Online gaming has gone bonkers. According to a recent study by Parks Associates, “despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities.” And the majority of these online games are produced in Flash. Just browse the king of game sites - MiniClip. Their library is almost entirely Flash-based.

The gang at The Behemoth knows a thing or two about this phenomenon. Founders John Baez, Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp saw the immense success (10 million downloads) of Alien Hominid at Fulp’s site Newgrounds.com, and spun off a popular platform version. Their next conquest is a platform side-scroller called Castle Crashers, a game set for release this year on Xbox Live Arcade. Like Alien Hominid, a great deal of the game’s production is being produced in Flash.

While we await the official launch date, The Behemoth has tempted us with this environment design video. Dan Paladin is at the wheel. You know his work on Dad ‘n Me and Synj vs. Horrid.

And for those not familiar with Castle Crashers, here’s the trailer:

As discussed here in May of 2007, a Happy Tree Friends console game is due out this year. Slate for a Spring 2008 release, SEGA’s Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm game will be available for Xbox 360 and for PCs by way of digital download. The game leads, which include series co-creator Kenn Navarro, Sega producer Martin Caplan (inset) and writer Ken Pontac, have been posting regularly to a blog about the production of the game. Below is the latest game teaser.

In other Happy Tree Friends news, it is being reported that the Russian government has put pressure on 2X2, an adult animation network to pull the Flash-animated series off the air for being too violent. And I thought the US media was up tight.

This month Warner Bros. Interactive and WayForward Technologies are releasing a new Nintendo DS game featuring Daffy Duck. Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck was inspired by the 1951 Chuck Jones short of the same name, and the Flash-animated in-game cinemas were brought to life by the talented Ghostbot team. Below are a few animated examples from the game:

Happy Tree Friends, the immensely popular, Flash-animated series from Mondo Media, is set to spawn a video game. Happy Tree Friends False Alarm, an action-puzzle game, is slated for an Autumn 2007 release and it’s currently under development by Stainless Studios. It will be available for Xbox Live Arcade and PC download.

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Michael Levine’s Pileated Pictures delivered a huge volume of animation for Hasbro’s new board game - Trivial Pursuit Dvd For Kids. It released this summer, and the game, which is aimed at kids 8 and up, is currently going for $29.99 over at Amazon.com.

I got my hands on a copy, and briefly played around with the DVD. It’s set up like a TV show - with episodes, and the game is sold as ‘Season 1.’ I recorded some footage from the game and cut together a short assembly.

Jakub Dvorsky has done it again. The follow-up to Samorost, the wildly successful Flash-animated game, has launched. Samorost 2 is a continuation of the original, which takes place in space, on a mossy-log planet. If you haven’t played it yet, I recommend this game to just about anyone, as you navigate through the game with only your mouse and your mind. It’s engaging, haunting and highly-addictive. The design and character animation is by Vaclav Blin and the ethereal music is by Tomas Dvorak.

This time around, Jakub and his team at Amanita Design have arranged a business plan, hoping to entice the audience to pay for the second half of the experience. The price is currently set at $9.90, and Jakub has also built in a store for t-shirt sales.

Cold, Hard Flash interviewed Jakub earlier this year about his experiences, and you can read about how he achieves the unique look in his projects.

The French animation and gaming company Sukiland, has released a new Flash-animated horizontal scroller - Space Armor 3. The intro-sequence is full of character animation and slick design work, and if you make it through enough levels, you’ll be treated to a few more Flash-animated cut scenes. According to a thread at kirupa.com, the production took 7 months, and the designs were roughed on paper and then traced with a Wacom tablet. The team also used Photoshop to produce a few blurs that you’ll see in the opening sequence. Sukiland is comprised of Guillaume Guiral, Jerome Rossi and Suki, a 28 year old who was born in Versailles, France.

The Sukiland gang was recently honored at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, where their Flash-animated short ‘A KO Not Very Catho’ was chosen as part of the New Media competition. The short is part of their ‘Dick Spader’ series, and you can see the English version here.