Flash Game Makes Headlines
The game Descent to the Underworld has gotten some front-page attention today. The articles I’ve seen all focus on the way it was developed: 6 universities all across the world, all connected via super-high bandwidth. The articles make it seem like the game is some AAA retail title. But in fact it is a Web-based Flash game. But no mention of the fact that it is “Web-based” or “Flash” appears. I’m not sure if that is a positive sign or a negative one.
The game seems good, but I’m having trouble playing it on my PowerBook. I think it is a typical case of Flash slowness. They’ve got a pretty large movie size (800×600) which is probably causing the trouble. It would mean that Flash is rendering the screens as 3200×2400 and shinking them to get anti-aliasing. So I might have to play it in “Low” quality mode to avoid the issue.
The game is a point-and-click adventure game with a lot of animation and some real video. I think point-and-click is a great genre for aspiring game designers to tackle use to learn their skills.