An Ode to Flash 💥

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If you know me well, you likely know I have a deeply involved history with Flash development.

I cut my teeth on Flash.

Flash was the first development tool that just completely clicked with me. It erased all lines between creativity and technology. You could draw and animate on the timeline, and then connect your art to an API in the cloud, and have everything data-driven with its mature ECMAScript programming language, ActionScript. I built some really, really cool things with Flash.

And then... like that... it all went away.

This issue is an ode to Flash 💥
 

Should designers learn to code?

This question always baffled me, probably because of my early indoctrination into Flash. To me, there's no distinction. Flash actually made it difficult to only be a programmer and not a designer, or to only be a designer and not a programmer, because all of that was integrated. A Flash design without code would do nothing. You might as well just create an image. And programming without getting deep into the UI side of things would give you an invisible product. In Flash, manipulating pixels and making them move with code was all one task and happened within one IDE, so design was coding, and coding was design. 

Today, people who both design and code are considered unicorns, rare creatures that are difficult to find. And yet, every Flash developer I know does it all without even giving it much thought.
 

Robotlegs and design patterns

In programming, design patterns are repeatable solutions to commonly occurring problems. You may think of Flash as just fancy silly games and animations, but ActionScript was a mature programming language, and you could build truly advanced software in Flash.

My introduction to design patterns began in ActionScript. And just as I started understanding the power of the MVC (model-view-controller) pattern, in walked Robotlegs. This was a full end-to-end MVCS (model-view-controller-service) framework, where asynchronous data flowed in one direction. Long before there was React, or Reactive programming, there was Robotlegs. My efficiency skyrocketed once I learned to build apps with this new design pattern.

When I started out building native apps for the iPhone and Android, I was desperately searching for this holy grail of design patterns. In the beginning, there was no Robotlegs for mobile (or I was unaware of any such framework), and my efficiency stagnated. Only within the last few years have I found that a combination of MVVM (model-view-view-model) and Reactive programming has delivered an app structure that allows me to efficiently build an app without worrying about all the plumbing involved with a uni-directional data flow.
 

The fall of Flash and its legacy

In April of 2010, Steve Jobs famously wrote his Thoughts on Flash, effectively dooming Flash to never exist on the future of mobile computing. Although his statement harps on the idea of "open" software, those familiar with Flash and Apple at the time know it's more likely that Flash had not been properly optimized for mobile battery use, and Apple didn't want its customers complaining about the short lives of its batteries.

There was an immediate backlash against Apple in the Flash community. I remember an audience cheering for the fact that a speaker made the switch to Android at a Flash conference soon after. But it was clear that this was the end of Flash and it was time to move on.

So where did all that talent go? The Masters of Flash (I still have that book because it's amazing) were universally first-class creators. Here are a few of those talented developers. Check out the awesome stuff they're still producing (just without Flash).

Joshua Davis
Joshua is one of my idols. He was a pioneer in processing design and art. His site, praystation.com, was a regular destination for me. He's still making algorithmic art, and it's been exhibited in the Tate Modern, among other galleries. I was lucky enough to see him speak at a conference in Flash's heyday.

Manuel Clement
Manuel is now building STADIA at Google. He's heavily involved in VR/AR, which I've seen to be a popular discipline for post-Flash developers. He's published over 60 patents, including patents for self-driving cars.

Yugo Nakamura
Check out Yugo's work at THA LTD. His web work has won more awards than I can count. His work has a hybrid electronic-organic feel that I find mesmerizing.

Irene Chan
Irene's flat color style of illustration lent itself perfectly to Flash animations, which had impressive vector illustration capabilities. You'll recognize her style.

Joel Baumann and Tomato
Joel is currently a Professor of New Media at The School of Art and Design Kassel. Joel founded Tomato, a group of artists, designers, musicians, and writers. You can see the influence Flash (an innately multimedia format) had on his agency's multi-discipline work. 
 

Preservation

If you're interested in preserving the wonder of Flash games, check out Flashpoint, an initiative to archive as many Flash games and animations as possible, before Adobe shuts down Flash for good this year.
 

Here's to you, Flash. I wouldn't be here without you.

Keep making, and thanks for reading! 🙌

Hit reply to tell me what you're making. I'm looking for anyone interested in talking about their own side-projects and maker journey, so speak up if you'd like to appear in Serial Maker. I'd also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future.

Until next week,

Craig