to these FAQs, it looks like an exclusive sponsorship, but I hope to give you more information as I’m running to submit the form and ask for some millions for my next game.

Create a dynamic content animated footer ad for your site in just 9 jQuery lines – 17 lines version

Some days ago I showed you how to create a dynamic content animated footer ad for your site in just 9 jQuery lines.

Now it’s time to write eight more lines to add two important features:

The first, as suggested in a comment, is allowing to set a delay before the ad appears.

The second is using a cookie to let the ad appear only once in a session. This means if you refresh the page, the ad won’t appear again, until you close the browser window and open it again.

This is what we’ll get… the ad appears after three seconds, and only once in a session.

Now let’s see the new lines added: Read more

Sell sitelocked version of your Flash games and even .fla sources to Free Online Games

Are you looking for a quick way to sell a site locked version of your game? Do you want to earn some more selling the .fla source code? Then Neil from Free Online Games (aka FOG) is your man.

FOG is looking for any game, no matter how old it is or how wide spread it is already, as long as it’s a decent game. In this case FOG will buy you a site locked version of your game, or even the .fla source code.

What happens when FOG buys a site locked version of your game

* The game is sitelocked to FOG
* You have to interface your game with their API
* You have to remove all external branding and ads

What happens when FOG buys the source code of your game

* FOG retains the rights to re-release, resell, re-use, delete, make more version and all in all everything with your code
* All branding, ads and credits will be removed

Note: if your game is already sponsored, you may no longer have the right to sell your source code. Check with your sponsor as FOG is not responsible for your previous deals Read more

Protect your work from ActionScript code theft with SWF Protector

« I’ve just found a site that won a top international online advertising award – and it’s been blatantly lifted from me!

Its a flash application that has the same vectors and almost certainly the same AS code. Is there anything I can do? I’m in the UK – they’re in Brazil. »

The guy who opened this thread looks quite desperate… now imagine this happening to your latest Flash game.

That’s why you must protect your code. You don’t want someone else stealing your work.

I am going to review DCOM Soft’s SWF Protector.

SWF Protector

SWF Protector is an swf protector software working through actionscript encryption to secure your actionscript content. This means decompilers won’t be able to read your actionscript. Read more

Create a dynamic content animated footer ad for your site in just 9 jQuery lines

Have you ever seen those ads sliding up from the bottom of your page when you are visiting a website? We are going to create a simple one in just 9 jQuery lines.

Moreover, with this script you will need to add just one line to your site to display the ad.

Just to make it easier to understand, I am showing you for free the principles some “companies” sell at more than $40. According to such sites, ads like the one we are about to make should increase your conversions, have more readers sign up to your newsletter, and make you live in harmony. All in one-

Unfortunately, I am only showing you how to create such ad in a bunch of jQuery lines.

This is what we are going to make: Watch the example.

Ready for the recipe? Here we go:

A web page

Obviously, you need a webpage. Any webpage will fit, as long as you include

<div id="triqui_ad"></div>

just before the </body> tag.

jQuery

Then it’s time to add the power of jQuery to the page: insert this script between <head> and </head> Read more

Understanding Box2D’s one-way platforms, aka CLOUDS

One of the new features introduced with Box2D 2.1a is the improved contact listener class which comes in hand when we want to create one-way platforms, or “clouds”.

This can be made thanks to a function called before the contact is processed… something like “hey, two bodies are about to collide, what should I do?”… so you can decide to disable the contact for every collision you want.

The function used to do this task is PreSolve, working for all awake bodies that aren’t sensors.

If you don’t know what is a Box2D sensor, check Box2D Flash game creation tutorial – part 2.

So the concept is: listen for collisions, if a collision involves the cloud wall and the player, then check if the player is higher or lower than the cloud. If it’s lower, don’t process the collision and let the player fly through the cloud.

Let’s see the script, directly taken from Box2D Flash game creation tutorial – part 2: Read more

Triqui MochiAds Arcade plugin for WordPress upgraded to 1.2

Yesterday MochiMedia changed the games feed adding a new field called metascore that screwed the feed parsing.

So I am releasing the new version, compatible with the new feed and tested with WordPress 2.9.2. You can find it at the official page.

Talking about plugins, I am developing a new theme/plugin using crontables that automatically feeds the games, fixes the tables if MochiMedia updates the feed, and chooses the best games to publish.

Everything without any interaction from the user. The ultimate “forget about it and make money with your arcade site” plugin.

Stay tuned.

Box2D Flash game creation tutorial – part 2

After seeing the character creation in Box2D Flash game creation tutorial – part 1, it’s time to add some coins to collect.

This process will involve some interesting Box2D features, like sensors and custom collision management.

I would suggest to read the basics of sensors at Erase Box: the tutorial and custom collision management at Creation of a Flash Stabilize! clone using Box2D – part 4.

Although they are both referred to an older Box2D version, they’ll introduce you to sensor and collisions.

Now the concept is simple: we are placing some circular sensors around the stage (the coins), then we’ll create a custom contact listener class to check whether the player is over a coin or not. If it’s over, we’ll remove the coin.

So this is the main script: Read more

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