A Revelation

I have long been pondering on the existence of Flash games--specifically, what particular niche it is they fill that the glut of modern video gaming technology we are surrounded by is unable to touch. I was just moments ago struck with a blinding realization while poking around Armor Games, and I'm still having a little trouble seeing, so let's work forward from the start of things.

First, what manner of interactive entertainment is covered by media outside of Flash? Take for example, gaming consoles and computer gaming software. What do they offer us, as individuals in search of the alleviation of boredom? Most of the time they offer a high-end product, costing anywhere from twenty to sixty dollars depending on the format and the hardware it's supposed to run on. And for that twenty to sixty dollars you can get damn near any experience you care to find. Want to play at being a guitarist in a rock band? Check. Wanna be a mushroom-addicted plumber rescuing a princess from a lizard man? We got that. Want to slay demons as you carve a swath of divine fury through Hell itself? Sure thing. Want to save the world from the forces of darkness? What kinds of dark forces do you want to save it from? We have options. Want to commit deicide, over and over again? Three times yes.

Do you want to play a game of fucking tennis while sitting on your couch? Because we can do that. You can even play it by barely twitching your wrist, if you want to look like a complete tool.

So traditional gaming experiences run the gamut from the simple to the complex and have touched on just about every major mythic arc that exists. Whether it's Street Fighter or Devil May Cry or Ghostbusters, there's something for just about everybody. So where do Flash games fit in to all this? Obviously it would be nigh-on impossible for them to try to compete with professional developers directly, jockeying for consumer attention by producing Flash-based rehashes of RPGs and fighting games and so forth. Major developers pour thousands to millions of dollars into game development and wield cadres of professional, beret-bedecked artists and wild-eyed, unwashed programmers to bring their digital behemoths to life. Which is why I'll choose Starcraft over any goddamn Flash-based tower defense game in the history of forever for the rest of eternity.

Seriously guys, tower defense was new and interesting two years ago. We've gone from beating a dead horse to actively slicing it open and sexually assaulting the resultant holes a la the Marquis de Sade. Let me make this clear: you have become sadists. So let it go. But I digress.

You'll notice, though, that the lack of professional development on a Flash game is a double-edged sword. While it is a format that necessarily limits the length and scope of the games designed for it, it also allows unparalleled freedom for its designer--meaning that the weird, the experimental, and the flat-out surreal are able to make it into the final product without worry, because the game is not being developed to the tune of several million dollars in order to appeal to a commercial market that has the power to bankrupt the game's parent company if said game fails to garner attention.

And that's why you wind up with things like ImmorTall, The Company of Myself, Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar, and You Have To Burn The Rope in Flash format--because that's the absolute best use for that particular mode of expression. They can't compete on a point-by-point basis with the other games that can arrest our attention with flashy graphics and big explosions, so they must transcend them by doing things large production companies are simply unable to pull off without major (unwanted) financial risk. The quirky, the unusual, and the off-balance are the calling card of great Flash games, and that is how they will survive in a world dominated by texture-mapped polygons and particle effects.

By being wonderfully, sublimely odd.

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"We're all mad here."