flash is back in all its Glory following a shutdown by Adobe just over 3 years ago not only is Flash gaming not dead it's nearly made a full-on recovery many of your all-time favorite flash games are once again available to be played directly in browser with new Flash games now being viable as I've interviewed many different flash developers over the years it's a very common sentiment that flash has always been one of the best tools for Pro prototyping a new game if you really want to push it to its limits you can release commercially viable flash games but the bigger your project is the greater the limitations you're going to face but if you have a simple idea that you want to test out and see if it works there's almost no program you can do that faster in then Flash and it's really exciting to think it might actually start filling that role once again for game developers in late 2020 I made a video on the preservation of flash games identifying three major ways those were being saved massive Community efforts like blue Maxima's flasho created invaluable archives of as many games as possible that is our nuclear fail safe in case everything else is wiped out of existence and while it was already common in that time many developers have taken to enhancing and repackaging their games for steam a practice that's still going strong and I don't expect to slow down anytime soon but the most exciting option was always emulation developing something that can run Flash in browser without the vulnerabilities of the official Flash Player being made entirely by the community that always felt like our greatest hope we just knew it wasn't going to be a short-term solution and now on this slightly longer term scale we have ruffle to thank this effort is being led by new ground's own Mike Welsh and is a free open-source emulation Solution that's been integrated directly into many sites most commonly Flash game portals but the integration with the internet archive lent a lot of credibility to this project ensuring long-term access to both current new and archival content then just two years ago I made another video celebrating the flashforward game Jam started by dungeon Nation over on Newgrounds this was in the rather early days of ruffle a now annual event encouraging users to make new Flash games that would work with ruffle in the first year this Jam was held ruffle was in its infancy and mostly supported action script 1 and two games while often struggling or failing with more recent action script 3 titles and even in the games that worked there were occasional errors but that team and Community have made stunning progress publishing new builds of it basically daily now with the majority of old flash titles fully working without issue and for sites that don't have an integrated solution themselves you can install extensions for Chrome and Mozilla there are some major final hurdles to clear for full emulation but the risk of all this Legacy content being totally lost is seemingly a concern of the past so with this video I wanted to make sure people are aware of how far ruffle has progressed while also celebrating flash gaming culture and all things new grounds this is the fourth year this Jam has been hosted and this one actually had the largest out and I'm hopeful that as more and more people discover how valuable of a development tool flash is we'll continue to see that grow year to year if you're feeling all hyped up on flash gaming goodness then please go check out Gorgon Shield over on Steam welcome to this is coming from Oliver Joyce the solo developer behind the classic Flash series of your childhood swords and sandals Gorgon Shield is a party based RPG arcade Rog Ascend the tower at top a giant shield with your party of Heroes rotating them in real time to square them up against enemies to heal or repair your Shield this is being published by two left thumbs and it's been really cool to work so closely with someone I've admired my whole life and to watch this game steadily take shape as it makes its way towards a launch later this year try out the demo for yourself share some feedback that's always valuable be sure to add that game to your wish list it both helps us boost the game up in steam's algorithm and ensures you are notified at launch thanks for hearing me out on that one I'll have links down below and I hope you enjoy flashforward 2024 we had 53 entries this year and I'll quickly show off my personal favorites I can't talk about every entry but I'm going to have sort of this honorable mention section where I just talk about some random things that stood out to me while going through this list as is fitting of the real Flash Glory Days not every release is a banger but I can can't help but love seeing the Resurgence of experimenting in this program I am curious if Kill Max was intended to be a play on my own kill bow the thumbnail even features a guy in an orange shirt but the interactive buttons don't seem to work so it just plays out in Rapid succession I never properly made my video on kilbo 3 I should probably try to do that soon then there's smooch grounds where you can smooch everyone the perfect game for every tween in love with Friday night funkin there were a couple little dress up games one of the simplest things you can probably make in Flash it's just kind of funny to see a throwback to that or taking shots at Major IPS like this perfectly legal Steamboat Willie after a long history of battling copyright and IPS on new grounds it turns out it was all just a waiting game and as those copyrights slowly expire all hell will break loose on that site it also weirdly looks like it was designed by Seth McFarland I I've Got to Give It Up to te legend for being brave enough to ask what if I made riddle school but worse those are their words not mine and also this one literally does have Peter Griffin in it or sorry just someone who looks like Peter Griffin awfully sensitive about it but then