Arcade Admin – The Arcade Owners Ultimate Resource

Andy at Av Arcade has just released Av Arcade Pro 5.3 beta!

Be sure to head over to Av Arcade and check on some of the new features coming to 5.3!

New features include;

New Admin Panel

New Game Feeds

Suport multipul leaderboards

Removing games from the site

Support for DCR games

Look out for more news!

Another great interview brought to you by ArcadeAdmin.Com. Thank’s to Chuckun for taking part in this interview. Check out Chuckuns blog at www.chuckun.co.uk

Are you able to give us a short insight into your background?

Sure! For the best part of six years now, I’ve been developing PHP scripts. It all started seven years ago, at the age of just twelve, when I became part of a gaming clan forum. The owner, just a year older than I was, was my initial inspiration into the world of web-development. He could do some great things with PHP.

Then, through simply playing around with open-source php scripts, I was able to start writing PHP scripts myself! I began developing MODs for AvArcade fairly recently though. I decided to set up tazgames.com and looked into the best script to use, and came across Av Arcade. I love the script, and love the community even moreso. That’s all the motivation I need to work on it!

What do you do in your spare time?

I tend to use my spare time to study new programming languages or features, or simply alternative methods of manipulating programming languages. On a more fun level though, I also enjoy playing a free FPS called Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, if I’m feeling like taking some time off!

How do your mod idea’s come to you?

Usually I get asked to create the MODs I make. Or I see a request on the AvArcade support forums, so I take it upon myself to fulfill it! Sometimes I see a really cool feature on a website, and realise something similar would benefit my own site, so I’ll produce a MOD everyone can use. However, sometimes it’s purely an impulse idea I just randomly think of – those ones, I have to jot down though, as they’re there one minute, gone the next!

Do you own any other script/sites?

I run several websites, but I don’t like to build connections between them, so the only ones I publically announce ownership of are: www.chuckun.co.uk, www.tazgames.com, and www.visitors-online.com

I used to own a couple of simple open-source scripts. However, I stopped distributing them, as I didn’t feel they reflected my ability as a programmer any more, as I wrote them years ago. I hope to release some new scripts soon though!

Which is your best Mod to date?

The Report Game MOD was my best MOD for AvArcade. Since that was used in AvArcade 5.2, I would say my best MOD in development, is the Mass eMail & Newsletter MOD. I have some great ideas for the mod, such as scheduled mailing and other nifty features which will make it a true must-have!

What’s the though process behind developing a mod?

Well to be honest, I find thinking too much about how I’m going to do things, overwhelms me (if it’s complex enough to require thought). So I tend to dive in at the deep end, and just get on with it, and work out the arrangements as I go. This used to cause ‘messy’ coding for me, but I’m used to the general structure of things now.

The general process however, is to create the backend first, then front-end core features, then the template features the user sees to control the mod.

How do you relax at the end of the day?

Usually with a beer or a cup of tea, talking to my girlfriend, and watching a film – Oh the good life!

How do you think Google, and the way it indexes site affect the way Arcades operate?

The best idea Google ever came up with with regards to intelligent indexing, is ‘Sitelinks’ – the 4/5 links that you see some times underneath the top results for searches you make. If your arcade categories get recognised as the substantial navigation pages by google, and you have your categories listed under your homepage result on google, your visitors can instantly find just what they’re looking for! This will most definitely benefit the operation of your arcade.

With the creation of so many different arcades, where do you think the industry will be in 5 years time?

Well, a couple of years ago we saw the crash of the arcade website industry due to the influx of webmasters hopping on the band-wagon. However, I believe that the poor revenue caused by this is slowly forcing people to close their arcades. I think in five years time, people will avoid making arcades, and they will become more profitable again as the numbers of them drop.

What are your top 5 SEO tips for arcade beginners?

