4 ms·

I miss Flash games :( There used to be thousands of little dumb games and animations like this on the net.

by cush 5y ago

hypertele-Xii 5y ago
The tools are slowly catching back up to fill the void left by Flash. Not quite there yet, but I'm optimistic about the next 5 years.
- asadlionpk 5y ago
  whats the current fastest way to make dumb small games like we did with Flash?
  - jmkni 5y ago
    Might be helpful - https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/how-to-publish-for-webgl https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/how-to-publish-for-webgl
    - herbst 5y ago
      They asked for small and not 100mb overhead ;)
  - mysterydip 5y ago
    Phaser perhaps? http://phaser.io/ http://phaser.io/
    - asadlionpk 5y ago
      I have used phaser. It's the best framework for writing js games quick. But it's not as cool as flash was.
  - dubcanada 5y ago
    I’m not sure why nobody is suggesting the engine that most of itch games use but Love 2D
    - vorpalhex 5y ago
      Small, well kept engines like this are the answer. You can of course write your own or build tooling on a bigger engine like unity, but if you just want a quick solution something like Love or Phaser is the way to go.
    - AnyTimeTraveler 5y ago
      Really good engine for game jams as well! Offers loads of freedom while being fast and having a lot of lua libraries to make things like menus just a 10 line thing.
  - bob1029 5y ago
    > fastest way Probably with whatever programming language you are currently best at. Virtually every modern language has a quick happy path to the web. More specifically, those skilled in HTML/JS/CSS (and particularly WebGL) can do a shitload of damage on first order terms. E.g. everything inlined into single index.html file out on Github Pages. Doesn't get much faster than that. If you have a little bit more time, you can investigate some systems-level programming options. I can provide a solid recommendation for C#/.NET. Blazor in particular is a really compelling way to put the type system of C# on top of your web components. For a "dumb small" game, the expressiveness of C# 8.0+ might be a bit overkill, but it is still really fucking nice to have all the same. If you want 100% functional UI you can just pull that lever whenever you are ready. Also, operating with Blazor in server-side mode would enable very trivial and responsive multiplayer experiences (assuming participants are near the server). This approach could be compelling for settings like corporate, campus, event, private LAN, etc.
  - nick__m 5y ago
    Nim + sdl2 + wasm works ... I should probably put my stupid maze generator somewhere so I could link to it.
  - herbst 5y ago
    Also Check Flixel or rather Haxe. I never was a fan of flash, but damn Haxe makes it easy to write something that looks same on every device
  - kroltan 5y ago
    This game and many others are made using Unity. It uses C# but compiles to web too, and has a very complete (if clunky) toolset. Importantly, as compared with some of the alternatives, it can be used with very little actual programming, since it has a visual editor for levels, UI, animations, and whatnot. as someone whose day job is making games in Unity, it is a bit finnicky for larger projects, but for this kind of scope it is perfectly adequate!
  - frompdx 5y ago
    I think Godot is a good choice for something like this. HTML5 exports are easy to do.
  - hypertele-Xii 5y ago
    PICO-8 for really small ones. TIC-80 for slightly larger ones. Maybe Picotron in the future for yet larger ones. [1] There's an open market niche for an integrated editor like the abovementioned but without arbitrary restrictions (of resolution, color palette, etc.), that isn't quite as big as say Unity or Godot. Noone has made this yet. But since the space exists between multiple efforts from both ends of the scale, it'll be filled soon enough. Even I've considered making it, but have too many projects on my plate. Game Maker gets an honorable mention, but it's pretty trash these days since the original author sold it. [1] https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php
- astrange 5y ago
  There are great Flash emulators available, so nothing is stopping you from making more swf games. You might have to fall back to an older machine if they haven't maintained the creation tools I guess, but it's more likely noone wants to make them anymore.
  - nine_k 5y ago
    > nothing is stopping you from making more swf games ...as long as you have the original Macromedia animation software up and running, I presume? I've seen a couple of good Flash players. Is there comparable open (or even closed but maintained) Flash animation software?
    - astrange 5y ago
      Well, keeping an old machine or VM around to run an older version of Flash is much less of a burden than using one to run Flash Player. It's normal to have old equipment if you're a professional, and if not then creation tools don't have as many significant security issues so you don't have to rebuild the VM as much. It might still be more work than people want to put up with.
- herbst 5y ago
  If you consider haxe that compiles flash source to HTML5 and more I am not sure there is a gap or just a broken market. For some reason kongregate decided it's not worth getting new games anymore. They must know why
- nanis 5y ago
  >> The tools are slowly catching back up to fill the void left by Flash. > Uncaught (in promise) Your browser does not support graphics API "WebGL 2.0" which is required for this content. Firefox 90 on 64-bit Windows 10. Presumably because I insist on using my souped up T400. Still, looking at the video, I am going to say *VERY* slowly catching up.
  - iratewizard 5y ago
    I'm someone who was very active making flash games from 2006-2009 and who ran a 3rd party aggregation site for flash content. The people who I mostly noticed working on these projects were young and experimenting with pirated copies of flash. It was a community that popped up spontaneously. As far as I've seen, there won't be a resurgence. The next generation will have their own creative communities spontaneously explode and then disappear.
    - moondev 5y ago
      This brings me nostalgia about 2advanced.net, there was some truly creative work in that era!
- aero-glide2 5y ago
  Godot engine also supports export to web. I still miss flash though
fuckwebdev 5y ago
I miss Flash games... I could actually run them on FreeBSD using Opera. Modern shit barely works when you use a platform as arcane as Firefox on Linux.

