The Impact of Flash on the gaming industry

Considering the fact that this blog is meant to discuss all things Flash it was only a matter of time till we would’ve had to tackle the area of gaming.

Let’s play…

During the past half of decade or so Flash has become an increasingly popular video game development choice for companies or passionate individuals who are interested in giving a form to their vision while also making a buck if possible.

Flash has become so widespread that there is an entire genre of games named after it, they are called “Flash games” and this is due to many unique characteristics that set them apart from other video games.

One such characteristic would be that Flash games are ever-present on the web so much so that there are many sites that contain exclusively games made with Flash. These represent what is known in the gaming industry as the casual gaming market which usually refers to small video games meant to relax or disconnect the player from their daily routine.

Casual games aren’t your typical console or computer game, they don’t have neither the cost or complexity associated to them in fact this is one of their advantages. Usually they’re found on the Internet and you can either download some or play them in your Internet browser, similarly some might require you to purchase them after a trial period or stage but their prices are ridiculously small compared to more serious games. However most Flash based games you will find out there will be free to play, they won’t be extremely complex or feature great graphics but then again they are supplied for free.

The speed and relative simplicity of developing Flash games makes them suited to being developed by smaller companies or in some cases groups of friends who can then in turn sell their product or offer it for free and while there is no surefire way of obtaining success there are many examples out there of games and concepts that are still going strong long after their initial release.

Flash games benefit from the versatility of Flash so that one can create or recreate pretty much any type of game genre with the help of Flash however the most common Flash games are puzzle games, platform games, strategy games and first-person-shooter games. Of course these aren’t all the categories by far and they in turn can be divided into several other categories but these are the most common you are likely to find.

Flash has proven so versatile that there are many mainstream games out there that have smaller Flash versions that are similar to the original product if not in the visual area then at least as far as concept goes. In fact Flash games have started to be used for marketing purposes usually before the launch of a major game, some companies will create a small Flash game which they will distribute for free via their website or create a dedicated website where people can play the game in their browser in order to advertise and create more hype for their upcoming title.

(by FlaDev)