Free Flash alternative is here

By Jim McCauley
last updated

Wick enables you to make everything from animations to games in the browser, easily and for free.

Poor old Flash was a lot of fun in its youth, but then it became old, slow and susceptible to infections. It was doomed from the moment that Apple decided not to support it on the iPhone, and yet we all kind of miss it a bit, right?

Well now there's a new open-source editor called Wick (opens in new tab) that looks like the Flash alternative we've all been waiting for. Created by Zach Rispoli (opens in new tab) and Luca Damasco (opens in new tab), Wick is a free web tool for creating games, animation and everything in between for the internet, and it's entirely browser-based (see our Adobe Flash Pro CS6 review for a reminder of what the old software offered).

Wick is a free and easy-to-use alternative to Flash

Wick is a free and easy-to-use alternative to Flash

Your creations will work on any device with a web browser, without the need to download any extra software.

Inspired by tools such as Flash, HyperCard and Scratch, Wick is a hybrid of an animation tool and IDE, and first came about when Rispoli's eight-year-old sister started to outgrow Scratch and needed a more sophisticated tool. What started as a simple prototype has since been refined into a more polished tool, and it's ready for you to play with now.

Building animation and interactive elements such as buttons is nice and simple

Building animation and interactive elements such as buttons is nice and simple

It's easy to get started with Wick: follow these simple tutorials (opens in new tab) and you can quickly make an animation by simply drawing a few frames (or importing your own images) and exporting them as a .GIF. Beyond that you can add motion tweening and start scripting events, and you can even import JavaScript libraries for more complex projects.

Wick is free software that you can run, distribute, change, and redistribute as you wish, and it's open-source so you can view the codebase and even help improve it over on GitHub (opens in new tab). As Rispoli explains, "We hope that the web as a community can come together and help build Wick and bring the spirit of Flash to the next generation of online creatives."

You can find out more about Wick here (opens in new tab), or simply hit the Wick editor (opens in new tab) and start playing! Some creatives have already started, and are sharing how they got on.

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Jim McCauley
Jim McCauley

Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.

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