taking things a step further and rounding out the trio we of course have a full-on Peter Griffin dress up game oh no Louis I become a dress up hentai new grounds is exactly as I've always remember remembered it while I was pretty crappy at it and the variety on hand was minimal I did think this Wolfenstein like firstperson shooter arcade game was really solid and that wasn't even the only firstperson shooter title I came across I enjoyed this one as well it just kind of never really led to anything it ends as soon as you run out of ammo it was awesome seeing athletic design make a return it doing his own spin on quop but making it entirely a mouse based challenge I never quite improved to be on the stage of just winging the mouse around the screen like a mad man I respect that ande came out there and put their own spin on a classic like fishy there's a decent start to something here but it's very clearly unfinished tweak the movement add some sounds some UI some music just some basic things I think it was a pretty fun idea I would just want to see it expanded upon and now this one nearly actually made my top 10 flash has such a rich history of sidescrolling beat him UPS and I thought this was a fairly solid intersection of paying tribute to both the NES and Flash Classics plus it was only made in a few days that's surprisingly solid having played everything on this list I can now go into a little more depth with my top 10 these are all relatively short games so my reviews are going to reflect that survivalist by the emerald Elias you can't convince me this movie wasn't made 18 years ago the chunky designs inconsistent line work random use of gradients choppy animations and all top to bottom this has Old School flash written all over it I would have really enjoyed if there was more than maybe just one scene where you could choose what the character does next have kind of a zombie survival stick fight Henry Stickman thing going on that could be really cool maybe in a sequel as simple as this one is I wanted to include it on the list because it was made by someone who's only 14 years old this is great work Elias you're pushing yourself in all the right ways and as small as it may be finishing a project of this size is no easy task so that deserves some Commendation and I hope you continue on with your animating Journey quing versus cyber devil who gives a damn about Drake and Kendrick with these two old schoolers throwing down it's iric but your style is so inanimate these two have both been on new grounds for nearly two decades and it's awesome to see that they're both so consistently creating and playing up a little rivalry here SM like a deep throat Kitty someone me with a it's a very simple fighting game where the fighter does double damage during their verses in the rat battle it's pretty rough around the edges but I appreciate it for what it is Shadow gauntlets from Vic biss this had a really cool concept you float around whenever you're hovering over any object and gravity kicks in when you aren't and your only form of propulsion is shooting little orbs out of your you know Shadow gauntlets then adding the ability to Grapple and swing off of anything with a darker color and requiring a restart if you ever fall off or touch anything red there's a nice Simplicity there and the set pieces at hand are fun and creative but I found the controls and momentum were just a little too hard to get comfortable with there's a solid idea here but I struggled to ever make it past the first few levels it's just lacking that extra level of precision that would be needed for a game that's this reliant on crazy flinging physics deeply lost by Alejandro x aul a simple dream light game making your way through small puzzle rooms flipping switches and collecting Stars while attempting to grab the balloon just Out Of Reach I liked the opening little cut scene although I found it kind of hard to read the words the way they were sketched in there but overall I really enjoy the crayon likee art style and Chill soundtrack the perspective on the character and clunky room pieces could be a little awkward to move around and in the later levels where enemies show up that can instakill you and need you to restart was a little too frustrating for me but all of that was forgiven because I was able to buy myself this cool hat look at that isn't that nice but really The Vibes in this game were great and even the puzzling wasn't bad a little more polish on the gam playay and I think this is shaping up really nicely Windows XP 2012 edition by Columbo who doesn't love a good oldfashioned Windows parody there are random Easter eggs all over the gags range from incredibly simple to utterly insane you can even simulate waiting ages for San Andreas to load with Graphics then on par with Rockstar's own remaster there are a 100 memes and references to 2012 internet culture for both better and [Music] worse and it's pretty enjoyable just clicking around to see what will happen next the best part of it is The Flash folder stored up in the corner where the developers just dumped a bunch of old throwaway projects of theirs I think everyone who's ever worked in Flash has that exact folder filled to the brim with garbage that never made it past the first day's work I think creating this gag OS shell to house those projects is hilarious and there's a few mustsee bangers slipped in there lerin by vom I was surprised to see such a straight up puzzle Adventure from vom as they have a very specific Niche the lighting effects were cool and the puzzles had a nice escalating challenge to them and on top of that vom made another entry orphanarium it's a simple platforming game collect objects and lost crayons finding different endings and avoiding the nuns who' have thought that ukogi would be given her own tragic backstory both are pretty solid but if I were to recommend one of the two it would be lampin well there was some cool storytelling in orphanarium