11/14

Flash is dead ¶

No.

As a rule, I always balk at sentences structured like “______ is dead.” To declare something dead that is clearly alive is well, wrong. Of course, this is more of a colloquial statement, right? It’s actually a campaign to spread the idea that we should kill Flash.

Let’s not.

Flash is very much alive and that’s really its best feature. The fact that Flash has something like a 98% penetration rate on all PCs means that publishing something in Flash on the internet can mean the maximum amount of exposure for anyone willing to publish. The only barrier erected between a potential player and your game is a hyperlink. They click it and boom, they are playing. That is incredible.

If we all went around calling for the head of an imperfect piece of software or platform then well, we wouldn’t have nice things to play with anymore. Flash has its flaws, many of which I am unaware of. However one thing I am very much aware of is how Flash changed my entire life. I am a game developer and if it were not for Flash, its tools, its exposure and its market, I would not be a game developer. I am positive of that.

Flash allowed me to get things done and get them out there to anyone that cared to look. We needed to learn how to make small games and grow our designs incrementally. All of our early games were sold for sponsorship on FGL and while the sums of money weren’t huge, they were enough to allow us to make the next, better game. It was a hand-over-fist education in game development and the existence of Flash made it all possible. These guys shitting all over that hard-cut path we took are being far too cavalier.

¶

There are thousands of developers out there right now, many of them extremely young, that are becoming computer literate through the medium of Flash and ActionScript 3.0. How is that “fascist”? The tools to create Flash .swfs are potentially open and free. There are game engines and frameworks wrapped around Flash that are also completely free. There is nothing overtly oppressive about Flash Player. I know of 3rd graders who are creating animations and even games in Flash, and they can share them with the world nearly instantaneously. They are getting excited about the world of game/animation/software development because it’s a platform and tool that can be grasped fairly easily. Even if they can’t code, these kids can make Flash animations and peek inside of what it might be like to make a full on “thing” and show… everyone with a computer!

Also. This whole OccupyFlash campaign feels very much like a progressive “anti Internet Explorer” campaign. Flash is not Internet Explorer. It’s not the same problem. Flash is not a “lens”. People do not load anything through Flash that isn’t Flash. Flash is more like an image format than a web browser that malforms otherwise well formed content [like Internet Explorer does]. If you have Flash on your website, then you have it on your website and it’s a known quantity. Having a plugin [like Flash] on your system doesn’t mean your whole internet experienced is wrecked.

Ok, so a restaurant website made entirely in Flash isn’t a super great thing these days, but when I can make a Flash game in a couple weeks, not knowing the first thing about “design patterns” or whatever, then I’d say that’s a pretty big win for being another two-by-four in the bridge between the code-literate and the laypeople. A witch hunt on Flash is misplaced aggression. If Carlos O’Kelley’s creates their whole website in Flash then that’s Carlos O’Kelley’s problem.

There is no greater good served by killing Flash. It doesn’t help web standards, it just kills Flash because we need to “make way for new stuff”. Why? Is Flash in the way? If tools for HTML5 improve and eclipse Flash on usability and performance then that’ll be a natural transition to that platform. Why make that transition harder and more awkward by removing something that a ton of people rely on currently? HTML5 has a ways to go, and it’s exciting to see better options for things like video and certain elements on webpages, but it’s not ripe yet. Exploration is awesome, let’s push the boundaries of this new HTML5 format for games, but why junk the car that’s working perfectly fine when the new model is still being constructed on the factory floor? Let’s just wait. Let it chill on the windowsill while we keep on with Ol’ Trusty.

Here are some game developers that have made amazing games that probably wouldn’t be the same without Flash. There are many more that I have forgotten and even more still that will emerge as Flash continues to provide a great path for becoming a game/software developer.

• Edmund McMillen [Super Meatboy]
• Colin Northway [Incredipede, Fantastic Contraption]
• Metanet [n+]
• Andy Moore [Steambirds]
• Adam Saltsman [Canabalt]
• Terry Cavanaugh [VVVVVV]
• Increpare [shitloads of games]
• The Behemoth [Castle Crashers]
• Tyler Glaiel & Jon Schubbe [Closure]
• Amanita Design [Machinarium, Samarost]
• Honeyslug [Hohokum]
• Tametick [Cardinal Quest]
• Krystian Majewski [TRAUMA]
• FastRam Design [UpBot Goes Up]
• Tons more… [suggest and I'll add them]