The future of Flash - and the future of SP-Studio

[Janina]

There were always people out there who predicted the death of Flash and it still survived for many years. But in recent weeks the bad news became alarming. More an more huge websites like Twitch ditch Flash in favor of HTML 5 and security issues lead to more and more users who disable their Flash plugins.

Since the SP-Studio is entirely created with Flash I am very worried about these events. The growing popularity of mobile games already is a problem for the SP-Studio, because Flash does not work well on mobile browsers. But if the SP-Studio will not run on desktop browsers anymore I will be forced to shut it down and start from scratch.

So I created this topic to talk about everything related to the current "Flash situation" and what might come in the future. Perhaps some of you are programmers and have suggestions about what I can do if Flash will die? I hope I will be able to find a new tool I can work with this easily (remember: no coding skills ). And it would be great if I could still use vector files, because I feel like this is a big advantage. I have no idea if this is possible with HTML 5 alone...

[Caribou]

I'm of no help myself, but I do know quite a few programmers so I've put the shout out to them on facebook.

[Janina]

Thanks a lot . What I need most right now is just a good suggestion on how to start, because there are many possibilities and I am not sure which road will be the best to take.

It looks like HTML5 + JavaScript are the best way to do it. While I am familar with HTML the biggest part will be JavaScript, but I don't know anything about it and it is difficult to learn (I have tried some tutorials). This remins me about why I am no programmer.
The newest version of Adobe Flash CC offers an interesting tool: HTML5 canvas. It allows you to build a game with the tools you know from a Flash game, but it makes sure you only use options which work with HTML5 / JavaScript. Then the whole project is saved as HTML5 / JavaScript automatically. This sounds most appealing to me right now, because I would be able to continue using the software I am comfortable with. But I am not sure how good the coding of the result is.

I don't know if Flash is going to dissapear... There are lot of things based on it... Isn't Youtube based on Flash too? (when it cracks the 'Flash player' warning appears...). I suppose there would be at least compatible options to keep working on the 'old fashion way'.

[Eggyslav]

[Janina]

YouTube has switched to HTML5 a couple of months ago, but not on all browsers yet. This was a bad sign, because when YouTube used Flash as default they were the biggest supporter Flash had. And the browser support gets weaker as well. Firefox has blocked Flash during the last security problem, and as far as I know this was the first time they did this.

Still many movies and games are created with Flash, but the current version of Flash CC already features the HTML 5 canvas mode. So even if creators want to continue to use Flash they can do this - they just have to design new projects so they can be exported in different formats.

If Flash will not be supported by browsers in the future old Flash websites will not be accessable anymore. But since this already happens on mobile devices I am afraid it won't be a reason to stop this trend. I hope I am wrong, but so many things became worse since the start of this year.

I really hope the site can stay up, and that you don't have to start from scratch.

I recommend that you convert the app from AS2 to AS3 first. That way, it will make the eventual conversion to HTML5 easier

[Janina]

This sounds like the best way to do it. I will switch from Flash CS5.5 to the current version of Animate CC and see how long it will take. But apart from the time my biggest concern is the save function. I think I won't be able to include this... But I will see if I can find someboy who can help me with this part.

Since Adobe announced the death of Flash for 2020 I will have to do something quickly. I might find time to give it a try in September or October.

[Janina]

Update: The situation for Flash is getting worse since Adobe announced the end of it for 2020. So my goal for 2018 is to change to HTML5 this year. I want the SP-Studio to survive, but the amount of work neccessary for this is still the huge problem... and it looks like I will need help from additional coders who know a thing about JavaScript and have experience with projects like this. This means I need more financial support to make it happen. I wrote a blog post about it and will do my best to reach out to more SP-Studio users who hopefully are willing to help. If you want to help: Spread the word about it! For example if you know somebody who wants to support a Patreon campaign or write about Patreon just mentioning sp-studio.de is a huge help. Many people know it and use it for profile pictures, but usually they don't visit the website on a regular base. So I try my best to reach those people. Let's hope it will help.

More information: http://www.sp-studio.de/help-sp-studio-de-to-survive/

[bellaXraven]

I donated...I hope it helps, Janina.

[Janina]

Bella's very very kind donation helped mit hit the minimum goal of 600 $ today, which means the SP-Studio is save! I am so happy, and the last two days were amazing. Many people shared the blog post.

I cannot tell yet which features will be included in the new HTML5 version, but at least I can start working on it now and there will be a SP-Studio in the future. It might be smaller though, so this is why more donations are still important to help me include the more complicated features and so I don't have to pay too much on my own. With the 600 $ goal I pay most of the costs for this update myself. But the part "about life and death" is very likely solved, and this is great! I can relax a little now.

But a regular content update is still scheduled for the end of this month.

[Janina]

Here is a more detailed bblog post:

http://www.sp-studio.de/update-on-the-f ... s-website/

If you have any idwas for new features or design changes now is the time to tell me about them because I will soon start working on it.

So can you estimate how long is it going to take before you can get a working HTML5 version up and running?

[Janina]

I think it will be a matter of several months, because if I do the whole rework anyway I want to do it right. And it will take a lot of time to include the items, even if I don't work on the illustrations. So my goal is to get it online this summer. I will keep you updated as soon as I can tell you more.

During this time I will try my best to continue with content updates for the Flash version.

[Janina]

Here is another blog post with frequently asked question:

http://www.sp-studio.de/f-a-q-about-the-new-sp-studio/