1. – Keyword density. Make sure you include premium gaming keywords where relevant. Such as “Play *game name* – The free online game from *site name*” instead of just having the game title. This is absolutely essential.
2. – SEO URLs. No doubt this is obvious, but it really is a must. Also be sure to include the category AND game name in the URL for perfect SEO.
3. – Page content. Arcade scripts generally dont offer enough word content.. Search engines do not like websites with few words.. So make sure you put extra words wherever possible, such as “Browse all our cool action games” instead of “see all” underneath each category..
4. – Image ALT tag. Arcades display a LOT of images.. Be sure to make use of the ALT tag within your script wherever images are used. This can generate interest via google images, and counts towards your page’s content type too.
5. – Page Titles. The order of your page title is crucial. And with gaming websites, I would reccommend using *gamename* – *sitename*, as anybody looking for a specific game isnt going to care what your arcade is called when they google the game, so you want the game name first.. However, take into consideration point #1!

Are we going to see any major updates in the coming months for any Mods?

The Mass eMail & Newsletter MOD will be receiving a lovely update shortly! Scheduled mail is almost ready – which has been long awaited by many, so watch out for that! I will also be releasing a few new mods too, with any luck!

For the Online Gaming industry what do you believe is the greatest challenge going forward?

Well it’s quite clear now that the market is pretty much at saturation point. Anybody looking to set up an online arcade is going to experience difficulties making any real money. The biggest challenge right now, as with most websites, is creating a unique environment to keep people coming back.

A major key now is social networking integration. As long as you have a plug to one of the major social networking websites, you have a chance of making your arcade work. However, even then you face a massive difficulty in making any good money. My advice is to stick in there, until the faint-hearted ‘give up’ with their non-earning arcades, and free up the industry a little.

What do you believe are the key points to run a successful arcade?

A unique theme is a must! And it must be ‘cool’ – if you make it look professional, it’s going to look too boring for an arcade.. You want something colourful and appealing to both children and teenagers.. So a ‘cool’ look is definitely the way forward!

Inscentive – Offer inscentives to make your visitors want to register.. Once they register, they will most likely return.. And if not, grab the mass email & newsletter MOD and make sure they dont forget about you!

Do something different – I believe that the only way to be truly successful is to do something unique that people will recognise.. Whether it be sending custom t-shirts out to anyone who reaches the #1 player, or creating ‘groups’ or ‘clans’ who will compete.. It’s always good to create a situation people will want to put effort into.

What, in your view, is key to retaining gamers on an arcade site?

As previously mentioned, inscentive, and unique ideas are key here. Creating awards, achievements, or prizes is always an easy way to keep people playing.. But a more automated (and cheaper) method is to create rivalry! Let people compete against eachother with highscores, and they will be determined to stay and claim the title..

Where do you believe online gaming will be in 10 years time?

On the internet, ten years is a LONG time.. Realistically, anything could happen. The way things are looking with the youth of today, gaming could even be banned in 10 years time. Now there’s a dreadful thought, right? But realistically, I believe in 10 years time, online gaming will be incredible. ‘Flash’ games may be created in HTML5, which leaves room for some incredible movement!

Thanks Chuckun for taking part in this interview! Comments welcome!

Another great article, brought to you by ArcadeAdmin.Com.

This is an interview with Dom, The owner of GamesButler.Com. Thank’s Dom for taking part in this interview! We’ve had interview with Andy, Owner of Av Arcade and an interview with Brad, Owner of Arcade Trade Script, But this interview is different as its looking at the management of an arcade.

Dom has some interesting points about new methods of SEO, So make sure you take note of some of his suggestions! GamesButler.Com for example has an Alexa ranking of 56,165 so he must be doing something right!

The Interview

Are you able to give us a short insight into your background?

Of course. I started dabontv.com when I was 16 as a way to bypass my schools server and play games at school. I started to get traffic from google and I was hooked! From there I taught myself html,css,sql,php etc. and went to an Art school for Web Design. I started GamesButler.com when I was 18 as a school project and launched it almost exactly 2 years ago when I was 19.

What do you do in your spare time?

I like to hang out with friends, read, run, drink tea and of course play video games (Been hooked on StarCraft 2 lately)

How did the idea of GamesButler come to you?

I knew I wanted to start a site that had a secondary focus on game help and walkthroughs so I played around with different domain names until I came up with GamesButler.

What was your biggest challenge getting GamesButler to where it is now?

