Here are the places where you might be asked to enter your address and contact details:

Account Settings Page
If you’re an avid ticket-redeemer, you can fill in your details on the Account Settings area on your player profile. This is what that area looks like:

Animated ‘Flip’ When Entering Prizes
If you haven’t filled out your information on the Account Settings page as described above, you’ll be prompted to fill out your info every time you want to enter a ticket prize drawing or sweepstakes. This could be on the page after you’ve submitted a score, on the Prizes page, or on the right-hand prize module on the homepage. This is what the prompt looks like:

Be careful if you are ever asked to give your contact information, either via email or elsewhere on the internet. For our part, we will never ask you for your Candystand login password. Most of this is just good common sense (don’t give out details to strangers), but since there *are* indeed areas on Candystand.com where we ask you legitimately to enter your contact information, we thought it’d be worthwhile to clarify them.

“i’m going to lower my rating from 5/5 to 1/5 because level 8 seems impossible.”

“EASY!!! hungry apples and shines FTW.”

We know. You have to take pseudo-anonymous comments on the internet with a grain of salt, so maybe picking those out aren’t necessarily the best example of our struggles in trying to balance this game. That said, they for the most part reflect the comments from our own team (both Candystand and developer Burstyx) that cropped up while we were bugfixing and integrating BigTree.

Balancing a tower defense strategy game, especially one taking place on an open stage (as opposed to grids like most other TD games), is no easy feat. You have to set and test the attack/range/firerate of each weapon, make sure the prices are accessible when the players need them, and determine how fast their stats are raised when players level them up. You have to set damage, health and speed of enemies, as well as control how many are able to spawn at a time. You have to figure out how many points to award the user for eliminating each enemy to spend during the level as well as how many points to award at the end of the level for upgrades.

Burstyx had done a great job figuring out most of this before we even came into the process, but we still wanted to make sure it would be accessible to Candystand’s users.

When your QA tester tells you that he can’t get past a level, even when he’s hacking the code and giving himself unlimited water points, you know you have a problem.

We thought the actual mechanic and unique twist on tower defense was great and wanted users to be able to play around with the game without finding it too punishing, at least in the beginning.

Here Are Things We Tried

We tried just grinding. Straight up, just playing Battles 1 and 2 over and over again so that we could level up our weapons in the Upgrade/Equip area before heading into battle. We questioned whether or not our ‘casual’ audience would be turned off by this.

We tried decreasing the health of all enemies to 80% of their original stats. This helped a bit, but not much.

We added a brand-new weapon, the Rocket Fruit, just for Candystand.com (it also serves as a viral hook for people playing BigTree on other sites). In the end we probably should’ve made it more accessible — it was still priced high, both in upgrade points and water points.

Sidenote: why we didn’t decide to name the two point systems distinctly is beyond me. Keeping it in mind for BTD 2, if it ever gets developed

We also tried adding an upper limit to the number of insects that could spawn from one portal (we got into messy situation where we’d be up against over 500 hundred of one type in a single wave because of the cloning portals they’d go through). While cool to see on screen in that sort of “oh my god they’re going to totally annihilate my tree” way, not very fun for casual players.

In the end…

In the end, we wanted to minimize the possibility that we would completely throw off the game’s balance by making all weapons too powerful, all enemies too weak. Certain strategies like using Shine Flowers and spending significant resources expanding your branches outwards instead of clustered around the trunk definitely gave the player an upper hand; the problem was communicating to the user that *that* was the technique they should use.

I think in retrospect perhaps we could’ve spent more time fine-tuning the tutorial and adding more hint screens/areas around the game to drive these strategies home. Time, resources and somewhat of a lack of thinking outside the box (non-stat based ways to make the game more accessible) were the culprits — a few hasty blog posts explaining the game and a few days spent monitoring the chatter on the game pages were all we really did to support the behavior post-launch.

So, key takeaways. Test. A lot. It might’ve been a good idea to beta-test this game before releasing the final version — get some solid feedback from the players on what they were able to figure out, what would’ve helped them. Plan the launch. Given the opportunity, I think it would’ve helped to have a solid handful of additional posts about the game. More videos, more tutorials. Figure out the audience. BigTree Defense is not a game particularly suited for the Candystand crowd, much as we want to continue to expand our catalog. The viral versions on Kongregate and Newgrounds are doing well, rating-wise and a few weeks later it’s still in the top 10 of our virally seeded games. It’s possible that we could’ve done better by focusing on the game’s launch outside Candystand instead of inside.

This post is already a few paragraphs too long, and a while overdue so I’m going to end it here. Short story: balancing TD is difficult. Solution: Test more, plan better, know the audience. Easy like cake.

Want to be next? Enter for prizes and sweeps with your Candystand tickets!

