This is the first time in Flash gaming history that three big sites host contests with the same topic, this means you could enter all contest with the same game… let’s make a recap:

Cell Your Flash Game by FlashGameLicense

Prizes: from $2,600 + Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection to $100 (150 places elegible)
Deadline: September 6, 2010
Criteria: The Game must be able to be played on an Android 2.2 smart phone (the “Device”) – The Game must be of a high quality level and enjoyable to players – The Game must scale appropriately to multiple screen resolutions, keeping buttons and interactive elements at a usable size – The Game’s rescaled user interfaces must work with game logic. For example, hunt-the-pixel games must not become unacceptably difficult – Game input events that aren’t supported on the Device – like mouse-over and mouse-move events – must not be important to gameplay
Official page: http://www.flashgamelicense.com/sponsor_pages/adobe/

Mobile Flash Game Contest by Kongregate

Prizes: from $5,000 + Adobe Creative Suite 5 Web Premium to $750 (15 places elegible)
Deadline: August 23, 2010
Criteria:Graphics optimized for mobile device; Text/Instructions/scores, clearly legible; buttons large enough to use on touch screen – Game works regardless of input options (keyboard, touch screen, accelerometer, etc), easy to navigate and play; pause/save options; intuitive; seamless landscape, portrait, and full screen display; leverage and understand the device -Loads fast, built at 25-30 frames/second, fast start up time – Addictive, unique, can be adopted across multiple audiences – Built with standards in mind; easy to adapt to other displays quickly with minimal recoding effort; device and player detection, opportunity to integrate with social media.
Official page: http://www.kongregate.com/pages/mobile-game-contest

Made for Mobile by MochiMedia

Prizes: from $7,000 + Adobe CS5 Master Suite to $50 (105 places elegible)
Deadline: September 24, 2010
Criteria: Must incorporate Mochi Live Updates – Must use the Mochi Ads API advertisements – Must be formatted and performance tested for mobile devices (see rules for more info) – Must be tagged/keyworded with the phrase “adobe2010″ – Highly encouraged to use at least one of several mobile specific features
Official page: http://www.mochimedia.com/contest/jul10

Hope this recap helps. Now, it’s REALLY time to write some tutorial about mobile developing…

So Flash Game License together with Adobe host a very special contest exclusively for members of FGL called Cell your Flash Game

Create or port a game for mobile Flash platforms and you could win fabulous prizes: we are talking about over $30,000 in cash and prizes and if you think contests only reward three or five games, you must know 150 games (yes, one hundred fifty) will win at least $100.

You can port your existing catalog, as long as your games are playable on Android devices, or you can create new games that take advantage of the special features of Android phones, such as the accelerometer and touchscreen.

new forum full of guides, FAQs, and support to help you take advantage of this new frontier. Adobe is providing us with the latest guidelines, APIs, and tools, and we’ll make them available to you here.

You can back-port your catalog, or you can create new games that take advantage of the special features of Android phones, such as the accelerometer and touchscreen.

The contest ends at 11:59:59pm UTC on September 6, 2010.

Refer to the official contest page for full information or to Mobile Flash Development forum to get started with Flash for Android OS programming.

I will help you with a couple of tutorials during next days.

Here it is your chance to win up to $5,000!!

Come2Play – Creators of the first white-label social gaming platform and multiplayer game API – are holding a contest, in conjunction with the LinkedIn Flash Game Developers group, for the development of turn based multiplayer games with prizes totaling $8,000.

In a gaming world where new games are launched and disappear just as quickly, multiplayer games with a social infrastructure are a huge hit amongst users; developing a loyal fan base that come back daily to play against each other and their friends.

Come2Play has developed this infrastructure and are inviting game developers to take advantage of it.

Come2Play is revitalizing the formula by allowing for correspondence challenges. With correspondence challenges, a player makes the first move in a game and then sends it to all their friends through email or their favorite social network. Each individual friend can then send back their next move. Each friend who responds starts a new game with the creator of the game. This gaming form provides a huge viral opportunity to game developers looking to expand the reach of their games.

In light of this initiative, Come2Play is launching their latest contest – The Games That Challenge the World Competition.

