> What are we missing from the Flash days? The GUI?
This isn't so much a problem for developers but the true beauty of Flash was kids went on Kongregate, Newgrounds etc watched Flash animations and played Flash games then got interested in learning how to make them themselves.
They (lets be honest here) the pirated Flash and even a 12 year old would be able to open that interface and make a little animation in it. Now here's the real magic because the second you need to do anything more advanced like pause your animation or loop it you actually need to write a little bit of code.
The real thing we lost with Flash wasn't the technology because canvas and webgl are absolutely superior now, it was the onramp to shipping games and animation content from young creators and the clear path to doing so.
Make a little game, export a SWF, share it with your friends, upload it to a website. You can't even upload something to an app store without having a credit card, paying $99 in some cases and entering legal contracts.
This isn't so much a problem for developers but the true beauty of Flash was kids went on Kongregate, Newgrounds etc watched Flash animations and played Flash games then got interested in learning how to make them themselves.
They (lets be honest here) the pirated Flash and even a 12 year old would be able to open that interface and make a little animation in it. Now here's the real magic because the second you need to do anything more advanced like pause your animation or loop it you actually need to write a little bit of code.
The real thing we lost with Flash wasn't the technology because canvas and webgl are absolutely superior now, it was the onramp to shipping games and animation content from young creators and the clear path to doing so.
Make a little game, export a SWF, share it with your friends, upload it to a website. You can't even upload something to an app store without having a credit card, paying $99 in some cases and entering legal contracts.