Wow! The boxes just kept coming and coming! Thank you so much for selecting me as a winner in your Ultimate Tailgate Sweepstakes! Everything (except the iLive Docking System) arrived perfectly and we are all eagerly awaiting warmer weather here in Michigan to fire up the grill and have a great tailgate. I will let you know if the boombox arrives……..but in the meantime, I wanted to be sure let you know how wonderful it has been to open the boxes!!

Thanks again,
Jeff

Bloxie – Trident Splash
http://www.candystand.com/play/bloxie

Match Point Tennis – Trident (base)
http://www.candystand.com/play/match-point-tennis

Calculation Solitaire – Trident Tropical Twist
http://www.candystand.com/play/calculation-solitaire

Free Cell Solitaire – Trident Layers
http://www.candystand.com/play/free-cell-solitaire

Klondike Solitaire – Trident Watermelon Twist
http://www.candystand.com/play/klondike-solitaire

Golf Solitaire – Trident White Peppermint
http://www.candystand.com/play/golf-solitaire

Pyramid Solitaire – Trident Xtra Care Cool Mint
http://www.candystand.com/play/pyramid-solitaire

Virble: Buy Now
Vector TD: Buy Now
Match Maker: Buy Now
Electric Box: Buy Now

In some ways, this limits us from being able to compete with the likes of Kongregate, Newgrounds and others. They’re able to support a theoretically limitless catalog of flash games because each one is submitted directly by the developer him/herself. They also have somewhat of an advantage from a search engine standpoint – tons of user-generated pages mean many more URLs that search engines can crawl. In addition, the efforts of those who run the front-end of these sites leans much closer towards deciding which games actually get featured on the front page for promotion, and so on.

In contrast, Candystand hand-picks every single game that makes it onto the site. While that means volume-wise, we have far fewer games than some of our counterparts, it also means we can pay much closer attention to the quality of these games and make sure they fit with what (we believe) our audience wants to play. Handpicking games as exclusives, primaries or sitelocks (see previous post for clarification on terminology) lets us attempt to make a better user experience for gamers on Candystand.

Most importantly, curating games in this fashion means that 90% of the time (as much as possible, basically), developers will integrate their game with our High Score API, which lets users post scores to the leaderboard, earn bronze/silver/gold trophies for achieving certain high scores and earn tickets for playing. The ability to earn tickets, in turn, fuels our prizes/sweepstakes economy.

The result is that we pretty meticulously choose which developer we work with on which games. For our part, we think it offers a great way for developers to get more engaged players (if they have incentives like trophies and tickets), but also means they usually have to commit more effort and time to integrate and QA their game.

So which games do we actually put on the site?

Innovative but accessible. We’re always interested in sponsoring games that push the boundaries of what flash games are, but still manage to remain accessible to our largely very (very) casual crowd. Examples of games that fall into this category are Electric Box (thinking man’s puzzle/physics game) and BigTree Defense (tower defense with branching fractal-style weapon arrangement).

Trend followers. We also aim to have a catalog with games that fall into popular genres — time management, popping games, match three, spot-the-difference. Not only do we lessen the risk that a game will be a flop on our site, but it allows us to be competitive by offering similar types of games that audiences might find on another portal. Examples: Legend of the Golden Mask (hidden object), Momma’s Diner (time management).

Classics. Last but not least, Candystand specializes in games centered around cards, pool, racing, sports and other types of ‘traditional’ games that have existed outside of the flash game world. We’re known for our classic mini golf and billiards titles, and car-based games always do well with our crowd. Ways to expand this part of our catalog are always welcome — even recent smaller pickups like Super Parking World are doing extremely well.

Update: Also please leave any comments with additional information you’d like to know, any questions/comments about the relationships between game portals and developers. I will try to write up additional questions that I remember being asked during the panel.

You may have noticed a lack of updates from the team last week — it’s because we were out in San Francisco at the Flash Gaming Summit and Game Developers’ Conference learning new ways to make great games for you guys (oh and to party with our friends… but mostly we were there for the knowledge).

The guys at Mochi Media (who hosted the Flash Gaming Summit) invited us to be on one of the panels, “Everything About Sponsorship & Licensing” — you can actually still watch a feed from the 50-minute long session here.

One of the big questions that came up during and after the panel had to do with what exactly sponsorship of a flash game meant. The terms vary slightly from site to site, but I thought it might be helpful to some game developers (aspiring or otherwise) to see the basic types of sponsorships we do on Candystand. Most of the other game portals (as well as Flash Game License) follow similar structures — again, this is something you’ll have to make sure to go over with whichever sponsor you end up choosing.

Shout-out to Pierrick of Yamago Games, who is the reason I’ve written these terms out in the first place.

