"The rise of quick pick-up-and-play games is an important development, and Flash games mirror their rise in mainstream gaming," says John Bardinelli, contributor too casual gaming site Jayisgames.com. And because most web browsers can use Flash, playing a game through them is an effortless pleasure: "In the same way that short-form viral videos have taken off, I think we're seeing the same things for web games," says Jim Greer, founder of Kongregate.com.

"Digg has a section devoted to them, and 90 per cent are Flash. When one gets to the front page, the hits rocket - games three years ago never achieved the same levels of audience awareness."




Such popularity is beginning to earn the game makers money. Newgrounds, which receives around 500,000 visitors a day with 200 game and animation submissions, each month awards the top ten contributors, as voted by users, $250. Kongregate, which was launched in December 2006, gives its game-makers a cut up to 50 per cent of the ad revenue their games generate.

Meanwhile, companies like Crazy Monkey Games and Armor Games have begun to sponsor games in return for them featuring their logos and linking to their sites - both Flash game portals that earn money on advertising revenues. It's in both parties' interest that the games are featured on as many other websites as possible.

[source: gaming your way]