Mezzanine Stairs

The End of Flash

The Flash plugin is being discontinued. All other browser plugins have been long since disabled, but the browser makers granted Flash reprieve until the end of this year. After which, no Flash content will be viewable in modern, up-to-date browsers.

I’ve been putting off our announcement regarding the end of Flash because I don’t have anything nice to say about the situation. I can, however, answer an often asked question in the positive:

The Future of World’s End

Yes, we are committed to completing the World’s End series despite the end of Flash. We will be publishing World’s End to mobile and desktop platforms via Adobe Air.

Flash’s demise may still be months away, but its audience is largely already gone, and for us few still using Flash most browsers have been disabling it by default since last year. Unfortunately, we would acheive litle by releasing World’s End Chapter 4 via the Flash plugin at this point.

Graphics Update

You may have noticed an improvement in the quality of our latest artwork previews. These are examples of the higher level of quality we’re working toward to look presentable at fullscreen resolution. Our artwork is entirely vector-based, and can theoretically scale up to fill the screen, but the level of detail in World’s End – especially poor old Chapter 1 – isn’t enough to fill a modern high-definition display.

Episode 1 Demo

We are preparing a downloadable demo of Episode 1 to attract a new, non-Flash audience. I know this isn’t the Chapter 4 news you’ve been waiting for, but it’s the first step toward keeping the series alive.

To run full screen, I’ve had to build a new hardware accelerated graphics engine. Future posts will cover the challenges I’ve had to face, and improvements I’ve been able to add thanks to Adobe Air such as game controller support.

Download Keys for Supporters

Since we haven’t signed any agreements yet, we’re not supposed to promise free download keys, but that’s what they’re for, and we can distribute DRM-free versions of World’s End to supporters if necessary.

Thanks again to all of you for your continued support, and welcome to our new patrons!