Flash Intro

1
Flash Intro

• Spartasoft Jan. 2007

2
What Flash Is

• Authoring Tool
• Built for Animation
• Later given interactive functionality

Flash 3
Flash 8
3
How Flash Differs

• From IDEs
• Different way of organizing code.
• Much more elaborate asset management.
• (Art, sound, other flash files)
• WYSIWYG Interface.
• From WYSIWYG editors
• Not as good at organizing code.
• Better animation options.
• Own language Actionscript is very robust.

4
The Bad About Flash

• What it does not do well.
• 3D engines Yes you can make them but
• No texture mapping.
• No Z-sorting.
• Very slow at processing 3D
• Real-time Multi-player
• Bad network latency
• Turn-based, however, is excellent.
• Real-Time calculation
• Lots of overhead.
• Just 20 moving, animating objects can slow down a
  flash program.

5
Flash Interface
Drawing Tools
Timeline
Score
Library
Code
6
Movieclips and Code

• Two main areas for making a game in flash,
  The movieclip and The code.
• A Movieclip is just an object on the screen.
• A graphic, a sound, a geometric shape, text, etc.
• Equivalent to sprites in Director
• Code is actionscript
• Similar to language like Java, C, Javascript
• Code is either placed on the main timeline or
  inside an assets timeline.

7
Movieclips

• Just converted assets.
• We use movieclips as objects that we can
  manipulate, either with code or through timeline
  animation.
• By giving names to movieclips in the score we can
  refer to them in code.
• Movieclips can also have code or animation inside
  of them that can be called or displayed.

8
Library Organization

• Similar to Director or Game editors
• All asset exist in the library.
• This is done by importing them into your flash
  file.
• Here it is a good idea to organize and separate
  your assets.
• Videos, graphics, sound, and SWF files can all
  be imported.

9
Actionscript

• Standard programming language.
• Datatypes, Arrays, function definition, classes,
  objects, drawing capabilities, XML support.
• Relies on the timeline for support.
• Can also be imported or linked into a flash
  project.
• Comes in 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and Lite 1.0 and 1.1

10
Timeline Organization

• Games are usually organized how they proceed in
  the game.
• Loading and open screens first.
• Game second.
• Ending third.
• Utilizing layers in the timeline allows for
  organization.
• Separate layers for assets, code and labels.

11
MATH

• Flash is frame based.
• Usually animation by code follows this.
• Every frame the new position of a movieclip is
  figured out, moved to that location, and drawn.
• Collision
• Flash allows for a lot of collision techniques.

12
Graphics

• It is a good idea for artist to understand the
  basics on how movieclips are called and used in a
  flash program.
• First if your dealing with a 2D game you need a
  lot of art to simulate motion.
• (Animation imbedded can save on what the coder
  needs to know about the animation.
• You can also help by coordinating with your coder
  on naming convention.

13
XML and Linking Flash Files

• If you have a lot data you can store it in an XML
  document.
• Flash allows for easy retrieval and you just
  place it into a object in your code.
• Also you can export assets, movieclips, from
  other flash file libraries.
• Great for multi-person projects where one file is
  the game/code file and other file hold the art
  and sound assets.
• Can update these files as well, making it easier
  to get newer versions.

14
Found in the flash samples

• AI
• Lots of Collision and Math stuff
• And lot of sample games

15
Sources

• Flash MX Game Design Demystified by Jobe Makar
• Lynda.com has great Flash tutorials and
  Actionscript ones.