I think just keeping up with everything has been a big challenge. Going on vacation and coming back to 1,000 emails isn’t very fun

Do you own any other script/sites

Just dabontv.com and gamesbutler.com

In the history of GamesButler which date stands out the most for you?

Well November of last year I launch the member section to the site and things have taken off from there. March 2010 was a huge breakthrough moment as well (For traffic and revenue). I just launched a new version to the site last week so hopefully I can look back and think that was a huge breakthrough as well.

How do you think Google, and the way it indexes site affect the way Arcades operate?

Google traffic is huge for any arcade. I tend not to focus to heavily on seo anymore and just try to drive traffic to the site. I’ve learned that links come naturally and that will improve your google position.

With the creation of so many different arcades, where do you think the industry will be in 5 years time?

It’s hard to say but I feel that the system will be more closed. Big sites will release more games that are exclusive to just their site, and there will be a lot more rpg and mmo games that focus on micro transactions.

What are your top 5 SEO tips for beginners in the arcade world?

I personally feel seo (as we know it now) is slowly dying. I’ll post my new way of doing seo, then how I used to do it:

–new way–
1. Focus on driving traffic to your site, links will come
2. Original content, links will come
3. Focus on sharing links to facebook and twitter (and buzz)
4. Keep the site light and page load times fast
5. Strong internal linking, meta tags, logically page hierarchy, don’t
make the site look cheap/spammy

–old way–
1. Link exchanges
2. Submit links to do-follow bookmarking sites
3. Strong internal linking, meta tags, logically page hierarchy
4. Buy links on gaming blogs (never on other arcades)
5. Game plugs (still do this but more in an advertising sort of way)

For the Online Gaming industry what do you believe is the greatest challenge going forward?

Greatest challenge is to stay unique and different. With so many different sites and games it’s hard to make something that stands out. Also it’ll be interesting to see which platform will become dominate (flash, html5, unity)

What do you believe are the key points to run a successful arcade?

Do something original. Don’t try to be like a huge arcade site.

I used to think ‘How can I be more like Kongregate, ArmorGames, MiniClip, ect’ but you should really think ’What can I do better then these sites, what can I do different then these sites’

What, in your view, is key to retaining gamers on an arcade site?

That’s hard to say. There really isn’t a right way. My goal is to build a community and site people want to use and hopefully users will want to come back.

With the use of game sponsorship, do you believe that it works?

Yes it does work. Even if you lose money you still gained more traffic, links to the site, brand awareness and a bunch of other things. In the long term these are the things that’ll make you profitable.

So what are your thought’s on some of what he has said guys?

When looking to host your arcade, you need to take into account many factors – This article is your guide to finding the best host for your arcade.  Making the decision between web hosts can be extremely difficult; with so many out they’re on the web today.

Research is key, ensure you do proper research on any host that you want do business with! Ensure you check out the list of arcade scripts post to find the best script for you.

Price

This is key, the price of what’s on offer, the notion of if its to good to be true – it generally is! Price is a factor in choosing a host but make sure it’s not a decisive factor. If you’re going to be using your arcade to make money, don’t try to be cheap on the hosting costs. Once you’ve found a hosting provide and a plan, make sure you compare it with other plans!

Features for what you want

With your arcade you need to make sure you select a host that meets your needs. In terms of the specifications required to host your arcade script, to ensuring you have enough bandwidth for your traffic. When choosing a host, make sure you take a look at the specifications of the hardware, check to see if they’re an actual host or a reseller.

For a growing arcade, I’d highly recommend that you bypass the shared hosting plans and go directly to using Virtual Private Server packages. When looking at a host, its generally best to go for a host that specialises in you niche, for example a blog should be hosted on a blog host – an arcade should be hosted with an arcade hosting provider.

Support

This is one of the huge area’s for which you need to ensure the host will provide, support! If your arcade goes down for whatever reason, you are able to call, email and access a support panel – this real time support is what you need when selecting a host. Think, if they do not have a telephone number, are they legitimate? Always take a look at the reviews especially in the area of the hosts support; this is a key feature that you can’t live without.

