Adobe Animate, Converting Flash to HTML Canvas & a Lawsuit

Report · Oct 13, 2023

I bet none of you have heard this before...

I have been working with Flash since 1998 and I have 25 years experience in higher education. Along the way I became darn good at Flash. I built complex games and training simulations (using video) and even a rudimentary LMS. I became very popular with online instructors who wanted me to build ineractive, engaging and effective assets for their online courses.

In 2019 something bad happened to me at work. I was injured after requesting an accommodation that was denied. I missed four months of work. I made the mistake of filing an EEOC complaint while I was on medical leave. I was forced to return to work on March 31, 2020. And guess what? Retailation started that same day. My very first project was to convert 9 extremely complicated Flash games and interactions to HTML 5 Canvas. These were complicated... loaded resoures externally, configured by xml file, differnt paths pased on user reponse including feedback and tailoring content based on incorrect and correct answers choices. And I was the one who conceived and built the games orgininally. I was given 30 days to convert all 9.

I told my new supervisor that it would be impossible to convert those games to HTML 5 in 30 days. I didn't really know Javascript or CreateJS. I would have to dive back into the Flash games and reacquint myself with the logic and structure of the games. I would need to determine what features could be recreated in Javascript/CreateJS etc. Forget the concept of conversion I said. This is a fresh build in Javascript/CreateJS for each game. I can reuse the graphics... but that's it.. an apples to apple conversion of Actionscript to Javascript isn't possible.

Frustratingly I couldn't find much online by way of reference or tutorials. The CreateJS examples worked fine, until graphics were added and then they wouldn't work at all. In my first 30 days back, I struggled to get drag and drop to work. It was easy enough to implement, except the cursor was half a screen away. And I never could get the eval drop target code to work. I was taken off the project after 45 days without completing a single conversion. I was placed on a performance improvement plan and later fired... after 10 years.

Maddingly, the justification for judging my work to be poor was a YouTube tutorial. This one --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIgW0SvP_6g.

I filed a lawsuit for discrimination and retialation. Now the failed conversion is coming up again and so is the video. Now they are claiming I was also insubordinate because I refused to follow the steps outlined in the video.

I'm having a hard time explaining to my attorney why that video isn't applicable to what I was doing. It's obvious my former employer didn't watch the video. At the 2:02 mark it clearly says frame scripts are removed when saved as an html 5 canvas documents. I told my attorney we could just open the flash files in animate, follow the instructions in the video and show the jury what happens, but he says we need more to answer their motion to dismiss.

I had issues getting the drag and drop functionality to work properly. The same for evaluating the drop target. I had issues with variable scope, global functions, depth issues, and animate seemed to crash all the time.

So, here I am, a poor loyal user of Flash and Animate, throwing it out to you good people (and hoping Adobe can something official). How do I explain my very accmomplished CTO/Supervisor was out to get me with an absurd deadline, insisting I follow the instructions in the video, and not listening to me when I tried to explain the scope of work required and the challeneges of converting such complex Flash apps to HTML 5?

Based on my experience, as one person, if were doing those games, from scratch, in Flash, I would need, at a minimum 30 days per fame. Is there any authortative resource I can cite that says porting Flash games to HTML 5 isn't easy and here's why.

My immediate need to offer an arguement a judge will believe my employers claims that I sucked at my job because I couldn't convert 9 games in 30 days is pretext for retialation. I need to be able to point to a source that says "silly rabbit that video only works on animations. I need a source that says bitmaps confused the hell out of CreateJS.

Thanks,

Report · Oct 13, 2023

Hi.

Your former employer has a totally unrealistic expectation.

I've been using the HTML5 Canvas document for about 5 years now in a daily basis and I've also converted many AS3 apps and games to the HTML5 Canvas document.

So I can tell by experience that is nearly impossible to convert 9 games in 30 days. In some cases, I spent more than one month in only one single game.

And you're correct about the conversion process and the video. The feature that converts document types only handles the visuals, but the coding has to be done from the scratch. The way AS3/Flash and JavaScript/CreateJS work is totally different. There's no magic.

Regards,

JC

Report · Oct 13, 2023

you're going to need an expert witness, and/or challenge your employer to show (what they're asserting) can be done.

Report · Oct 13, 2023

I'm pretty sure the author of that video is @Joseph Labrecque .

He himself can tell you that what you were asked to do was impossible in the allotted time.

Report · Oct 13, 2023

a lot of people can say whatever, opinions here are meaningless.

you need an expert witness.. ie, someone with relevant expertise to review the legal documents, render an opinion and be prepared to give a deposition and testify.