I miss Flash games :( There used to be thousands of little dumb games and animations like this on the net.

by cush 5y ago

I miss Flash games :( There used to be thousands of little dumb games and animations like this on the net.

The tools are slowly catching back up to fill the void left by Flash. Not quite there yet, but I'm optimistic about the next 5 years.

asadlionpk 5y ago
whats the current fastest way to make dumb small games like we did with Flash?
- jmkni 5y ago
  Might be helpful - https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/how-to-publish-for-webgl https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/how-to-publish-for-webgl
  - herbst 5y ago
    They asked for small and not 100mb overhead ;)
- mysterydip 5y ago
  Phaser perhaps? http://phaser.io/ http://phaser.io/
  - asadlionpk 5y ago
    I have used phaser. It's the best framework for writing js games quick. But it's not as cool as flash was.
- dubcanada 5y ago
  I’m not sure why nobody is suggesting the engine that most of itch games use but Love 2D
  - vorpalhex 5y ago
    Small, well kept engines like this are the answer. You can of course write your own or build tooling on a bigger engine like unity, but if you just want a quick solution something like Love or Phaser is the way to go.
  - AnyTimeTraveler 5y ago
    Really good engine for game jams as well! Offers loads of freedom while being fast and having a lot of lua libraries to make things like menus just a 10 line thing.
- bob1029 5y ago
  > fastest way Probably with whatever programming language you are currently best at. Virtually every modern language has a quick happy path to the web. More specifically, those skilled in HTML/JS/CSS (and particularly WebGL) can do a shitload of damage on first order terms. E.g. everything inlined into single index.html file out on Github Pages. Doesn't get much faster than that. If you have a little bit more time, you can investigate some systems-level programming options. I can provide a solid recommendation for C#/.NET. Blazor in particular is a really compelling way to put the type system of C# on top of your web components. For a "dumb small" game, the expressiveness of C# 8.0+ might be a bit overkill, but it is still really fucking nice to have all the same. If you want 100% functional UI you can just pull that lever whenever you are ready. Also, operating with Blazor in server-side mode would enable very trivial and responsive multiplayer experiences (assuming participants are near the server). This approach could be compelling for settings like corporate, campus, event, private LAN, etc.
- nick__m 5y ago
  Nim + sdl2 + wasm works ... I should probably put my stupid maze generator somewhere so I could link to it.
- herbst 5y ago
  Also Check Flixel or rather Haxe. I never was a fan of flash, but damn Haxe makes it easy to write something that looks same on every device
- kroltan 5y ago
  This game and many others are made using Unity. It uses C# but compiles to web too, and has a very complete (if clunky) toolset. Importantly, as compared with some of the alternatives, it can be used with very little actual programming, since it has a visual editor for levels, UI, animations, and whatnot. as someone whose day job is making games in Unity, it is a bit finnicky for larger projects, but for this kind of scope it is perfectly adequate!
- frompdx 5y ago
  I think Godot is a good choice for something like this. HTML5 exports are easy to do.
- hypertele-Xii 5y ago
  PICO-8 for really small ones. TIC-80 for slightly larger ones. Maybe Picotron in the future for yet larger ones. [1] There's an open market niche for an integrated editor like the abovementioned but without arbitrary restrictions (of resolution, color palette, etc.), that isn't quite as big as say Unity or Godot. Noone has made this yet. But since the space exists between multiple efforts from both ends of the scale, it'll be filled soon enough. Even I've considered making it, but have too many projects on my plate. Game Maker gets an honorable mention, but it's pretty trash these days since the original author sold it. [1] https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php
astrange 5y ago
There are great Flash emulators available, so nothing is stopping you from making more swf games. You might have to fall back to an older machine if they haven't maintained the creation tools I guess, but it's more likely noone wants to make them anymore.
- nine_k 5y ago
  > nothing is stopping you from making more swf games ...as long as you have the original Macromedia animation software up and running, I presume? I've seen a couple of good Flash players. Is there comparable open (or even closed but maintained) Flash animation software?
  - astrange 5y ago
    Well, keeping an old machine or VM around to run an older version of Flash is much less of a burden than using one to run Flash Player. It's normal to have old equipment if you're a professional, and if not then creation tools don't have as many significant security issues so you don't have to rebuild the VM as much. It might still be more work than people want to put up with.
herbst 5y ago
If you consider haxe that compiles flash source to HTML5 and more I am not sure there is a gap or just a broken market. For some reason kongregate decided it's not worth getting new games anymore. They must know why
nanis 5y ago
>> The tools are slowly catching back up to fill the void left by Flash. > Uncaught (in promise) Your browser does not support graphics API "WebGL 2.0" which is required for this content. Firefox 90 on 64-bit Windows 10. Presumably because I insist on using my souped up T400. Still, looking at the video, I am going to say *VERY* slowly catching up.
- iratewizard 5y ago
  I'm someone who was very active making flash games from 2006-2009 and who ran a 3rd party aggregation site for flash content. The people who I mostly noticed working on these projects were young and experimenting with pirated copies of flash. It was a community that popped up spontaneously. As far as I've seen, there won't be a resurgence. The next generation will have their own creative communities spontaneously explode and then disappear.
  - moondev 5y ago
    This brings me nostalgia about 2advanced.net, there was some truly creative work in that era!
aero-glide2 5y ago
Godot engine also supports export to web. I still miss flash though

fuckwebdev 5y ago

I miss Flash games... I could actually run them on FreeBSD using Opera. Modern shit barely works when you use a platform as arcane as Firefox on Linux.