Easy Game Creation with "Sploder"

If you're looking for an easy way to create Flash games, Sploder.com is definitely something to consider. I spent a couple of hours on the site and had no difficulty creating a few simple games.

Currently Sploder allows for the creation of three different types of games: platform, ship game, or robot game (the last two falling under Sploder's general category of "shooter". Creating games in any of the three is fairly similar in that you use Sploder's drag and drop on screen tools to place enemies, allies, weapons, bonus items, etc. You don't need to know Flash (or even how to program).

Understandably, there are some limits to the games that can be created with such as an easy system. Complexity ranges from simple to moderate, and I think I might possibly have spotted a glitch or two.

Still, you can quickly create something moderately interesting with a fairly minimal amount of effort, and the games I created and played seemed to run very well for the most part. I would expect that in the future Sploder (which is still considers itself to be in Beta) will offer even more impressive capabilities.

The Sploder terms of service grant Sploder a rather broad license to the use of your "User Submitted Content" (which perhaps they need to do to allow your games to function at all), but they do state that levels created remain the property of the users who create them. Also, although I didn't see it specifically in their terms of service, they do say on their "About Sploder" page that

you can even download your games and post them on your own commercial web site.

So in general, they seem fairly reasonable to me. (Caveat: I'm not a lawyer, nor does any of the forgoing constitute legal advice. Consult a lawyer and/or read the information on the Sploder.com website to form your own opinion as to what Sploder.com does or does not allow.)

I expect we will probably see a lot more sites that facilitate easy game creation going forward. Maybe user-created games will follow much the same path as user created video. It would not surprise me to see Google get into the act soon (either through internal efforts or by acquiring and existing site).