The debug player allows a developer to see error messages in compiled swf files, so it's very likely that this error is occurring for
every user. Only those with the debug player can see it. The flixel forums consist of a lot of Flash developers, many of whom would have the debug player installed. It's in your best interests to download the debug player yourself to track down the bug.
In English, the error is
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at TutorialBlipping/deathShake()
at org.flixelPP::FlxUPP$/overlapPP()
at org.flixelPP::FlxUPP$/overlapPP()
at TutorialBlipping/update()
at org.flixel::FlxGame/update()
This error display is what's known as a
stack trace. When the program has an error, it displays what method it is currently trying to run and the sequence of calling methods all the way back to the update method. So the error is in the deathShake() method of a TutorialBlipping object, which was called by the overlapPP method, etc.
The actual error means that something in the deathShake() method is null when the code expects it to be set to an actual object. For instance, calling either
public function functionA():void
{
var a:FlxSprite = null;
a.x = 3;
}
or
public function functionB():void
{
var b:FlxSprite = null;
a.update()
}
would display that null object error, since
a and
b do not point to an actual FlxSprite instance, but the code tries setting its x-position anyway. To debug this, you'll want to take a look at what you're doing in the deathShake() method. Somewhere in there you're trying to evaluate a member variable (case A above) or call a function (case B above) on a null object. If you have any hunches, you can test them by using debug statements (that you would later delete), like
function myFunction(argument:uint):void
{
if(argument == null)
{
FlxG.log("argument is null");
}
//Rest of method body
}
There might not even be anything expressly
wrong with the deathShake method, but you might be passing in null or uninitialized parameters to it somewhere in the update() method or in those custom collision methods. Hope this helps!
Developer
