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I'm just a little confused with all of the news recently regarding the cancellation of mobile flash, so was hoping for a little help. I've had a search through and can't find the answers to these questions, so any help would be great.

First up, I'm looking to create a game in Flash first, to test whether the concept works as a fun game (on Newgrounds/Kongregate/Facebook etc.). Would it be best to use Flash CS5.5, or Flash Builder?

Secondly, with mobile flash now being discontinued by Adobe, could I still port this game over to iOS through the Flash platform, or would it be better at that point to re-write the whole game using Objective C? (NOTE: I'm not an Objective C developer, but am instead a Javascript and Actionscript dev).

Any help would be great. Thanks!

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    \$\begingroup\$ Mobile flash isn't being discontinued. Mobile browser flash is. As far as I can tell, they're still planning on supporting the flash project -> native app export process that they have. That being said, I haven't heard anything good about building mobile games in flash and exporting them out, since it's usually too slow for anything meaningful. \$\endgroup\$
    – Tetrad
    Nov 16, 2011 at 17:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Tetrad What about the thread recently about optimizing for mobile AIR using cacheAsBitmapMatrix, etc.? I'm still hopeful Flash will be a viable platform on mobile. \$\endgroup\$
    – michael.bartnett
    Nov 16, 2011 at 18:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ Sadly the whole compile and test on the device cycle is really slow and cumbersome with the current flash tools. If you're developing exclusively for iOS, you should seriously consider XCode and Objective-C (or C++ for that matter) as it's much more comfortable. \$\endgroup\$
    – bummzack
    Dec 13, 2011 at 18:14

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Embedded flash is no longer supported but you can still run flash nativity. So no Newgrounds/Kongregate/Facebook via flash on your phone. If you want to host it on a server then you should look into the HTML5 canvas, especially since you seem to like javascript.

Would it be best to use Flash CS5.5, or Flash Builder?

I though that the IDE Flash Builder was part of Creative Suite 5.5? If so then they are the same thing.

Secondly, with mobile flash now being discontinued by Adobe, could I still port this game over to iOS through the Flash platform, or would it be better at that point to re-write the whole game using Objective C? (NOTE: I'm not an Objective C developer, but am instead a Javascript and Actionscript dev).

Unless its incredibly trivial you want to rewrite if only for performance reasons.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Sorry, that last sentence went over my head a little, did you basically mean 'yes, rewrite', or 'no, unless it's a tiny, trivial game'? \$\endgroup\$
    – David Archer
    Nov 16, 2011 at 18:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ I meant 'no, unless it's a tiny, trivial game' \$\endgroup\$
    – ClassicThunder
    Nov 16, 2011 at 18:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ Flash CS5 and Flash Builder are two different products. Flash CS5 is the artist-oriented tool with the visual timeline editor. Flash Builder is the Eclipse-based IDE for pure Actionscript and Flex projects. \$\endgroup\$
    – michael.bartnett
    Dec 13, 2011 at 18:30
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I've heard you can publish native iOS apps from flash. Here's a tutorial. Performance won't be as good as porting it to objective-c, but for many games that won't matter.

Also if you are a programmer you should consider using Flex to compile actionscript directly to SWFs. Saves you having to tool around with the godawful flash timeline. You can also use the lovely free FlashDevelop IDE, and some lovely free game libraries like Flixel.

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