Previously we've been able to produce apps for mobile devices and desktop systems and then also publish to the web via Flash. This was wonderful and saved so much time, effort, and worked so much better than producing apps and duplicate HTML5/JavaScript pages. Specially when you considered more than just the extra work because of all the other benefits the player brings to both arenas. Specially for games which did/do not run well in HTML5 (yet?).
Here we find ourselves today where we are loosing the flash player in web browsers and being able to simply cover all platforms _including_ the web has become much more complicated. I know we can "wrap" our Air apps around a HTML5 web page, or use Edge, or other "HTML5+JavaScript as an App" schemes, but... Ugg... This sucks. We could still technically offer Apps as Flash content in browsers (for as long as that will last)... But my main concern is how best to go forward retaining the best of both worlds.
Do we now have to manage two projects, Air and HTML5, and just do our best to keep both in line? Is this really our only option with Flash Player for web going away? The Flash Player is still being used in Air... It just seems a shame that it still can't be used in the web long term. I honestly do not wish to port all my code to JavaScript and maintain them both, nor can all features be converted and performance be maintained. And even if much can be done in HTML5, nor would I really desire to StageWebView wrap it in an App. It's just a mess in my opinion.
I'm not against Flash disappearing in the web really, but being cross platform with web application ability was wonderful and I'd love to hear views on how to continue along this line going forward. I wouldn't mind publishing in Air for X and HTML5 for web going forward, but what would now be the best workflow and balance to such a creature? I know we can share assets and animation and do double work developing both ActionScript and JavaScript for those assets in the web, but the work involved in maintaining both code bases is a chore to say the least. Specially when you have custom server-side applications that work with binary sockets and the AMF protocol.
Mind you, I have developed the systems to handle AMF across WebSockets in both JavaScript and my server-side applications, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Doing game (or other) client code concurrently in JavaScript and ActionScript, specially visual/animation systems and all the "unseen" systems behind the scenes that ActionScript is already doing, or vice versa if developing for web first, is a nightmare. So...
So I'm left with the impression that bothering to do web-based clients of any sort at all is just not worth the effort unless you are simply just going to wrap it in an app for mobile if you also want an "app presence" to take advantage of that market while not really having a feature/performance bonus. Having a "web presence" for your game, or other client applications, just no longer seems to matter beyond directing people to your app and only using the web for marketing and/or support.
Anyway... I was just checking into the state of things and convertibility and new practices, specially concerning Animate CC,and _trying_ to continue to leverage the benefits of the web while concurrently publishing an app for stand-alone and additional performance. It was so nice being able to start with a web application and build into a stand-alone application and maintaining them both easily with Flash.
So, what's everyone's thoughts? Just ditch web application development and push players/people to your app on the web and give up on doing that anymore? Does it really even make sense to develop in HTML5 beyond simple 2D games that don't need the performance of Flash or an application based system? Gosh would it be nice to just be able to continue to utilize Flash in the web where JavaScript just isn't enough and doesn't scale well to Air/an app where Flash scaled great utilizing Air. It just feels like we're loosing some wonderful aspects or maybe I'm missing something.
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