Research – Customer Satisfaction/Reputation

Always, always, always always review your host before you take the plunge, ensure that you review your host before you purchase a package can save you considerable time and money! Always look to see what a host’s current, and also former customers are saying about them! There are loads of sites online that allow for you to read reviews about the host, so ensure you do your research.

Future Proofing

You want your site to grow, you want to make money – you need to make sure you invest in the future. Always go with a hosting plan that gives you more space and bandwidth for example – as you may well need it in future.  Always plan for the future!

I know it can be difficult to select the right script that meets all your needs when setting up an arcade. Here is the ultimate list of Arcade Scripts brought to you by ArcadeAdmin.Com. There are three options here, Paid, Free and WordPress – Look at each of my comment’s to ensure you make the right decision!

Recommended Arcade Scripts

The following scripts I have used personally and would highly recommend that you look at using one of these three great scripts.

Av Arcade Pro ($19)

Av Arcade Pro is one of the most actively supported arcade scripts out there, with some great features such as  Facebook Connect, Highscores and Game reporting. Andy the owner of Av Arcade is working tirelessly to improve the script.  Have a look at our interview with Andy, Owner of AV Arcade.

Arcade Trade Script ($74.95)

ATS is unique is what it offers, its allows for all the other features that other arcades have, but they are unique in allowing for traffic trading built in. ATS is currently being developed by Brad, have a look at our interview with Brad, Owner of Arcade Trade Script.

PHP Arcade Script ($45)

PHPAS is one of the easiest arcade scripts to use, with easy to use template and plugin systems. With Mochi Games integration. cache to save on bandwidth and featured games makes PHP Arcade a good script to use.

Paid Scripts

A list of paid arcade scripts that are currently available, each script offer many different features so I’d recommend visiting each site and using the demo.

Arcade Script ($49)

Arcade Script is one of those scripts to watch out for. With built in features such as top rated games, top played games and user profiles. Arcade Script has built in highscores, forums and an extensive admin backend.

Arcadem Pro

With a new version coming out soon Arcdem Pro is one to look out for. With features such as plugin system, mochie games and full SEO friendly URLS.

Game Script ($79.99)

Game Script has a very intuitive design, which is easy to use with features such as membership management, newsletters, and blog integrated.  Game Script just needs a little bit more work to become a premium arcade script.

Game Site Script ($50)

Game Site Script has built in features such as Tell a Friend, with Link management and full SEO friendly URLS. With must have features such as Ban users, caching system and media sponsorship.

OnArcade (€44 Euro)

OnArcade is basic in its approach but has some good features such as SWF and DCR games support! With a lot of scope for improvement.

PH Arcade Script ($15)

At a cost of only $15 PH Arcade is one of the cheapest arcade scripts around. With a very basic user interface, you get what you pay for. PH Arcade seems to no longer be in active development.

ProArcade Script (£41 pounds)

ProArcade is a script where if it was a little cheaper it would be one of the best scripts around. It has features such as allowing it to run on autopilot, SEO friendly and free themes. ProArcade has an active support community.

Free Scripts

All list of all the free arcade scripts, Make sure you visit each site and have a look at their demo’s.

Av Arcade Free

Av Arcade Free is one of the best free scripts around with an active community always will to help!

Arcadem Free

With all the basic features of Arcadem Pro, The free version is a good stepping stone! Give it a go, its not to everyone’s taste but you may be surprised!

EasyArcade

EA is a very basic free script, Its easily customisable, but the support community is not very active.

Free Arcade Script

FAS is a script that is still in early development, With only basic features offered FAs still has a long way to go before it can be used in todays Web 2.0 world.

MDArcade

Is one of the most basic arcade scripts around, No bells and whistles here – Just a basic script to display games.

PHP Quick Arcade

A different styled arcade script, PHP Quick Arcade is unique in its approach to displaying games.

Your Arcade Script

Your Arcade Scripts has the basics to be a good script. With all the basics features that are needed for a arcade.

Other

WordPress Arcades ($29)

A different way of doing it, Using WordPress to power your arcade, the WordPress Arcade Plugin is a good way of changing your WordPress blog. With all the basic WordPress features it also has built-in support for different types of games.

