I recently had the opportunity to interview Kenney Vleugels, best known for his work with Armor Studios, the official development brand for Armor Games. This was quite an interesting interview, because Kenney has made a very good living making generic mini-games, and he was brave enough to chat with me knowing full-well my opinions on such games.

Kenney, like many, got started with his career at a very early age. In 2004, at the age of 14, he had developed his first Flash game, and was shortly contacted by Daniel McNeely of Armor Games.

Daniel was impressed with Kenney’s first game and was hoping to pick up the young talent to help promote Armor Games, which was still in it’s infancy at the time.

Kenney had developed a new game called Mario’s Time Attack, a very simple Super Mario game where you run through a series of levels to give a deserted princess peach some water before the time limit runs out.

The game was simple, but kind of fun, and so he was offered a $500 Armor Games sponsorship. For a 14 year old who was only on his 2nd game ever, $500 was a fortune!

His parents did not approve of the idea.

His mother worried these games would interfere with his education, and his father was weary of the legalities involved due to his age. But, like any 14 year old with a $500 carrot dangled in front of him, he took the sponsorship behind their backs.

“They had this perfect story of me getting money for making games. Of course, I couldn’t say no but my parents were a little fishy about this since it didn’t sound really legit. … I just went on with it. Come on, it was my dream!”

“I signed up for PayPal and combined it to my Junior bank account” he said. ” After I got my first payment I almost pissed myself, Bill Gates; Here I come.”

Kenney told me how, after his first paid game, he decided to really push himself and make his next title something more innovative. Mario’s Time Attack used ripped sprites from licensed Nintendo titles, so this time he wanted to do more of his own art. He developed a web-cam game called ‘Dress Up Yourself‘, where you can drag goofy eyes, facial hair, teeth, etc.. onto your own webcam image.

While the webcam was innovative, and he certainly put more effort into the game, the end result wasn’t as well received as his previous title, and so his next sponsorship offer was noticeably lower.

“Because that [first] game was made using sprites, I had a hard time making my next which should contain my own art. So it took me fairly long before I made my next game, I just showed it to them and they gave me a certain amount which I forgot (I wasn’t very happy about it though) and I published it.”

Before talking to Kenney, I took a stroll through his collection of games. What I found was far from impressive. I was able to see the appeal of “Mario’s Time Attack”, but could also understand why “Dress Up Yourself” wasn’t so well received. The game merely took your webcam image and let you drag stuff onto it. More of a gadget than a game.

In fact, Kenney’s game library consisted mainly of unimpressive mini-games, many of which were clones of other games that had recently seen success on other sites (compare Jack Russell to Line Rider, for example), and sequels of said games. I asked him about this.

“Yeah, making lot’s of mini-games for AG earns you more than making 1 or 2 large and expansive games. So that kinda kept me making small games.”

It makes sense. The business model for any successful sponsorship driven site is pretty simple. Put your branding on as many games as you can and get them spread around. It’s viral brand recognition, and it definitely works. The problem was, after a certain point, the games started becoming little more than interactive advertisements, and the market started to be completely flooded with them

For nearly 3 years, Kenney was a loyal supporter of Armor Games, eventually running Armor Studios with his partner, Gabriel Ochsenhofer (Gab for short). Armor Studios started as PLDM Studios, a just-for-fun project started by Gab and, then-partner, Wyatt McNeil.

PLDM Studios was one of many small-time studios started by aspiring artists who were quickly learning that working in teams had numerous benefits. Kenney started with another of these small studios, Lost Solution, now known for such hits as Ninja Golf.

“[Lost Solution] is a little studio I was with. It’s currently being run by Edvin, aka Puzz” said Kenney. “I went for PLDM Studios which I predicted a much better future, once I joined we changed names to Armor Studios and got sponsored by AG.”

“We started as PLDM Studios on 2005 summer with me and Wyatt,” said Gab when asked about the founding of Armor Studios. “Kenney left lostsolution.net. Then we invited him to join, it was like in August or something.”

“After some months Kenney had a chat with Daniel McNeely then we had a deal. PLDm changed to Armor Studios.”

“November 2005, Kenney decided to kick Wyatt because he was producing nothing, then Wyatt was out (I agreed),” said Gab.

“We both agreed that Wyatt (aka Stickmoose) didn’t deliver any work so we both kinda agreed on dropping him. But never officially did,” Kenney told me.

To this day, Wyatt is still technically a part of Armor Studios (which reminds me of Milton from Office Space).

