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Nothing has replaced Flash for low friction creative outlet for animations and games. Even artists could use Flash very effectively by themselves. The iteratio

by geenat 4y ago

Nothing has replaced Flash for low friction creative outlet for animations and games. Even artists could use Flash very effectively by themselves. The iteration time was mindblowing- Using Flash, I remember putting together Ludum Dare games in 6 hours, while everyone else was struggling at hour 48. The new generation of devs never knew the levels of productivity that could be had with Flash.

mysterydip 4y ago
I've heard this before, and I'm curious, not having developed in flash myself. What was it about the UI or flow that hasn't been replicated? Is there something about it that makes cloning it difficult or undesirable in the myriad of open source "make stuff fast" languages/front ends?
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > I've heard this before, and I'm curious, not having developed in flash myself. FWIW, Flash (the authoring tool) became Adobe Animate¹ when Adobe started targeting the web. Because the authoring experience hasn't changed much in 20 years, you can watch Adobe Animate videos² to see how its timeline-based authoring worked. ¹ https://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html https://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html ² https://www.youtube.com/c/AdobeAnimate https://www.youtube.com/c/AdobeAnimate
  - hutzlibu 4y ago
    It is not at all the same. Animating and painting works pretty much like it used to, but everything else, especially the scripting, changed quite drastically. And the result is barely usable or not at all (when we are talking about interactive aka games and such). Up to the point, where it is not worth it for me. I gave it a try again a couple of weeks ago and I struggled to get basic functionality running. And I know flash by heart and even have outside experience with easelJS, the new framework in use.
  - geenat 4y ago
    Ugh they removed Actionscript 2. Really disappointing. AS3 is a velocity killer.
    - mock-possum 4y ago
      Wow really? As a flash dev I was so psyched to see each successive AS version come out - AS2 was a huge step forward, and so was AS3. I dreaded going back to legacy AS2 projects once version 3 was available.
- geenat 4y ago
  It was an art tool first and foremost. This idea directed every aspect of the UX. Basically Unity, but far less friction, less ceremony, less busywork. Often the primary tool of the artists themselves. Actionscript 2 would allow you to get some very complex behaviours with only a few lines of code. None of the endless boilerplate of C#. Literally: Double click, a few lines of script, new game entity ready. Full animation / timeline / tween /scene support baked right in and scriptable. Exporting was 2 clicks away and anyone with a web browser could play.
  - justinclift 4y ago
    Uh oh, here's a bad idea. "AI" (heh) flash generated games could become feasible. If you think online gambling is a problem now... well, wait until they see what could be done with that. (!)
robertoandred 4y ago
That exact same outlet still exists, it's just called Adobe Animate now.

by geenat 4y ago

mysterydip 4y ago

I've heard this before, and I'm curious, not having developed in flash myself. What was it about the UI or flow that hasn't been replicated? Is there something about it that makes cloning it difficult or undesirable in the myriad of open source "make stuff fast" languages/front ends?

CharlesW 4y ago
> I've heard this before, and I'm curious, not having developed in flash myself. FWIW, Flash (the authoring tool) became Adobe Animate¹ when Adobe started targeting the web. Because the authoring experience hasn't changed much in 20 years, you can watch Adobe Animate videos² to see how its timeline-based authoring worked. ¹ https://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html https://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html ² https://www.youtube.com/c/AdobeAnimate https://www.youtube.com/c/AdobeAnimate
- hutzlibu 4y ago
  It is not at all the same. Animating and painting works pretty much like it used to, but everything else, especially the scripting, changed quite drastically. And the result is barely usable or not at all (when we are talking about interactive aka games and such). Up to the point, where it is not worth it for me. I gave it a try again a couple of weeks ago and I struggled to get basic functionality running. And I know flash by heart and even have outside experience with easelJS, the new framework in use.
- geenat 4y ago
  Ugh they removed Actionscript 2. Really disappointing. AS3 is a velocity killer.
  - mock-possum 4y ago
    Wow really? As a flash dev I was so psyched to see each successive AS version come out - AS2 was a huge step forward, and so was AS3. I dreaded going back to legacy AS2 projects once version 3 was available.
geenat 4y ago
It was an art tool first and foremost. This idea directed every aspect of the UX. Basically Unity, but far less friction, less ceremony, less busywork. Often the primary tool of the artists themselves. Actionscript 2 would allow you to get some very complex behaviours with only a few lines of code. None of the endless boilerplate of C#. Literally: Double click, a few lines of script, new game entity ready. Full animation / timeline / tween /scene support baked right in and scriptable. Exporting was 2 clicks away and anyone with a web browser could play.
- justinclift 4y ago
  Uh oh, here's a bad idea. "AI" (heh) flash generated games could become feasible. If you think online gambling is a problem now... well, wait until they see what could be done with that. (!)

robertoandred 4y ago

That exact same outlet still exists, it's just called Adobe Animate now.