Using Come2Play’s multiplayer API, developers are challenged to create head-to-head turn based multiplayer games that fit this concept. Prizes will be given out to games that successfully implement this turn based model based on the contest’s concept. Games will be judged based on originality, design, game play and use of Come2Play’s API features. Judging will be done by Come2Play in conjunction with a panel of industry judges.

Games entered into the competition do not have to be exclusive. In addition, you can retrofit an old game that has already been published and released.

$8,000 in Prizes!

Prizes for the contest will be as follows:
$5,000 for first place,
$2,000 for second place
$1,000 for third place

The contest runs from January 1st through March 31st. Games must be submitted by 11:59pm EST on March 31st, 2010.

In addition to the prize money, Come2Play will pay developers with single player games, which have over 100,000 game plays and a rating over 3.5 on Kongregate or Newgrounds, up to $3,000 to convert their single player game to a multiplayer version. Contact Come2Play at submissions[at]come2play.com to see if you qualify.

More information at the official page

It’s a Box2D game made for the 60 seconds to fame contest built around Stabilize! concept.

You can follow the various steps during the creation of this game at this post and the links you will find in it (I won’t fill this post with links…)

You probably noticed I created a website for the game.

Once the contest will be over and the winners will be announced on friday december 11, I’ll start making a couple of game versions with a more interesting and complex gameplay (this is quite simple because it’s meant to end in 60 seconds) with some interesting additional features if the game is played on the website.

It’s also a good way to give some credit to all “underground” third party libraries such as Box2D and SWFObject.

So, from now on, every game I’ll make will have its own site.

If you like to buy a lifetime banner for a few bucks, give me a shout… you know I’ll drive some millions people to the site :)

Original press release:

« Come2Play has teamed up with the LinkedIn Flash Game Developers group to bring you an awesome Flash Game Competition! Just integrate their API in your game, submit it and you could win one of the following cash prizes:

1st Place: $5,000
2nd Place: $2,000
3rd Place: $1,000

It’s not a massive group, so everybody here has a good chance – this is a competition with no strings attached! The game does NOT have to be new, exclusive, advert free or free of sponsor links to be entered.

The main requirement is that all submissions must have the Come2Play API implemented.

Extra benefits of implementing the API include revenue sharing, game distribution to Come2Play partners and multiplayer features.

The deadline is January 31st, 2010, so there is plenty of time to implement the API to all of your games and submit them to Come2Play! »

More information at the official page.

Expect a tutorial about Come2Play features soon.

It was a Flash Game contest held by Mochimedia, and the staff awarded one game a week a $100 prize for being awesome. There were no other rules and no theme. It was simply the staff choosing something they really enjoyed.

Now things changed. The original Flash Game Friday has now become a monthly contest!

Developers will have one month to develop a game based on a specific theme, and the monthly prize is $500.

Winners will be chosen from the eligible games by the Mochi staff.

The first monthly contest is 60 Seconds to Fame.

Rules: Your game must be over/finished and ready for a score submission in 60 seconds or less. It does not matter how good you are in the game, it will still end in 60 seconds or less. The goal in these types of games is to push a user to get better, not so they can last longer, but rather get more points within that same time limit. It’s to spark the “oh, I get it,” or, “Maybe if I tried this…” in the player. Also, it’s to force a developer to stick to their idea without the fear of feature creep, which is often times a key factor in causing your game to not be completed.

Deadline: December 4th, 2009 – 11:59PM PST

Prizes: $400 for the winner, $50 each for two honorable mentions.

If you need some inspiration, on the official page you can find six examples of games built around this theme. You will find all additional rules too.

It’s called WorDrop and it’s a Box2D game made in a couple of days based on this prototype.

It’s not that great game but I would like to localize it in italian and spanish and see how does it perform.

Obviously big kudos to winners and expect some prototype based on winning games durin next days.

The concept is based upon How to use an embedded text file in Flash and some concepts from SamePhysics.

Letters are falling (very quickly in this example), click on them to make a word, click on a previously clicked letter to submit a word and make letters disappear, or click outside to reset the word.

If a letter falls outside the stage, then it’s game over.

