381–390 of 441 posts
which uses Flare: https://www.2dimensions.com/about-flare
(and is using an Open Source runtime that runs natively)
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Programmers have a huge disdain for end user programming. Visual Basic, spreadsheets, even HyperCard. The vast majority of coding should be end user programming. The collective we just wants to own the tools and the jobs.
On the contrary, I loved VB and Delphi, and it is the reason why I mostly focused on Java and .NET as my daily tools. Developers are users as well, and I think too many fail to understand this. Whatever tooling makes it easier to develop for, means that I can focus on other parts of the problem. I don't miss working like I did during the late 80, early 90s. Our computers are so much better for them to be reduced to a…
End users are way smarter and more capable than programmers give them credit. Applications should be empowering users not capturing them in a walled garden fed by their masters.
I had a formative experience with Flash as a middle schooler. I loved Albino Blacksheep, Newgrounds, etc. I thought the videos were hilarious and the stick-figure-style animation was approachable. So I acquired Flash, and I was blown away by how easy it was to create these silly animations. Automatic tweening was a miracle to me. Since then I've done a lot of video editing with different tools, but I still think back…
Disclaimer: I'm an old git. I think you have deftly described a bigger problem, as the whole industry gets more and more sophisticated and complex. The barrier for entry is so high now that I think it stifles young people's interest too quickly. The great thing about Flash was the developer tool. Part animation studio, part simple programming IDE. It was a great balance. Maybe there is a place in the market for frame…
You can still make crappy HTML pages with very basic inline JS, but if you're a kid starting out, that's not enough. You should probably learn a JS framework and some graphic design if you don't want it to be laughed at.
Our field is just becoming more mature and advanced. Cars used to be easier to work on, too.
During 1999-2000, I helped hundreds of people learn how to use Flash. I was, looking back now, probably one of the top experts on Flash 4 at the time in the world. The twist - I was a 15 year old living in a tiny African country called Lesotho. Lesotho is pretty isolated from the world. Nobody even knows it exists. Living there, Silicon Valley might as well be on Mars. However, we used to get issues of Wired Magazine…
Flash is the reason why I'm a programmer today. It was Flash which kindled my interest in computers and made sure I spent hours playing around with it and then other aspects of computers. That era of discovery and expression was something special.
AS3 is actually quite a pleasant language to work in, and while I'm glad that I don't need to muck with Flash plugins anymore, I do miss how easy it was to get something built when I was just bored and wanted to make a new toy.
For me, nothing has really come along to replace Flash in regards to the "tangible" feelings you get. JS and WebGL and Canvas and whatnot are great, and definitely lead to better results in regards to the user experience, but I feel that they're a lot harder to "pick up and play".
Is there any open source tool/community trying to create a simple HTML5 animation studio similar to Flash? That would really open up doors for widespread creativity and the adoption of web standards.
Greensock is the only thing that feels remotely like the good parts of Flash to me.
But it does less, and requires learning some Javascript.
During 1999-2000, I helped hundreds of people learn how to use Flash. I was, looking back now, probably one of the top experts on Flash 4 at the time in the world. The twist - I was a 15 year old living in a tiny African country called Lesotho. Lesotho is pretty isolated from the world. Nobody even knows it exists. Living there, Silicon Valley might as well be on Mars. However, we used to get issues of Wired Magazine…
The older ones are fully self contained games, some of which are amazing, in a single swf file that works in all major operating systems (The newer ones started side loading data from servers though.)
I hope there will always remain ways to play those.
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Nothing, of course. Anything that could be done with Flash in its heyday can be done better (in several senses) with modern tools. But that’s not what we’re talking about, is it? We can ask what’s actually being done in web design these days… and who’s doing it. If you’re old enough to remember the period from the late ’90s to the mid aughts, think about your friends who were putting all kinds of wacky, creative page…
Talking about this to certain devs is like talking to them about sports. They just don't get the learning curve was the most accessable for the average user, not just those who know how to program. We know there are better technologies security wise and performance wise. It's not always about what is 'technically' better rather than something that people enjoyed using and opened the door to creative personalities for…
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These days though- kids have access to much higher level languages and libraries and frameworks that can make some of these processes much easier. While it is much harder to understand the tech stack from the ground up- you can do a whole lot with the high level tools closer to the surface. Kids may not no how to go from BASIC to a video-game- but they don't have to write their games in BASIC. There are point and cli…
Do you have any pointers to, or keywords I can google, for some of those point and click game studios? I've not tried to do anything like a game for decades, I'm kinda curious about that readily available tools kids could get their hands on these days... Closest I think I've come is launching Scratch from a RasPi's stock linux install...