Hey gd.net users, I'm planning to make a turn based game using Flash and Zinc (http://www.multidmedia.com/). I'm a relatively experienced and able programmer and looked into using GDI+ and DirectX initially, but I want an animated vector map that users can zoom in and out of - I felt DirectX didn't have the drawing support to do what I want (in terms of API calls, making it easy for me). I gather Zinc is relatively new on the market, it allows you to extend Flash with a series of new commands that allow you to access the file system and registry (and do lots of other things). It also allows you to run commands pressent in DLLs, which will be important for my plan. I feel that Flash has the best capabilities for UI design and vector drawing/animation, but I know its slow at things like XML parsing, and string manpiluation (custom file parser?). I'm not sure about its efficiency with handling large amounts of objects in memory. My plan is to design an interface with restrictive game logic using Flash. I then intend to write a DLL using C++ where data will be loaded/stored and processed at the end of a turn. This would mean the DLL would handle the processing 'load', things like AI logic. Flash would handle the graphical sides of things. I intend to build a standalone game that feels/looks like a real game, and allows for modders to alter a file structure around the game which would include bitmap graphics (.PNG or .JPG) and text based data files (.XML or .TXT). The 'data' would be loaded in by the DLL, and then pass information to Flash when requested. Graphics would be loaded on demand by Flash based off information provided by the DLL. Its a big project, but I've had over 6 years of experience working and programming with flash. I'm relatively new to C++ but am confident with it. What I want to know is - is this going to work? Can Flash (with extentions like Zinc) really be used as a graphical interface for commercial games that rival ones made using other APIs? Some healthy discussion is welcome.

Ok, I'll make it work.