Flash Games?

Rhino

Say I want to program a flash game. A very simple one.

What would I need? I would need to learn action script and also buy a copy of Adobe Flash CS3, or whatever it's called? Anything else, or am I on the right track?

Indica1

Might want to learn how to draw too.

Revolutionary

www.adobe.com

I'm pretty sure you can download a trial of Flash.

Yes, you will have to learn ActionScript 2 or 3. 2 is easier, 3 is faster (your programs will take up less memory.) I haven't completely done so, but the conversion from 2 to 3 isn't hard if you want to 'build up.'

Other skills used:
Basic to advanced drawing
Animation (assuming your game has some)

Flash is really a jack-of-all-trades in the sense that it can create many forms of media. Almost all of your computer skills can be applied to it somehow.

Szechuanosaurus

Maybe photoshop or some other more competent graphics editor if you want your game to look really lush, although you can achieve a certain standard of graphics with Flash's built-in graphics tools.

Jasconius

It's probably better than you start with AS2.

The notion that AS3 is faster is something that is usually irrelevant if you're just starting out.

Unless you've got a game that's placing 100+ sprites on the screen all doing programmatic animation then the performance benefits will not be evident enough to warrant the longer and more frustrating development process.

Even large studios like Big Spaceship, etc, still use AS2 for no small portion of their work.

Plus AS3 is a tough language with a lot of oddities compared to AS2.

You probably want to look at this book

http://www.moock.org/eas2/

Colin Moock is pretty much the man when it comes to Actionscript training. I have his AS3 book and it is pretty good.

After you graduate from the basics

http://www.friendsofed.com/

Have some pretty good books on more advanced topics, some of which deal directly with game programming.

Szechuanosaurus

Jasc, a few years ago I was pretty adept with Actionscript to the point where I could competently make games. If I wanted to get back into it in a big way and was thinking about heavy processing situations what would be the best way to brush up on my knowledge and ideally upgrade to AS3?

I don't want to end up with an Introduction to AS3 book thinking it'll be written on the basis that I know AS2 already but end up discovering it's like the basics of AS. I'd ideally want something that just shows me how things differ between AS3 and AS2, although I could also do with a bit of a general refresher too.

Szechuanosaurus

Hmm, actually, Colin Moock's AS3 book sounds like it'd probably be perfect.

Jasconius

Moock's book Essential Actionscript 3, I do not think will specifically highlight the differences, but it will show you all of the basics, some of which are dramatically different.


The thing about AS3 is that it is syntactically identical but the compiler is far more strict. Every variable must be typed, every function must be typed.

The major things that are different

1) The event model is staggeringly more complex. You can no longer do this.onRelease = function() -- events are added via method call and must be tracked and written out in a rather laborious fashion. It takes a bit of ingenuity to wield this new model without ending up writing a sea of event handler code, but it is possible.

2) Some top level functions in AS2 have been removed. The most notable among these are getURL which is now requires a method call AND an object instantiation; and eval() which was used in reflection - but eval was replaced by a much improved depth system which pretty much removed any use for eval() I ever had.

3) There is no such thing as depth anymore in the sense of AS2. Instead, all objects on the stage exist in a sort of array on their immediate parent container - as such, handy features like swapDepth and loadMovieNum are gone which can be a pain in the ass especially for game development - but similar techniques are possible with a little research and are ultimately more performance efficient.


I cannot recommend any AS3 game books because that's not really what I do, but for general AS3 handiness and tricks, there is a book called The Actionscript 3 Cookbook published by O'Reilly which I find to be an invaluable resource of common Flash functionality, a good starting point for writing custom code.

Szechuanosaurus

Hmm, I might pick up a copy of Moock's AS3 book and have a read to see how complex it looks. The performance improvements are tempting, the fact that it sounds like I'd be just as well learning C++ and writing 'real' games as learning AS3 is less so :P

But fuck it, it's going to be standard someday, so if it's something I want to keep in with it's something I'm going to have to learn sometime, I guess.

Nima

Go and do a couple of tutorials at:
www.cartoonsmart.com

They are narrated videos that show you exactly what to do. I find them really excellent and I pretty much learned all my graphical skills from watching the technical drawing series.
Oh, and if you follow the methods from those tutorials, you don't need to know how to draw (though you might want to later).

You have to pay for them, but it's fairly reasonable and I've never come across better guides for flash (at least graphically).