Recently, Kenney made the decision to leave Armor Games and work independently. “[Gab and I] both got angry at the deals Daniel was making us so we decided to make the studios independent and not a part of AG, ” said Kenney. “We both decided to quit on AG, then [Gab] told me he doesn’t want to work with me anymore. Now he continues Armor Studios by himself…”

I got the impression Kenney felt scorned that his games were being valued at less and less money, and maybe took things a bit too personally. Thanks to a crappy wi-fi connection, I wasn’t able to get Gab’s side of things.

Never-the-less, I asked Daniel about the sponsorship rates getting lower. His response seemed to confirm a lot of the things I have been saying as of late.

“The flash market is getting saturated with games. Some great games, a flood of average games, and even more titles that are beta works for most new developers. Since the market has open up the doors for developers to make games, the quality has decreased and so has the sponsorship rates. In turn, when a truly unique title does come out, it raises the price of sponsorship since they have become more of a rare gem and commodity.”

Daniel’s comments confirmed my thoughts, and my concerns: As long as somebody is willing to pay for poor games, at any level, people will continue to mass produce them.

I asked Inglor, Armor Games’ public relations official, for his thoughts on why such a flood of average games has occurred. He felt that some of the development contests may have had a hand in things.

“ArmorGames is aware that some of the games that get into our contests, and even some of the games we sponsor are unoriginal and repetitive. We are always trying to encourage original games and sponsored quite a few revolutionary games. My heart goes out to the artists who work their asses off and make original games with original concepts and accomplish impressive results. If it was up to me originality would be more important of a value in the flash game industry,” he said.

The 5^th Armor Games challenge offered a generous $26,500 in prizes. While that number may seem staggering, it resulted in around 106 entries, many of which were complete crap. The poor quality games, obviously, did not win any money, but they are now spreading the Armor Games brand all over the web. Had Armor Games individually sponsored these games carrying their branding and links, they would have paid a mere $250 per game.

Many large sites run contests on a regular basis. These contests are HUGE money makers for these sites, because, while they put up several prizes and rewards, ultimately they get a larger quantity of games with their branding spread across the web for less overall money. Because anyone can enter these contests, several people often do.

Armor Games is just one of many sites capitalizing on these contests, while only a few sites are willing to run contests without asking developers to brand their work. Newgrounds continues to offer monthly contest prizes, for which, any developer who submits their content is eligible to win, regardless of any site branding.

I asked Newgrounds’ Tom Fulp what he thought about the sponsorship industry, as Newgrounds has been sponsoring a lot of quality work.
“I was originally surprised by the sponsorship concept, because I was accustomed to the model where you made Flash to promote your own website, then sold ad space on your web site to generate revenue. The thought of giving away your branding to another website seemed odd at first, but in the end it made sense.”

“Newcomers weren’t having the same success with running their own websites, compared to the guys who were doing it from the beginning. Sponsorships streamlined the process, allowing Flash artists to focus on their games and not on trying to run a website business.”

“Now we’re seeing a sort of hybrid of the two business models, where Flash artists are selling ad space directly in their games, thus negating the need for a website OR a sponsor. Of course, there is still room to have both a sponsor / producer AND an advertisement, so the sponsorship model can still be very beneficial to both the artist and the sponsor. I just hope I don’t have to sit through 10 minutes of crap before I get to play the game.”

For another perspective, I spoke to Aaron over at Flash Portal for his thoughts on the sponsorship industry. Aaron has been running Flash Portal for a long time, and has been running a more low-key sponsorship program of his own.

“My personal view point is, paying authors too much money is hurting the industry. There is a answer though. Payment based on success, everyone wants money now but sometimes it’s just more beneficial to reap the rewards over the long haul then in the now. I believe that a small base amount should be paid out for sponsorship then based on the games success, a bonus structure can be worked out. So for arguments sake, $250 for a base amount then another X amount if the game gets a good rating and then another $100 per X number of views over a period of a month. This forces authors to create games that will be fun, unique and challenging. This also limits bidding wars between websites and forces websites to create better business models and earn more community trust then just how much money where willing to pay. Gameplay, Replay and Quality is what this industry needs,” he said.

I asked Daniel McNeely for HIS thoughts on the issue.

“I think sponsorships will be around for a while. Not all games will be worthy of $1000’s of dollars, but a select few will. I think treating developers fairly is the best practice you can have. As it says in the Inspired Holy Scriptures ‘He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Luke 16:10′.”

While many sites, including Armor Games, have already implemented reward systems, it seems the overall ease to make money with weak games is still too high.

Inglor offered some insight as to why this may be.

