hatu.biz – Flash games and development

Flash games are (finally) seeing a new source of income besides ads – microtransactions.
I decided to try out a few of the biggest players from a consumers point of view. I realize most of these offer other services too, like universal save games and achievements, but I’m gonna focus only on microtransactions here.

Update: Bob from Mochi and Chris from Gamersafe have both pointed out that you have to register so you don’t lose your items if you clear your cache or flash shared objects.

MochiCoins

MochiCoins is a service provided by MochiMedia, who are best known for their MochiAds advertisements in the preloader of most Flash games.

Pros:

• Login/register widget is always visible in menus and its compact and informative
• Registration is fast with only a few fields to fill
• Lots of payment options: PayPal, Credit Card, Mobile phone, Completing offers
• Everything in the buying flow looks consistent and professional
• After registering my account I was automatically logged in

Cons:

• After registering it was not clear what to do next, the only button was Edit Full Profile. I wanna get back to the game and buy the item!
• I have to register even if I just want to buy one item

Gamersafe

Gamersafe is provided by the guys behind FlashGameLicense.

Pros:

• Introduction to the system during the preloader
• Registration is fast with only 4 fields to fill
• You can login inside the Flash game

Cons:

• The Shop didn’t work in some games on Gamersafes own site (Hero Arms for example). Or maybe it wasn’t implemented in them, but then it shouldn’t show up in the first place.
• Only PayPal
• The widget and the site aren’t as professional looking as I’d hope from a site where I’m gonna type my CC info
• After registering I’m again taken to a profile screen with no indication that I have the game running somewhere. It even suggests some other games to try.
• I have to register also even if I want to buy just one item

HeyZap

HeyZap is a new face in the Flash scene and they’re also offering microtransactions.

Pros:

• No mandatory registration! This leads to a very quick and nice experience for people who just want to pay for the content and not bother with anything else.
• Good options for payment, same as Mochi
• Premium content is clearly visible and clicking on it takes you almost straight to paying for it

Cons:

• Site was slow and so were the connections inside the games (bad day?)
• No global saves/achievements.
• The ingame widget is not as professional looking as I’d like. No mouseovers etc.

All of the systems still had some issues, most of them shared by all. For example when you register on the site, all of them seem to forget that you came to the site because the game forced you to and that you probably want to get back to it.

The fastest transaction was by HeyZap because you don’t need to register an account. Why do the other services insist that you do?

The most reliable feeling was MochiCoins. It would probably be the only one I would trust with my CC info as the others had some pretty sloppy interfaces.

For a good look on how to implement microtransactions, check out Twin Shot 2. You can immediately see that there is a store that sells you premium content and you can clearly see what you’re going to get. Some games I tried had the premium content hidden in different parts of the game, this way it just felt like a ripoff to me.