Nate Pacyga

1
Nate Pacyga

• Applied Flash Architecture

2
Background

• Flash / Flex programmer for 6 years
• Try Catch Games started in September
• TCG is a indie / casual game company
• We have done a number of small games with
  prototypes for larger games for Flash and
  consoles
• I play video games as much as I can!!!

3
What I would like to cover

• Touch on Brads framework (the best I can)
• From which I want to encourage all of you to
  investigate your owns systems and processes to
  see what works best for you
• MVC
• The way(s) I personally use it, since everyone
  seems to have their own interpretation of it
• Use it as a methodology
• Using MVC with a State Manager for switching out
  views
• Having the views communicate back to the
  Moderator
• Moderator / Mediator
• When you are working with simpler games/apps the
  Moderator is the glue that pieces it all
  together
• In the case of my simple MVC example I use a
  Moderator as the point where all things shoot
  events back to
• Factory
• Usually a static method that returns an object
  based on parameters
• Great for abstracting out object creation
• How assets are accessed in the case of Brads
  framework using simple factory examples
• Go through some simple examples of this with
  Simon
• State Managers
• Having a base class for views and managing view
  states with enter and exit methods
• Using simple states for the game pieces, instead
  of a state machine
• Managers / Dictionaries

4
I am no authority

• Consult the experts constantly, like these books
• Make mistakes and learn!
• I hope this sparks creativity with building your
  own systems and making Flash that much more of a
  respected enterprise platform
• Ask questions at any time, this is a discussion

5
Lets get started, but first

• Before we get rollin lets break up the monotony
  with a cool game
• Closure
• http//www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/480006
• Uses Pixel Bender and Flash 10, probably one of
  the best uses for it so far as I know

6
Jump in!

• Simple Simon
• What does this thing do?
• Switching views
• States of pieces
• How things are getting on the screen using Brads
  framework

7
MVC

• Typically when you are dealing with MVC you are
  doing something like the above
• 1 User interacts
• 2 View tells controller to handle input
• 3 Controller changes model state
• 4 Model tells view to update
• 5 View reads information from model and updates

8
How I am modifying MVC

• 1 View handles user input
• 2 View dispatches event to Simon
• 3 Simon tells controller
• 4 Controller takes action and modifies the
  Model
• 5 Controller dispatches an event if game logic
  dictates
• 6 Simon tells View to update

9
Brads Framework

• Main Dont really think about much here, its a
  black box and its meant to be
• Screen Manager Used for managing the different
  screens. In this case we really just care about
  the GamPlay screen.
• GamePlay Simple point of entry to kick off the
  game

10
Moderator - Simon

• Simon The main class of the Simple Simon game
  and the moderator of the program
• SimonController
• ViewStateManager changeView
• UI
• Handlers

11
Model and Controller

• SimonController
• Game logic
• Color playback
• Checks player entry
• Model
• Singleton
• Holds application state that anyone can tap into.
  In this case only the controller does

12
Creating Views

• BaseSimonView
• Three views based off this base
• Ability to switch views at any time because of
  the event driven view system

13
State Manager for Views

• Main
• StateManager instantiation and changeView
  method
• ViewStateManager
• setState method
• revert method
• ViewState
• Any view extends this
• Attach transitions in the view to enter and exit
  methods
• I believe Brads Screen Management uses this idea
  as well

14
Pieces

• Pieces changing state setState
• Time delay on internal state changes
• Pieces getting assets through a factory
• Assets in the FLA
• Accessing assets through Linkage Factory

15
Managers and Dictionaries

• Not used in this game
• But I want to cover it anyways
• Manager
• Having one point of entry to an object so that
  there is only one reference. When that reference
  is destroyed the object is marked for garage
  collection.
• Having a destroy method on all objects

16
Q A

• Resources
• Books
• Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns
• ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns
• Applications Programming in Smalltalk How to use
  Model-View-Controller by Steve Burbeck
• Websites
• Flash Game Blogs
• 8bitrocket.com
• Gamepoetry.com
• Blog.trycatchgames.com (code will be here soon)
• Extra time and nothing to talk about?
• Time deltas
• Embedding assets (Bumble Tales)
• Sound frequency
• Fantastic Contraption
• Monetizing Flash Games

17
Thanks!

• Thanks to
• Danny Patterson
• Brad Bollinger
• Dave Schroeder
• All the other speakers and you! ?