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[The Sane Psycho]

Flash games. Perhaps the ultimate distraction. We play them when we're bored at work. We play them when we're bored at school. We play them when we're bored at home. And that's all they are, right? Just fun little time wasters that are designed to draw our attention from the mundane reality of our existence? Nope. That is a very wrong assumption.

Flash games really started in the mid '90s, and Newgrounds could be credited for their rise in popularity. And if you think about it, flash games could be seen as a precursor to the explosion of indie games we see today. True, indie gaming has been around since at least the '80s with shareware and bedroom programmers developing for home computers, but flash games made it mainstream. Millions upon millions of people have played these humble browser based games, even people who traditionally aren't gamers. So really, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that the roots of the current mobile landscape had its roots here (yeah yeah Minesweeper, Solitaire, Elf Bowling blah blah blah).

Young, hungry developers had a platform to share their vision with the world, and create games that were a little different from what the AAA industry was pumping out. 2D platformers and beat 'em ups with unique visuals, retro inspired modern games, the weird arty stuff, and even immature, simplistic games where you killed pop culture figures like Eminem and Steve Burns. Many of those types of games became staples in the current indie scene. And you could argue that sites like Newgrounds and Kongregate led to services like Steam and Xbox Live Arcade. One of the earliest games in the current indie scene?

Yep, the very first game from The Behemoth, the studio founded by Tom Fulp, the creator of Newgrounds. And it started out as a Newgrounds title. Important to note is that The Behemoth developed titles like Castle Crashers, which is now an iconic indie game, and Battleblock Theater. Other famous indie games that started as browser based games: Machinarium, N+, Fancy Pants Adventure, Trials, Fl0w, etc.

So that is why I feel browser based games deserve more respect than they generally get. Sure, they're often seen as fun, addicting diversions, but aren't usually held in higher regard than that. And it's a shame, because they were highly influential and could be considered the grandfather to today's indie/mobile landscape.

Some of my favs:

Super Mario 63 (This is legitimately good enough to be on the same level as a real Mario game. If I were to rank every Mario platformer from worst to best, I would actually include this as an honorable mention due to how fantastic it is.)
Pandemic 2
Mardek series
Exmortis
Dad 'n Me
Fancy Pants Adventure series
Super Smash Flash series
Art Of War series
Tiny Dangerous Dungeons/Super Dangerous Dungeons
Bartender
Bloons Tower Defense

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I was tempted to respond to this with a snarky "who cares" type comment, but I then realized how horrible it would be to do that and we SHOULD be giving props to Studios/Developers who do a good job and those we may not be familiar with.

I have to be honest, I have never done any browser based gaming, but I may give it a look.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I would say that the modern indie market (in the West, at least) is almost entirely thanks to sites like Newgrounds.

Even the artsy indie games showed up on browsers (stuff like "Don't Look Back" had a particular impact on me).

Arguably, the "tough-as-nails" platforming subgenre and the tower defense genres would not have gained such popularity if the concepts weren't refined and iterated dozens upon dozens of times via these browser games. I think that "runners" (like Canabalt or bit.Trip Runner) also owe their popularity to browser games.

 

[Helios]

Used to play them a lot while I was younger. In particular games like Sonny, Sift heads or The Last Stand. You would see a lot of weird and gimmicky stuff that you'd never see from actual developers and even stuff that would later become well-known games like Super Meat Boy. Unfortunately I think most creators moved on to phone games, partly because they have a broader audience nowadays and because of Adobe Flash support ending soon.

 

[Hendrick's]

Agree with OP. Huge influence on gaming as we know it, especially with what we call indie. Would make for a good documentary.

 

[BANGS]

Flash games. Perhaps the ultimate distraction. We play them when we're bored at work. We play them when we're bored at school. We play them when we're bored at home. And that's all they are, right? Just fun little time wasters that are designed to draw our attention from the mundane reality of our existence? Nope. That is a very wrong assumption.

So that is why I feel browser based games deserve more respect than they generally get.

I really don't understand how you came to these conclusions. You named a few indy games that were inspired by flash games, only one having some real mainstream success. Flash games were great and all for what they were, but they really don't deserve any more respect than they already have. They really were just forgettable timewaster games for the most part, and don't forget that finding a good one back in the day was a nightmare with all the crap that would get posted to newgrounds. Most people ended up playing just the top 20 on the list because if you browsed around for others you were most likely just gonna find pure garbage.