This guys, is a very old article I did – Over 2 year’s a go. I am publishing it here for you all to read as some of it is still relevant today. The good news is, I will be rewriting it in the coming days, So make sure you look out for it.

What Is Link Building?

This article is building upon my first article on link building which was done a few years ago now, my original ideas and perspectives have changed and I will try to explain why here.

Link Building is the process of creating inbound links to one’s own website or network. This can be done by reciprocal links, direct linking, signature links and social networking link backs. These different methodologies of link building alone are not enough to promote any site, they are required together, and unified link building of the different linking types is the way forward.

The value of links within directories still cannot be devalued but an air of caution has to be shown now towards link building in this way, [submitting sites to directories in the masses].

Link building is one of the best ways to drive certain types of traffic to your site, but only when you link to quality, directly related sites with your own. I am still amazed today that we still see pointless linking between sites that have not relation in terms of content. You will rank better within search engines when you ensure that you have relevant content to the sites that you exchange links with.

There are few types of linking as mentioned above, below is an explanation:-

Reciprocal Links

Reciprocal links or link exchanges are the process where two webmasters agree to show the other’s link on their website. After link building when the number of sites which link to a particular site is known as link popularity which helps in the search engine ranking of a website. This is the most common method that we see today, but three way linking has become the norm, due to the Top 3 search engines devaluing reciprocal links between two sites, thus why 3 way linking is a solution.

Direct Linking

This is where you have a site directly link to your site. This is generally a costly move to make depending on how you execute the linking. Methods such as having direct linking from web directories do provide a direct link but do little towards rankings within search engines or traffic. Having direct links from high traffic sites will yield a better result.

Signature Links

One of the new best ways to build up relevant, trafficable links. When using a forum you are able to use your signature post put most anything within it [depending on those forums rules] to being able to use this space to link to your site. This builds up link backs to your site but also allows for keywords population of your link.

Social Networking

The new phenomenon that has grown over the past few years is social networking, highly trafficked but not used by webmaster to their potential. The use of social networking to building links to your site can work in two ways, both in terms of gaining real traffic to your site but also getting picked up by search engines. The use of using real profile linking, groups, applications and blogging within social networking sites can be used to promote your site and create quality links.

Other quality links can be gained from having link backs from .gov, .edu and news organisational sites.

Advantages of link building.

1. Link building can help in getting quality traffic from relevant sites when it done correctly
2 High quality incoming links the site will also be seen as a valuable resource such as edu, gov and news organisation sites.
3. Link building helps in creating awareness, visibility and credibility of your site.
4. The site also obtains wider search engine exposure but this can also lead to being “banned” is done too aggressively.
5. Can create genuine user traffic

Today links have become important for all websites and they are worth the money. In fact, there are several companies dedicated to selling links (as opposed to companies that you can pay to do link building for you). This is a market, in my view, that has seen its day and has become saturated with pointless low-trafficed little PageRanked links. When looking to sell links on your site ensure you do it in a pure manner, meaning direct linking to a site and using quality keywords.

How Do Directories Help?

Within my last articles I had this area dedicated to directories and I still believe we should value web directories, but to an extent. Anyone who is anyone now sees it as a must to have a web directory which has saturated the market which has inevitably led to search engines devaluing these direction links. Its important to point out that directories are not seen as a source of traffic, but more in search engines optimisation of building links to a site.

Web directories are collections of web pages with similar subjects and similar content. These directories help in many ways as they are extremely popular with Internet users as they are considered a source of valuable information, but it has to be pointed out that this trend is changing users are most looking to niche directories to provide them with relevant informative resources.

Listings in directories improve your chances of Google PageRanking as well. If your site is listed in a directory, the search engines are more likely to find it and add it in their listings for free. Also submitting a site on directories helps in getting one way links [direct linking].

There are three kinds of traffic that you can get from the directories where you are listed. The first is click-through traffic, meaning that anyone who ends up on the directory page will be able to see your web site and information, and there is a good chance that they will visit.

