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[jddg5wa]

So someone suggested that I might move away from gamemaker to use flash for my game. While I don't necessarily plan to take that action I though I might get some more information.

I've seen other threads but they all seem to answer questions about things I don't know much about, or have much experience with yet. My main question on flash is what is the difficulty to start a game with no experience with flash and actionscript, am I correct to remember that is the language it uses?

My game does mostly use vector graphics so I know the overall look could be improved but... I already have a portion of my game made in gamemaker and have a lot more experience with it. I'm just worried that if i move away from gamemaker I'm bound to get stuck in the learning process and not finish my game which is the main goal.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

if you don't know enough to decide which to use yet, i'd say stick with gm until you are knowledgeable enough about games to make an informed decision. there's no point in jumping from one to the other if you haven't even finished a game yet

[cynicalsandel]

I think one thing to keep in mind that the audience for downloadable games that you'd create with Game Maker and the audience for browser based Flash games are different. They have different expectations, reactions, preferences, etc. If you think your game would appeal to a particular audience more, you might want to make the game for those who would be better receptive.

This is just anecdotal, but it seems like those who play Flash Games might have a shorter attention span, and are more likely to click to a different game without giving you much of a chance, whereas someone who downloads your game might give it more time.

This is just my personal bias, but I generally appreciate and have a higher opinion of downloadable games. If many of the downloadable titles that I enjoyed were browser games, I wouldn't give them the time of day, and generally consider them crap. I think this stereotype is generally furthered by the fact that of games made in "beginner" software, most of the high quality or well known ones were made in Game Maker or MMF2, rather than Construct 2, Stencyl, or Gamesalad which focus on browsers.

[Geti]

You can always package a flash game as an AIR app and all the end user sees is an executable anyway. Keep in mind that N is a flash game.

I used flash for a few years to get a handle on making games in high school (and just after the end of it). If you get a spare weekend, see if you can get a quick platformer up and running using flixel or flashpunk. If not, stick with GM until you've finished a game. If you can, you might want to consider moving away from GM - or might not.

The player just wants a game to play - don't get too hung up on the backend side of things unless you want to be a programmer to the same degree you want to be a game developer.

[OniWorld]

It depends. If you want to code a game like you would in C++/C# for example, then go with Flash but use FlashDevelop to write your code. If you're not too competent with programming but want to get into it, then going with the Flash IDE might be a good idea. Otherwise, go with game maker.

People have this misconception that Flash is for crappy browser based games on MiniClip and that it has no power or any place in the games market. The reality is, thanks to Stage3D (hardware acceleration for 2D aswell as 3D graphics), AGAL and AS3 is that you could create something great in Flash now. Of course it's not as powerful as C++, but that power is sacrificed for ease of use and a couple of other things.

What's great about flash now is that you can package application with Adobe air for various devices. With one codebase you can publish games to the web, desktop, mobile devices and hell even the OUYA. Of course you can do that with C++ and I think maybe even game maker now. I'd say that Flash would be in the middle of the three, game maker being at the lowest and C/C++ at the highest in terms of effectiveness and power.

But like the post above says, it's not all about what tools you use. Hell, you could create something in RPG Maker for all the player cares. If you want to be a programmer and a game developer, stay away from game maker. If you want to be a game developer and not care so much about programming, use third party tools such as game maker and UDK (yes I'm aware there's quite a bit of programming here too, just not as much). You could prototype your game in game maker, get feedback and then redo it in Flash depending on what people say.

[premonster]

Depends on your goal.

If you're looking for sponsoring to get some easy (and few) bucks, then AS3. If you want to risk getting a lot of money on Kickstater/Steam or no money at all, then GM.

[Fallsburg]

If you feel that Gamemaker is holding you back on some fundamental level (my knowledge of Gamemaker is probably outdated by about 4 years, so I don't know how likely that is on a technical level) then switching to Flash mightn't be a bad idea.  Flash is just about the easiest language to produce a game in (2d).  If you want to do 3d, then I'd suggest Unity (but you probably wouldn't be asking about Flash vs Gamemaker if that was your main concern).  Personally, I prefer Flash to Gamemaker, but it's really about finding the tool that let's you make the games you want in the way that works best for you. 

[thedukeofzill]

I'd say it depends on the scope and target audience of your game. If you want your game to run in a browser then I would definitely go with a Flash based solution, both because it's free and because it will probably run in more browsers than Game Maker's HTML5 export. GM tends to be the more popular tool for larger scale desktop games from what I've noticed. I recall Team Meat saying that they regretted using Flash for The Binding of Isaac due to performance and compilation issues, but this may be due to the fact that it used vector graphics.

One alternative to consider is Haxe. With Haxe, you can write code once and export it both to Flash and to C++ code which is compiled natively. And of course as Geti said you can also package Flash games with AIR, so running Flash games outside a browser should never be a problem.

[Titanium]

Flash actually has a lot of limitations.

Making BIG games is possible but not something you'd really want to do.  You'll give yourself a lot of pain trying to handle all of your assets.

While it is definitely cross-browser compatible you don't know exactly how the user can interface with the game.(If someone's trying to play the game from their phone they don't have access to keyboard events)


Game Maker also has a lot of limitations.
People have to download the program in order to run it.
Resource management for REALLY big games is a pain to handle.

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I'd say use flash if you're aiming for a casual market, but use GM for everyone else.

[OniWorld]

Flash actually has a lot of limitations.

Making BIG games is possible but not something you'd really want to do.  You'll give yourself a lot of pain trying to handle all of your assets.

While it is definitely cross-browser compatible you don't know exactly how the user can interface with the game.(If someone's trying to play the game from their phone they don't have access to keyboard events)


Game Maker also has a lot of limitations.
People have to download the program in order to run it.
Resource management for REALLY big games is a pain to handle.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I'd say use flash if you're aiming for a casual market, but use GM for everyone else.

Are you saying that Flash is more limited than Game Maker? If so, you're severely mistaken. Sure, using the Flash IDE to create games is a massive ball ache and can get messy, that's why you don't use the Flash IDE. Write pure AS3 in FlashDevelop, that's the proper way to create a game in Flash imo.

People are still stuck in the idea that Flash is just this:



And people really need to get out of that mindset. With recent additions you can now have hardware acceleration, full 3d graphics (console quality) with molehill, shaders and performance is improving. I've created games in C++, C# (XNA & MonoGame) in the past and applying all of those practices to the current game I'm writing in AS3 I can achieve amazing results. It's all about the programmer not Flash itself for the most part.

While it is definitely cross-browser compatible you don't know exactly how the user can interface with the game.(If someone's trying to play the game from their phone they don't have access to keyboard events)

You're wrong there also, read up on flash.system.Capabilities. That library allows you to detect many things, here's some example code from my game engine that allows me to detect what platform the person is playing on. From that, I can handle all kinds of events differently. http://paste2.org/mFZJ6NfX

[Jubjub]

Gamemaker worked just fine for Hotline Miami, Spelunky   and Saturated Dreamers.

That's not to say that Flash wouldn't have gotten the job done, but I say if you already have a good chunk of the game built with Gamemaker, why change now?