AdvancED Game Design with Flash
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Product Description
Product Description
Creating games in Flash is a never-ending journey of exploration, learning, and most of all, fun. Once you’ve mastered the basics, a new world is opened up to you, enabling you to take your existing skills to the next level and discover new skills that will in turn open new doors. This book is a direct continuation of Foundation Game Design with Flash, and is a complete point-by-point roundup of the most important skills a Flash game designer needs to know. You’ll increase your ActionScript knowledge and your game design skills while creating some excellent example games. You’ll learn advanced collision detection skills; professional AI and pathfinding; and how to load and save game data, create destructible environments, and build and switch game levels.
- Each chapter highlights a new advanced technique illustrated by practical examples.
- Examples of games are given in a variety of genres, all of which take an object-oriented programming approach.
- Advanced game design topics are covered, including vector-based collision reaction, pathfinding, billiard ball physics, and modeling game data.
What you’ll learn
- How to use vectors to figure out where objects are going and how they should react to collisions
- Pixel-perfect collision detection for irregular shapes using hitTest and bitmapData
- How to use design patterns and abstract data models to manage complex games efficiently
- How to create advanced enemy artificial intelligence systems using pathfinding strategies in grid-based environments
- How to use XML to load and save game data
- How to use sound and music in games and create particle effects using blitting.
Who this book is for
This book is for experienced Flash and ActionScript 3.0 developers who want to take their game design skills to a professional level. Readers should have a solid background in object-oriented ActionScript 3.0 programming, and may have attempted game projects of their own. If you have read Foundation Game Design with Flash, then this book will be a natural next step for you. The book covers game design strategies and techniques common to many game design platforms—not just Flash—and will help you create top-quality games that are quick to build and easy to maintain.
Table of Contents
- Modeling Game Data
- Vectors: Ghosts in the Machine
- Collisions Between Circles
- Collisions Between Polygons
- Pixel-Perfect Collision and Destructible Environments
- Explosions, Blitting, and Optimization
- Make It Fun! Sound, Music, and AI
- Tile-Based Game Design
- Pathfinding
- XML and External Data
About the Author
Rex van der Spuy is a freelance multimedia designer specializing in Flash game design, interface design and ActionScript programming, as well as standards-based XHTML+CSS+DOM website design. He is also the author of Foundation Game Design with Flash. He migrated to the multimedia industry from an earlier career in film and television, having graduated with a BFA in Film/Video from York University in 1993 and spending a number of years working as an independent producer and freelance cameraman. He has designed Flash games and done interactive interface programming for clients such as Agency Interactive (Dallas,) Scottish Power (Edinburgh,) DC Interact (London,) Draught Associates (London) and the Bank of Montreal (Canada.) He also builds game engines and interactive interfaces for museum installations for PixelProject (Cape Town.) In addition, he taught advanced courses in Flash Game Design and Shockwave 3D Game Design for the Canadian School of India (Bangalore, India) and produced two online textbooks on Flash Game Design and ActionScript programming (available for free download from his website, www.kaleidoscope-multimedia.com.) Rex is a also a proponent of standards-based, W3C compliant accessible XHTML coding. He has produced hand-coded websites for Meon Villa, Conran Events, Apax.com, the British-German Association (UK) and the Europan 8 architecture competition - all meeting strict W3C guidelines and level-1 accessibility requirements. In his spare time, Rex has done a considerable amount of technical and fiction writing and maintains a semi-professional musical career as a performer on the sitar. Rex currently divides his time equally between Canada, India and South Africa works on consulting and software development projects for clients in India, North America and the UK.
Inside This Book
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Outstanding, and Advanced
15 Sep 2010
Format:Paperback
If all programming books were written this way, there would be a lot more competent programmers in the world. Not only is this book chock full of useful information about ActionScript and game programming, but the author continues in the vein of his first book (Foundation Game Design with Flash) by taking his time to explain thought processes and reasons for doing--or not doing--certain things. I am impressed by Rex Van der Spuy's attention to the smallest detail. He explains code by first examining a problem, describing its general solution, then delineating the specific implementation of that solution in code, line by line. Brilliantly done, and smoothly executed.