The second is indexing your site. Search engines will crawl the web directory, leading them to your site and as a consequence indexing your site. The last way that the directories will increase your traffic, is increasing your ranking on the search engines themselves as they find the volume of links and references to your web site within search engines.

Overall link building is one of the most important steps in building a site; Getting quality links improves your PageRank and espouser to search engines but, more and more towards the end-user [your target audience] . Also the possibility of gaining traffic to your site.

I have seen many do link building to death, over doing it can work in the short term but in the long run it can affect your site. Link building has to be a slow process over time to establish your site and entrench your search engine rankings.

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So guys, What do you think? Any suggestions for what you believe should be in the rewrite?

After having such a good interview with Andy, Owner of Av Arcade, We now have a great interview from Brad, Owner of Arcade Trade Script - Enjoy the interview.

Are you able to give us a short insight into your background?

Sure, I don’t see why not. I started my first website when I was 17 and a senior in high school. It started off as a website to simply show to colleges and later evolved into an arcade. From there I began to teach myself PERL/CGI and PHP to help make my site easier to manage. I no longer dabble in PERL/CGI as PHP is a far more lucrative language. Now I have 5 years of HTML/CSS, 4 years of PHP/MySQL, and 3 years of Javascript/Ajax under my belt.

Currently I am still a student trying to broaden my web and computer knowledge. I am now certified in Website Development as well as Website Support and Maintenance and will soon have 2 more certifications.

What do you do in your spare time?

I have been getting back into Tennis recently. It’s a great sport. I also play a lot of Billiards, Ping Pong, and I bowl a lot. I go to the gym a few times per week too. I’m a pretty average 22 year old when there is no work to be done.

How did the idea of Arcade Trade Script come to you?

I got the idea for traffic trading originally from a client that had me build him a trading system for phpAS v3 about 2 year ago. There was no script for sale at the time that had trading abilities built in and I was getting tired of constantly purchasing new licenses of phpAS, so I figured I would save money making my own arcade system. It was not originally planned to be sold, but while making it people were asking where to get something like what I was building. The market was there with very limited competition, so as soon as ATS was finished I put up the store and began promoting it.

What was your biggest challenge getting Arcade Trade Script to where it is now?

Probably getting the word out. The more people that know, the more that buy, and then the more people telling me their ideas for the future and the more people helping each other out.

Do you own any other script/sites

Yes. I have several. Most sites are arcades. The only arcade not using ATS is Woochoochinchilla.com . That was my first site as mentioned earlier. I also have WordScatter.com which is a new spin on the game Boggle, which effectively turns it into it’s won game.

I have several scripts that I have not been working on for a while, but plan to begin again and release for sale. One of which is being used on some peoples sites and is called “MyEasyAds” and is a on site script to manage and sell ads yourself. This will be my next script to release I am sure.

In the history of ATS which date stands out the most for you?

This is a tough one. It is probably a tie between the first day of the store launching or the day I realized the the plug helper file was taking off.

The first day because on that day it sold a few licenses and completely surprised me. That was very exciting.

The day I realized the helper file took off was really nice too. I had gotten the idea from someone a good while before, but I didn’t think many non ATS sites or big sites would integrate it. I remember going though my trades and auto gathering plugs from them all when I realized I auto gathered successfully from a very large site, that I had never even contacted about integrating it. I even went to their site to make sure I was not seeing things, but the file was there and in working order.

How do you relax at the end of the day?

Well, it depends on how much work there is to do. At the end of some days I get back on my computer and work through the night. Mostly though, I just sit back and watch tv/movie or go out with some friends.

How do you think Google, and the way it indexes site affect the way Arcades operate?

I don’t think it really affects the operation of an arcade, but it can really affect an arcades income, volume of trades (for trading sites), page views per visit. In my opinion the only affect it really has is traffic and quality of traffic.

With the creation of so many different arcades, where do you think the industry will be in 5 years time?

There have been far too many arcades for years now. It is already getting very hard to make a new site take off without a substantial marketing budget. SEO will get even harder and people to pay less for ads on arcades. Most likely more extravagant social arcades will come in and those along with the current leaders will take a good peace of the market. However, the number of people playing online games is increasing every year, so when that happens there will still be plenty of surfers looking for a simple play to play games. This is a niche that will never die out.

