Yeah i definately intended to discuss importing assets in to a FlashDevelop project, but I just got lazy so that's going to be one of the first things i'll address. Pendulo is a good example of everything you need to make a game, but its in the Flash IDE and i was aiming to keep it all free.

Or art in general. If, say, I'd like to draw a basic character in Flash, compromised of a head, body, feet and hands (which are all balls, to keep it easy) and then do some simple animations for that to use in the game, is that even possible with the free combination, or would I eventually need the "real" Flash to do that?

I know I could probably draw the Vector art in another free program (Inkscape?) if needed, but I dunno about the animation stuff.

Its definately possible to do what you describe for free, but whether you do it with vectors or bitmaps determines how complex you make it. The flash IDE is built around vector drawings and as a result anything related to them is relatively easy. In FlashDevelop it's far easier to stick with bitmaps but i can show you some examples of how you could do vector stuff if you'd really like.

Lucky man. That's lotsa moneys worth of Flash.

For those who haven't yet heard of the awesome that is Good Old Games, GoG is a site that sells XP and Vista ready versions of great classic games with absolutely 0 DRM for great prices. Unfortunately they are only in closed beta at the moment, so unless you got in on the early sign ups you'll have to wait a while before you can grab some of the games.

I was lucky enough to get in to the beta, so I've bought myself Fallout 1+2, Freespace and the expansion, Sacrifice, Giants: Citizen Kabuto and MDK. Currently i'm playing through Citizen Kabuto and loving it. So many gaming classics, so little time!

Anybody else get in to the beta? Any reccomendations from a more experienced 90s gamer?

[legal]

My flashdevelop starts up pretty quick. When i was talking about updating, I was refering to flash develop. Odds are the flex SDK version doesn't make a huge difference. If you reinstall it and it still doesn't work, post here and i'll try find out why.

In regard to doing these tutorials in legal Flash CS3, i'm pretty certain all the code should work identically. How'd you get it free?

Edit: Since i'm almost on holidays, and there seems to be some more interest in this tute, i think ill write another. Any preference for subject-matter?

I just had the same problem and it appears that updating to Beta 9 fixes everything. Hopefully you're not already running beta 9. If you are the only thing i can suggest is reinstalling it.

Good luck! Show us what you make :D

Hey Cagey, it's good to look at your code... I always enjoy seeing other people's techniques and tricks.

So the purpose of base64 encoding is to convert the array into a plain text block that can be easily copied and pasted? I always assumed people were writing custom plain text encoders :D ... I may have to use this in the future.

Yeah looking at the base64 stuff now... I'm certain I could have used a little more trickery to make the strings a little shorter but it doesn't really matter. My favourite part is how it automatically puts the string in your clipboard when you finish the map.

Glad you guys liked the tute. It appeared that not many people used it, so I hadn't been too enthusiastic about creating another, but maybe I will. If not, pendulo should be enough for now.

For those who want books there isn't much I really recommend. As far as I know there is only one book on actionscript 3.0 focused on games programming and it's not that great. In my opinion the best way to learn is to try to make something, and if you don't know how to achieve something then google it. 8BitRocket has some nice AS3 games related stuff.

Pendulo is a game I was working on a long time ago, but never bothered finishing the levels for. It shows off some pretty cool features like storing user data on the player's computers, using the player's clipboard, base64 compression and a level editor. I think it was integrated with MochiAds, but I'm not certain. There is also sound in there for those who need it.

The only significant criticism i have with the code is the level loading is really not very elegant, but it does work. Be warned though; there may be some horible bits of code in there.

I guess its worth saying that this is now public domain so feel free to use it however you wish. Flash CS3 is required to open the .fla file. A final note: there are a few files that mightn't be needed in the zip, but I included them anyway.

Download here.

I've got some example code for a game i never properly finished if you guys want a look. There is a nice menu there, sounds and level loading code. It's 99% complete other than levels.

It's on my other pc so when i find it i'll upload it.

Man i've been looking forward to this for a long time.

But which version do i get (or both!)?

Paint.net does alpha layers. Its what the new MS paint should have been. Otherwise Gimp does almost everything photoshop does, but it has a sharper learning curve.

Yeah if you want to do lots of collisions use Box2DFlash, or if you want lots of graphical non-colliding particles use flint.

There are a couple more flash physics engines around, but Box2D is the most complete at the moment.

The official Adobe Flash IDE isn't. Flashdevelop is. If you arent interested in easily doing vector based movies or games, FlashDevelop is fine. I definately prefer it to the flash ide.

Ninjascience: Thanks for that, will do!

Hahah so true, I just finished porting one of my unreleased games to as2, im realy seriously selling it, but exactly like you, dont realy want to release garbage (or anything judging by track record!).  Its hard when you got bills to pay and dreams of making bigger better games, but cant bring yourself to sell the simplest of games, own worst enemy?

I'm working on it! Fortunately for me, I've got 0 bills to pay, but that means minimal motivation. Must. Motivate. Self!  

According to here Bloons has recieved at least 7.7 million ad impressions which would be a fair amount of money. Pity theres no post-mortem or something similar around. Still, it seems like a traditional "flash" game. I guess N is what I shout about most when promoting Flash's awesomeness.

Mochiland has some very nice articles on flash games as a business.

It's also probably hard to be more independent and just keep the Flash game on your site, because people tend to play Flash games on the popular Flash game sites, and don't hear of them or play them unless they are on those sites.

That's not such a problem now, because it's so easy to embed ads in your game. It means your game can become viral and you still profit from it. Also, i wouldn't say the money is bad. It's definately dependant more on targeting the lower denominator than making a properly good game though thats for sure.

Coil seems a tad deeper than your standard flash game

Funnily enough I could see gish working quite well as a flash game.

Hahah i can so relate to that Farmergnome. I have big dreams of making awesome games (in flash) but I've got a half finished dodgyass game that could make me some money real quick. Just... can't.. bring myself to do it.

Last.fm is the bomb.

Currently my favourite channel is Bands like St. Germain. Kudos to you who know St. Germain. 

I've been following this for a while now and damn is it awesome. So much of it is an inspiration to me :D It's all so polished. It would be cool to see it on a console too. Any chance of that?

Is there a public version of the map maker you guys are using? I'd love to have a shot at making some maps.

I swear I've seen this game before. That, or one quite similar... was this inspired by a 3D hitman demake?

Either way, looks hawt. There aren't enough puzzley shooty games.

Edit: Ahh i'm not going mental: http://wolfire.com/blackshades.html
*phew!*

Code:

function released(keyCode:int):void {
if (keyCode==38) {//up
if(vely==speed*-1)vely=0;
} else if (keyCode==40) {//down
if(vely==speed)vely=0;
} else if (keyCode==37) {//left
if(velx==speed*-1)velx=0;
} else if (keyCode==39) {//right
if(velx==speed)velx=0;
}
}

Instead of saying if (keyCode==39), you can import flash.ui.Keyboard, and say if (keyCode==Keyboard.UP). You can read more about it on the Keyboard AS3 livedocs page.

Looking forward to seeing the final product.

Or maybe add side effect sort of objectives and remove the ability to die. By side effect objectives (maybe objectives is the wrong word... events is probably more suitable) i mean things that happen depending on where you fly/land and when. Like if you interupt a conversation at a certain time, you change the outcome.

The cat could just knock you out of the sky instead of killing you. Seems more appealing to me.

Love the style so far, but definately its definately begging for more interaction.