What made Flash games so good

When it was announced that Adobe Flash would be discontinued on December 31, 2020, millions were distraught. Anyone who was a kid with internet access from the late 90's until the early 2010's will definitely have played at least one Flash game online. Even though it hasn't been around anymore for a while, there are people who still mourn the demise of Flash, and all the games that were lost along with it.

The main reason why they appealed mostly to children was because of how accessible they were to play. Generally, games had to be downloaded or bought so that they could be launched and played. But Flash games were browser-based, and didn't require any more external software to be run – all that was needed was an internet connection, and a Flash plug-in. This is also probably why so many younger kids loved these games, because as long as they had the links saved, they could go back to them and continue playing.

At the same time, games were easier to make using Flash compared to other engines at the time. Flash wasn't actually much of a game engine, and was more of an animation software program. Its user-friendly user interface and lenient coding system meant that almost anyone could learn it. It lacked many features, such as 3D support, but it was good enough to make something simple. These games could also be monetised very easily if they were hosted on sites like Kongregate or Newgrounds, and this encouraged indie developers to work on them even more. In fact, for many people, making Flash games was the thing that kickstarted their programming journey. Even though they've moved on to better, more efficient software, they can still look back on it fondly. 

Even if Flash wasn't as powerful as the engines that are used more now, like Unity or Unreal Engine, it was still used by professional developers. Children's sites like Poptropica, Club Penguin, and the old Nickelodeon websites used to use Flash to run certain games or even the whole site. They were more polished than the ones by beginner makers, but still retained the same charm and quirkiness.

Since there were so many people producing these games, there was a large variety of them out there. Starting from dress-up games to cooking simulators to puzzles to adventure games – there was always something for everybody. You could spend hours browsing through catalogues of hundreds of thousands of games of every genre. Even if there still wasn't anything to satisfy you, you could just try and make a game for yourself.

Flash games haven't completely died out, though. After it was announced that support for it was ending, many people started building archives to save as many games as they could. However, they're not as easily available anymore, and a lot of effort is required to access everything, which defeats the purpose of why they were so liked.

Browser games still exist as well, but none of them have the love and care put into that Flash games had. Instead, they've become lifeless cash grabs that are just cheap copies of games that used to exist. The discontinuation of Flash brought the end of an era that might never be replicated again.

Namreen is sick and tired. Send a reminder that life goes on at: namreen.shaiyaz@gmail.com