Market:
After making two games with Java, I realized that the mass web delivery mechanism for Java is almost zilch. This was a classic case of the cart before the horse for me, but I learned a lot programming with Java. There are few game portals out there that host Java only. If you have a very popular game, you can get it up on many of the sites, but you are fighting an uphill battle. Many great games do make it, but usually through less refined channels.
Yes, I have some regrets about not starting with ActionScript. I have a business plan from 10 years ago that did all Flash games but we went different directions. First C++, then Java. Java did lead to a ports to the Android Mobile platform but that is also a very hard market, requiring nearly infinite updates to keep your game in front of your customers.
Is Flash going to make me rich? No. I doubt at this point that I could ever make a living from it. The advertising revenue is about the same from YouTube. My current research shows that people make between $2 and $3 per 1,000 views. That means with a 1,000,000 views, a game will only net $2,000 if it is not monetized in some other way. To make financial matters worse,very few many games reach a million views.
Code:
I'm not finding any significant difference between ActionScript 3 and Java. For coding games, there are actually many times the amount the reference materials and much better game libraries like
FlashPunk and
Flixel out there for the 2D games. ActionScript also has the up and coming 3D engine,
Stage3D, that will get more traction than the equal quality
Ardor3D for Java.
The two differences I have found that I do miss: Enum and Overloading. ActionScript does support optional arguments which takes care of the overloading, but I do miss the Enums.
