Mobile social gaming company Gree announced Lightweight SWF, an open-source tool it has developed for the creation of Unity and HTML5-based smartphone apps.

It said that LWF uses an animation engine based on a unique file format to render animation data converted from Flash playable on Unity and HTML5.

In a statement, the company said that “it is hoped that by lowering the obstacles to smartphone app development for developers and Adobe Flash artists around the world, Gree can contribute to the overall growth of quality content available to users worldwide”.

Gree said that “Flash Player-like functionality shortens the learning curve for developers with a Flash background”, and that LWF offers “new levels of interaction and freedom not possible with Flash Player”.

The company used the technology to develop its mobile social games Animal Days (pictured) and Alien Family, which were released earlier this year in North America and Europe.

It said that this demonstrates “the tool’s effectiveness in efficiently creating interactive action gameplay, rich animation and user interface design”.

Gree said that it plans to expand its LWF tool “continually” in future releases.