Flanture

Flash game characters doesn’t have to move only in standard way, press left arrow key to move left, right arrow key to move right, space to jump etc. In this new flash game, main character (hero) will move differently. Hero will be dragable and on click, he will perform elastic move. Start position and destination position will be symmetrical in relation to Stage center. Enemy can be destroyed only if mouse is not pressed, otherwise, hero health will decrease.

import mx.transitions.Tween;
import mx.transitions.easing.*;

We need to define simple onPress, onReleaseOutside and onRelease methods for movie clip of our hero, mcHero. Method onRelease has two functions, findSimPoint() and doTween(). It is obvious that findSimPoint() calculates symmetrical point of hero x and y in relation to Stage center. DoTween(), well, performs the tween! Code comes with comments.

Download hero.fla

For a very long time, there was opinion between game developers that Flash Platform is not so good game development platform. Right now, with release of Flash Player 10, this might change just a little bit in another direction.

 Flash Player 10, code name Astro is still in beta, but already brings some very interesting new features. Native 3D effects, available to anyone, is the first reason why we should pay attention. Enhanced drawing API for easy runtime drawing and visual performance improvements with extended hardware acceleration with GPU Compositing and GPU Blitting take advantage of new ActionScript3.0 Virtual Machine (AVM2) introduced back in Flash Player 9.

Don’t forget Dynamic Streaming that automatically adjust to changing network conditions, Dynamic Sound Generation and File Reference Runtime Access that let’s you load/save files from/to server without knowing server language or have access to server. This is not all! Check all new features at Adobe Labs, but from this summary you get my point when I say it is time for reconsideration.

Newcomers in games development have first major dilemma about whether to work with someone else or to try to do everything alone.

Solo project is suitable for smaller projects, for simple game play games and for not so demanding graphic games. It is all about what you want to achieve. Perfect solo project games in ActionScript are logic / puzzle games. They usually include small number of graphic symbols with repetitive usage and few interesting sound effects. Game play and controls are easy to implement in all ActionScript versions. This is also great test for future development and self assessment.

Teams are great for gaining experience, one of most important skill in game development. Splitting all work needed among designers (sounds and graphics), programmers and marketing dudes is dream come true for right people and road to success, but this is often very hard to do.

Good starting point in looking to join some team or to create one with right people are game dev forums like:

IDevGames
GameDev
GameDevForum
DevMaster

Good luck!

Mobile World Congress 2008 is over and winners are announced. Winner in best mobile game category are Call of the Pharaoh by Cellufun and My Hangman by Glu Mobile. Here is description of Call of the Pharaoh.

"Call of the Pharaoh is modelled after viral pyramid schemes, so the game was designed using a pyramid scheme algorithm and, in an effort to follow the pattern, was then made about being a pharaoh and building a pyramid. By requiring recruitment and cooperation, the game drives viral exposure and traffic. Call of the Pharaoh is compelling and innovative because it engages the entire community of Cellufun users and requires participation and communication from all parties in order for any one gamer to advance to a next level. The community aspect and pyramid scheme design of this game help it stand out from the rest."