Flash game making tips

Doing anything with Actionscript 3.0 can be incredibly frustrating, so I'd like to share what I've learned completely instructor-free. Well... guilty secret: I also want to have this as a reminder to myself, too.

A good many of the flash game making books are excellent at offering the bare-bones basics, but they tend to forget the nicer things like how to track and display score, send it to a database for websites and even making a timer countdown so there's a time limit to the user's activity. Well, I've got three beloved books that seem to touch on these things, but don't really go into enough detail to be of any genuine help. I've also come up with a long list of good resources for helping flesh out some more of the answer. The rest hasn't been easy to come up with on my own.

As a freelance web-everything person, I've been learning a variety of the web languages. Though for the most part, I've had XHTML, CSS, SQL and PHP. SQL being the lightest at only two weeks' book learning in school. My actionscript 2.0 was limited to bare-bones website building functions like video controls and buttons - basically the same things, for the most part. When the local Borders store was going under and doing massive discounts on books and such, I bought a few for flash in particular remembering I was pretty good with the program though my last instructor was under appreciative of my work. In my many readings and browsings online, I'd found that Flash- based games have really picked up steam, but I was always too chicken to really dig into the language having heard that it's a pain to debug - which it is, by the way. Well, I'd gotten myself a web client that wanted games for the site and while the site... wasn't really the greatest it wasn't horrible, either... the games were unique and engaging to the viewers.

For those who pretty much hate code, but want to make flash-based games, I'd suggest StencylWorks - but I caution you, a good many of the games already available in the online community still have bugs and problems of their own. In spite of this, their "crash course" game, when completed, is a good piece of work. It's a respectable game making program and people are always uploading new stuff that can be downloaded right in the program itself.

For those who want to get their hands dirty and manually code games, join me in a discussion of the code books I've put to use. (By the way, I'm open to suggestions of books I haven't tried yet!! I need all the help I can get, but I'm willing to offer help in return!)

First, there's Flash Game Development by Example. The games are basic, but well explained. In my case, it was better to have the source file on hand to compare to the book since the book has a mild habit of jumping around in the code a little.

Second, for those who still love AS2 or want the challenge of converting games written in 2 to 3, there's Beginning Flash Game Development for Dummies. This is one I wish the "for Dummies" authors would update - it's got some well-made games but the dummies haven't updated with a new book for AS3.

Third, is Real-world Flash Game Development (that's not the full title, but since it's so long this is easier to remember). These games are highly simplistic in nature, but draw on the strengths of XML programmers, too. With these, a little XML goes a long way and makes a very respectable game that's quite easy to modify.

Fourth, and my personal favorite (wish I could afford to do more than order it from the local library) is Actionscript 3.0 Game Programming University if ever there was a spectacular book for game building, this would be it. Although just like Flash Game Development by Example, the book jumps around the code a little but it supplements with images and tables that have been helpful.

Now for the shameless brag: Of the three games currently on my site www.games.dreamangelsparadise.com, two came from these books - both from the last one so far. The third I programmed from scratch in AS2, but I've since learned to make it in AS3.

For online sources, I've spent hours digging through search engine results. Allow me to share some links:

http://www.attiliocarotenuto.com/flash/184-as3-how-to-send-data-from-as3-to-php

http://www.developphp.com/list_flash_video.php

http://www.cartoonsmart.com/free_index.php5 (frankly, I'd love to buy the collection of videos this site offers on actionscript!)

http://pelfusion.com/tutorials/35-flash-game-development-tutorials-fla-files/

http://www.kirupa.com/

http://www.freeactionscript.com/as3-scripts/

http://www.flashcomponents.net/category_tutorials/flash_tutorials/page/2.html

http://www.webdesign.org/flash-swish/flash-tutorials/save-a-high-score-locally.11074.html

If anyone wants to add to the list, feel free.