prototyprally

rapid prototyping of games using flash

YAY!

WE NEED TO PLAY GLORG DARN IT MOAR

Art? Yes. Game? I’m not so sure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game#Definitions Since the outcome is certain, it doesn’t seem to fit Roger Caillois’ definition. Chris Crawford would call it “art” since it is made “for its own beauty” or a “toy” since it has “no goals”. It doesn’t fit Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman’s definition since there is no conflict, Greg Costikyan’s definition since you don’t manage resources, Clark C. Abt’s definition since there is only one decision-maker, Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith’s definition since there is no “opposition between forces”, or Kevin Maroney’s definition since there is no goal. Or maybe I just didn’t understand it.

I, too, think the spare space is a bit worrying, but if the game runs that smooth, even on the cheap PCs most players will use, bravo. I like the particle effects, and I assume the line trail is made with some kind of particle technique, well, partially. I also like the cursor and the overall presentation of everything. Most Flash games are so very basic or are rough drafts for something that could be done in the future. Most aren’t polished to this extent. Again, bravo.

Correction: Just found the download at the top of part 6. It displays the graphics, but nothing moves. Don’t know why it threw an error before as I can’t see any difference in the code or folder structure.

@Mac, you probably did the same thing I did and forgot to add: addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handleClick); In your Main() section. That is what tells the Main() function to pay attention to mouse clicks and call handleClick() whenever it notices one.

Nice tutorial, tnx for all.

That’s awesome. Good sleuthing!

Middlingly interesting information

I FINALY got it to work. Turns out I accidentally put a semi-colon after void.

Thanks for the help David, I was stuck on that, too Thanks for all these tutorials!

I’m good up until I enter “enemy.x += 1;” which completely fails to move the gnome. I _am_ changing the one in Main.as, right?

I’m picking up AS3 from learning C++, and I don’t really understand what’s going on with [Embed(source='../../assets/gardengnome.png')] private static const GfxGnome:Class; Is GfxGnome being declared a class? You say “the GfxGnome class” in your article, so I guess it is…but then the ‘class’ is functioning as a static const at the same time? Or is it that GfxGnome is declared a class from within the Enemy class and is made to hold only one thing? ): I know very little about AS3 so an explanation would help greatly

I’m using Flash Builder and the only thing that I’m struggling with is embedding the images. There’s no option to ‘Insert’ them into code from what I can see. I’ve looked through the right-click options and I’ve even tried dragging and dropping them on to the as file, but so far my only solution is to manually type it in, which is workable, though not as elegant as a simple insert option. And like others have stated, this tutorial could really do with a rewrite. It’s fantastic that you’ve took the time to write them. The net is a wealth of Flash information, but it’s almost too much for a fresh faced wannabe Flash coder to absorb, and this has the basis of being a great starting point for picking up the basics, syntax and general grasp of writing, compiling and understanding what goes into building a Flash game. One request I’d like to add is if it’s possible for you to visualise what the code means. Grasping the process of how things embed into classes and such, it’s not clear through text explanations, but I feel it might be easier to under stand with some visual aid, perhaps a flow chart showing how things are linked. Again, thanks for taking the time to write these, I’m glad the help is out there now I’ve finally decided to give coding another whirl.

Just thinking about this some more… One thing I think is really cool about it, in addition to the satisfying way you carve out blocks from the big shapes, is the sense of contrasting scale. The big blocks really move slowly but with great momentum, and they feel like giant ice bergs or space ships or something and you feel very small. I think this would be a lot of fun with multiplayer, in some sort of collaborative game. It would also be fun as a competitive free-for-all, or a team-based competition. I would really enjoy such a game if you’d be willing to make it. (and if you don’t, do you mind if I do?)

Congrats on your win! Your game was a lot of fun and technically very interesting. I’m going to have to dig through the source and see what I can learn. If you have a pre-optimize, friendly-to-read version, I’d certainly be interested. I’m the developer of Dungeon Romp 4k. I agree that game lacks a certain lasting fun factor, and I was mostly going for technical merit to feel out the limits of 4k. The 3D walls actually weren’t terribly expensive, all things considered. I think they were worth the cost. From a gameplay standpoint, I should shrink the minimap way down so it becomes a secondary navigational tool rather than the primary one. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fit enough other interesting things in the maze to justify it, so I blew the map up to make the game easy to parse. The random maze generator was actually proportionally the most expensive. If I were going for pure fun factor, I should’ve dumped the mazes, hardcoded 10 floors or so, added in a basic item system and an endgame condition besides dying. I’m working on a full version of Dungeon Romp that addresses these issues outside of the 4k limit.

Woo, congratulations! I still think 4k-steroids is the best of the competition. You’re an optimizing maniac!

Can’t get it to trace “I’m Alive” I put “trace (“I’m alive”);” into the constructor of the Enemy but it isn’t doing it!

@comment above me iv not done this tut yet but did another one earlier that used that trace thing, i didnt think it was working as it wasnt printing nothing on the screen, but then realised it doesnt, and it types the msg in the text box of the app your typing the code in, like where it shows the errors and stuff and to save the leef as a swf file, in firefox just right click it and select “save link as” instead of chooseing image i just spent like over a hour doing some flixel tut and just got a load of errors and didnt even see the final result lol .. its all good fun