Review: Adding Kick Ass Flash Games to Facebook, MySpace

Posted by scotty777...

Have you just started a Facebook or MySpace site and you’re looking for something slick to add to it, here is something that might be just what you are looking for. Try embeding some flash games for your visitors! You can easily add arcade style flash games to your website or blog that has the effect of encouraging your visitors to bookmark and stick around your site! You can find entire collections of arcade style flash games over at OpenWeb Digital Downloads that have instructions on how to do this that will work fine on just about any website including MySpace and Facebook, but you have to do some extra work which we explain below. These game packs are tested, screened against viruses, categorized, packaged and made available for immediate digital download. We even added a free sample download in our Downloads page so you can download a few and try them out.

Full packages are available over at OpenWeb Downloads in their arcade. They are also available over at PayLoadZ along with other software like RSS Directory listings to add your site’s RSS feed to. Here is an example of what can be done:

The Shooting Arcade game to the left is one typical example on what you can do. You can register at the OpenWeb Downloads Arcade and check them out yourself before downloading and also have some fun at the same time! We also loaded three of these games in our right margin using a wordpress widget to give you an idea of how you can use this to increase “site stickiness”. We did it for this article, but you can see that you might develop it much further on your own site.

The download zipped packages for blogs contains flash games (in .swf format) including its respective thumbnail (.gif) along with a simple instruction guide (.pdf) explaining how to configure them so your visitors can play them right on your site just like the Shooting Arcade example above. Here is a list of games in one of the bundles [Flash Game Inventory Listing (.pdf) ]. They also have Special Packs which appear to also be available for vBulletin Arcades and Nuke Arcades (which are full blown gaming arcades) that include install scripts for these more formal arcade sites. Here is the key…. These .swf flash game files will run on your website, blog or even off line as a stand alone game on your PC or laptop once you understand how to link to them and run them.

You will need some server space with FTP access in order to do this seamlessly to link to them remotely. If you don’t have access to a server we provide a link below to an excellent free hosting service.

If you do have access to a server what you do is simply upload all the files in the pack and then link to them in a post, or in a special area in your margin, (See our right margin as an example) or link to them anywhere else on your site that you choose similar to how you link a picture file (.gif or .jpg). They have instructions with details on how to do this in a .pdf file in the download zip.

For example: <a href=”LOCATION OF .SWF FILE ON SERVER”><img src=” IMAGE FILE ON SERVER OF FLASH GAME ” border=”0″ title=”" alt=”" /></a> When you click it will launch anyone’s browser that has macromedia flash running. Just about everyone does these days. Their instructions had some info about Adobe and Macromedia Flash as well.

If your server host (ISP) doesn’t allow file uploading and hosting or you don’t have access to an server, then check out FileCrunch. Filecrunch provides a free file hosting option which anyone can use. Very sweet! Flash games right in your blog or website!

Summary: This is an easy way to entertain your visitors and also get them to stick around and give them another reason to bookmark your site and return! It always helps if your site has interesting content to start with, but providing some additional enterainment can sure help you increase return visits.

Posted by scotty777...