The Essential Guide To Flash Games

Want To Learn To Create Games In Flash AS3? Our book,

The Essential Guide To Flash Games
Building Interactive Entertainment with ActionScript

Can help you

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Buy It Now!

 

Buy E-Book Version

  • Need The Code?: Get it here!
  • Having Trouble?: Read the Errata FAQ here: www.8bitrocket.com/2010/05/03/essential-guide-to-flash-games-errata-f-a-q/
  • New! Download FlexSDK versions of the game from Chapter 1
  • Visit The book Discussion And Support forums
  • Visit The Book’s Facebook Page
  • 12 Thrilling Chapters
  • 10 Full games in AS3
  • Make games in both the Flash IDE and with the Flex SDK
  • Build a reusable game development framework
  • Order a hard copy here
  • Order the E-Book here
Play The 10 Games In The Book
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Other Free Tutorials That Can Help You Developing Games (it’s like a whole other book...for free!) (These ARE NOT in the the book)

  • The Basics: Getting Started With Flash Develop
  • The Basics: AS3: Where does my code go?
  • The Basics: AS3 Packages
  • The Basics: AS3: Static vs. Const Variables
  • The Basics: AS3: Numerical Types Rules Of Use
  • The Basics: AS3: GetURL()
  • The Basics: AS3: MovieClip Buttons In MovieClip Classes
  • The Basics: AS3: flashvars
  • The Basics: AS3: Creating Custom Events In Flash AS3 (ActionScript 3)
  • The Basics: AS3 : Controlling the Main Timeline of a SWF Embedded at Compile-Time
  • The Basics: AS3: Using Fonts Embedded At Compile-Time
  • Games: AS3: Simple Drag And Drop
  • Games: AS3: Making A Click And Stick Christmas Tree Designer
  • Games: AS3 Sound Basics
  • Games: AS3: Tile Maps, XML, and bitmapData
  • Games: AS3: Bitmap Collision Detection
  • Games: AS3: The basics of tile sheet animation (or blitting).
  • Games: AS3: BitmapData rotation with a matrix
  • Games: AS3: Basic Blitting #2 : Rotation – Part 1
  • Games: AS3: Asynchronous key detection for arcade games.
  • Games: AS3: Building Atari 7800 Asteroids Part 1
  • Games: AS3: Building Atari 7800 Asteroids Part 2
  • Games: AS3: Building Atari 7800 Asteroids Part 3
  • Games: AS3: How to Blit an animation from a tile sheet embedded at compile time
  • Games: AS3: A Generalized Game Engine with AS3 in Flex Part1
  • Games: AS3: Flex Game Development: When a blank screen equals success (Flex Game Control Part 2 )
  • Games: AS3: Building A Generalized Flex Game Control Part 3
  • Games: AS3: Building A Generalized Flex Game Control Part 4 – TileSheet class
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  • Michael

    where can I find the Chapter 2 files?

  • 8bitrocket

    Here:

    friendsofed.com/download.html?isbn=14302…

  • bv

    I just ready your free chapter. It's amazing and refreshingly thorough while covering information that's immediately useful. You should have a game workshop sometime in LA.

  • 8bitrocket

    Where did you read it?

  • Martin

    Hi.
    I like your book so far (I´m just in the middle).
    I would really like to discuss some things.
    Would be nice to have a little forum, could also help to spread this book.

  • Zack

    When I try and run the FLA file of No Tanks in Flash IDE CS3, I get these 5 errors, all in Main.as:
    Line 16 , 1017: The definition of base class GameFrameWork was not found. Line 46, 1020: Method marked override must override another method. Line, 110 1020: Method marked override must override another method.Line 115, 1020: Method marked override must override another method. override public function systemNewGame():void { Line 1, 5000: The class ‘com.efg.games.notanks.Main’ must subclass ‘flash.display.MovieClip’ since it is linked to a library symbol of that type.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve got Jeff looking at it. It sounds like a configuration problem. All of this was tested in CS3.

  • www.8bitrocket.com 8bitjeff

    It’s got to be the class path. Do you have the classes/ path included?

  • Frustrated

    Has anyone tried working through this book using Flash Builder 4?

  • dereki

    Dear 8bitrocket,
    After getting the code in chapter 2 working I went next to chapter 4, Flakcannon, and downloaded the files into a new project. I am using the free FlashDevelop/Flex3 system on Windows 7. I have a problem with the assets.
    In the book p.144 the instructions are,

    ”To use those (assets) in the Flex version we have to simply publish the SWF (with a new name, flakassets.swf) and place it in an assets folder in the src directory of our FlashDevelop/Flex project (src/com/efg/games/flakcannon/assets).”

    What does it mean to ‘publish’ the SWF in FlashDevelop?

