![]() ![]() #CLIPSY EVERWING PC#Flash games could be built in just months, compared to years for console and PC games. Most importantly, Flash games were relatively easy to build due to an intuitive scripting language and workflow that incorporated art and animation. Anyone could host Flash games, which led to the creation of thousands of web portals like Newgrounds and Kongregate that curate and promote the best titles. Flash’s web distribution also allowed creators to bypass the publishers that controlled retail distribution for PC and console games at the time. Without barriers to entry, successful Flash games spread like wildfire: The Pong-inspired Flash game Insane Orb, for example, was played over 46 million times on a single website. And since Flash was supported by the majority of web browsers at the time, the games were inherently cross-platform. Flash games loaded in seconds, without downloads or installation. Since its inception two decades ago, Flash games had two key benefits: accessibility and ease of creation. And in the near future, a decentralized network of these experiences could disrupt - and even surpass - the dominance of the App Store itself, upending how we develop, discover, and distribute games. This frictionless, inherently social mode of play has the potential to vastly expand and democratize access to games, unfettered by the constraints of hardware. Platforms like Snapchat, Facebook, and WeChat are already embracing instant games in different forms. A new class of instant games today melds the click-to-play ease of early Flash games with the quality and performance of app-native games. Thanks to improved technology and new platforms, we’re on the cusp of a resurgence in instant games, which do away with downloads and long-winded onboarding flows. Yet while Flash may be dead, its legacy lives on. Adobe Flash itself was officially deprecated months ago, marking the end of an era, and of a technology that many game developers credit with jumpstarting the modern games industry. Yet as smartphones and app stores have grown ubiquitous over the last decade, native apps - those installed directly on hardware - have largely won out due to performance and security advantages. In contrast to siloed console or PC games, these browser-based Flash games were incredibly accessible: they could be played instantly by clicking a web link and shared easily via email or messages. In the 2000s, hundreds of millions of people devoured web games like Bejeweled and FarmVille, powered by Adobe Flash. ![]()
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