It was ecosystem collapse; I saw it happen. The flash portals were kept afloat by an enormous amount of advertisement money that flowed through flash portals an

It was ecosystem collapse; I saw it happen. The flash portals were kept afloat by an enormous amount of advertisement money that flowed through flash portals and to game developers and animators through sponsorships and site-licenses (make free content and get paid to do it!). As content moved to the mobile app stores this money dried up, and with it the entire ecosystem. The simple format made it easy to upload content both for the portal and the developer. The tools made it easy to get started and to grow. The funding made it easy to start, find your footing, and stick around long enough to get good and eventually great. As the format was attacked and HTML5 didn't work well with the old tools, and as Steve Jobs pushed app stores forward, it all came crashing down. I saw it happen in real time, these forces evolved together.