I will admit that when I first became a Rich Internet Application (RIA) developer, I initially threw my hat in with Microsoft’s Silverlight.  It was hugely advantageous to my career to be a publicized early adopter of the technology.  However, as a gaming platform, Silverlight does not have nearly as many tools, momentum, community and install base as Flash.  And, with the downturn in the economy, there isn’t very much traction in creating Silverlight portals for free games supported by ad revenue.  Also, good luck finding sponsors.

Flash does not to seem to be faring better in the current economy.  Sponsorships and eCPMs are down.  And as if the consternation of lowered wages for indie Flash developers couldn’t be worse, Greg Mclanahan, the Community and Developer Relations Manager from Kongregate, stepped on the proverbial landmine by saying to Flash game developers “don’t expect to be paid by the hour” and “no one asked you to make these games anyway.” As if the economy hasn’t already knocked down the spirits of many Flash entrepreneurs, this was like getting kicked in the groin from who was thought to be a partner in the Flash gaming revolution.

With all these issues, there are some who would dare to tell Flash developers to charge money for their games and to no longer accept the status quo of begging for sponsorships and getting fractions of a penny for every ad that is seen on your game.  This may seem insane, especially in this economy, but here are 5 reasons why this is not only a viable business strategy, but also because there are serious market eruptions that will happen in the next several months that will put indie Flash game developers on the forefront of a new age of gaming.

1) Flash on Smartphones

While everyone is running towards the iPhone gold rush, and having to learn how to program on a proprietary API, Adobe is busting open the door for Flash developers to have their games on the next generation of Smartphones.  You won’t have to learn a completely new language or buy proprietary hardware or software to get your games onto these cellphones, Adobe is doing most of the grunt work for you.  And while everyone and their uncle is gunning to make a buck on the iPhone with Apple taking a cut off profits from your games, the larger Smartphone audience will be clamoring for the same love and attention from entrepreneurial game makers.  And it doesn’t hurt that Flash will come with built-in multi-touch support.

2) Flash and GPUs

One of the major setbacks of Flash has always been performance.  Actionscript 3.0 has significantly increased the speed and potential for many Flash games, including the ability to show true 3D objects.  But software acceleration isn’t good enough for us and Adobe has been working hard with Nvidia to allow Flash to finally access hardware for greater acceleration of 3D effects in the Flash player.  This is incredible potential for indie Flash developers who want to utilize even more effects, animations and game play elements that were previously out of reach for lack of processor power.  The last performance hurdle for Flash is about to be cleared.

3) Facebook and MySpace

Both these social networking conglomerates have been opening their doors and reaching out for more games that use their APIs.  There is huge potential for the savvy developer to create the next set of game portals on highly viral networks, all in the same web application.  Right now there is an abundance of AJAX-based games on Facebook, but Flash is largely untapped.  This is a goldmine ready to be struck.

4) Adobe AIR

This has been a largely untapped gaming medium that indie Flash developers have been neglecting.  Having a game installed directly on the computer and running on the OS taskbar in fullscreen is a significant step towards full realization of a viable gaming medium for the PC.  I’m not sure why not enough indie game developers have sought to use Adobe AIR to install a game directly on the users computer.  Perhaps in the next several months, when Flash developers start charging money for people to play their games, the idea of having an application installed on the target machine may become more desirable than hanging out on portal webpages with advertisements before the menu screen.  And it seems that Adobe has more tricks up its sleeve for Adobe AIR, so watch for this technology to grow into a more viable gaming platform.

5) Google Chrome OS

This is probably the most significant game changer that has occurred.  I don’t think it has been largely discussed, but the Google OS is a boon to all Flash Game developers.  The Google OS is simply a Linux shell that runs an enhanced Chrome browser.  The Google website already has almost every major application that one would need on their website – from having Word, Powerpoint or Excel in Google Docs, to uploading and sharing pictures and video, to email.

If the majority of functionality, calculations and storage are done on the server-level, this frees up the Netbook to be even less expensive and portable than ever before.  And in this downturn economy, buying a cheap computer that has all this functionality will take off.  Also, consider that in terms of price, simplicity and universality of the Netbook, this will open up a new demographic to computers than ever before.  The Netbook, combined with Google OS, is primed to be the “Wii” of PC-gaming.

