Posts by motionmonkey

Another blow for Flash as Unity gaming engine kills support

Re: How exactly?

I think you misunderstood my point. Yes, there are technically better options for making more demanding web based games. If for instance you want to do 3D then yes, Unity is the best option technically. The problem is Unity isn't really a viable option in terms of exposure/distribution and monetisation on the web, because as you said, the install base is a minute fraction of the Flash install base. Plus there just aren't the distribution channels that are available to promote a Flash game. It's much better suited to targeting other platforms (native mobile apps, consoles, stand-alone PC games etc.). Flash can do realtime physics (it's just code to do the maths at the end of the day) and as you said the Flash game market is generally 2D/retro games anyway.

Anyway, my original point was, this is a "blow to Flash" how? The fact is it isn't. Unity no longer exporting to Flash doesn't matter for Unity and certainly doesn't matter for Flash. It's just another excuse for the media to continue the uneducated Flash bashing.

I'm not knocking Unity at all. It's a great platform for indie developers that want to make games. Serious competition for Flash as a web based gaming platform it is not though. Flash is undeniably the most popular web based gaming platform by a mile (it's not even vaguely close) and for very good reasons.

HTML5 support doesn't help Unity's case and certainly isn't a "game changer". HTML5 is currently a mess, as is the nature of any browser dependent platform. The HTML+Javascript+CSS combo has always been a huge cross browser nightmare, even before they added a "5" on the end and conviced everone it's the second coming.

Which leads me to my point again, if Flash died tomorrow, what fills the void for web based games?

How exactly?

I fail to see exactly how this is in any way a "blow to Flash". If you want to create Flash content you don't use the Unity toolset, you use Adobe's tools. This was always just a minor cross compatibility option provided for Unity developers (who are mostly using it to export across non-web based platforms anyway) and certainly never anything that really affected Flash in any meaningful way (either positively or negatively).

Just another excuse for the media to bash Flash I suppose. What people seem to forget (or be completely unaware of) is Flash ISN'T just used for video, heavy multimedia websites and banner ads. It's still by an absolute mile the best (and most widely used) solution for web based games. A void that HTML5 likely will never fill, not least because of the huge number of compatibility problems that go along with a browser dependent platform and the complete lack of any way to distribute. If you can get HTML5 games to work at all they tend to run at an unusably slow frame rate on many mobile devices anyway.

If the haters have their way and do somehow manage to kill Flash, all the people that enjoy playing web based casual games via their PC on Facebook, as well as the many online gaming portals, are in for a shock. Almost all of these games use Flash for VERY good reasons and with it gone, there would be NOTHING to fill the void.