Flash Games still hold a special place in the hearts of many gamers who grew up or were online during the early to mid-2000s. Anybody into the casual gaming scene could tell you that you were spoiled for choice. There were hundreds of developers, dozens of publishers and a seemingly limitless supply of new games daily. Best of all, there were no micro-transactions, no pay walls, and no downloads. As long as you had flash —which was standard back in the day— you could scroll through and play for as long as you wanted.

In this wild west world of Flash Games, it took a lot to stand out and succeed. Sometimes you had to be original, or have a cool theme, great graphics, solid mechanics or a neat twist on an old genre favorite. You also had to hustle. With so many games, so many publishers and such a low barrier to entry for both players and developers it was easy for a new title to suffocate in the deluge of content. But there were standouts. There were top games which naturally rose through the ranks to become popular, beloved, and replayed ad infinitum.

And...

Hello, and welcome to the Addicting News blog. Today, we bring you a quick interview with a game designer who specializes in minimalistic io games. Shaun has released two io games and both have done well on Addicting Games and iogames.space

His first game is Superballs.io, a multiplayer pool shoot-out where you play as giant pool cues trying to sink balls --and opposing players-- for points before the clock runs out. His other outing is an abstract area control game called dupl.io where you compete to conquer a grid by clicking the pips on a series of two-dimensional dice. In both games, Shaun uses few mechanics and sparse graphics to create elegant, original games with interesting choices that reward both timing and tactics. With Superballs, in particular, he re-purposes the overhead pool simulation mechanic that has been around as a video since the 1950s but re-imagines it as a full-contact sport on a procedurally...