So without further ado, Sponsorship & Licensing 101. Read it, digest it, and then make your awesome game so we can pay you for it.

Exclusive Sponsorship
The game can only be distributed by Candystand. The developer cannot sell the game to other sites. Essentially, any playable version of the game on the web will feature Candystand branding. The version that lives on Candystand.com will feature integration with our high score API, allowing users to earn trophies and post high scores to our site. An exclusive sponsorship also means that Candystand has the rights to release the game virally with our branding. See Viral Version for more details.

Primary
The game is hosted exclusively by Candystand for a certain period of time (usually two weeks to a month). Like the Exclusive sponsorship, this version will feature our high score API. The developer is allowed to sell the game to other sites after this period, without Candystand branding. Candystand also has the rights to release the game virally with our branding.

Sitelock
The game has a different Primary sponsor but the developer is allowed to sell sitelocks to others. Candystand buys a sitelock, which allows the developer to put Candystand branding and integrate our high score API. Candystand does not distribute the viral version of the game.

Viral
The game may or may not have an Exclusive/Primary sponsorship with Candystand. This particular version is not hosted on Candystand.com but rather seeded to other game portals for free. Sites include Kongregate, Newgrounds and Mochigames (where the viral version will also be available to distribute for free to other sites). The viral version features links back to Candystand.com for more games, and occasionally highlights bonus content that is only available on the Candystand.com version. Third-party ads are allowed — whether the revenue from those goes to Candystand or the developer vary depending on the agreement.

Questions? Want to pitch us your game? Email robin [at] candystand.com

Shoot us your portfolio/resume at jobs@candystand.com — and if you’re swinging by San Francisco next week for the Flash Gaming Summit or GDC, let us know. We’ll be there with our bells on.

What’s BigTree Defense? Check out our preview of the game, which will launch on Candystand.com on Tuesday March 2, 2010.

How weapons in BigTree Defense work
When you first start up the game, a short tutorial will guide you through the steps of buying and equipping weapons. If you’re like us though, you’re probably going to skip it to just get into the game as soon as possible.

First you’ll need to unlock weapons with Points. You’ll earn points when you kill enemies during each battle, and they add up even when you lose the battle. This is done on the Upgrade & Equip screen before every battle.

You can upgrade each weapon to Level 5 using points, which unlocks the ability to level up your weapons during the actual battle. For example, if you unlock Shine Flower’s Level 3 in Upgrade/Equip, you’ll be able to level Shine Flower up to Level 3 during the battle using Water points.

Weapon Guide for BigTree Defense
Fruit Cannon: Basic cannon, average damage, fire rate and range.

Candystand says: Solid basic cannon that’s cheap to purchase and upgrade, but you’ll probably only use this for your first battle.

Nut Cannon: Fast cannon, low damage but high fire rate and range.

Candystand says: The high rate of fire makes this a staple when we equip our weapons for each level. It upgrades nicely even though it has relatively low damage.

Torpedo Fruit: Heavy splash damage, but low fire rate and range.

Candystand says: Good if you want a nice, in-between weapon that does more than direct damage, but ultimately you’ll want something more powerful.

Gem Fruit: Slows enemies down, low fire rate and average range.

Candystand says: Slowing enemies down is great, especially if you want to prevent insects from returning back to their portals and multiplying!


Serum Cannon: Poisonous attack, enemies continue to lose HP for a short while.

Candystand says: This is a great cannon to attach to your outer limbs — since it’ll continue to cause damage even after insects have left the range of your weapons, you might be able to score a few extra kills per wave.

Shine Flower: Every enemy in firing range will take damage.

Candystand says: This is the wide-area cannon you want to upgrade for. The ’shine’ emitting from this weapon will deal heavy damage to all enemies in range – great for levels where you have larger swarms of insects.

Nut Snail: Fast cannon, high fire rate and range as well as heavy damage.

Candystand says: The Nut Snail is probably the most versatile weapon in the game once you have enough points to buy and upgrade it. With a high rate a fire, heavy damage and range, this will likely be your staple weapon if you can spare the water points to equip it.

Blaze Cannon: Emits flames, enemies take damage if they come in contact.

Smog Fruit: Emits smog, enemies in range will be slowed down.

Laser Chunk: Locks onto an enemy until eliminated or out of range.

Carronade Chunk: Fires an exploding shell, heavy splash damage.

Hungry Apple: Devours enemies one at a time.

Candystand says: Great defense against insects with a lot of health, but will take quite a lot of effort to purchase. Still pretty valuable to have towards the center of your tree to prevent attacks.

Rocket Fruit: Fires high-damage rockets at weakest enemy in range.

Candystand says: A weapon so powerful, the developers created it just for us! The Rocket Fruit is only available on the Candystand.com version of BigTree Defense.