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package {
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.utils.Timer;
	import flash.events.TimerEvent;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.Shapes.*;
	import Box2D.Common.Math.*;
	public class HelloWorld extends Sprite {
		public var words:embedded_text = new embedded_text();
		public var m_world:b2World;
		public var m_iterations:int=10;
		public var m_timeStep:Number=1.0/30.0;
		public var body:b2Body;
		public var bodyDef:b2BodyDef;
		public var boxDef:b2PolygonDef;
		public var word:String="";
		public var letters:String="ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
		public var words_array:Array = new Array();
		public var remove:Boolean=false;
		public var release_letters:Boolean=false;
		public var game_over:Boolean=false;
		public function HelloWorld() {
			words_array=words.toString().split(",");
			var worldAABB:b2AABB = new b2AABB();
			worldAABB.lowerBound.Set(-100.0, -100.0);
			worldAABB.upperBound.Set(100.0, 100.0);
			var gravity:b2Vec2=new b2Vec2(0.0,10.0);
			var doSleep:Boolean=true;
			m_world=new b2World(worldAABB,gravity,doSleep);
			add_walls();
			var time_count:Timer=new Timer(1000);
			time_count.start();
			time_count.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, on_time);
			addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, Update, false, 0, true);
			stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, on_mouse_down);
		}
		public function add_walls() {
			bodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			bodyDef.position.Set(10.5, 15.75);
			boxDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			boxDef.SetAsBox(10.5, 0.25);
			boxDef.friction=0.3;
			boxDef.density=0;
			body=m_world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
			body.CreateShape(boxDef);
			body.SetMassFromShapes();
			bodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			bodyDef.position.Set(0.25, 12);
			boxDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			boxDef.SetAsBox(0.25, 4);
			boxDef.friction=0.3;
			boxDef.density=0;
			body=m_world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
			body.CreateShape(boxDef);
			body.SetMassFromShapes();
			bodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			bodyDef.position.Set(20.75, 12);
			boxDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			boxDef.SetAsBox(0.25, 4);
			boxDef.friction=0.3;
			boxDef.density=0;
			body=m_world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
			body.CreateShape(boxDef);
			body.SetMassFromShapes();
			var the_walls:walls=new walls();
			addChild(the_walls);
		}
		public function on_time(event:TimerEvent) {
			if (! game_over) {
				var lett=letters.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random()*26));
				bodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
				bodyDef.position.x=Math.random()*19+1;
				bodyDef.position.y=-2;
				boxDef = new b2PolygonDef();
				boxDef.SetAsBox(0.75,0.75);
				boxDef.density=1.0;
				boxDef.friction=0.5;
				boxDef.restitution=0.2;
				bodyDef.userData = new letter();
				bodyDef.userData.lettertext.text=lett;
				bodyDef.userData.width=1.5*30;
				bodyDef.userData.height=1.5*30;
				body=m_world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
				body.CreateShape(boxDef);
				body.SetMassFromShapes();
				addChild(bodyDef.userData);
				bodyDef.userData.x=bodyDef.position.x*30;
				bodyDef.userData.y=bodyDef.position.y*30;
			}
		}
		public function on_mouse_down(evt:MouseEvent):void {
			remove=false;
			if (! game_over) {
				var body:b2Body=GetBodyAtMouse();
				var position:int;
				if (body) {
					if (body.m_userData.alpha==1) {
						body.m_userData.alpha=0.5;
						word+=body.m_userData.lettertext.text.toLowerCase();
					} else {
						position=words_array.indexOf(word);
						if (position>-1) {
							word="";
							remove=true;
						}
					}
				} else {
					word="";
					release_letters=true;
				}
			}
		}
		public function GetBodyAtMouse(includeStatic:Boolean=false):b2Body {
			var real_x_mouse = (stage.mouseX)/30;
			var real_y_mouse = (stage.mouseY)/30;
			var mousePVec:b2Vec2 = new b2Vec2();
			mousePVec.Set(real_x_mouse, real_y_mouse);
			var aabb:b2AABB = new b2AABB();
			aabb.lowerBound.Set(real_x_mouse - 0.001, real_y_mouse - 0.001);
			aabb.upperBound.Set(real_x_mouse + 0.001, real_y_mouse + 0.001);
			var k_maxCount:int=10;
			var shapes:Array = new Array();
			var count:int=m_world.Query(aabb,shapes,k_maxCount);
			var body:b2Body=null;
			for (var i:int = 0; i <count; ++i) {
				if (shapes[i].m_body.IsStatic()==false||includeStatic) {
					var tShape:b2Shape=shapes[i] as b2Shape;
					var inside:Boolean=tShape.TestPoint(tShape.m_body.GetXForm(),mousePVec);
					if (inside) {
						body=tShape.m_body;
						break;
					}
				}
			}
			return body;
		}
		public function Update(e:Event):void {
			m_world.Step(m_timeStep, m_iterations);
			for (var bb:b2Body = m_world.m_bodyList; bb; bb = bb.m_next) {
				if (bb.m_userData is Sprite) {
					bb.m_userData.x=bb.GetPosition().x*30;
					bb.m_userData.y=bb.GetPosition().y*30;
					if (bb.m_userData.y>500) {
						game_over=true;
					}
					bb.m_userData.rotation = bb.GetAngle() * (180/Math.PI);
					if (remove&&bb.m_userData.alpha==0.5) {
						removeChild(bb.m_userData);
						bb.m_userData=null;
						m_world.DestroyBody(bb);
					}
					if (release_letters&&bb.m_userData.alpha==0.5) {
						bb.m_userData.alpha=1;
					}
				}
			}
			release_letters=false;
		}
	}
}