This is not, however, a book for beginners. No, this is definitely advanced; hence, the title. If you are not comfortable with class structures, design patterns and OOP concepts, or are unsure about how to write AS3 in general, I suggest you look elsewhere. Friends of Ed has some excellent titles that cater to all knowledge levels. Van der Spuy even refers to other titles/authors in his book; a non-self-serving aspect which I appreciate.
This is not light reading, either. Don't skim through expecting to find a quick solution to your specific problem. Start at the beginning, including the introduction because he explains how you should set up your work environment. Then go at your own pace through each chapter. The chapter sequence is logical and cumulative, the example files/code work correctly, there is plenty of side-note information, and the spelling and grammar are near perfect. I only found one error (p. 49 -- "drawn using with the drawing API"), which is amazing considering how many books get published with typos galore. (Note to editors: do a better job. Note to publishers: LET your editors do a better job.)
Topics I found to be particularly useful include: Verlet vs Euler integration, simple methods to reduce CPU load, physics modeling, blitting, pixel-perfect collisions, and pathfinding. Don't be misled into thinking that's all there is though. All 700+ pages are filled with important techniques that will keep your brain busy for months, if not longer.
The few areas I thought were weak included his explanation of Flash's Sound and SoundChannel classes, his tendency at times to over-explain things, and only a scant reference to memory leaks, which Flash is known for. These are minor complaints, though; the book is ultimately an outstanding addition to any developer's library.
If you are an intermediate to advanced programmer, it should be on your shelf.
This is not, however, a book for beginners. No, this is definitely advanced; hence, the title. If you are not comfortable with class structures, design patterns and OOP concepts, or are unsure about how to write AS3 in general, I suggest you look elsewhere. Friends of Ed has some excellent titles that cater to all knowledge levels. Van der Spuy even refers to other titles/authors in his book; a non-self-serving aspect which I appreciate.
This is not light reading, either. Don't skim through expecting to find a quick solution to your specific problem. Start at the beginning, including the introduction because he explains how you should set up your work environment. Then go at your own pace through each chapter. The chapter sequence is logical and cumulative, the example files/code work correctly, there is plenty of side-note information, and the spelling and grammar are near perfect. I only found one error (p. 49 -- "drawn using with the drawing API"), which is amazing considering how many books get published with typos galore. (Note to editors: do a better job. Note to publishers: LET your editors do a better job.)
Topics I found to be particularly useful include: Verlet vs Euler integration, simple methods to reduce CPU load, physics modeling, blitting, pixel-perfect collisions, and pathfinding. Don't be misled into thinking that's all there is though. All 700+ pages are filled with important techniques that will keep your brain busy for months, if not longer.
The few areas I thought were weak included his explanation of Flash's Sound and SoundChannel classes, his tendency at times to over-explain things, and only a scant reference to memory leaks, which Flash is known for. These are minor complaints, though; the book is ultimately an outstanding addition to any developer's library.
If you are an intermediate to advanced programmer, it should be on your shelf.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Great insight into Flash game development
1 Oct 2010
Format:Paperback
This is my first ver der Spuy book, and I must say I'm looking forward to more titles by him. His writing style is easy to follow, and very thorough. I've been developing in Flash for six years now, and Rex is spot on with his recommendations and code optimizations.
As mentioned in other reviews, this is definitely an advanced book. I'd say if you've worked with AS3 before, you can pick up on the material. Lots of code and examples, and you'll find yourself returning to the book often for reference.
Whether you develop games for a living, or just dabble in it, every Flash/Flex developer should have this book on their reference shelf.
As mentioned in other reviews, this is definitely an advanced book. I'd say if you've worked with AS3 before, you can pick up on the material. Lots of code and examples, and you'll find yourself returning to the book often for reference.
Whether you develop games for a living, or just dabble in it, every Flash/Flex developer should have this book on their reference shelf.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Book!
23 Dec 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I only have good things to say about this book. The author does an excellent job explaining his methodologies and the amount of topics he covers is unprecedented. All the code he provides is excellent and works flawlessly and he doesn't miss a single detail when he explains and breaks down his code step by step. I devoured this book in 2 weeks and now im actually starting to build my own tile based platform game. Anyone serious who wants to get into game design with Flash should definitely pick up this book hands down! If your a beginner with flash i would not recommend this book but if you have at least an AS2 programming background, like i did, then your good to go :]
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