Flash games certainly had their influence and their audience and their place in history, but calling them "highly influential" is just inaccurate honestly. There's no reason to glorify them as more than they are. Think about how the entire industry would be completely flipped upside down if castle crashers and meat boy were never a thing... yeah exactly...

 

[KonradLaw]

Flash games certainly had their influence and their audience and their place in history, but calling them "highly influential" is just inaccurate honestly. There's no reason to glorify them as more than they are. Think about how the entire industry would be completely flipped upside down if castle crashers and meat boy were never a thing... yeah exactly...

I would say they at least were more influential than PS3/Xbox 360 were. So I wouldn't be so dissmissive.

 

[Theognosis]

Flash allowed those who aren't into hardcore programming to make their own games. However, I wouldn't say that the majority of Indie developers had roots on Flash. Yes, there were games like The Binding of Isaac which were conceptualized on Flash but I wouldn't say that the indie or the phone game explosion in general started on this platform. It's a niche and that's it.

 

[Spukc]

Flash games that look like alien hominid.
Ruined flash games for me.
I can't stand Hallow knight, Guacamelee, Rimworld and Prison architect.

All really good games. But the art direction looks like dog shit.
I just DONT like the animation and looks of it.
How hard i even try.

Flash games remind me of a horrible time where all i could play was shitty games on newgrounds cause i was 12 and broke.

 

[deriks]

Totally agree. I played a bunch of Tower Defense games, and there's a lot of good tittles in the web. I think that those guys needs more atention in the industry

 

[BANGS]

I would say they at least were more influential than PS3/Xbox 360 were.

And you would be wrong...

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I would say they at least were more influential than PS3/Xbox 360 were. So I wouldn't be so dissmissive.

Umm no.

 

[Harlock]

Oh, yeah. Flash games need a lot more of love from people preserving games. It was a very interesting and easy tool. I remember way back in 1998 someone making a point and click game in Flash 3. Flash 3 did not have scripts. The logic was build setting specific frames, with diferent buttons for example, inside other movie clips.

And I think the super early prototype of Hearthstone was made in Flash, just to test the mechanics.

If any crazy people are curious, I make a Flash game in ActionScript 2 many years ago, flipping Atari 2600 assets. Super basic: you shoot at enemies to increase your time left. If you avoid enemies, the time is over soon. But you also can die easily by collision because you can only shot again when the bullet hit an enemy or go offscreen.

https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/610402

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Newgrounds was awesome. Captain Lowrez was gold.

Those were the days!

 

[KonradLaw]

And you would be wrong...

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. I would prefer Xbox 360 and PS3 be made totally inaccessible to modern audiences than flash titles.

 

[Codes 208]

Ah yes, newgrounds. Back when youtubers like Oney and egoraptor actually animated some awesome shit rather than just did lets-plays.
Back when I used to watch Knox korner.

It was a simpler time. A better time.

 

[sadaiyappan]

I think Runescape was the top browser game. Some classic games are playable in flash like Sim City original and Civilization original. Sorry they might be in Java.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Rokko Chan, Tower of Heaven, Pause Ahead, Winnie the Pooh Home Run Derby, just to name a few...
So many quality Flash games. The Flashpoint preservation project (and another upcoming one for Shockwave) was really needed.

So yeah, I agree.
But there's even more overlooked parts from the history of videogames:

• Early mobile games: black and white games like Nokia's Snake, Space Invader, etc. Then standards like Exen, Symbian, etc. back when there weren't unified standards yet, that had exclusives like Crash Bandicoot...
• j2ME mobile games: at least emulatable but scattered online without any preservation project
• MoJa mobile games: an expanded j2ME standard with better specs for i-mode DoCoMo phones in Japan. Were heavily supported by game companies and have had exclusives unseen everywhere else. Basically lost to time without any websites that host the images of the long defunct games.
• early iPhone games: Apple broke 32bit compatibility, game compatibility for software developed for older OS revisions, and delisted games from developers no longer renewing their subscriptions. So much things lost to time.
• Gasha, browser games with online-only: many of them had cool art and could be salvaged with some mods to remove the timers and grinding.