[casual_games] Making a Case for Flash

Thu Aug 18 15:14:20 EDT 2005

I think that Flash does have a place in the casual games market for  
all of the reasons you've noted - cross platform, large user base,  
ability to handle most game concepts - and I think that's it's  
especially attractive to small businesses and start ups because of  
the trust factor.

Having said that, I've had a long standing dislike of Flash because I  
thought that Actionscript looked like a mess and I'd seen one too  
many website that abused it for over-the-top navigation and swf-text.  
Actionscript 2, however, is a much improved language and really seems  
to feel like a scripting language should. Blaming Flash for bad  
website design is wrong, of course, so it's fair to say that over the  
last couple of years I've begun to appreciate Flash as a decent game  
development option. It's just like other scripting languages in that  
it gives you all the tools to write horrible code, so finding good  
developers is the key to making it work for you.

But then you all knew that anyway.

On 18 Aug 2005, at 19:46, Kenny Rosenblatt wrote:

> Long time reader, first time poster....
>
>
>
> I wanted to follow up on the recent posts regarding game authoring  
> languages. I know the hard core crowd and downloadable game  
> developer community would typically laugh at Flash as a development  
> tool however at Arkadium we have found that Flash as a development  
> language works very well in the online casual game space.  I am not  
> talking about developing a downloadable game in Flash (yet we did  
> that with our Solitaire Poker Pack) but we have found that casual  
> gamers who play online would much prefer a no-download Flash game  
> than installing some software just to play a casual game online.
>
>
>
> At Arkadium, we have developed over 50 games in Flash, and have  
> found that the authoring language is easy to learn and has an  
> extremely high accessibility factor.  With a 95+% penetration rate,  
> users can play Flash games without downloading an additional 5mb  
> JRE, a Shockwave player and 3d Plug-in, or an Active X control.   
> Despite the install rates previously posted on this list, I believe  
> that users are scared shitless to download anything these days.    
> Malware, Adware, blah blah blah.  I suspect that a 50+% drop off  
> rate is more accurate in terms of install rates when a download is  
> required.   On sites like MSN, Yahoo, Real, PopCap, Shockwave,  
> install rates maybe higher because of the trust factor, however for  
> smaller shops or web destinations, I know a download can be a major  
> hurdle.  Yes some users will do it, but many will not.
>
>
>
> Regarding accessibility, Flash has been great for us at Arkadium  
> because of three platforms that have adopted Flash.  1) The  
> Information Super Highway...as my grandma calls it 2) Set Top Boxes  
> and 3) Flash Light on the Cell Phones.
>
>
>
> Why not create a game once, and port it to every device possible  
> with a simple "output type" selection.   We did a deal that put our  
> Flash content into a million hotel rooms without re-coding any  
> aspect of the game other than key mappings.  We have also found  
> that every significant set-top-box being manufactured these days  
> now has support some version of the Flash player.  Furthermore,  
> with the addition of Flash Light, Macromedia has the Flash  
> development community really jazzed about the ease of use when  
> porting existing Flash content to Mobile devices and PDAs.  Yes,  
> the install rate on mobile devices is really low right now compared  
> to other plugins for cell phones, but Macromedia/Adobe have made a  
> commitment to Flash and don’t be surprised when every mobile device  
> supports Flash in the next 2-3 years.   Also, every few months  
> there are significant improvements to the platform.
>
>
>
> I know Flash is not the perfect platform for downloadable game  
> content for a variety of reasons.  The hard core programmers here  
> at Arkadium do not even consider action scripting programming.   
> However, with casual web games like solitaire, match threes,  
> mahjonggs, and even some basic sports titles, Flash has kept us  
> very happy and very busy at Arkadium.
>
>
>
> And a final note regarding Flash security, it’s no surprise that  
> you can search the web for "flash decompilers" and spend $25 bucks  
> on a program to decompile an SWF file, but honestly, who cares?    
> The positives totally outweigh the negatives.  I'd say that less  
> than 1% of the casual game community would really attempt to  
> decompile your code.  Would you really discard Flash as a  
> programming language because less than 1% of the community is  
> trying to hack your warez?   At Arkadium, we know plenty about  
> Flash decompilers, and since we know they exist, we build in  
> additional security measures to protect ourselves from this  
> vulnerability.  There are thousands of ways to build in safeguards  
> to protect the integrity of your game without relying on Flash to  
> do the heavy lifting.
>
>
>
> Anyway that’s my two cents...
>
>
>
> If you would like to take a look at some of our Flash game content  
> see here:
>
>
>
> http://www.arkadium.com/games.html
>
>
>
> or the use of Flash Video in a Multiplayer Trivia game:
>
>
>
> http://online.tvguide.com/games/arkadium/bignetworkboss/
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
>
>
> Kenny Rosenblatt
>
> CEO Arkadium Games
>
> www.arkadium.com
>
> kenny at arkadium.com
>
> 212-337-3701 ex 22
>
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