Esquar that sounds good.

Would you be interested in co-authoring a blog style system? I've be approached by one other tigs member who seems keen to contribute. I think that would be enough to get the ball rolling.

I think it would be best to critically review each competition under a set number of aspects - keeping developers as informed as possible. It would be great to hear what aspect people think should be included?

I'm going to throw a spanner in the works and say it is possible to do flash right. Lots of people don't but don't just overlook the possibility.

It takes some getting used and a couple of free plugins/libraries but used right flash can be a great system.

If you're interested look through these great FREE resources http://www.asual.com/swfaddress/, http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/, http://swffit.millermedeiros.com/ and http://blog.greensock.com/tweenliteas3/

Tile support; right through to a built in map editor is on the cards but won't make it into the first build. The priority will be getting the editing tools and animation ui as good as it can be.

There will be some palette support but I haven't really worked out yet what feature will be most useful and worth putting on the to do list. I'm not sure whether this will come before or after the tile support too... probably before.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Triplefox that's some food for thought. Balancing ease for new users and power for pros is going to be tricky...

As for Pixen - it is a shame that its been left for dead but the only way I can really see myself getting this thing finished is to start from scratch and build it my way. It'd only slow me down trying to work within someone-else's project structure.

So the lack of decent pixel art animation programs on Mac has pushed be over the edge. I'm in the first stages of developing a multi-platform tool.

I'm not really looking for feature suggestions (though innovative ideas are welcome).

What I would like to discuss is the best approach to layered animation (animation functionality will be a development priority). I've discussed this a little over a pixelation but am looking for more input.

I've used a variety of animation packages and know of a few different approaches but none of them seem ideal - I've tried to conceive a hybrid but so far no luck.

Known approaches;

a/ New frame = Blank canvas = Layers only accessible on their frame of origin.

b/ New frame = All layers available.


a. This approach keeps things simple. As long as onion skinning or something similar is available its ok and easy to understand. But it can really slow down your work-flow if you need access to a constant layer (e.g. a background).

b. Its easy to get confused. Inexperienced users accidentally edit the look of an early frame. Can lead to far too many layers.


ImageReady uses b. - I've gotten quite used to this for pixel animations but it is messy at times. On the other hand you can do some forms of animation so quickly and easily.

One partial solution I'm considering to improve things is the way in which frames/layers are displayed. The standard Photoshop solution is classic. Ordered by height with visual ques as to whats on the layer - great for static work. ImageReady continues to use Photoshop established layer gui.

But Flash for instances gives you a much more time based approach (its for the user to decide a+b hybrid). Though layers in Flash are quite different in concept to layers in Photoshop as the image itself can change from frame to frame. So I've been contemplating using both displays or attempting different form of hybrid version.




My first idea (which won't work as I first conceived it) was to have 2 layer panels.

1 = constant layers (available in all frames).
2 = frame layers (unique to their frame of origin).

You would be able to drag and drop between them ^_^ This would make organising your layers really easy BUT as I realized the fundamental flaw - how do you keep track of layer ordering/height... At present I'm pursuing this idea but in a single panel.

So does anyone use or know of a program that handles things differently? Please post a screenshot and description.

Does anyone want to help try and conceive a system? I've had some ideas but so far their not perfect.

A majority of the flash game competitions are best avoided, because they require exclusivity. The prizes can be so low even the winner won't really gain anything from winning, i.e. getting the game sponsored could have been more profitable.

.

I totally agree. And the word needs to be spread - with informed developers competitions would be forced to become more realistic...

Using the blog model; if i could find a few contributors it wouldn't mean a large time commitment - more reporting on things you come across. If each posted competition could be given a small informed review - with particular relevance to its worth, license and terms.

Markham I think both Kongregate and Newsgrounds run a pretty similar competition (updating first post to include links)

Hello to all flash developers here on TIGs ^_^

I was recently thinking that though there are lots of great resources out there to help flash developers develop, improve and monetize their games i do not know of anywhere that simple keeps an up to date listing of the many flash game competitions that come and go...

So, does anyone know of somewhere that does?

For those who don't know so of the great sites already out there;

http://www.flashrights.com/
http://www.flashgamesponsorship.com/
http://www.flashgamelicense.com/
http://www.mochiads.com/
http://www.mochibot.com/
http://www.freeactionscript.com/
http://kirupa.com/
http://actionscripts.org/

And some site I know of that hold competitions

http://www.whirled.com/#me-contests
http://www.come2play.com/
http://www.e4.com/grandmasterflash/
http://www.whosegame.com/games/
http://www.mochiads.com/contest/
http://armorgames.com/developers-corner
http://www.kongregate.com/contests
http://www.newgrounds.com/submit

If nothing else are there any flash devs here that would be willing to become co-authors of a simple blog where we post competitions as we hear about them. It would be important to me that if we went down this route the blog was for that purpose only - though side links etc would be fine - as my RSS reader is busy as it is.

Today (almost) I created 18 of these



Elderflower Champagne. Very happy to say it tastes fantastic.

They're stamped wax seals and hand inked labels. All unique.

definitely a cat imo.

probably a Siamese http://chinkisiamese.com/SIAMESE_CATS_PHOTOS.HTM (not that common a breed)