Arcade Admin – The Arcade Owners Ultimate Resource

Well, I was having a read of a post at Av Arcade Forum and it has provoked me to comment here. This post is relating to your arcade, and some of the things you need to do to make it a success!  This is an open blog post, so all feedback/comments are welcome. This isn’t a definitive guide on what to do, merely my experience:-

1.Uniquness

What makes your arcade stand out from the crowd? It’s the way in which you make it unique, that means offering something that no other arcade has, even if its just a theme – its unique and a good talking point. When I talk about uniqueness, its about how you can do something different, its all about the users, make the user feel at home by offering them something unique(different) – in return they should pass on your site with word of mouth (and social media)!

Don’t stick with the status quo when it comes to managing an arcade [such as game layout, social media, use of game tags and categories] go wild and try something new, be unique – this is be one of your key selling points!

2.Theme

This is a key area of your site. Put your self in the position of a user, would you use your site with its current design/navigation? Sometimes I see arcade theme’s that are a horrible to use/navigate – remember semantic development is what you need to aim for, with all your pages being valid! The theme is what’s going to engage with the user, ensure its what your target audience wants to see form your site, but also ask for feedback!

Take examples such as miniclip, a nice simple design, thats easy to navigate and assessable to all users (even those with an impairment). The design is what’s key, you may have poor quality games, but if the theme stands out from the rest, your still going to get an audience.

Design it, Make it Unique, and get FEEDBACK from your USERS

3.Features/Modifications

This is a key area in my view, having something to engage and retain the user while also attracting new users into the mix. Areas such as leaderboards and chat rooms on games all increase user participation and retainment. Offering features such as Facebook Connect are also a good way of retaining the user, while also attracting new users – use the FB Connect as a method to connect to the users profile and update their status with games they are playing on your site.

4.Search Engine Optimization

This one is a no brainer, but still it always has to have a comment on this area. Always focus on SEO to some extent, within your titles, descriptions and page layout (tags cloud) – also link build and link exchanges, try to use social media as a tool, twitter “tweets” are a good way to drive traffic to your site!

5.Quality Games

Well we’ve covered all aspects about the site, but what about the content – the reason people come to your site? Always focus on having good quality games, that engage and retain the user on your site. Also try to use social media in this area as well to share your site and the quality games you have. Ensure you take the time to play each of your games, and write custom descriptions and How-to-Play instructions. Quality games are only part of the solution, but linking within the other sections and you’re on to a winner!

A side tip – Look at the big picture! Always look to see what your competitors are doing, even trailback their link exchanges and try to match them – It’s all about how you can be successful, not how others can be!

-I’ll update this post when I get time, at the moment I still need to formulate my idea’s!

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!

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.