Flash Bit Rot, and how WebGL can fix it

leafo · on July 13, 2017

I'm the founder of itch.io which was mentioned in this article, if you want to find plugin-less web games then you can you go to the appropriate page: https://itch.io/games/html5

I realize that that link may have been a little hidden so I put that link into the homepage & sidebar of browse pages.

I think it's interesting how we've accumulated so many games that are dependent on a plugin. I'm looking forward to JavaScript implementations of these things in the future that will enable us to convert them over to HTML5. The good news is that these games are sitting in our database not going anywhere, so when the time is right we can make them easily available again. (classic Unity plugin games are the biggest offender right now, we have quite a few: https://itch.io/games/unity)

hellbanner · on July 13, 2017

Thanks for itch.io! Easiest to use platform by far for developers.

I also like itch because they have their frontend open sourced on Github with an issue tracker.

https://github.com/itchio/itch.io

TheRoccoB · on July 17, 2017

Hi Leaf, this is Rocco, the author of the article. I've gone ahead and updated it with the correct URL along with a note that you've made the HTML5 games easier to find.

I'm curious why you haven't just delisted any games that won't work in the current browser? Kongregate also has this problem right now too.

BatFastard · on July 13, 2017

I agree on the bit rot. Its been a problem since the dawn of software, and will be for as far as I can see into the future. Fifty years from now it might not be, since the AI will be writing it in a language we don't even comprehend.

I was recently talking to a group in China that is trying to make a system that will let Flash compile to a web-assembly target. But that assumes source and desire. Web-assembly is a nice next target, but mostly people will work in higher level languages.