Overview
So you wanna be a hotshot game designer? Well, if you have a basic grasp of Macromedia Flash MX, you can. Unafraid to tackle some of the more complicated aspects of game creation (including physics and trigonometry!), this comprehensive reference covers it all. Macromedia Flash Game Design Demystified starts out with the basics: planning, adapting ActionScript techniques, using introductory Flash game techniques, and more. Then it gets down to the real business of building simple games. You'll tackle simple-logic and quiz games before moving on to multiplayer and complex-logic games (chess, for example)—learning about importing 3-D graphics, adding sound effects, and licensing your games in the process. The book's companion CD includes the source files for a number of games as well as the tutorials and lessons that go along with the book and
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewWith each new version, Flash becomes a better platform for game development. OK, maybe not top-of-the-line first-person shooters, but you can do some pretty slick complex-logic and multiplayer games in Flash nowadays -- with help from Macromedia Flash Game Design Demystified.
Author Jobe Makar is the creator of Electrotank.com, the multiplayer gaming site whose Mini Golf won the People’s Choice Award at last year’s Flash Forward Conference in New York City. (He’s also author of Macromedia Flash: Super Samurai and coauthor of Macromedia Press’s Macromedia Flash MX ActionScripting: Advanced Training from the Source. This book shares the skills, lessons, and techniques he’s learned in becoming one of the world’s leading Flash game developers.
From planning through licensing, it’s in here. You’ll learn how to adapt the ActionScript techniques you already know for game development; how to implement the sophisticated logic you need to build games that keep players interested; how to make the most of 3D graphics and sound effects in Flash; and much more.
The CD-ROM contains source files, tutorials, and lessons, along with Makar’s fast, scalable XML server software for managing multiplayer games. Great techniques, great tools. Bill Camarda
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.
Written for developers familiar with Flash, this guide explains techniques for automating, repeating, and governing the actions of games. The first half of the book describes collision detection and reactions, tile-based worlds, artificial intelligence algorithms, graphics and sound, while the second half walks through the ActionScript code and functions of six sample games. The CD-ROM contains example files and a trial version of Flash MX. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR