I am Alex Williams, Head of Games at Miniclip - AMA

I would just like to personally thank you for getting me through all of my High school computer classes, without those trials games, I never would have made it out alive.

You are very welcome. I could never complete Mountain Heights though... I'm glad Miniclip started after my college career!

Just wanted to say, 8 year old me wants to thank you for that volleyball game where you see boobies if you enter the right code.

lol boobies

Although they were only four pixel wide boobies...

My computer teacher in middle school once caught me playing boom boom volleyball with the topless cheat on your site. Thanks.

You're welcome.

As someone who got into Runescape through miniclip a long time ago, how did miniclip help to set the platform for the launch of Runescape into how popular of an MMO that it has become specifically (specifically dealing with early-mid 2000's more or less)

I would love to take personal responsibility for the success of Runescape but our Creative Director was introduced to it from a family member of his who was a fan very early on. We worked with Jagex to publish the game to the biggest audience online and continue to work with the guys there as they develop more games.

The website could use a little design work... lookin' for someone with talent? I'd love to shoot a few design ideas your way.

There is always room for improvement. Email [email protected] with your ideas

How has the rise in smartphone games effected the traffic of your website?

The way people access the internet is definitely changing. As the majority of our games are in Flash the website is not a particularly great place for mobile users! However with the opening of our Smartphone studio in 2010 we are actively trying to spread the game love on to phones. Traffic to the website continues to grow though as we push out in to other markets.

Are you guys doing anything about the cheaters on 8 Ball Pool Multiplayer? People actually buy credits to play in its tournaments but lose their money when cheaters decide to put in there code or whatever they do and move on to the next round.

We've been working on this and we think we've found a fix for the "freeze hack" that a lot of people are using at the moment and we will be pushing this out as soon as we can. We're also working on fixes for the other hacks people are using.

Miniclip has a special place in my heart as it was the first game website I used, and I remember loving the original design for the website, I think it was with a black background. Games like ZED and Smashing were my afternoon 10 years back.

You wouldn't happen to have a image of the orginal layout of miniclip, for nostalgia?

This is the original layout http://i.imgur.com/xRG54Jq.jpg The capitalized 'C' in the logo still pains me :(

If only miniclip wasn't banned in so many schools! Still love playing in my free time so thanks :)

Several of our developers honed their skills by finding ways around school filters. Glad you enjoy.

Why did you turn down robot rage? Im sure that game could have become big if you just made everything in it free :) - I really liked the princip in that game! :D

I will leave this here...

I want more Final Ninja games. If you could drop everything else and get those out there, that'd be fantastic.

The Final Ninja games are by Nitrome a great developer we have worked with for many years. If the ninjas are demanded then I am sure we can do something.

Is Flash becoming a redundant technology?

No. Flash still has a lot to offer for casual gaming. That is not to say that other techs aren't as good or better but Flash for its penetration rate is still essential for a games site.

My name is also Alex Williams - Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

I'd like to thank you for getting me through grade school with some shred of sanity instead of dying from boredom.

What's the funniest thing that's happened at Miniclip since you've been there?

We went through a spate of buying up domains of our colleagues names and I did an excellent photoshop of a Director taking part in a high class porn film and posting it. Admittedly he didn't find it as funny as the rest of us.....

Can you make a category for "classic miniclip games"? I.E., the games that we played in like 2005?

Excellent idea, will make it happen tomorrow.

What's your goal for Miniclip? Also, what got you interested in taking your job?

Miniclip's goal is world domination through the medium of flash games.

I was fresh back from a year travelling the world and needed a job. I knew Rob Small (Miniclip CEO) from University and his 'little website' needed some more manpower.

T or A?

A

I love the mobile apps you guys put out. Do you have any plan on releasing more in the near future? Also, just wanna say thank you so much for all the quality gaming

Yes - we've just released 8 Ball Pool on iOS and Android and have lots and lots of new games planned for the future. Thank you for playing!

How many coins to you have in 8 Ball Pool?

As many as I like.

What is your favourite miniclip game?

Soap Bubble 2! has a special place in my heart.

Ain't got nothin on motherload

good call! :)

Agreed Motherload is great. I jump back in to it a couple of times a year.

Will you ever add a full screen button

One of the reasons we have a free games website at all is because advertising generates a lot of the money it takes to run the site. Without the ads we would have a lot less games. Also not every game lends itself to going fullscreen - different devs build games differently.

Thanks for the reply, I understand what you mean but what about making it so you could buy a fullscreen on say Miniclip 8 Ball Pool with credits

If enough people would purchase the add-on that it was worth our while developing it, we'd love to be able to do this. We'll keep tabs on demand :)

What does your job as 'Head of Games' entail exactly?

How involved are you in the development process of the games? What is the criteria you follow to fill the website with "100% high-quality gaming content"?

In the early days in entailed putting Game CDs in to envelopes with the CEO at lunchtime.

Nowadays I work with Team Awesome to select the best content for the website, I work with our internal devs to do the same. I spend slightly more time looking at contracts than I ever expected but working on partnerships with other companies to bring great stuff to the site is very enjoyable.

On the game front I am very keen on the UX being as good as possible and the flow feeling right. I am really keen on fun. You would be surprised at how many games I see that are just not fun. Weeding out those games is the goal.

Do you ever see miniclip moving away from flash and developing in html5/javascript?

We will develop in whatever the best technology available is. HTML5 games is something we're looking at at the moment and we're also soon going to be releasing a huge game we're making in Unity. At the moment, though, Flash offers huge market penetration for desktop gamers, so it makes sense for us to continue making flash games.

I've been on miniclip for about 6 years now..and my only interest are 8-ball multi and 8-ball quickfire pool. Do you think that snooker might make it one day? Thank you for hours and hours on fun :)

We've looked at making a snooker game before and we'll look again at doing it in the future, but up to now the main stumbling point has been playing a game of Pool takes about 5 minutes whereas playing a game of snooker takes around 45 minutes which is more than the attention span of the average internet user. If there's demand for it, though, we'll certainly consider it again.

God damn it I spent lots of time playing On the run. Anyway idea why it often breaks?

It uses Shockwave. Please email [email protected].

Did you ever get any heat from controversial games?

When we released Presidential Paintball we were berated by some media outlets for 'advocating the murder of the President'

The company suddenly acquires a £1 million sum (after tax, etc.) from someone's dead gran. How is it spent?

I would definitely earmark some of it for Malibu Wakesetter. The remainder would go to increase the office beer fund.

I would never have survived taking a business class if it weren't for Club Penguin. Thanks dude.

Edit: A talking taco pointed out that it wasn't a question, so what are your opinions on penguins planning world domination?

Glad you enjoyed Club Penguin. The story of CP is pretty cool. The devs were New Horizon Interactive. We commissioned various puzzle games from them and they were interested in trying something bigger. Fast forward a year of 2 and the result was Club Penguin which was a fantastic place for young kids to get online in a fun and safe environment (The guys behind it were young dads) They were acquired by Disney a few years later and that is when you started to see all the merchandise come out. It was pretty impressive and we were flooded with companies coming to us with ideas for Club Panda, Club Dolphin, Club (insert any animal here). Needless to say very few of these came to much. As for real world domination I think with such short legs they should be pretty easy to overpower.

How did you get into that business? And what do you do in your spare time?

I was at University with the CEO and when he needed talent he called me ;)

I love cold water swimming. Currently training for a Tough Mudder at the moment so almost permanently knackered.

Not asking any questions, just want to say thank you for making my childhood awesome.

You're welcome.

I Just want to thank you for filling that empty hole in my life when my MMOs were down for maintenance!

Also Are you an apple type of person or a banana type of person?

It is our pleasure, personally I am an apple fan, they last longer unbruised in a backpack.

I heard one of Miniclip employees had an exceptionally BIG BIRD! What happened to him??

He emigrated and was eaten by a wolf

how mini is your clip?

We started out with a game filesize limit of 400kb so pretty mini really.