NOTE BEFORE POSTING: I am not interested in the opinions of those who have not published a game via a MAJOR casual game publisher, or have sufficient knowledge about their views on the topic at hand. I ask that if that applies, please do not post. This is not meant to bash anyone here, it is purely to keep this thread on track. Thanks. Hello, This is a rather straightforward question. Do commercial casual publishers (PopCap, RealArcade, etc) consider Flash (AS3) to be an appropriate medium for a casual game? I have my prototype done in that, and personally, im seeing less and less of a reason to port (Rather then simply embed flash into a host application for the retail product). Most of the API's I would be porting to (say.. popcaps game framework) would limit my market significantly (the MAC market is pretty high on the casual gaming list). BUT, I am wondering if the publishers will take a game written in flash (even if it is of a quality up there with the best). I do like the fact that my game will run in Linux/Windows/Mac, the demo itself right out of the browser! If this is not the case, im wondering a bit about what processes, API's, etc, people are porting to before submitting to publishers. I have personaly worked with Allegro, SDL, and ClanLib, and am wondering if a port is necessary, etc. I am NOT looking at going the self-publishing route, so this is a rather important question as its nearing that time.... I was considering to approch popcap first and do the port in the popcap framework, which I have aquainted myself with last week (pretty dang easy), but then the thought occured to me that I would have just lost the entire MAC market.... not to mention embedded activeX controls are a hassle for the paranoid. Thanks in advance Richard Cesar

well I don't know if my company, a subsidiary of Viacom, lives up to your view as a major publisher; but AS2/AS3 serves as our primary framework for casual games.

Adobe has also openly said to us that AS3 is more than sufficient to serve as a gaming platform, especially with the release of AIR. They just choose to not position any of their AS3 enabled products in that manner as they are capable of so much more.

It sounds like it would. I just meant the ability to market the games to big-named sites. I was worried about getting responses related to self-publishers saying "you can use anything" (which some publishers will eagerly argue with) and those who operate or do game sites featuring SMALLER web games (such as newgrounds) which don't particularly need or sell "Deluxe" Editions. I was just making sure the market was correct.

I have tried Juggolor and MDM, the best so far has been SWF Studio by North Code.

BTW, Paul, do you have samples of your work or your company's work? I'm always interested in what other flash developers have done.

At EA we use flash for quite a bit of stuff. Check out the different titles at EA Mobile.

frob,

Hows EA doing with the mobile games, profit wise? Do you guys use a little bit of both Flash Lite 1 and 2?

Quote:Original post by FlashChump
frob,

Hows EA doing with the mobile games, profit wise? Do you guys use a little bit of both Flash Lite 1 and 2?

I have no idea, I'm not in the finance department. [grin] I'm guessing you could check their investor statements to figure it out.

I'm afraid I'm not sure how much I should reveal about it, other than we use flash for some stuff (which can be trivially seen by looking at the executables). Stupid NDAs.