I would argue that html5 game toolchains today are FAR more niche than Flash was in its prime--I'm not even sure I'd know how to write that job description. Kee

I would argue that html5 game toolchains today are FAR more niche than Flash was in its prime--I'm not even sure I'd know how to write that job description. Keep in mind that Flash wasn't just solo indie devs--I used it personally on teams of up to 25-30 people for Facebook games and knew people working on much larger teams. Battery life wasn't really a thing I worried about before smartphones came along, so I'm not sure that's super relevant (although, if you want to pick that fight, Unity on mobile is a real battery killer). Security was rough, but I think I'd trade a bit of security to ditch the walled gardens we have today. I do think things are better in most ways for users. Because Flash portals didn't require a download, it was MUCH easier to try new things. This led to a virtuous cycle of people making weird shit. Because so much game content is gated behind app stores these days, you have to download a thing and then wade through permission/notification screens and it's too much of a cognitive burden compared to "oh, that looks neat." (Toss on that app stores are horrible for discovery). I think the way most people discover (mobile) games these days is through ads, and if a game is running ads they're a large company with plans to extract $5-$10+ out of you... So we've traded big catalogues of free games with crappy banner ads for walled gardens that depend on ads for discovery of exploitative IAP skinner boxes.