Did I mention games?  That is the one thing that the new Google OS would need is games – specifically browser-based games.  It is almost a given that the new Chrome OS would be able to run Flash 10 on Linux.  This completely new demographic of gamers would need games for their Netbooks.  And not just games you can play from a portal, but fully immersive experiences that take up the whole screen.  The very experience that is missing from portal-centric Flash games that are currently out there.

What the Google OS does is creates the very platform that Flash games need – an operating system where all its functionality runs on the server through a browser.  This makes Flash the perfect platform for gaming experiences on its new OS.

And did I mention that Adobe AIR works on Linux?

For all you indies out there, this story will warm your heart and give you courage.

A big shout out for the press at Kotaku who brought this story to light to help this kid.  And another for the “Game On Denver” crew who have graciously allowed the new “Game On” store some time to change their name so there isn’t confusion between the two stores.

A few days ago, we had a scare.  My father collapsed in the backyard while I was out with my eldest son.  My wife called me and an ambulance and they brought him to the hospital.  I feared the worst.  He’s survived cancer nearly 20 years ago, but his heart is not in the greatest shape; he smokes a pack a day and has no form of exercise.

The year prior, my mother had a stroke.  Thankfully, hers was minor and did not impair her.  She said that the only problem she experiences is that her memory is worse than it ever has been.  I joked and said that there are advantages to a bad memory: I can always tell her the same jokes over and over again and she would always find them funny.  So a heart attack or stroke was foremost on my mind as I rushed to the hospital.

It was a coincidence that a few weeks ago, it dawned on me to ask my father if I could help him automate his business.  It would take a load off his mind and enable him to do more things, as well as help me and my siblings eventually take over for him.  After he arrived here, we sat and discussed how the system could be built.  After verifying his reports, I laughed at how deceptively simple the system is and wondered how, eight years ago, how I could completely miss it.

Eight years ago, my father had an idea to begin to computerize his business.  I had just graduated college and he asked me for some ideas on how to make his business more self-sufficient using a computerized system.  He gave me all his ideas on what he would need, and I looked at all the reports that he sifted through day-in and day-out.  I couldn’t make heads or tails of where to begin.  So I suggested getting some software companies to do some quotes.

He went through 3 different consulting companies, and he let me read their bids on how they would approach the problem.  Each system would have cost him tens of thousands of US dollars paid for in Philippine pesos.  In terms of the cost of living, a single US dollar can pay for a pretty hefty fast food meal complete with sides and a drink in the Philippines.

After reviewing the specs, and some of them proposing creating a pretty hefty multi-terminal Intranet installation, I thought to myself, “These are professional software programmers and systems engineers, they should know what they are doing,” and simply nodded on the price.  My father, being much wiser, simply let the proposals die.  He kept the pen and paper system of his business and simply refined the processes.

Looking at those same reports only a few weeks ago, it amazed me how simple this system would be to create.  What would have taken tens of thousands of dollars and more than a year of development time in those proposals, would only take me a few months part-time.  When I told my Dad how funny I thought it was, he smiled and said, “That’s because you’ve really grown a lot.”  I cannot express how proud that made me.  I kept thinking of that when I rushed into the Emergency Waiting Room to comfort my mother until the nurses let us in.

When the doctor finally met us with the test results, the doctor said it wasn’t a heart attack or a stroke – that he simply just had low blood pressure from dehydration and heat exhaustion.  To put it simply, he fainted.  Thankfully it was nothing more.  He had been climbing up and down a ladder and fixing things around the house.  It was fortunate that he wasn’t on the ladder when he fainted, otherwise, he may have been seriously injured or killed.  He was discharged later the same day.

This evening my mother was chiding me about my job – at how much work I have to do everyday.  But she encouraged me because we should always seek stability and I am very much needed at work.  I love to give my mother a hard time and said, “If I’m always seeking stability then that means I’ll never be an entrepreneur.”  My Dad was quick to correct me saying:

“Being an entrepreneur is the most stable job you can have.  You can never be fired except when you retire.  And if you are really good, you can always be a consultant even after that.”

I stand very much corrected.

I remember when I was in college, in anger I once told him that I did not want to be a father like him.  Yet as I have grown and become a father myself, the more I find that I am more like him everyday – right down to the ridiculous working hours and entrepreneurial spirit.  And I am damn proud of what I have become.

Thanks, Dad.