User:NattoMaki/sandbox

NOTE: This is an in-progress FAQ for Whirled game developers. Changes will be made to it before it is rolled out as an article on the Whirled wiki!

=Whirled Business FAQ For Flash Game Developers=

What is Whirled?
WARNING: Buzzwords Ahead!

Whirled is a complete, self-serve, microtransaction-driven Flash game development platform that enables you to build deep experiences, audience, and revenue. Using Whirled it is possible to create, manage, and monetize virtual items, single and multiplayer games, avatars, furnishings, and much more by selling directly to players. It was created by online indie gaming pioneers Three Rings Design, the developers of Puzzle Pirates, and represents years of micro-transaction learning packaged into a Flash development and billing framework.

Whirled is designed to scale with your ambitions and how you want to grow your business. Whether you want to create a casual single player puzzle experience, a deep multiplayer action game based on micro-transactions, a full blown Flash MMO, or anything in between...we've got you covered. Create what you want at your own pace, price and deploy it however makes sense to you and your community.

Three Rings is known as a strong advocate for open source and in addition to the full platform API set, complete code for all of our Whirled games is available for download from the Whirled wiki. Whatever you want to build on Whirled, this expanding code library will help you get there.

Why should I care about Whirled?
Every time a developer ignores Whirled, God kills a puppy. One of the cute ones. So, think of the puppies.

How is Whirled different than other Flash game sites?
Unlike Flash sites that rely on advertising, Whirled is based on microtransactions. For Flash developers, this opens up a number of interesting new strategies. You can build and be financially rewarded for games that:


 * DRIVE ENGAGEMENT
 * As Flash has evolved over the years, it ability to support deeper experiences has too.


 * DRIVE TRAFFIC
 * DRIVE TRANSACTIONS

How much money can I make on Whirled?
Top Whirled creators are currently making thousands of dollars (USD) per month. Your earning power will be a function of how you leverage Whirled's different earning strategies.

LEVERAGE THE ACHIEVEMENT SYSTEM
Trophies: the power of trophies (FB, XBLA, Pogo, etc.), the more the merrier, scale your trophies such that the first ones are very easy and the last ones are very hard

LEVERAGE THE WHIRLED AFFILIATE PROGRAM
If you just want to refer players to the Whirled homepage, all you need is a single link which can be copied from the Send a URL section of this page. This is known as your Base Affiliate URL and your Whirled Affiliate ID is the number at the end of the URL.

However, you can also create Affiliate links that point to any unique piece of content on Whirled. This type of deep linking can be useful for doing things like creating a "More Games" link to point to the Whirled games catalog. Or linking to a specific game, room, or avatar from your site, blog, or social networking site. To create content-specific links, simply copy the full URL for that content and replace the "/#" with your Base Affiliate URL above. So, for example, the game Bang! Heroes goes from this untagged URL:

http://www.whirled.com/#games-d_1918

To this affiliate tagged URL where "yourID" is your Whirled Affiliate ID:

http://www.whirled.com/welcome/yourID/games-d_1918

That's it! You're now ready to start tagging content, referring players, and earning cash!