4 ms·

On how Flash games shaped the video game industry

32 points by homarp 6y ago

catmanjan 6y ago
I don't think any of the new development platforms have gotten even close to how accessible it was to make games in flash - pre as3 was the perfect combination of ease of art creation and programming
- c00ls0sa 6y ago
  Rpg Maker, GameMaker, JS itself, Unreal Engine. - it's true Flash gave way to allowing creativity to flourish easier but accessibility has come and gone - at this point it's personal preference and CPU usage that dictate the expanse of your games
  - catmanjan 6y ago
    I'd argue that none of those can do both the art and programming side of things as well (for beginners) as flash did I haven't used RPG Maker in a decade, but when I did you had to import sprites, same with GameMaker. JS doesn't help you with art. Unreal Engine has a basic modeller but you have to use Blender which is quite complex for beginners Flash was like an animated paint, super accessible
mkoubaa 6y ago
Is anyone doing a WASM flash por
- efreak 6y ago
  There's been a few flash runtimes in javascript and other languages. Most of them have been long abandoned. https://github.com/tobeytailor/gordon https://github.com/tobeytailor/gordon https://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ https://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ In development: https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle And then the most recent one, CheerpX, which as I understand it runs the Adobe flash runtime itself via wasm: https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpxflash.html https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpxflash.html Which brings me to Java. Java left the browser even before flash did. Not all of these are javascript jvms, but all of them are intended to run Java applications in the browser (some are transpilers, others require code changes): https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpj.html https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpj.html https://github.com/java2script/java2script https://github.com/java2script/java2script (this links to some less-complete projects) https://github.com/Jivings/jsJVM https://github.com/Jivings/jsJVM https://github.com/nurv/BicaVM https://github.com/nurv/BicaVM https://github.com/st-js/st-js/ https://github.com/st-js/st-js/ https://github.com/plasma-umass/doppio https://github.com/plasma-umass/doppio https://github.com/jtulach/bck2brwsr https://github.com/jtulach/bck2brwsr https://www.keithschwarz.com/+script/ https://www.keithschwarz.com/+script/ https://github.com/robterrell/orto https://github.com/robterrell/orto https://github.com/jdstroy/JavaPoly https://github.com/jdstroy/JavaPoly https://gitlab.com/neoexpert/jvm/-/blob/master/jsjvm/README.md https://gitlab.com/neoexpert/jvm/-/blob/master/jsjvm/README....
  - mkoubaa 6y ago
    Wow, cheerpx looks promising. Thanks for sharing! Java in the browser reminds of classic RuneScape and my favorite old game site Javagameplay. Great times

32 points by homarp 6y ago

I don't think any of the new development platforms have gotten even close to how accessible it was to make games in flash - pre as3 was the perfect combination of ease of art creation and programming

c00ls0sa 6y ago
Rpg Maker, GameMaker, JS itself, Unreal Engine. - it's true Flash gave way to allowing creativity to flourish easier but accessibility has come and gone - at this point it's personal preference and CPU usage that dictate the expanse of your games
- catmanjan 6y ago
  I'd argue that none of those can do both the art and programming side of things as well (for beginners) as flash did I haven't used RPG Maker in a decade, but when I did you had to import sprites, same with GameMaker. JS doesn't help you with art. Unreal Engine has a basic modeller but you have to use Blender which is quite complex for beginners Flash was like an animated paint, super accessible

mkoubaa 6y ago

Is anyone doing a WASM flash por

efreak 6y ago
There's been a few flash runtimes in javascript and other languages. Most of them have been long abandoned. https://github.com/tobeytailor/gordon https://github.com/tobeytailor/gordon https://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ https://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ In development: https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle And then the most recent one, CheerpX, which as I understand it runs the Adobe flash runtime itself via wasm: https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpxflash.html https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpxflash.html Which brings me to Java. Java left the browser even before flash did. Not all of these are javascript jvms, but all of them are intended to run Java applications in the browser (some are transpilers, others require code changes): https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpj.html https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpj.html https://github.com/java2script/java2script https://github.com/java2script/java2script (this links to some less-complete projects) https://github.com/Jivings/jsJVM https://github.com/Jivings/jsJVM https://github.com/nurv/BicaVM https://github.com/nurv/BicaVM https://github.com/st-js/st-js/ https://github.com/st-js/st-js/ https://github.com/plasma-umass/doppio https://github.com/plasma-umass/doppio https://github.com/jtulach/bck2brwsr https://github.com/jtulach/bck2brwsr https://www.keithschwarz.com/+script/ https://www.keithschwarz.com/+script/ https://github.com/robterrell/orto https://github.com/robterrell/orto https://github.com/jdstroy/JavaPoly https://github.com/jdstroy/JavaPoly https://gitlab.com/neoexpert/jvm/-/blob/master/jsjvm/README.md https://gitlab.com/neoexpert/jvm/-/blob/master/jsjvm/README....
- mkoubaa 6y ago
  Wow, cheerpx looks promising. Thanks for sharing! Java in the browser reminds of classic RuneScape and my favorite old game site Javagameplay. Great times