What are your top 5 SEO tips for arcade beginners?

First off, never underestimate a little SEO and don’t get your hopes up either. SEO takes a very long time, and if you become impatient you may ruin all your hard work. SEO is always worth it though.

Tips:
1. Always give your games and categories unique descriptions. If you use stock or steal them then you just lost a large percentage of possible free traffic.

2. Do not stuff keywords. By this I mean don’t over use the same work/term and never, ever, ever put text somewhere a user can’t see it unless looking at the source. Google will not count that, and may penalize or ban you.

3. Don’t buy too many links too fast. Let your new site grown on it’s own for a few months and then begin buying links, slowly.

4. Read Googles guidelines to be sure you are not going against them.

5. It’s true that the first paragraph on a page is often the most important, but don’t go over board putting a huge paragraph at the top of your pages or adding a bunch of
< h1 >tags per page. This will not help your SEO much, and will surely drive visitors away. The best thing to do is build your site for your users, not for Google. Then SEO will come from that.

Why does your script stand out from the rest?

Traffic trading of course. ATS also has several other features to make the admins life easier. Such as being able to use up to 3 game icons per game. You can update a game/icon file via upload from the admin panel to avoid FTP. When you delete a game all files are removed from your server. When adding a custom page you can use a file from your server (.html, .php, etc) as that page instead of just coding plain text or HTML into a text box.

It is SEO friendly. You can change the page title of any page set and the meta tags via the admin.

It is easy to template. All templates are standard HTML and PHP files. You can make a theme that looks completely different and even have different features and let your users decide which one they want to use on their computer. If you are making a new theme you can test it live on your site while the rest of the world uses the other theme you have enabled.

ATS wasn’t all about traffic trading. I made it for myself at first, so I needed to add things that others didn’t have that I needed or would like for myself.

Are we going to see any major updates in the coming months?

I am a bit behind on v1.2. There are a lot of things that need to be worked out and still to be added. RSS feeds will be in it as well as some other good features. As for major updates, I am not sure what most people would consider major. It’s likely that at least somethings in v1.2 will be considered as such.

For the Online Gaming industry what do you believe is the greatest challenge going forward?

Coming out with newer and better ideas. Somewhere down the line arcades will need to come up with ideas out side of surfing for and playing games to beat your friends/scores. With the market so saturated now, I am surprised at how little this is happening.

Who is your direct rival in the Arcade Script world

I don’t really have any rivals to be honest. There are some scripts that probably sell more than ATS now like: phpAS, GSS, ArcademPro, but really none of those come with traffic trading which is the main selling point for ATS.

With ATS are you satisfied with where the script is currently?

Yes and no. I like where it is at this time, but I am nowhere near done with it. I have long lists of plans, features, and I know there is too much I have not thought of to be happy with the the current state for long. That’s how I do things. I get it to where I like it, and then I get new ideas and have to change it some more.

What do you believe are the key points to run a successful arcade?

Always check your stats and communicate with partners. Add something that no other or few others have done. Sites with gimmicks can do very well. Make the site easy to use and easy to manage for both you and your users. Don’t over do ads. SEO is not a chore, it’s a side affect of a good site, but there are some things you can do to help it along. Add new games at least 1-2 times per week and make sure to add the newly released ‘hot’ games.

What is the hardest challenge to you, as a developer to keep ATS running?

Being able to sit for hours straight and type until my fingers hurt. It’s not as easy as it looks to sit still for hours. Also the organization of files. I have so many test files around my computers, its hard to keep track and some times I have to code an entire feature.

What, in your view, is key to retaining gamers on an arcade site?

The same keys to running a successful game site as listed above. If your not keeping your users, then you won’t be very successful in the long run.

With the need for competition between gamers become more fierce how do you anticipate changes within ATS to accommodate?

I don’t talk about v2.0 much any more, but that is where I plan to accommodate. v2.0 is and has been planned to turn ATS from ‘user catapult’ to a thriving community arcade script. It will be based all around user features and community and that will be integrated with the trade system also. The hope is to turn ATS into a script that has the option of traffic trading, not just the script to get if you only want to trade.

