1. ADOBE AND THE
FLASH GAMING
LANDSCAPE
March 12th 2013
Rocky Mountain Adobe User Group
Joseph Labrecque

2. JOSEPH LABRECQUE
Senior Interactive Software Engineer | Adjunct Faculty
University of Denver
Proprietor | Owner
Fractured Vision Media, LLC
Adobe Community Professional
Adobe Education Leader
Adobe Certified Expert
Adobe Certified Educator
Adobe Influencer
Author
Packt Publishing | O’Reilly Media | video2brain | Adobe Press | Peachpit
Artist
An Early Morning Letter, Displaced | shivervein

3. WHAT WE’LL COVER…
• Current Engineering Focus
• The Flash Runtimes Roadmap
• Runtime and Gaming Statistics
• Tooling for Game Development
• Adobe Gaming SDK
• Sponsored Frameworks
• … and more

4. RUNTIMES
ENGINEERING

5. PREMIUM VIDEO
• True streaming
• Digital Rights Mgmt.
• Great workflow
• Wide support
• Browsers are lacking
• Project Primetime

6. GAMING
• Flash Player: Game
Console of the Web
• AIR: iOS, Android, BB10
• Stage3D
• GPU-Accelerated
• Historical
• Flash C++ Compiler

7. ADOBE SAYS…
“Adobe is fully focused on creating a robust business
around gaming.”
“This focus does not mean that existing content will no
longer run, or that Flash cannot be used for content
other than gaming and premium video.”
“Adobe believes that Flash is the game console for the
web providing a foundation that allows game
developers to deliver rich games and experiences more
easily to more people than any other platform.”

8. GENERAL WEB?
• HTML/CSS/JS
• Edge Animate
• CreateJS
• Flash Player is
no longer
needed for basic
interactivity.

9. ADVANCED UTILITIES?
• Web content that is:
– Too difficult with standards
– Too advanced for standards
– Project resources lacking
• There are still many
advanced use cases for
Flash Player on the web –
though this has narrowed.

10. FLASH
RUNTIMES
ROADMAP

11. 2012 ROADMAP
• Flash Player “Next” – new VM!
• ActionScript “Next” – new language!
• Windows 8 “Modern UI” AIR Runtime!
(Flash is Adobe’s “largest engineering effort”)

12. 2013 ROADMAP
• Flash Player “Next” – DEAD
• ActionScript “Next” – DEAD
• Windows 8 “Modern UI” – No Plans
(Continue VM and language work on
“Web-Based Virtual Machines”)

13. W. T. F.
( it’s really not so bad. really. REALLY! )
• New VM/Language would injure community
• Problematic for Apache Flex
• Add unnecessary confusion/fragmentation
to a stable, strong, solid platform
• Incorporate plans into current runtimes
• XC APIs no longer premium

14. ADOBE SAYS…
“Adobe will focus its future Flash Player
development on top of the existing Flash Player
architecture and virtual machine, and not on a
completely new virtual machine and architecture
(Flash Player “Next”) as was previously planned.”
“At the same time, Adobe plans to continue its
next-generation virtual machine and language
work as part of the larger web community doing
such work on web-based virtual machines.”

15. BESIDES…
Look at what has happened in just the
past few weeks!
• Flash Player 11.7 beta on Labs
• Windows 8 whitelist blacklist
• AS Workers coming to Chrome PPAPI
• AS3 access fast memory ops (intrinsics) in AIR
• Bill Howard (@BillAtAdobe) new GPM
• Roadmap update coming soon…

16. RUNTIME
STATISTICS

17. FLASH/AIR STATS
• Over 500 million devices are addressable today
with Flash technology.
• Projected: over 1 billion addressable devices by
the end of 2015.
• More than 20,000 apps in mobile markets using
Flash tech.
• More than 400 million connected desktops auto-
update.
• More than three million developers use the
Adobe Flash technology.

18. GAMING STATS

19. GAMING STATS

20. GAMING STATS

21. GAME
DEVELOPMENT
TOOLING

22. FLASH PROFESSIONAL
• Export Starling
Texture Atlases
from MovieClips
• Create entire levels
for Citrus Game
Engine
• Animation and
asset production to
ANY platform

23. FLASH BUILDER
• Version 4.7
• Includes ASC 2.0
• Works with Apache
Flex 4.9
• Works with Adobe
Scout
(no more design view)

24. ADOBE SCOUT
• Next-generation
profiling tool
• Works with Flash
Player and AIR
• Detailed Telemetry
• Mobile profiling
• Release profiling

25. ADVANCED TELEMETRY
• TelemetryEASY
– Windows
• SWF Scout Enabler
– Windows/OSX
– Also “disabler”
• Various 3rd party
IDEs have support

26. FUTURE TOOLING
• HellCat! (Flash Professional)
• Flash Builder (5)
• Scout++
• 3rd Party Tooling
– Away Builder
– Flare3D IDE
– Unity

27. ADOBE
GAMING
SDK

28. CREATIVE CLOUD

29. PACKAGE CONTENTS
• AIR SDK
• 3 Game
Frameworks
• ANEs
• Samples
• ATF and AGAL
Utilities

30. SPONSORED LIBS

31. STARLING
• 2D Engine built upon Stage3D
• Sponsored by Adobe
• API mimics Display List
• Example: Angry Birds Friends

32. FEATHERS
• UI Components built atop Starling
• Sponsored by Adobe
• Fully skinnable
• Components include
– Button, List, Slider, Text, Toggle,
Tab Bar, Callout, more
– Robust Layout system

33. AWAY3D
• 3D Engine built upon Stage3D
• Mature, community driven
• Managed by The Away Foundation
• Sponsored by Adobe
• AwayPhysics

34. EVEN MORE LIBS!
• Citrus Game Engine
• Flare3D
• Alternativa Platform
• Minko
• Coppercube
• Sophie 3D
• Zest3D
• Yogurt3D
• More… more… more…

35. CITRUS GAME ENGINE
• Rendering Engines
– Display List
– Starling
– Away3D
• Physics Engines
– Box2D
– Nape
– AwayPhysics
• Game Primitives
– Hero, Enemy, Platform, Coin,
Sensor, Platform, et cetera

36. LIVE DEMO!
(there is time for a demo, right?)

38. GET INVOLVED!

39. ADOBE GAME JAMS

40. #1GAM

41. CLOSING

42. RESOURCES
• Runtimes Roadmap:
http://adobe.com/go/flashplayer_roadmap
• Adobe Gaming:
http://gaming.adobe.com/
• Starling:
http://starling-framework.org/
• Feathers:
http://feathersui.com/
• Away3D:
http://away3d.com/
• Citrus Game Engine:
http://citrusengine.com/
• One Game a Month:
http://onegameamonth.com/

43. THANK YOU
Get in touch…
Twitter: @JosephLabrecque
Email: Joseph.Labrecque@du.edu
Web: http://JosephLabrecque.com/

44. Join us at Adobe MAX 2013
May 4-8, 2013 Using Edge Animate to Create a
Los Angeles Convention Center Reusable Component Set
and Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE Monday 3:30 PM - 511B
Join us at MAX for three days of fresh inspiration, Register now at max.adobe.com.
connection, and hands-on training. Plus, receive a
complimentary annual membership to Adobe®
Creative Cloud™.

45. Community Compilation CD
Download for free: http://fracturedvisionmedia.com/FVM008/