Unity launches public beta for Flash add on

Thu 22 Dec 2011 9:07am GMT / 4:07am EST / 1:07am PST
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New Flash Player deployment will allow Unity developers to push content through Adobe Flash Player

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Unity

Development platform Unity has launched a public beta for a new add on that will allow developers to publish their content through Adobe Flash Player, doing away with the need for consumers to download extra plug ins.

"Our vision has always been to let developers take their games to as many places as possible - and Flash deployment greatly furthers that," said CCO Nicholas Francis.

"While we normally wait to ship our software until it's rock solid, the Flash publishing option is just so awesome that we had to do a developer preview. I can't wait to see where our new and existing users will now take Unity."

The beta is available to download later today at the official site.

To publicise the launch Unity has also launched a "Flash in a Flash" Creation Contest with a $20,000 grand prize for the best Flash game made with Unity. The closing date for the competition is January 5.

5 Comments

Harrison Smith
Studying Games and Graphics Programming

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

While I desire a better GUI system, flash support is a nice addition to the mix, greatly opens up a whole audience of lazy people who couldn't be bothered to download the plugin which I am sure is quite a large number.

Posted:A year ago

#1

Chris Wood
Lead Game Designer

Waracle

Apparently according to some stats i've seen, having to download the plug-in was leading up to 40% loss of users, so this is huge for everyone using Unity ....

Posted:A year ago

#2

Michal Todorovic
Director of Engineering

Zynga

Lazy is an interesting word to describe your players/customers. I would think, "too busy", "not interested enough" and perhaps even, "not trusting enough to download a plugin to play a game from you." But that's just me. ;-)

Looking forward to seeing performance, memory and loading times for the plug-in versus apps developed in ActionScript.

Posted:A year ago

#3

Henry Lane
Head of Projects & Business Development

Stickmen Studios

In agreement with Michal, there's more advantage to focusing on a customer's obstacles rather than potential weaknesses.

At any rate any move that reduces the friction for a user to play one of our games is extremely positive, especially if Chris' figure of 40% loss is accurate!

Posted:A year ago

#4

Harrison Smith
Studying Games and Graphics Programming

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

@Michal, yea, it wasn't a good term to use, I was just lazy to write better more accurate terms. Tho I have always wondered why they haven't designed a better method to install plugins, like if a user goes onto a website that requires a plug in a x amount of times, it will automatically install that plugin in the next browser update, I dont know but the current way isn't good.

Posted:A year ago

#5

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