I’ve had a few emails about Flash game file formats, and some people are obviously not clear so I thought I’d clear it up with a short post. The different Flash file formats are quite simple to understand once you realise what they are all for!

FLA – Flash game FLA files (*.fla) are the editable source files which you open and edit when you’re creating or modifying a Flash game (or any other Flash project!). They contain all of the graphics, audio and data used in the project and are uncompressed. These are the files you need if you want to rebrand a Flash game, or change the graphics, or make any other changes!

SWF – Often pronounced as swiff files (*.swf) these are the published and compressed game files which you actually put online for your visitors to play. They are compressed so they can be quickly downloaded, and so they are not editable. To create a SWF file you first need to open the FLA file in Flash, and then select Publish. This creates the compressed SWF game file ready for use online.

If you search online for free Flash games to add to your website it will be SWF files that you find. You can quickly and easily add these to your site for your visitors to play, but they will have the original developer’s or owner’s lgos and links in them, so effectively you’ll be advertising for them!

When you buy the Viral Flash Games pack you get the full FLA game files. That means you can change those links and logos, or the graphics, or the audio, or any other part of the game for that matter! You will of course get sample SWF files too, incase you want to quickly test the games, but it’s the FLA files which are of value. Don’t worry about not knowing how to edit them, because the video tutorials bundled with the games take you through that step by step!

I hope that answers the question clearly. There are some other file formats associated with Flash, such as AS files (Actionscript) but you don’t need to know about them and they are not needed for the games on this site.