If you’re into online gaming and have developed your ActionScript skills beyond the point where creating a realistic impression of a bouncing ball gives you a deep inner glow, then Flash Games Studio could be just what you need. This book takes you deep into the realm of Flash game design and provides the knowledge to take you further than the Pong, Space Invaders and Asteroids clones that are the staples of most online gaming sites.

The introductory chapters cover aspects of Flash fundamental to games design--optimising games graphics, built-in objects, and event handling--and it’s not until chapter five that you get started on producing a playable game. Instant gratification is not the name of the game. If you like to see results fast and would rather have a working version of Moon Lander than a working knowledge of structured real-time programming Gary Rosenzweig’s Macromedia Flash 5 ActionScript for Fun and Games may suit you better.

Otherwise, David Doull’s Platform Game Construction Kit, Igor Choromanski’s chapter on Artificial Intelligence and Glen Rhodes’ four chapters on Flash 3-D programming will provide you with the skills to create your own games from scratch, rather than a formula prescription for what’s already been done. Which is not to say that you won’t find games such as Pong and Tic-Tac-Toe, just that they are included to illustrate an approach or develop a technique rather than as an end in themselves.

There’s no CD, but all of the ActionScript examples can be downloaded from their Web site.
Ken McMahon

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.

Assuming you have a reasonable knowledge of Flash 5, this book will increase your skill-set and fire your imagination by offering a collection of new approaches and advanced techniques. The only thing more entertaining than playing games is creating them. Now, the only limit is your imagination. Enter the Studio and start taking fun seriously.

This book takes us 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. It discusses what makes a good game - and what makes a great game. It grapples 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. It conducts a battle of wits with artificial intelligence, and has a good crash around with some collision detection in platform games. Assuming you have a reasonable knowledge of Flash 5, this book should increase your skill-set and fire your imagination by offering a collection of new approaches and advanced techniques. Friends of ED would like to apologise for the fact that the index, as printed in this book, is erroneous. The correct index can be downloaded as a pdf file from the Friends of ED website.

Imagine the future of games - not only the traditional single-user kind, but also complex multi-user interactive simulations incorporating highly developed sound and image reactivity. With Flash’s graphics capability, it’s bandwidth-friendly nature and the ubiquity of the Flash plug-in, designers can now create complex games that are accessible to almost anyone with a modem. The Games Studio helps you apply advanced motion graphics skills to the creation of games.

This book is perfect for:

Designers looking to create sophisticated games.

Any web designer who wants to learn game creation skills in order to build a really modern and dynamic interface for their site.

If you’re into online gaming and have developed your ActionScript skills beyond the point where creating a realistic impression of a bouncing ball gives you a deep inner glow, then Flash Games Studio could be just what you need. This book takes you deep into the realm of Flash game design and provides the knowledge to take you further than the Pong, Space Invaders and Asteroids clones that are the staples of most online gaming sites.

The introductory chapters cover aspects of Flash fundamental to games design--optimising games graphics, built-in objects, and event handling--and it’s not until chapter five that you get started on producing a playable game. Instant gratification is not the name of the game. If you like to see results fast and would rather have a working version of Moon Lander than a working knowledge of structured real-time programming Gary Rosenzweig’s Macromedia Flash 5 ActionScript for Fun and Games may suit you better.

Otherwise, David Doull’s Platform Game Construction Kit, Igor Choromanski’s chapter on Artificial Intelligence and Glen Rhodes’ four chapters on Flash 3-D programming will provide you with the skills to create your own games from scratch, rather than a formula prescription for what’s already been done. Which is not to say that you won’t find games such as Pong and Tic-Tac-Toe, just that they are included to illustrate an approach or develop a technique rather than as an end in themselves.

There’s no CD, but all of the ActionScript examples can be downloaded from their Web site. --Ken McMahon