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Ocean View Games
Rebuilding a Museum Flash Game for Modern Browsers

Rebuilding a Museum Flash Game for Modern Browsers

In 2015, David rebuilt London Museum's Great Fire of London game from Flash to HTML5, preserving all of its content and making it work on tablets and modern browsers.

Summary

The challenge
London Museum's Great Fire of London game was built in Flash, which never ran on the tablets schools were adopting and was being phased out of browsers.
David's role
In 2015, as the sole developer at Fish in a Bottle, David rebuilt the game from scratch in HTML5 and JavaScript, using the Flash original as the reference.
The result
Every story, character, artefact and mini-game preserved, playable on tablets and Chromebooks, and still live more than ten years later.
The Great Fire of London game is an illustrated educational game that takes children through the events of 1666, with a day-by-day story, characters to meet, historical artefacts and hands-on mini-games. It was built in Adobe Flash. By 2015 that was becoming a serious problem. Flash had never run on tablets, which schools were adopting quickly, and browsers were starting to phase it out. London Museum needed the game rebuilt for the modern web without losing any of its content. As the sole developer on the project at Fish in a Bottle, David rebuilt the game from scratch in HTML5 and JavaScript using CreateJS, with the original Flash game as the reference for every interaction, animation and win condition. Some of the original artwork was reused, and Fish in a Bottle artist Scott rebuilt the lower-resolution assets. More than ten years later, the HTML5 version is still live.
The original Flash game and the HTML5 rebuild
AreaFlash originalHTML5 rebuild
TechnologyAdobe FlashHTML5 and JavaScript with CreateJS
DevicesDesktop browsers with the Flash pluginModern browsers, tablets and Chromebooks
InputMouseMouse and touch
LayoutFixed 4:3Responsive 16:9, with menus anchored to the screen edges
ArtworkOriginal assets, some at low resolutionOriginal art reused, low-resolution assets rebuilt
ContentStory, characters, artefacts and mini-gamesAll content preserved
Rebuilding From Scratch

The rebuild had to look and play like the game teachers already knew.

The Original as Reference

The Original as Reference

Every interaction, animation timing and win condition in the Flash version was catalogued, then rebuilt in JavaScript to behave the same way.

All Content Preserved

All Content Preserved

The story, characters, artefacts and mini-games all came across to the HTML5 version.

Art Reused and Rebuilt

Art Reused and Rebuilt

Original artwork was reused where it held up, and Fish in a Bottle artist Scott rebuilt the lower-resolution assets for modern screens.

Modernising for Schools

The rebuild also had to work on the devices classrooms were actually using.

Responsive Layout

Responsive Layout

The fixed 4:3 layout became a responsive 16:9 layout, with the interface separated from the game world so menus anchor to the screen edges on any device.

Touch and Chromebooks

Touch and Chromebooks

The game works with touch as well as a mouse, on tablets, Chromebooks and modern browsers.

Fast on School Wi-Fi

Fast on School Wi-Fi

Assets were packed into optimised sprite sheets, reducing download size so the game loads quickly on slow school connections.

The Results

Still Live Over Ten Years Later

The HTML5 version built in 2015 is still live today.

Nothing Lost

All of the original game's story, characters, artefacts and mini-games were preserved.

Ready for the Classroom

Responsive layouts and touch support brought the game to tablets and Chromebooks, which the Flash version could never reach.

Lessons from projects like this also informed our open-source Educational Gamification Systems toolkit. Planning a replacement exhibit or a new commission? Our museum interactive commissioning checklist helps you agree content, hardware, testing and source code handover before development begins.

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