Size matters…

… obviously I am talking about font size.

One of the most interesting web trends started in 2008 and still popular in 2009 is big typography.

You can see some interesting examples of big typography all around the web, and here it is a couple of links with an interesting typography showcase here and here.

With such a big typography, small (let’s say “normal”) fonts like the ones used in standard Adsense ads could be ignored.

That why at the moment you can see sites like MasterNewMedia with big fonts in their Adsense ads

while at the moment I (and probably you) can only change font family since a few days

Do you think displaying Adsense ads with huge fonts can increase the revenue? I can’t wait to try it but at the moment I don’t have such option enabled.

Erase Box: the tutorial

Some days ago I blogged about Erase Box, a Box2D game made with my tutorials, now it’s time to publish Rodrigo’s tutorial.

« On a game I was making, I needed a way to detect if a body was leaving the screen.

That can be done by checking the x and y positions of it, but I also wanted to explore Box2D features.

That was actually good, because I found another way to do that, and it can be of great help on other projects.

Sensors are bodies that won’t directly interact with others.

They won’t make a moving box stop when they hit, i.e.

That being said, they are still useful.

Box2D will keep track of it’s “contacts” just as if it were a normal body, so they can be used as exactly what their name means, a sensor.

Also, Box2D allows you to “attach” some information to a body, so that it can be distinguished from others.

Let’s see an example: Read more

Interview for a school project

Today I received an email from Thomas Tan asking me for an interview because he’s making a school project about me.

Hi Emanuele!
I am Thomas Tan, a frequent reader of your blog, and I LOVE your tutorials about flash.
I need to do a school project about a famous person and since you are the “Most Famous Emanuele in the World” and is also an “authority” by Google, I thought if you could answer some questions.

I think some of the questions can be interesting so I am going to answer them in this post.

Have you won other world leagues other than “Worms Armageddon”?

There was a game in late ‘90 based on an afro-american cop woman… something like Tomb Raider with a police story… don’t remember the name… there was a timer for each level and at the end of the level you could submit the time to a server. I got the best time in a level and the software house sent me an original sketch of the game… must be somewhere in the house… I will publish it once I’ll find it.

What is your experience in making games?

My first game was a BASIC slot machine for the Commodore Plus 4… then I made some games I was the only one to play, then switched to Amiga and Amos until I discovered Flash.

How long have you been writing tutorials?

About two years and a half

Do you love Google as your main search “thing”?

Yes, I love Google even if Google does not love me… I have a PR3 but some time ago I had PR7…

How bad is IT in Italy?

Even worse. Every year someone creates a new law to make internet users life harder and harder. They tried to close italian blogs some months ago, now they are trying to make a law that could shut down the access to the major web 2.0 sites like Facebook or YouTube, they already closed the access to 1,479 (read it again: 1,479) foreign online gambling sites (see the complete list), we have 3,000 towns out of 8,000 without ADSL… and I could write an entire blog about how IT sucks in Italy but I think it’s enough at the moment.

Why did you choose to run a blog?

I wanted to share some developer experiences

How did you make the blog a success?

I think I teached people how to improve their skills and make money. Unlike other bloggers that simply tell how THEY are making money blogging, I have a lot of readers earning more than me blogging and making games. When you read this blog you think: “hey, I can make it”.

Are you proud to use Mochi Ads?

Actually, “proud” is too much, but I’m happy they gave me the opportunity to monetize games.

Which do you earn more money with? API integration, Mochi Ads, Kongregate Ad Share, Mind Jolt or are there others?

At the moment MochiAds gives me the biggest revenue, but having some pages with your games and Adsense ads can be interesting too. I also have a couple of plans to make some more money I some new ways… stay tuned.

What computer are you using now?

I am blogging this post with a portable 20.1” HP Pavillion, but I also have two desktops and a Mac. Shame on me, I’m using the Mac just to play YouTube videos.

Do you think it is fast?

Not enough to play the latest games at the highest resolution, but I am only playing with the PS3 at the moment. Enough to work with Photoshop, coding with Php and AS3.

Which is your favorite hosting “thing”?

I found Host Gator to be very interesting.

Do you feel you are better than others? or just confident?

No, really…

Are you a gaming PRO too?

No, but I am proud I developed the site for the best italian CounterStrike clan in 2001.

What are your favorite games?

There are tons of games I enjoyed a lot… one day I’ll post them all as far as I can remember… at the moment I am having fun at Dead Space and I can’t wait to play Fallout 3

Why are they your favorite games?

Dead Space has an interesting story even if it’s the old “ship lost in space with aliens and mad doctors inside”… but I like B-movies so that’s ok.

How do you find Pi?

I don’t. 3.14159 works in most cases.

Do you find me irritating for asking you questions?

No, as long as you don’t ask about my recent penis enlargement.

Basic Filler engine with Box2D – part 1

Do you remember Filler?

