Flash Games Studio: Amazon.co.uk: Sham Bhangal, Glen Rhodes, Justin Everett-Church, David Doull, Igor Choromanski, Thomas Poeser, Kevin Sutherland: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

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

Book Description

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.

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 (friendsofed.com).

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

stunningly informative and takes flash to new levels 17 Aug 2001

By simon gurney HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

on every count this book did not fail to impress and dazzle. this takes flash to a new level and is certainly the most advanced flash book currently availble. even in terms of areas in which i thought i was fully conversant this book went into the level of depth i wasnt even aware of. the core subject which is games is very well covered and much more realistically than any of the other so called flash games books on the market, this is the real deal, with guides on how to create platform games 3d games logic games and even defnder style games, and to top it all off full code provided for all demo games which are often stunning. the advice on games design and 3d design is untouchable. i really could not give this book a higher reccomendation, if flash 5 can be pushed to a higher level i would be staggered. once again Sham has more than delivered.

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Amazon.com: 13 reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

Well Done Advanced Game Book 30 Oct 2001

By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com

I like this book alot. I have worked through a slew of books on
flash since Flash 4, and this one makes the most sense to me from the mechanics of game programming POV. Organized, and to the point. Don't make this the first book you read on Flash,
cause you will be in over your head. It focuses just on the advanced engineering of game relating to Flash.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

mediocre at best 11 April 2002

By C. Bijalba - Published on Amazon.com

Of course there's nothing new or amazing here as flash5 is "old" by this era's definition and this book was made in August 2001, but that doesn't mean having a book on this topic isn't useful in and of itself.

The problem with this type of book is that it skims the "core essentials" of gamemaking, and provides completed games for you to teach yourself... I could go to a dozen sites and teach myself games.

What I need is a book that holds your hand through building the essential widgets in game making. multiple hit tests, function completion, forking the same function with multiple instances, etc. Not something that says "see? here's a game that does all this stuff now look through it."

This book will only be frustrating to someone who loves the friends of ed series. . . but it acts as a great tool to sell the other books for sure, as I learned more about game making in Flash 5 Actionscript Studio & Flash 5 Dynamic Content studio than in this book.

Bottomline: this should have been entitled Flash Games Exhibition

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Great way to start producing ideas for gaming in Flash 6 Sep 2001

By Michael Railing - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book will give the reader many ideas for making and presenting Flash games. You will need some prior Flash experience before jumping into this book, but it will provide you with some additional ideas that you may never have thought of, as we as giving you tips on creating that 3-D look in your Flash Games. I would highly recommend as well for additional ways to present information in a highly interactive way.

I have always found `Friends of Ed' books easy to read and follow, and have purchased almost the whole series. Many people went into the making of these books, and the ideas that are presented are easy to read and follow.

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