“It is very hard to say no to an artist who made a game, even if it’s unoriginal, if it’s a good game that’s fun to play. I do feel disgusted some times working with greedy people, however that’s not always the case. We did say no to quite a few people who seemed ‘too greedy’ to us, but we can’t always tell who’s in it for the heart and who’s in it for the money.”

“The [Armor Games] contests are judged by players. Players tend to judge games by how fun they are to play and not how original they are. We intend to judge some future contests ourselves but after all the players are the soul of armorgames, and we can only do so much as try to influence their opinion, we can’t force them to vote the way we want them to vote.”

Sadly, there is a lot of truth in that statement. In my recent “Generic Defense Game”experiment, I experienced just how viable it is to make money from an unoriginal game. However, to toot my own horn, the game was still fun at the core. Many games today are neither fun NOR original, and are still getting sponsorships.

I also can’t help but wonder. Would players still prefer to play this generic crap if the higher quality games stayed in the limelight a little longer?

On many portal sites, the best games get bumped quickly as the flood of new (and usually weak) games roll in. It’s a necessary evil for these portal sites, because they need to keep their primary entry pages fresh, but it results in a much smaller sampling of quality work at any given time. The alternative is to list the most popular games on these pages, which ultimately puts the focus on older content and making it hard for the newer content to get noticed in the first place. It’s a tricky balance.

It’s apparent that, for now, the crap is here to stay. So what does the future hold?

Kenney has recently quit school. He has no degree or work experience in any other field to fall back on. All he has is his collection of games.

I asked him if he thought spending the past few years making generic mini games may have hurt his chances at being rediscovered today.

“I think it does, people with a great game get noticed more than people with lot’s of good games. Tom (Fulp) asked me to do something although he’s always very secret about his things and Tony asked me to work on Indestructotank for X-Box Arcade (which I declined, I don’t feel I’m good enough yet). Those things mark my progress on getting better and probably more meaningful in the Flash community.”

In spite the lack of technical merit, I did tell Kenney that I dug his art Style.

“Thanks, you’re not alone:)”

When I asked him about the technical level of his games he was actually pretty honest with me. “I’m a real dunce on coding really. I always figure out how things work, but never perfectly.”

Kenney is looking for his next break, but since quitting school and ending his relationship with Armor Games, his confidence is not what it once was.

“I’m in debt now and I don’t really see a bright future ahead of me other than making a few bucks making small games.”

When asked if he felt his career, at the time, was a success, he said “Definitely, you should see my room. Of course now things are a little different, have to visit IKEA to get a €1 breakfast which may sound really weird. But that’s kinda the transition I made when I decided to leave AG all of a sudden, all nice things when you work for them, you lose when you quit.”

In a recent EDGE Magazine article (which can be found on the Super Flash Bros site), John West from Crazy Monkey Games was quoted as saying “People who used to develop these games for fun in their spare time quit their day jobs to earn their living developing games full time, and I see this market as continuing to grow very quickly.”

I am one of many people who left a job to make a living making games. It’s a very fun career, and I love what I do. I was in my late 20’s and had already been a Flash developer for 5 years before I felt I had established enough skill and resources to take on this biz full-time.

I can’t help but think, if the current opportunities existed when I was a teenager, I could very well be in Kenney’s position right now. Like Kenney, I was a brash teen who knew everything about the way the world worked. I was also the best at everything I did. If someone told me my skills at that time could make me money, I would have jumped at the chance with no second thoughts about my future.

This raises the issue that perhaps we need some kind of regulation as it concerns minors getting paid for Flash games. There have been several individuals who worked hard and used sponsorship income to pay for college, but what about the ones making career decisions they are probably not mature enough to be making? Are there any legal implications that sponsors should be worrying about when dealing with minors?

Many high school kids get started in the industry through Armor Games, so I asked Daniel for his comments on these legal issues. His response was that “99% percent of sponsored payments get made through paypal. There is no age check verification, so payments can be made to anyone who is old enough to sign up for their service. Since the games are sponsored, I’m not employing people to make games so age normally doesn’t come into play. There are a few sponsors who have me pay their parents, and I’ve even spoken with several of them before and it’s always been a positive experience.”

While Kenney may have been too young to really grasp the impact this business would have on his future, he has been around long enough now to have learned the ropes. Kenney freely admits his current production quality will not yield a bright future. Curious as to why his skills remain where they ar, I asked him if Armor Games ever made attempts to better his ability, or pair him with other talent that he could learn from. He told me they did not.

“AG doesn’t care about your future.”

Inglor tells a different story.

“I gave him AMAZING projects stuff most artists would DREAM about, like the Raiden X sequel, for a sum over $2500 for the art alone.”

