No HTML5? Why One Game Dev Still Sees Value in Flash

While everyone else is developing HTML5 games, the Red Eclipse team Dani Adriadi and Hari Adriadi (yes they are brothers) have decided that they will develop fun and addictive Flash games instead.

So, our reaction when we heard that someone has decided to develop Flash games was… What? Really? Why? As many of you probably know, Flash doesn’t run on the iPhone or iPad, and Steve Jobs was not a fan, to say the least. And just this past November even Adobe said that it would be ceasing development on mobile Flash to refocus on HTML5.

In a short interview with Hari at Jakarta Ventures Night (run by East Ventures), one of the main reasons was that he’s very familiar with the Flash game environment. Rather than venturing into foreign grounds and hopping onto the HTML5 bandwagon, they prefer to develop games for a platform that they are confident with. Besides, with 100 million Flash game players worldwide, it’s a pretty huge market to miss out on.

He also added that HTML5 source codes could be easily stolen and replicated, unlike Flash files, which are in SWF format. Anyway, the brothers point out, the games look very sexy and include 3D graphics since they have experience in 3D animation.

At present, the team consists of two full-timers and three outsourced staff members. They are currently planning to release 12 games in a year and will be looking to launch mobile game versions of their best selling Flash games in the upcoming months.

While Adobe has ceased Flash support for mobile, what Hari and his team intend to do is port the more popular games and concepts to mobile platforms like iOS and Android. But considering that they can build games in Flash quickly, that would allow them to test game concepts, learn from rapid feedback, and have faster iterative efforts. The critical key for the success of this team is speed. I find it a slightly risky bet, but in a way, kind of cool and interesting at the same time.

[Disclosure: East Ventures is a PO investor]