Flash Game Developement

Just saw an add in my area for a flash game programmer job. I looked at some of the code and it looks pretty simple. Unfortunately I know nothing about Flash. Is it a developement package you have to buy like Director, or is the language something you can get for free on the web? I figure it should only take me a couple of months to get used to it. I do computer animation for a living so I'm thinking the animation side of Flash shouldn't be that hard to pick up.

Anyone use this before and can give me some tips.

They'll probably want someone with Flash experience, TBH.

Yeah, I would guess. I'm actually not trying to get that job. That's just what sparked my interst. I'm just looking for a backup incase I decide to get out of animation.

From what I've heard, there's a shortage of Flash developers in the industry. There's generally two areas; Flash animation and Flash development with ActionScript.

Craig,

Flash (previously Macromedia - now Adobe) comes as part of Studio 8 or as a standalone package, but it is NOT cheap (£574 including vat I think).

It has been developed over the last 12-15 years and was a crazy mixed up language until recently. Now as Flash 8 and even 9 it has grown up and become a proper object oriented language. You won't be able to pick up a free version over the net, but if you are into animation then it is a really good idea to get into Flash.

It is such a flexible toolset that you can pretty much do anything with it, although it does NOT have the full power of Director for moving and controlling objects on screen, but that's because of the Flash Player, and I reckon as broadband continues to increase, so too will the power of Flash.

It does not nativiely handle 3D, like B3d, except in mathematical form such as drawing shapes using a lot of code and maths.


My advice is get serious about it. Get yourself some books and get learning, and visit this place, possibly the very best place on the interent for learning Flash (that I know of):

www.learnflash.com

Check out their video tutorials - incredible stuff and although most you have to pay for, there are plenty of free Video tutorials.

There are a lot of games and applications made completely in Flash, as the web complexity increases, so does Flash's power. Actionscript 3 is coming and Flex to add to it's arsenal.

IPete2.

Get the 30 days trial from Adobe's site.

For Flash you need to know how to code in Actionscript 3 which is sort of Javascript with some whistle and bells. What you need to get used to is that flash is completely time and object driven. Everything has a timeline and you can attach code to it which makes it very flexible but also annoying if someone misuses this. Secondly you need to get more familiar with online concepts, asynchorn behaviours and stuff like that.

I guess there are lot's of tutorials on the net but for a start you can also get through the tutorials provided in the trial. If you're serious about Flash then i suggest going for some o'reilly books.

Adobe actually gives away a free Flex SDK which includes an ActionScript 3 compiler. However, Flex is -NOT- Flash. It is based upon the Flash player and uses ActionScript 3, but it is aimed at "Rich Internet applications", which basically translates to web based business applications. But if you grab e.g. the ActionScript 3 cookbook, you can still learn how to create script-based animations and the like.

The full Flex builder is based upon Eclipse and costs a couple of hundred bucks. Flash 9 CS 3 Pro is even more expensive and uses a completely different development approach than Flex. Flex aims at the "traditional" coder, where Flash is more aimed at designers that want/need to add code to their animations.

To put it in other words, when you have a traditional programming background and first see Flash, you will have the feeling of having a huge knot in your head. Once you manage to untie it, everything falls to its place and you begin to understand the whole picture and eventually you might even get to really like Flash.

Flash 9 supports all three versions of ActionScript, and there --is-- a huge difference between them. While ActionScript 3 is a lot like Java and fully object-oriented, ActionScript 1 "uses" objects, but can hardly be called a real object-oriented language.

Personally, I think that Flash is and will be for quite a while the only serious tool for platform-independent web applications with a REAL user interface. AJAX is a hype, but just cannot compete with what Flash offers. And Microsoft's Silverlight comes a decade too late (as almost all of Microsoft's inventions - this company always goes where the puck was years ago, and they never go where it will be next). For web development, hardly anything beats Flash/ActionScript and Python.

"ActionScript: Definitive Guide" and "Essential ActionScript" by Colin Moock are among the best books about Flash available. "Essential ActionScript 3" is going to be released soon, Colin recently announced that his work on the book is complete. But as the titles claim, they are focused on ActionScript, NOT the Flash environment itself. In other words, they won't teach you how to for example create tweens in Flash. But there is plenty of stuff around for that, too, including online tutorials.

Just start with the 30 day trial version and see if like what you get.

I got the 30 day trial. I'm definately going to have to get a book. I'm having trouble finding my way around this thing. Definately very different then I expected. Anyone know of a good book to start with?

This was great when I started. All free and works nice.
http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/

FlashDevelop is good for basic Flash ActionScript work, but it has its limitations.

Regarding books, it really depends on what you are going to do with Flash. Animation (graphical design), basic programming, component design, remoting...

-AF

www.kirupa.com
great site for web development tutorials in general. Was originally focused for flash dev, but now a broader scope in integrating flash,php,photoshop, etc all together and how to make those areas talk to each other.

Criag,

Training From The Source, is much better than you think it will be. It is a big book and covers a lot of stuff, but it does the job very well and there are plenty of examples.

Did you try that website I mentioned? You should they are always having sdales, video tutorials from some of the best teachers about, not prohibitively expensive, 30 day money back guarantee - you can't go wrong really - and you can get it all now.

Follow my link above.

IPete2.