Create a Flash racing game – Flex version

Hamilton Lombardi is a brazilian Flex programmer who decided to rewrite the code you can find in the original post for Flex 4.

Moreover he added a splash screen, as you can see:

The source code is clearly formatted and commented as you can see from Level class: Read more

Making a game with flixel and Flash Builder 4 – Splash Screen

Did you read Creation of a game with flixel and Flash Builder 4?

Now it’s time to add a splash screen to the game. The splash screen or the title screen is the first thing the player sees, so we’ll add a backround image as well as the game title.

First, we must change our main file, HelloWorld.as, this way:

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package {
	import org.flixel.*; //Allows you to refer to flixel objects in your code
	[SWF(width="520", height="240", backgroundColor="#000000")] //Set the size and color of the Flash file
 
	public class HelloWorld extends FlxGame
	{
		public function HelloWorld():void
		{
			super(260,120,splash_screen,2); //Create a new FlxGame object at 320x240 with 2x pixels, then load splash_screen
		}
	}
}

As you can see, the only change I made can be found at line 9… here I am calling splash_screen class, that is the brand new class we are going to create.

Here it is: Read more

Creation of a game with flixel and Flash Builder 4

You should already know flixel.

I blogged a bit about it some time ago in flixel for absolute beginners and flixel for absolute beginners – part 2.

Now it’s time to make something serious, but in this first step I am covering again the basics of creation of a flixel game using Flash Builder 4.

Do you think I mispelled “Flex” with “Flash”? You’re wrong. Flex 3′s new version is called Flash Builder 4 and you can see the new features as well as download a 60 days trial at the Flash Builder 4official page.

So let’ start! Basically this tutorial is a porting of this one, just using Flash Builder 4. But a lot of new features will be added in various steps.

So let’s start creating a new actionscript project…

… name it HelloWorld… Read more

flixel for absolute beginners – part 2

In flixel for absolute beginners I showed you how to complile a flixel project with Flex Builder 3.

I was ready to make an “hello world” but I received some emails from people asking for a FlashDevelop step by step installation.

It seems FlashDevelop is more popular than FlexBuilder 3… anyway here it is:

First, you need to download the free Flex 3 SDK and unzip it anywhere in your hard disk.

Then, open FlashDevelop and follow these steps:

Select Project -> New Project Read more

flixel for absolute beginners

flixel (with no uppercase) is Adam “Atomic” Saltsman free collection of Actionscript 3 files that helps organize, automate, and optimize Flash 2D raster based game development.

You can download it at the official flixel webiste.

The library is not that hard to use, but browsing the web I did not find any basic tutorial for absolute beginners, so it’s time to introduce you to this package.

flixel is not intended to be used with the Flash IDE, since it is a pure Actionscript library, so you will need Adobe Flex Builder 3 you can try for free for 60 days at this link or FlashDevelop you can freely download at this link.

This time I’ll show you how to launch the demo game, called Mode, with Adobe Flex Builder… something very easy but maybe new for some of you… later we’ll create an “Hello World”. Read more

Official Facebook Actionscript API released!

On March 31 Facebook developers announced that Adobe and Facebook are working together to provide official support for building rich social applications in Flash.

You can read the full Josh Elman’s announcement at this link.

The new ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform API, fully supported by Facebook and Adobe, makes it easy to build applications that combine the strengths of the Flash Platform and Facebook Platform.

Flash is available on more than 98% of Internet-connected PCs, so people can immediately access the applications, content, and video that enable social interactions. The Facebook Platform is used by millions of people everyday to connect and share with the people in their lives.

You can read more about it at this page.

Obviously I started playing with this new API, and I followed the instructions in the official tutorial Create your first Facebook application with Flex, changing a couple of things to make it work as I wanted. Read more

Perfect maze generation – tile based version – AS3

After publishing Perfect maze generation – tile based version written in Php, I got some emails asking for an AS3 version.

Pedro Taranto made the AS3 porting in less than a day, and here’s what you’ll get:

Click on the maze to generate a new one

And this is the source code: Read more

New tile based platform engine – AS3 version updated to step 10 PLUS scrolling

If you are looking for AS3 version of step 10, here it is… made by Robin vd Vleuten from the Netherlands with scrolling included!

Hello Emanuele,

I made it with flex so I use a swc to access the tiles. All the code is now in one actionscript-file, but I’m trying to convert the code in different classes. I will email it also when its finished if you’re interested in it.

Also many thanks for helping me out with the basics of a platform engine. It helped me a lot with a project I’m working on.

Regards,

Robin

P.S. Just another cool thing I had forgot to tell you. I made the game scrollable with just 2 extra lines of code :D

Here it is the source code… Read more

APE – Actionscript Physics Engine tutorial

October, 23rd update: Part 2 released

With the increasing performances of Actionscript and modern computers, now we have enough power to simulate physics in a Flash movie.

All we need is… let’s say… an huge knowledge of physics, constraints, integrations and so on. With all those things to think about, we cannot focus on the main goal: produce our game/application.

Someone should develop an Actionscript physics engine… APE (Actionscript Physics Engine) is a free AS3 open source 2D physics engine for use in Flash and Flex, released under the MIT License.

I started playing with it yesterday, and results are really amazing. While I need much more time for some experiments, I want to share with you my first steps.

The documentation about this project is very poor (some kind of API without examples, one tutorial and two demos….) so this tutorial could be a bit unclear, but I am doing my best.

Moreover, it’s my first time with APE and my first time with Flex… two new tools to learn quickly, but I am a geek and I am a PROgrammer, so that’s no problem!

First, download the alpha version (yes… just an alpha…).

Now, we need Flex. Let’s say Flex 2. From its official site: “Adobe® Flexâ„¢ 2 is a cross-platform development framework for creating rich Internet applications (RIAs). Flex enables you to create expressive, high-performance applications that run identically on all major browsers and operating systems.”

If it’s your first time with Flex, you can download a complete 30 days evaluation version from this page.

When you have Flex installed on your computer the unzipped APE folder, you are ready to go.

Launch Flex and create a new ActionScript project

Call you project “ape” (you can call it as you want, but later in the code you will have to use this name, so if it’s your first time call it “ape”), don’t click on “Finish” but go to “Next >”.

Seletc “Library Path” and click on “Add SWC…” Read more