Flash Games Studio

These days people are looking to the Internet for its gaming possibilities. Whether it's real-time role-playing you're after with 30,000 of your closest friends, or just a solitary round of crazy golf, the most versatile piece of web animation software just made itself more approachable for designing games!

This book takes us deep, deep down into the realms of game design, and hunts out the features that are really going to evolve your Flash skills into full-on game wizardry. We are going to discuss what makes a good game – and what makes a great game. We grapple with the concepts of 3D and how to get Flash to produce cutting-edge game environments, while keeping our sensible shoes on by reducing those file sizes and download times. We conduct a battle of wits with artificial intelligence, and have a good crash around with some collision detection in platform games. All in all we are pushing Flash to its breaking point to see what lies beyond.

What this book covers

The Studio series assumes you already know your way around Flash's basics, and it aims to boost your knowledge and help you master some advanced techniques. Flash Games Studio draws its inspiration from the full spectrum of Flash's capabilities. Amongst other things it looks at:

• Refining methods of graphic creation to speed up game performance
• Using ActionScript techniques for player control and environmental reactions
• Mastering the sound capabilities with interactive soundtracks
• Using data packets and sockets to develop multiplayer games

Who this book is for?
If you want to turn your open-ended Flash animations into challenging, high-quality games, then this is the book for you. You will benefit from it if you are:

• A Flash user who wants to get comfortable with the most important and useful ActionScript commands
• Flash users who want to push the software to the edge of its capabilities, and stretch their knowledge base to its limit.
• A Flash-savvy game designer who wants to venture into the realms of web-based gaming

Summary of Contents

Chapter 1 – Introduction to Gaming
Chapter 2 – Optimizing Graphics for Games
Chapter 3 – Flash's Built-in Objects
Chapter 4 – Event Handling
Chapter 5 – Turn-Based Games and Advanced Logic
Chapter 6 – Structured Real-Time Programming
Chapter 7 – Designing a Platform Game Construction Kit
Chapter 8 – Interactive Sound
Chapter 9 – Let there be Music
Chapter 10 – Understanding Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 11 – The Third Dimension
Chapter 12 – Real 3D
Chapter 13 – Ultimate 3D
Chapter 14 – Online Data
Chapter 15 – Multiplayer Applications
Afterword – Director for Flash Users