Flash games really have made their presence felt in the last few years, with more websites actively using them. Curiously though, whilst there has been a strong demand for them (which continues to grow) the developers are resistant to change. The end result? Static games which provide a less than optimal result.

It is not sufficient to be good at Flash, you need to actually work on a variety of other abilities and skills as well, and so the Flash developer has to contend with things such as the creation of graphics, sound files, music. Underpinning all of this is the need to have the patience to actually plod through the project to its ultimate conclusion.

In short, games are very demanding items and they require a significant amount of hard work and commitment to ensure that they are successfully fulfilled. Not only is there the skeleton of the program (which is the code itself) but there is also the multimedia as well, such as the graphics, the sound files.

Given that there is so many different assets and elements to play with, rushing into the code head first is not a very wise or sensible idea at all. Whenever I plan on creating a new Flash game I will always start at the same place: pen and paper. In this context, the pen truly is mightier than the sword as it is directly responsible for identifying the direction of the game. Drawing out and outlining your thoughts and ideas on paper is crucial as it will help focus your energies more clearly.

Once you have managed to create a design the next logical step in the process is to proceed onto the writing of the code and the development of the game. Please note that the emphasis here is solely upon making the game as functional as possible, rather than worrying about the added extras such as audio and screen loaders. In fact, audio is only included during this stage of production if it is absolutely necessary, otherwise it stays where it belongs.

Upon the successful completion of the mock up part of the development cycle, I will then proceed to the graphics and audio. Please note that the design stage will directly determine how smoothly (or conversely, difficult) this stage is. If you are scrupulous and organised when it comes to the design stage then you will have no problems during this stage and you can quickly skip through it comfortably.

I only start to add the fancy extras if I am totally satisfied that the remainder of the course has been duly finished. All the little extras which are attractive to the user are great for winning them over, but include them too early on in the process and you will make more work for yourself.

Reading through this article, hopefully you will have came to appreciate that yes, a Flash game takes a lot of time and energy. That said, you can make the process exponentially more easy to achieve and complete with a minimum of fuss if you remain organised and modulate the code. By breaking down the workload into multiple tasks you will be able to delegate work and achieve work more easily.

If you have never actually written a Flash game entirely from scratch then you may find it a far easier and indeed more productive option to simply alter some existing Flash game code as opposed to trying to create a full scale version of the thing by yourself.

You may feel a little put off by the sheer volume of work required and involved in the process of making a Flash game, however as that charming cliché goes, you only ever get out of it what you put in. The money and experience you will acquire is very significant indeed.