architecture question

[rkdresden]

Hi, I was wondering if I can get some advice/input with a project I am working on. Essentially, the company I work for is tasking me with creating “play for fun” type flash games, such as slots, poker, blah, blah....
These are not multi-user games.

I am skilled with Flash and AS2/AS3, so creating the games is not the issue. The thing is, the software engineers I work with want to adopt an online casino type architecture, which would require the end user to download and install a desktop application (.exe). This app would then download the game clients. The software guys feel this is a better approach, as the games are downloaded only once and there is more control.
I am against this approach, as the original idea was to keep things as “thin” as possible on the client side. It seems counter intuitive. They are concerned primarily with server load and geo-location. I tried to explain that server load can be addressed with redundant web servers sharing the load. There are hundreds of sites running flash games...

So, besides the obvious benefits of having the Flash run directly off of a website, is there anything else I can mention to the software folks to help justify my case?

Any thoughts?


Thanks in advance,
Rich

[worthyashes]

The swfs get cached by the client browsers?

[snickelfritz]

"exe" will only work for Windows-based clients.
AIR is a better choice for this.

[worthyashes]

AIR is the best choice from a delivery method, but can you cache the swfs on the client machine using AIR? Not being an arse, honestly interested btw.

[rkdresden]

Thanks for the reply's. I agree that AIR would be a better choice if we HAD to use the desktop method due to it supporting multiple OS. What I am more curious about is why not go with the traditional model of Flash games running directly off a website(i.e. cartoon network)? There are countless websites running flash games in this manner, and they are not crapping out due to load problems. While AIR is a great technology, I think it would be overkill for this project, as would any desktop container app. Am I missing something here?

Not sure if AIR would cache all the game clients (swfs)

-Rich