Flash Game Development by Example

Emanuele Feronato

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Overview

Table of Contents

The Author

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Build 10 classic games in Flash. Learn the essential skills for Flash game development.
Start developing games straight away. Build your first game in the first chapter.
Fun and fast paced. Ideal for readers with no Flash or game programming experience.Topic
The most popular games in the world are built in Flash.

Book Details

Language : English
Paperback : 328 pages [ 235mm x 191mm ]
Release Date : March 2011
ISBN : 1849690901
ISBN 13 : 978-1-84969-090-4
Author(s) : Emanuele Feronato
Topics and Technologies : All Books, Flash, Games, Web Development

Preface
Chapter 1: Concentration
Chapter 2: Minesweeper
Chapter 3: Connect Four
Chapter 4: Snake
Chapter 5: Tetris
Chapter 6: Astro-PANIC!
Chapter 7: Bejeweled
Chapter 8: Puzzle Bobble
Chapter 9: BallBalance
Appendix: Where to Go Now
Index

Preface

Chapter 1: Concentration

Defining game design
Setting stage size, frame rate, and background color
Welcome to Concentration ("Hello World")
Creating the tiles
Adding randomness: shuffling the tiles
Placing the tiles on stage
Picking tiles
Checking for matching tiles
Making the player see what happened
Preventing the player from cheating
Fine-tuning the game: adding educational content
Summary
Where to go now

Chapter 2: Minesweeper

Defining game design
Creating the empty field
Placing the mines
Adding the digits
Optimization needed
Placing tiles on stage
Showing tile contents
Auto showing adjacent empty tiles
Flagging tiles
Timer and game over
No sudden death
Summary
Where to go now

Chapter 3: Connect Four

Defining game design
The game field
Showing smooth animations
Splitting the code
Adding the board
Placing the board to stage
Creating more classes
Placing the disc
Moving the disc
Applying game rules
Checking for possible columns
It's raining discs
Determining a cell value (if any)
Making your move
Waiting for the disc to be added to stage
Checking for victory
Animating discs
The animation itself
Making computer play
Unleashing CPU power
Playing with AI: defensive play
Summary
Where to go now

Chapter 4: Snake

Defining game design
Array-based games versus Movie Clip-based games
Preparing the field
Drawing the graphics
Placing the snake
The snake itself
Simplifying the code
Letting the snake move
Controlling the snake
Placing fruits
Eating fruits
Making the snake grow
Placing walls
Making the snake die
Summary
Where to go now

Chapter 5: Tetris

Defining game design
Importing classes and declaring first variables
Drawing game field background
Drawing a better game field background
Creating the tetrominoes
Placing your first tetromino
Moving tetrominoes horizontally
Moving tetrominoes down
Managing tetrominoes landing
Managing tetrominoes collisions
Rotating tetrominoes
Removing completed lines
Managing remaining lines
Making tetrominoes fall
Checking for game over
Showing NEXT tetromino
Summary
Where to go now

Chapter 6: Astro-PANIC!

Defining game design
Creating the game and drawing the graphics
Adding and controlling the spaceship
Adding a glow filter
Making spaceship fire
Making the bullet fly
Adding enemies
Moving enemies
Being killed by an enemy
Killing an enemy
Killing an enemy—for good
Killing an enemy—with style
Advancing levels
Managing current score and high score
Saving data on your local computer
Summary
Where to go now

Chapter 7: Bejeweled

Creating documents and objects
Placing the gems
Placing the gems for real
Selecting a gem
Preparing to swap gems
Swapping gems
Swapping gems for real
Selecting which gems to remove
Removing gems
Making gems fall
Adding new gems
Dealing with combos
Giving hints
Summary
Where to go now

Chapter 8: Puzzle Bobble

Creating documents and assets
Placing and moving the cannon
Drawing the game field
Drawing the game field with alternate rows
Drawing the game field according to Pythagoras
Loading the cannon with a bubble
Firing the bubble
Letting bubble bounce and stop
Adjusting bubble position and reloading
Allowing bubbles to stack
Detecting bubble chains
Removing the chain
Removing unlinked bubbles
Summary
Where to go now

Chapter 9: BallBalance

Creating files and assets
Adding the balance
Choosing where to drop spheres
Dropping the spheres
Stacking spheres
Removing spheres
Adjusting floating spheres
Moving the balance
Summary
Where to go now

Appendix: Where to Go Now

Index

Emanuele Feronato

Emanuele Feronato has been studying programming languages since the early eighties, with a particular interest in web and game development. He taught online programming for the European Social Fund and now owns a web development company in Italy where he also works as a lead programmer. As a game developer, he developed Flash games sponsored by the biggest game portals and played more than 50 million times. As a writer, he worked as technical reviewer for Packt Publishing. His blog, http://www.emanueleferonato.com, is one of the most visited blogs about indie programming.

Emanuele takes you through his process of creating 9 different games, and there is a lot to be learned, both about making similar games, and just about an experienced Flash developer’s process for creating those games.

Overall it’s quite an amazing book if you are looking to get started making games in Flash, you can start from the beginning with zero knowledge in the subject and by the end of the book have a fairly solid grounding in the basics as well as 9 complete and working games in your portfolio.

Sample chapters

You can view our sample chapters and prefaces of this title on PacktLib or download sample chapters in PDF format.

Find your book in our support section to find errata and to download code samples.

What you will learn from this book

Build 10 working games in one fast-paced 360 page book.
Each game is carefully selected and explained to introduce essential game development skills.
Covers puzzle and board-style games as well as fast paced arcade games.
Build games with AI, levels, shooting at moving targets, puzzles, scoring systems, time limits, and more.
Build games are in the style of: Concentration, Minesweeper, Connect Four, Sokoban, Snake, Tetris, Astro Panic, Bejeweled, Puzzle Bobble, Ballbalance.

Special Offers

PacktLib gives you access to this and 600+ other titles with an annual or monthly subscription.

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In Detail

You can't call yourself a Flash game developer unless you know how to build certain essential games, and can quickly use the skills and techniques that make them up.

Flash Game Development by Example is an ultra-fast paced game development course. Learn step-by-step how to build 10 classic games. Each game introduces new game development skills, techniques, and concepts. By the end of the book you will have built ten complete games – and have the skills you need to design and build your own game ideas.

The book starts with simple well known puzzle games: Concentration and Minesweeper. After learning the basics of game design you’ll introduce AI with a four-in-a-row game. Then as you build your own versions of old arcade games such as Snake, Tetris, and Astro Panic. The book ends with a collection of modern casual classics.

Build the classic and modern games that will turn you into a capable Flash games developer.

Approach

In each chapter you'll build a complete game, starting with simple puzzlers and working your way up to games similar to the most popular online casual games. Each game introduces a range of essential skills that all Flash game developers should know. There's never a dull moment -- you're building working, fun games right from Chapter 1.

Who this book is for

If you've never developed a game before or you've made a start but want to refine your skills and build complete, successful projects then this book is just what you need.