CODEWITHSUNDEEP
actionscript-3flashhtmlcanvas
user1212312
user1212312

Reputation: 23

HTML vs ActionScript3 in Game Development?

I have developed a casual game that has become a modest hit on a few flash gaming sites and I'm weighing the pros and cons of adding it to facebook. I don't have a strong coding background - I learned AS3 as I was developing the game- so I'm not sure if embedding a flash file is a good idea for facebook games. If I want to eventually enable in-app purchases, are there any reasons I might not want to use Flash? Does Flash make the game more susceptible to cheating? Are there any other reasons that I might want to go with HTML5 or another coding language?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1023

Answers (2)

Pixel Elephant
Pixel Elephant

Reputation: 21383

If you already actually have the game all coded up and working in AS3, it's pretty much a waste of time to switch it over to another language. A lot of Facebook games are Flash, and if you want to target iOS you can always package it as an AIR app.

For future projects though, I'd agree that taking a look at HTML5 technologies would be prudent.

Upvotes: 0

Simon Sarris
Simon Sarris

Reputation: 63822

HTM5 isn't a coding language, but JavaScript is used for programming the HTML5 Canvas element, which is what your consideration would be.

There are a lot of Canvas vs. Flash posts on the internet and I suggest you search for them and read them. There's no reason for me to reiterate what's been said a hundred times.

There isn't anything wrong with embedding Flash on Facebook, though the usual iOS crowd won't be able to see it.

Personally I'd recommend learning Canvas, which is a lot lower level than Flash but totally doable. The future of flash is probably going to get a lot smaller, and you're already boxing out at least one demographic (iPad/Phone/Pod/iOS) by using it.

So the bottom line is that Flash is easier, at least for now, but HTML5 Canvas is the future here.

There are a number of Canvas books that cover simple game development and there are already several libraries that make game creation easier (ImpactJS, Game Closure, etc. I'd suggest searching and taking a good look at the currently most popular ones)

Upvotes: 3

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