    I put the downloaded ‘assets’ folder in the above path, hit ctrl Enter, and the compiler gives me Adobe actionscript error 1065, variable not defined, for each asset. Looks like the compiler can’t find them.
    Inside the assets folder, with the actual .gif and .wav files, is flakassets.swf. Is this the ‘published’ file? I right click this .swf, click add to library, and still no luck. Have I put the assets in the wrong place?

    Any help is great appreciated

    • www.8bitrocket.com 8bitjeff

      Steve wrote the Flash IDE version of the game first and then re-wrote it slightly for Flash Develop. It needs the swf file of assets from the Flash IDE. It is included in the download. Steve will take a look and point you in the right direction. I have all of these compiling fine with Flash develop so it might just be a location problem with the folder.

      • dereki

        Dear 8bitjeff,
        I thought of a workaround for my difficulty using the assets in chapters 4 & 5 Flakcannon. Reading chapter 10, I like the idea of being Flash IDE free like you talk about on page 427.
        1) I convert the flakcannon .wav files to .mp3
        2) I place the .mp3 files and the .gif files into the assets folder.
        3) I place the assets folder inside the flexSDK folder as per directory structure on page 429.
        4) I take out all of the Embeds and put them into a Library.as file.
        5) I change the Embeds (for example)
        from
        [Embed(source = "assets/flakassets.swf", symbol = "PlaneGif")]
        private var PlaneGif:Class;
        to
        [Embed(source = "../../../../../assetsplane.gif")]
        public static const PlaneGif:Class;
        6) I add Library.as to the flakcannon project tree.
        7) I hit ctrl Enter and in my imagination the build succeeds and I get Flakcannon running.

        Will this work? I will try it this weekend, but if it is wrong I would rather you let me know so I don’t go on a wild goose chase
        thanks

        • www.8bitrocket.com 8bitjeff

          That should work fine. The chapter 10 method is my preferred method of using external assets in a game.

          • dereki

            Dear 8bitjeff,
            With a little agonizing I was successful in getting Flak Cannon working!! Thank you for some great code. My problems with using .swf for assets were worth it, because using the chapter 10 method now I can roll my own assets, as you say IDE free.
            You can have my altered code if you like, as it now makes chapter 4 & 5 Flak Cannon plug and play for pure FlashDevelop/Flex3 developers, as long as they follow the chapter 10 directory structure.
            My only problem outside of your code for the assets, was to realize I had to go into FlashDevelop to
            Project->Properties->Compiler Options and change static link RSL from false to true, click Apply, and click OK!! This was essential in getting the program to run.

            Again, thanks for some great code. You guys have made a really cool book. I will be spending the next few weeks monkeying around with your code, changing things, teaming up with an old artist friend to make our own game.

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  • Anonymous

    Dear 8bitrocket
    I was working through chapter 4 of your book when it hit me I hadn’t checked out what Flakcannon was like. I launched the SWF included with the download but when the first flak I fired exploded the Flash player crashed. I’m using Adobe Flash Professional CS5, Flash Player 10 and Windows 7.

    • Anonymous

      You need to upgrade to the newest newest version of Flash Player 10.1. Adobe has a reoccurring bug with the BitMap collision detection routines.

      • Anonymous

        Hey I tried installing Flash Player 10.1 but it still crashes. I get the error “Adobe Flash Player 10.1 r52 has stopped working”. Also the following error appears in a message box.

        An ActionScript error has occurred:

        TypeError: Error #1010: A term is undefined and has no properties.
        at com.efg.games.flakcannon::FlackCannon/removeItemFromArrayByIndex()
        at com.efg.games.flakcannon::FlackCannon/cleanUpLevel()
        at com.efg.games.flakcannon::FlackCannon/checkforEndGame()
        at com.efg.games.flakcannon::FlackCannon/runGame()
        at com.efg.framework::GameFrameWork/systemGamePlay()
        at com.efg.framework::GameFrameWork/runGame()
        at flash.utils::Timer/_timerDispatch()
        at flash.utils::Timer/tick()

        This error seems to only occur when the following happens:

        1. A ship is destroyed by an enemy plane.
        2. A enemy plane then reaches the bottom of the screen because of the gap left by that ship.
        3. The remaining ships are destroyed.

        • www.8bitrocket.com 8bitsteve

          OK, I’m going to need some time to check this one out. I don’t have Windows 7 on any machines yet. Sorry about this. It seems like 10.1 has some odd incompatibilities. I wonder if the introduced the old 10.1 bug from the Mac into the Windows 7 version.

          Can you tell me if this one works:
          www.8bitrocket.com/2010/03/16/flak-cannon-essential-flash-games-book-demo-2010/

          • Anonymous

            Yes that version works fine for me. (There is a bug by the way. If you have 4 ships and 3 of your ships are destroyed, you won’t be able to see your last ship until the next level). Also occasionally a pop up box occurs with the message “No register application for this extensio

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