Well hello again friendly viewer, if you haven't read part one of this epic adventure you can do so here - where I talk about the very basics of what you need to get into your head before starting. Today, I'm going to talk about Flash as a game-making software and the pros and cons that come with it. So get your cowboy hats on boys and girls, it's time to saddle up and talk about Flash! Neighhhh!
Not a game-making program
Alright, so even though what I'm about to say will make you scratch your noggin, I'm going to say it anyways: Flash is not a game-making program. Sorry if I just turned your world upside down, but that's the truth. Adobe Flash was not developed to make games, Flash is used to develop "rich internet applications." That's a fact, and there is no doubt that this is what it does. However, that doesn't mean you cannot make Flash games (obviously), "rich internet applications" is a pretty broad statement so we're in luck. While Flash may not have been originally developed for game design (and still isn't), it is a powerful enough tool that we can rise beyond the fact and use this software to do just about anything we desire.
Great, what does that mean!?
This just means we have to be a little creative in the process of making games. We don't have handy dandy tools that make it super easy to do essential game functions such as collision detection and physics, instead we just have to do a little extra work - we are the over achievers of the game developers if you will. We have to do everything ourselves really, and to be honest, that isn't always a bad thing.
Haxorz
Unless you are willing to do some extra work, Flash is very easy to steal. We see it all the time, people create their own flash portals and then just go to big sites like Newgrounds.com and take your .swf file and put it on their site without consequence. Other even bigger douche bags will take your .swf file and then decompile it and be able to steal your source code! Oh Nose! The code you spent 3 months creating, taken within an hour! Thankfully there are tools out there to encrypt your code and there are ways to site lock them, but that requires money and more work :(
And...
Among other things Flash also makes it hard for you to get your name out there without basically giving it away to Flash portals, or by magic -- getting a Flash sponsorship. Search engines can't really send there bots into your flash file to get your .swf in the search engine. Thankfully, there are a few ways around this and in most cases, you'll want your games on as many sites as possible anyways.
Audience
Although it hasn't been this way for all of time, it is most certain now that Flash dominates the casual online game scene, Flash games are everywhere. You know what else that means? That there are a lot of people out there playing games. Now more than ever it's super easy to get your game into every corner of the web in the matter of a day. We're talking about millions of people playing your game. MILLIONS
Popularity
Along with having a huge audience of people to play the game, the Flash community also has a huge support base. There are hundreds of websites that can offer sponsorships and monthly/weekly cash prizes as well as companies such as MochiMedia that are designed to help you get your games in front of fresh faces and make some cash at the same time, I must say, the Flash community is the shizniz.
Freedom
I mentioned before that Flash doesn't really have a lot of code support for common game functions. Well it isn't all that bad really. In fact one of the great things about using Flash to create games is that you have to be creative to do so. You don't get fancy tools or functions to make the job easier, but because of this you have the freedom to do whatever the heck you want to do, the only challenge is being able to do it.
Ok so let's do a quick recap before the bell rings:
Ok, hopefully this article has been helpful in getting you to think a little bit about using Flash as a game-making program. Good luck to all of you out there, check back for Part 3.