where embedded_text.as is coded as follows:

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package {
	import flash.utils.ByteArray;
	[Embed(source="words.txt",mimeType="application/octet-stream")]
	public class embedded_text extends ByteArray {
		public function embedded_text() {
		}
	}
}

And this is the result… (a bit shrinked to make it fit in the blog)

Download the source code… four days left…

Beside the cash, this is a very interesting contest because you must use words, and this will require a lot of game design skill to procude something different than Scrabble.

Another interesting thing is Dictionary.com is even providing a word list to help you get started! The only rules for using this list is to mark on the Title Screen of your game that it is being powered by “dictionary.com”.

You can download the list at this link, and in the zipped file you will find a .eps file with the logo and a list of 147,306 (!!) words.

I will made a couple of tutorials about the use of these words during next days, meanwhile let me talk about the prizes:

1st Place – $7,000
2nd Place – $4,000
3rd Place – $2,000
Honorable Mention (x2) – $1,000 each

Start Date: June 9th, 2009

End Date: August 14th, 2009

Contest Criteria:

* Must incorporate the MochiAds Version Control and Encryption service
* Must be distribution-enabled and use MochiAds Leaderboards
* Must run MochiAds advertisements
* Must be a word game or a game themed around words and puzzles
* Must be entered in MochiAds before midnight August 14th, 2009 PST
* Must be tagged with “dictionary.com”

Check the official page for all information.

MochiAds and Warner Bros have teamed up to bring you a fresh new promotion.

It’s an open casting call for all top Flash developers out there to submit your awesome game ideas for a chance to create an officially licensed game starring none other than Batman himself!

Out of all the submissions, Mochi will select their favorites. Those selected developers will then go on to create these games with, for the first time, official Batman assets provided by Warner Bros. and a chance to win one of many cash prizes!

DEADLINE

Game idea submissions for this promotion are to be submitted by 3/27/2009 11:59PM PST

PRIZE BREAKDOWN

Grand Prize – $9,000 + Contract to create another game for $15,000
WB Choice Award – Four winners receiving $5,000 each
WB Appreciation Award – Five winners receiving $4,000 each

RULES

Phase 1 (3/11/2009 – 3/27/2009)
Submit a game idea that describes your idea for the perfect Batman: The Brave and the Bold game! The submission form asks for items like “game description” and links to “game mockups”. The more comprehensive and detailed these pieces are, the better idea we will have on the game you plan on creating and can then judge accordingly.

Phase 2 (4/10/2009 – 7/2/2009)
Finalists from the casting call are announced and invited to start development on their game! Official Batman assets passed out to finalists participating in the game creation!

Phase 3 (7/3/2009)
Winners announced!

MY CONSIDERATIONS

Obviously, if just had to draw a game idea for a Batman game, it’s quite easy to talk about a GTA game where you roam around Gotham City hunting and chasing criminals.

Unfortunately you must be able to complete your game in about two months, so I think your project will be also evalued according to its chances to be completed in two months.

Moreover, you must provide mockups using the assets you can find at the official page, so I think this will be a very interesting contest.

Read more at MochiLand blog