Thanks Brad for taking time out to answer our questions!

To kick of the start of this site, I present to you an interview with Andy, the owner of Av Arcade. I hope you guy’s enjoy it and any comments welcome.

What do you do in your spare time?

I spend a lot of the time on the computer browsing various sites, researching different things. I play numerous games such as Team Fortress 2 with friends and on special occasions even leave the house

How did the idea of Av Arcade come to you?

I always liked the idea of starting a flash game site and attempted to. But I used Joomla and was individually adding the embed code for games each time. Flash game scripts existed, but were prices at around $100 and so were out of my price range. I decided to learn PHP. Not directly because I wanted to make a flash game script, at first I made another simple script called the link script that allowed users to add links to sites a bit like digg.com but a lot more simpler. Someone then suggested I make a flash game script, and so I did… in 2 days. So, the short answer to be honest is someone actually suggested it.

What was your biggest challenge getting AV Arcade to where it is now?

There haven’t been any major hurdles to jump with AV Arcade. As it was initially free, it meant I didn’t really need to advertise it. People told other people, my site got a high ranking in google for the keywords that matter and the rest took care of itself. I have been quite lucky.

Do you own any other script/sites?

AV Arcade is the only script I work on. But I am absolutely looking to branch out and create a new script. I cannot be totally dependant on AV Arcade.

In the history of Av Arcade which date stands out the most for you?

30th October last year was a big day as it was the release of AV Arcade Pro and the first time I charged for the script. I had no idea how well it would go down, but it worked out great.

How do you think Google, and the way it indexes a site affect the way Arcades operate?

It’s important to try and get as high in the search results as possible. But due to most arcade sites lacking unique content, arcade owners are battling hundreds of others for high rankings for the same keywords. I see small sites trying to use the keywords ‘free flash games’ but it’s never going to get them anywhere near the top in any search results. Arcade owners should focus on more unique keywords for SEO success.

With the creation of so many different arcades, where do you think the industry will be in 5 years time?

I think in 5 years things will be quite similar as they are now. Not much has changed since 2005. I think flash game sites will focus a lot more on the social aspect. I expect pages to be a lot more alive than they are today with things like notifications popping up with highscores that are being set while you are playing the game and a feeling that you’re apart of a wider community all playing games together.

Why does your script stand out from the rest?

No other script is currently being supported as well as AV Arcade. Most haven’t been updated in months, others in years. I don’t think AV Arcade’s forum community can be matched either, the sheer number of people available who are on the forum every day helping and creating mods is huge.

Are we going to see any major updates in the coming months?

I’ve started work on 5.3 which will mainly focus on refining what is already there and adding a few things. The aim is that no templates will need editing in this update as new functionality will be an expansion of what is already there.

For the Online Gaming industry what do you believe is the greatest challenge going forward?

I’m not sure to be honest. I think Flash may be installed on less computers in the future with HTML 5 making progress. But there’s no good alternative to flash right now when it comes to online games. I think there needs to be a replacement or something Flash-like that browsers support out of the box.

Who is your direct rival in the Arcade Script world?

If someone else is selling or distributing an arcade script, they are a business rival. There’s no single script that is more a rival than any others.

What do you believe are the key points to run a successful arcade?

Decent games! Considering people are creating arcade sites you don’t hear much about people selecting decent games for their site. If a user tries to play 2 games on your site and they are both no fun to play, that user isn’t going to stay on your site. Pick your games individually. This is a great example of where quality really matters over quantity. A bad, buggy game is as good as having a blank square on your site.

What, in your view, is key to retaining gamers on an arcade site?

As above. Add decent games and add them regularly. If you can’t work on a site full time, release games on a certain day of the week. Your arcade site probably doesn’t have unique content. What your site can offer though, is a great selection of games so your visitors don’t feel the need to look anywhere else.

With the need for competition between gamers becoming more fierce how do you anticipate changes within Av Arcade to accommodate?

I’m not sure right now. But as online gaming evolves, so will AV Arcade.

A great interview, Hope you all enjoyed it.