11 Flash isometric engines you can use in your games

I am playing isometric games for more than 20 years… probably started with Q*bert, one of the oldest games I played is Head Over Heels on my Commodore 64, and I was an hardcore player of UFO: Enemy Unknown.

As you should know, isometric projection is a method of visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions, in which the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and the angles between any two of them are 120 degrees. A great way to represent 3D worlds on old 8-bit computers since their CPUs did not handle a real 3D world, and a great way to create casual adventure games nowadays.

I am showing you a list of 11 Flash isometric engines, some of them are free, others are commercial, and some still unreleased. I am writing to all authors to have more info about their engines, meanwhile this the most complete list I was able to make.

Engines are listed in alphabetical order.

2D isometric engine – Free

http://code.google.com/p/2d-isometric-engine/

Open source, multilevel and multiplayer tilebased isometric engine, reviewed in this post

as3isolib – Free

http://as3isolib.wordpress.com/

As3isolib is an open-source ActionScript 3.0 Isometric Library developed to assist in creating isometrically projected content (such as games and graphics) targeted for the Flash player platform. As3isolib includes utilities, primitives and views. As3isolib was developed with simplicity, speed and performance in mind so that developers can focus on actual implementations rather than having to learn a complex API.

You can see latest project using this engine at http://apps.facebook.com/downtowngame/ Read more

Triqui’s Picks #16

Three really funny and amazing games this week:

Go to Hell!: Dig through 666 meters to reach hell and find out its secret. You have to dig all the way down through caves filled with water, lava, boulders and enemies. You’ll need to eat, breathe and avoid or kill monster to survive.

What I liked: Nice concept, reminded me A Journey to the Centre of the Earth. I really enjoyed it

Programming difficulty: The water… 5/5

Snipedown: A “defense” game with a World War 2 theme… you play as a sniper and must defend your base from 20 waves of enemies. Air strikes and machine guns will help you.

What I liked: Obliterating the infantry has never been so much fun…

Programming difficulty: Not that hard… all in all it’s just an hit test with some twist. 2/5 Read more

Triqui’s Picks #15

Only two games this week, and a lot of garbage jigsaw puzzles…

Hill Of Defend: Fresh defense game, with a different view. This time you’ll defend your base from a side view.

What I liked: Normally I hate classic defense games, but this one has a new and original approach.

Programming difficulty: Very complete game. 5/5

Sagoo: Platform game with interesting physics puzzles

What I liked: Cool game, cool character.

Programming difficulty: Interesting use of Box2D combined with various stuff. 5/5

See you next week

Triqui’s Picks #14

We’re starting the new year with just three games:

Running Blue: Interesting platform game with 12 levels of pure action… run, jump, throw bombs…

What I liked: It’s a good platform, and I don’t see Mario…

Programming difficulty: Platforms aren’t easy. 4/5

Frutopia: Eat all fruits during all 20 levels

What I liked: It’s a very simple concept, with interesting graphics. All those fruits icons reminded me a bit Bubble Bobble

Programming difficulty: eazeeeeeeeeee… 1/5 Read more

Triqui’s Picks #13

Only two games this week, but really really amazing.

Jones Platformer: Don’t make the poor graphic fool you, this is an incredible platform game. The animation of the main character is awesome… you can make an incredible set of actions in a really smooth way.

What I liked: Awesome and hard.

Programming difficulty: Wow. 5/5

Defend your Honor: Interesting approach to the “Defense” theme. Clean graphics, interesting unit management (at higher levels you won’t be able to place more than about 10 units), different levels

What I liked: Cool game, something fresh in this theme.

Programming difficulty: A good defense game is quite hard to do. 5/5

See you next week

Triqui’s Picks #12

We’re starting the new year with just three games:

Ricochet Kills: PP: Shoot a projectile and use ricochets to kill all enemies.

What I liked: Original concept

Programming difficulty: Box2D without gravity. Or just simple math. 1/5

Where is 2010?: Arcade adventure, help the little man find the New Year toddler.

What I liked: Nice adventure, cool graphics.

Programming difficulty: Very complete game, despite the minimal look 4/5 Read more

Triqui’s Picks #11

Six new games this last 2009 week:

Back2Back: Control a troop trapped in an hostile planet and try to escape. I am sure I played something similar when I had an Amiga. And enjoyed it a lot

What I liked: It could be a budget PC game.

Programming difficulty: The basics are very easy, but it’s a very complete and polished game. 5/5

PhysBallz: Connetc balls of the same color in this original physics game

What I liked: Nice concept

Programming difficulty: Physics game with custom gravity, some pathfinding to manage adjacent balls… 3/5 Read more

35+ game portals that can give your game at least 100K views

We all know when you released a game, submitting it to game portals is a very important task if you want your game to be popular.

So the question is: where should I submit my game?

You can find a lot of game portals lists around the web, but this one includes only portals able to give at least 100,000 views, according to MochiBot stats.

Having your game on half of the portals listed here should grant you some millions visits. Don’t even bother submitting your game to portals able to give you only a few thousands visits.

Just follow this list and let the game virally spread through minor portals.

More than 1,000,000 views

www.addictinggames.com
www.agame.com
www.mindjolt.com
www.oyunlar1.com

More than 100,000 views

www.7k7k.com
www.andkon.com
www.ejocurigratis.ro
www.fastgames.com
www.flasharcadegamessite.com
www.flashgames.it
www.freeonlinegames.com
www.freeworldgroup.com
www.funnygames.nl
www.gamegarage.co.uk
www.games2girls.com
www.gamesfreak.net
www2.jeux.com
www.jogosjogos.com
www.juegos10.com
www.juegosdiarios.com
www.killsometime.com
www.kongregate.com
www.micoia.net
www.minijuegos.com
www.net-games.biz
www.net-games.co.il
www.newgrounds.com
www.onemorelevel.com
www.oyunskor.com
www.physicsgames.net
www.playedonline.com
www.puffgames.com
www.spele.nl
www.thegamehomepage.com
www.wyspagier.pl
www.xiaoyouxi.cn
www.yougame.com

Happy submission… (did I forget some portals?)

Triqui’s Picks #10

Six new games this week:

Ice Breaker: Slice ice and free frozen vikings. The game isn’t that new but it has been enabled for distribution in these days.

What I liked: one of the few games using slicing feature

Programming difficulty: You can make something similar following The engine behind Splitter Flash game : working code. 3/5

Roly-Poly Monsters: Get rid of evil monsters blowing them up with bombs in this physics game

What I liked: Nice concept

Programming difficulty: Not that hard using Box2D. 3/5 Read more

Triqui’s Picks #9

It was a poor week for Flash gamers… only two interesing games… so I added a game submitted some weeks ago to make you play something decent… Hope this week will perform better…

UFOMania 2: Neon Galaxy: Abduct all humans from dying planets and place them on a safe one avoiding asteroids and enemy spaceships

What I liked: interesting concept, great neon-style graphics

Programming difficulty: It’s a game full of features, but none of them is really hard. 3/5

Last UFO Hero: yes, another UFO game… this time you have to abduct animals, and you can upgrade your flying saucer

What I liked: interesting concept, but I don’t like that kind of graphics

Programming difficulty: Same as before. 3/5 Read more

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