In Filler, your goal is simple: fill 2/3 of the level. To create a filler ball, press down. It will grow until you release the mouse button, it hits another filler ball, or a bouncing ball runs into it.

I am showing you the first part, the creation of the filler ball by pressing down the mouse, with no collision detection while you are creating the ball.

The code is mainly taken from Drawing circles on the fly in Box2D – fleshMaker version, but uses movieclips for the balls (so I removed the debug draw) and has a different way of creating circles on the fly.

This is the script: Read more

Erase Box, a Box2D game made with my tutorials

I am going to show you a cute game Rodrigo made following my tutorials

« I created a Box2D flash game using some tutorials available on your website.
It’s not very cool, but being my very first AS3 and Box2D game, I think that I did a good job.

Erase Box

It’s a mix of your tutorials about “Box2D for absolute begginers” and “Totem Destroyer Prototype“.
I also added some other features, such as the one to detect bodies falling off the screen (which was a pain because I couldn’t find anything close to that). I can make a quick tutorial on how to do that if you want.

Thanks and hope you like it :) »

That’s it… while we are waiting for the tutorial, in my opinion a quick way to detect if a body is falling off the screen is checking if its x and y positions are inside the stage… anyway… let’s wait for the tut.

The engine behind Splitter Flash game – new AS3 prototypes

Splitting Box2D objects seem to be the ultimate challenge around here… after The engine behind Splitter Flash game – first AS3 prototype, now we have two updates… the first by Guillaume Pommey, author of the previous prototype and the second one by Bryce Summer.

While Guillaume wants to refine a bit the final code before publishing it, here it is Bryce work:

Here is my messy attempt at recreating the splitter engine that you posted about on your blog. The code is VERY messy and it doesn’t really work but I decided to send it to you incase it would help at all. The controls are a little funky, you have to move the mouse over to the lower right corner so that the red line is across one of the shapes and click. Sometimes it will (sort of)split it, sometimes it will do nothing. Gravity is disabled at first, hold g to turn it on and release it to turn it off(I added the gravity toggle to try and figure out what was going wrong).

The actionscript resides in two files, one in the timeline and one in the Cutter class

This is the one in the timeline: Read more

A smart way to manage sleeping objects with Box2D

If you followed Box2D: tutorial for the absolute beginners, then you know you can put some object to “sleep” to improve performance by not simulating inactive bodies.

This is CPU saving but can be used for some game concepts too.

Just think about Super Stacker, where you have happy and afraid bricks.

If you spend some time on this game, you will find happy bricks are the inactive ones while the afraid ones are still falling/moving.

This can be achieved by playing on the IsSleeping status. Read more

The engine behind Splitter Flash game – first AS3 prototype

Some time ago I posted about the engine behind Splitter Flash game, the C code used to cut off and split objects with Box2D

Now I received an AS3 prototype from Guillaume Pommey.

Hi ! I try to port the splitter engine to AS3, I haven’t any error in the function but I have an incorrect structure…

Can you help me, the port may be correct…

PS : The Box2D files are changed, because I use a funtion (raycast) which isn’t in the original source. There isn’t the key controls, there are useless if the programm doesn’t work. The problem should be come the structure and the end of the programme with the function Step or Test.

As you can see, Guillaume used raycast function you can find at this link (also take a look at the demo, it’s very interesting). Read more

Box2D joints: Gear Joints

Here I am with some infos about Gear Joints.

Gear joints can be used to create a sophisticated mechanical contraption you might want to use a gears. In principle you can create gears in Box2D by using compound shapes to model gear teeth. This is not very efficient and might be tedious to author. You also have to be careful to line up the gears so the teeth mesh smoothly. Box2D has a simpler method of creating gears: the gear joint.

Unlikely other kinds of joint, the gear joint requires you have two bodies connected to ground by a revolute or prismatic joint.

The following script is the same you already saw in other joint examples, and will create a gear joint between two wheels fixed to the ground with revolute joints.

Try to drag one of the circles and see what happens. This is the source: Read more

Managing the italian version of next Nonoba Community

You all should know Nonoba.

It’s is an independent gaming site where you can play both single – and multiplayer games for free, and it’s quite famous among developers for its multiplayer and payment APIs.

Now Nonoba guys are releasing the next version of Nonoba Community (N2.0 from now on… it’s not the official name, just a game I’m giving it for this post).

A huge part of this release is internationalization and white-label skinning of the community, so they needed a partner for the italian version of N2.0.

Guess who? Yes, the geek.

I am happy to take part in this project for two reasons: the first is I will get a cut of the profits as a manager of the local site, the second is I can blog about it and share my experience with you, the readers.

I think it’s very useful to see how big portals manage international localization of their community.

The first step will see the geek translating 1,538 text messages from english to italian, and as soon as I am ready to go the the 2nd one I’ll be back with some fresh news.

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