“I teamed him with some of the best coders and artists. Eventually when he started quitting stuff I stopped pitching him and put effort in authors who deserved it. Although he did give me web help sometimes.”

When I was talking to Aaron from Flash Portal, he had a lot to say about Kenney’s situation.

“Kenny is the perfect example of what this market does to authors. Shortly after Kenney left armorgames he sent out emails to many of the other free web game sites inquiring what we would offer him to make games for us. I responded with what I thought was a pretty generous offer. My offer had more to do with a long history of successful sponsorship and a guaranteed monthly income rather then the highest amount I’d pay per game.”

“I offered poor Kenny $500 per game minimum. I said that no matter what you will make $500 per game and if the game did really good and became successful, I’d work out a bonus structure that would give him extra money depending on the number of views. Kenny seemed concerned about not making $1000 minimum and felt that his games would not be successful enough to earn bonuses. I tried to explain that I’d help him design games that would be unique and that people would like. I explained that I have been in the industry for a long time and I know what works and what does not work. I told him that I have a lot of great ideas for games that would help him get started.”

“At first Kenny seemed happy with my offer and was ready to get to work. The next day when I came online I was shocked that Kenny had found someone to pay him $800 per game minimum. He now attempted to get myself and the other site owner into a bidding war for his services. The person willing to pay the highest per game would be the victor. At that point I knew that Kenney and I would not work out a deal. Not because I was not able to pay the money but because I was not willing to get into a bidding war with another site owner for a author who makes generic games. I was not prepared to spend website revenue on a person who obviously does not care about what he’s creating as opposed to what he’s earning.”

“I tried to explain to Kenney that there’s more to this market then just how much you earn per game. I explained that I bring other intangibles to the table that other website owners don’t. I told him that although I would not be willing to pay him $1000 per game I would be willing to guarantee him a good wage for 3 years. I even put my mouth to paper by agreeing to sign a contract guaranteeing Kenny revenue over a period of 3 years. I explained to him that I have seen this sort of thing before. That although some other site may make a larger pitch of money for a game. That those same site’s may not be making the same pitch the next month. I tried to explain to Kenny that guaranteed revenue is better then the unknown.”

“I also told Kenney that it would be easier and more fun to make games for my site because we would venture into areas of web games that have not been created before. I have a handful of animators that work closely with me and they would be made available to Kenney if he needed help with graphics or a key animation. I even explained that people who show that there working with me to create what we envision in web/flash games will earn more money later on down the road. I even gave him examples of other authors that had been employed with me before earning more and more money though time because we had developed a good working business relationship.”

“But Kenny didn’t see it that way. All he could think about was the extra $300 per game he was going to make and that lead him astray.”

It seems like Kenney merely grew comfortable where he was and simply didn’t want to change. And why SHOULD he? He was making good money and putting in little effort. What reason would he possibly have for wanting to expand his skills? That’s just the way most lazy kids think. It’s no secret, and most of us were the same way at one time.

Kenney is just one example of what’s bound to happen in our industry. Some people who are into gaming are going to quit school or work because they think this is an easy industry to break in to.

Kenney put 3 years into it, and while he got paid, he never truly broke into his own. With so many other kids riding the same gravy train, he’s not going to be alone in his situation.

I sent Jay Bibby, of JayIsGames.com, an email asking if he wanted to contribute anything to this story, and he was generous enough to do just that:

Thanks for the offer. My thoughts, though, are that it’s hard for me to feel sorry for Kenny. His games were inferior, as you indicated, and thus were never featured on JIG. What’s happening to the industry is simply natural selection. Survival of the fittest. Perhaps the industry in its infancy rewarded those with little talent, but now those people are getting squeezed out in favor of developers with more talent. It’s as it should be. And with services like Mochiads empowering the developer, the sponsorship business is changing as well. One thing for certain when working on the Web: ‘Business as usual’ is a moving target; those who can see the changes adapt quickly; those who don’t get left behind.

cheers,

Jay

No one knows for certain where the industry is headed, but I like the idea of empowering developers with services like MochiAds, which are simple impression and click based advertisements. The better the game does, the more money it can ultimately make, and as a developer makes more, and more games, their revenu stream snowballs. Unfortunately, most people don’t see that far ahead…

Yet, at the core, sponsorships are really nothing more than exclusive advertisements. Maybe one day, even the big sponsorship sites will go the rout of traditional on-line advertising and only pay for the traffic they get back. I ould certainly eliminate poor quality games as a viable business.

As for Kenney, he’s still hanging on to the dream.

“I’ll continue making Flash games and get them sponsored, hoping someone will tap my shoulder and get me in the big business one time or another.”