lamprin was just the more engaging and interesting game to Me overall I just wish the movement felt a little smoother and was a hair faster skeleton Day by team tago one day a year everyone's skeletons leave their bodies and for some reason have Scottish accents you are apparently muscular enough to endure strutting your way around in a town now populated by everyone's skeletons eventually teaming up with your own to fly off and meet bone Santa this short and delightfully odd Adventure uses this pseudo game boy style that works really well I enjoyed the completely off-kilter Oddball sense of humor that permeated not just the premise but also the writing and interactions you had around town they've teased that more is to come I have no idea if they actually plan to make more skeleton day but if it maintains this level of weird goofiness then I'll definitely check it out lost host adoras by Guy anger this game is incredibly short and simplistic but guy hunger is absolutely brilliant at making simple mechanics fun there's so little to talk about here you're a piece of toast that gets flung up in the air there's a short slowmo window where you can shoot everything and the toaster down below will Auto catch you so you don't have to worry about that you'll beat it in about 2 minutes but that doesn't make shooting things up in slow-mo any less fun Homecoming by garden green this one snuck up on me a little as with all browser gaming you don't really know what you're going to get until you start playing and homecoming was a visual novel of short animations it's all done with this minimalist color palette and very simple shapes The Narrative is compelling and the custom soundtrack does an exceptional job of adding weight to an emotional story I did find it's ending quite sudden but that may mostly come down to how invested I was by the end this short story is clearly very personal and the care and effort put into its execution was Exquisite it's been a while since the flash game gave me pause like that so I just want to say Well done to everyone involved that was really really excellent and my own personal top pick for the year is dwarf planet 1 by mrock I've been such a huge fan of his for years even collaborating way back in the day and this was such a stunning return turn to the flash game scene the opening story told was sweet and compelling with some pretty solid comedic notes dropped in there and the dad said what the are you talking about the minimalist character designs and animations are so bouncy smooth and outright delightful I was already intrigued at jumping around with the rotating gravity trying to orient myself but once the game introduced seeds and the game play properly opened up I was kind of floored everything here is so polished beautiful and engaging the different seeds behave and interact in predictable ways that allow for a level of freedom in how you want to approach each problem you're only allowed to hold four seeds at a time so you can swap those out and experiment as you make your way through emrock credits star seed Pilgrim Fancy Pants and Aether as being his main Inspirations I think that makes total sense it has the puzzles of star seed the platforming action of Fancy Pants and the rich atmosphere and setting of Aether and as a more recent example I felt a little bit of mosina in there too having a limited load out of tools and needing to combine them in unique ways to solve each problem some of the most fun I had was just experimenting with things and trying to chain them together in creative and optimal ways and I did find that occasionally the setbacks to simple mistakes would be a little bit more punishing than I was expecting but I think that's just kind of the nature of having a sandboxy physics platformer the more freedom you're given the more dramatic those mistakes become things are going to collide and fall off in ways you didn't quite want but it's never the fault of the game behaving in some unintended way this game can be a little intimidating presenting things in such an open Manner and leaving so much of it up to the player to solve but those are the same things that made this game so enjoyable and memorable while finishing up this video the official judging and winners for flash forward were announced and dungeon a said it best I think mrock misunderstood the assignment they made an hour's long flash Dev success story 2010's Indie gem like braid closure Etc by accident holy crap isn't the flash web version also supposed to be less of a finished product than the steam or console version or whatever were zero for two now but in the end that panel also determined that dwarf planet 1 was the best game of this Jam I found a lot to enjoy making my way through these games but dwarf planet 1 was kind of a tier Above the Rest For Me mrock has made so many cool things over the years and I'm looking forward to seeing what he has coming next if you feel you missed out on the Golden Age of flash you haven't you could download a trial today follow along with a massive catalog of tutorials experiment and push yourself put it out there get some feedback work to improve with every new game join the new grounds community share your work there or play the thousands of games that are working once again thanks to ruffle it's a fantastic time to be a fan of flash gaming whether for nostalgic reasons or discovering it now for yourself and remember if you want to keep your love for flash games flowing then please do go check out Gorgon Shield over on Steam support what I do and a classic flash developer play the demo add it to your wish list all that good stuff and in the end cards I'll include a playlist of my many different interviews with flash developers from over the years I plan to do many more of those moving forward they're always so much fun for me and it feels good to share that passion with you all yet again thank you so much for watching and I hope to see you again soon