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Ask YC: How do I get Started Making Games in Flash?

16 points by tocomment ↗ HN
I've got a couple cool ideas for simple web games. How do I get started learning to code them up?

I'm a strong programmer, just never used Flash before.

One idea I have if you're curious is you're a local Police director and you have to set up speed traps and cameras to make the most revenue. Sim Speed Trap?

18 comments

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e1ven
I'd take a look at Flex and BlazeDS- They're two OSS releases from Adobe (Form. Macromedia) that allow you to come at Flash development using a traditional IDE (Eclipse) rather than the animation-style timeline that the Flash MX environment uses by default.

Flex and BlazeDS are free and Open Source, and worth a look.

tocomment
So I don't need to buy CS3?

Can you still do graphical stuff with those environments, EG animated cars, etc for my speedtrap game.

cdr
Flex is for data, Flash is for graphics. (I haven't tried Flex.)

You're going to need a way to create the graphical assets for your application, and as far as I know that means Flash - especially if you want vector graphics.

The Flex SDK is free, but you have to pay for the GUI builder.

I tried going "completely" open-source last year for a project with the FAMES (osflash.org) stack. It was a pain, but it had its benefits (mainly an actual IDE). It was still just for ActionScript, too - need flash for any kind of remotely complex graphics.

birdman
You can do some programmatic drawing in Flex, but for the most part you need to load in external graphics. Flash is one tool for making (vector) graphics, but you could make them in Photoshop/GIMP.

I use Flex, and it's more intuitive than Flash if you're used to OOP and IDEs (and not used to the timeline), but it probably lacks some graphical capabilities for game programming.

byteCoder
At the risk of stating the obvious:

1. Obtain Adobe Flash CS3.

2. Pick up a couple books like _Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Classroom in a Book_ and _ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University_.

3. Read, learn the Flash time line paradigm, and experiment with the examples in the book.

4. Code, test, and distribute your new Flash creation.

5. Profit!

tocomment
Obvious is what I'm looking for. That and tips the YC crowd has learned.
riffplay
I'm currently working on a flash game of my own. I didn't want to pay $700 for CS3 (or even $250 for flex builder,) so I'm doing so using only free tools.

The flex SDK is located here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/sdk/ It looks like the documentation there is quite good, though admittedly I haven't used it much. Any text editor would be fine; I am currently using SciTE with these options files: http://arthurdick.com/projects/as3/

Regarding graphical stuff, SVG graphics can be embedded http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/201/html/wwhelp/wwhimpl/commo...

I haven't attempted any complex graphics creation yet, but one program I'm looking into is Inkscape: http://www.inkscape.org/

I'd highly recommend the Tweener class for animations. I only recently discovered it, and it has made my life much easier: http://code.google.com/p/tweener/

tocomment
What tools are you using exactly? What generates the flash files?

..Actually maybe start over at the begininng :-) I have no idea how flash works or how one makes it.

riffplay
The flex sdk contains a program called mxmlc, which is what I use to compile actionscript into the flash swf files. I did a search for an introductory guide, and found one I remember from when I was starting out. It's for the Windows version of flex, but I think it's pretty obvious what needs to be modified if you are using a different OS. http://www.senocular.com/flash/tutorials/as3withmxmlc/
menloparkbum
You need CS3, unfortunately.

You can try to do it with free tools (I did) but your game will ultimately be second-rate.

tocomment
How do you mean? What happened to you?
mig
- Get CS3. You would waste more time figuring out how to get the stuff done using free tools. Plus you might not be able to avail use of adobe's help lists/groups. Your time is valuable.

- Instead of trying to create from scratch, get .swf/.as files for some free/open source flash game and hack your way through. With your strong coding skills, it would be a lot easier to hack through an existing piece of code.

reitzensteinm
From my experience so far doing http://www.rocksolidarcade.com

A few people in this thread have said to, but do NOT buy Flash. Trust me on this. If you're a programmer, you won't be able to use the IDE - it's just not up to scratch. It's great for doing animation and such, but for structured code writing games more significant than pong, you'll want to use Flex.

The Adobe Flex IDE is pretty cool, however, the new version which I feel is worth getting is still in beta. Flashdevelop is fine for the most part. Flashdevelop + Flex is all you need to create .swf files.

tocomment
So you recommend I start with FlashDevelop? I'd prefer to develop on Linux though, is there a linux alternative? Maybe Scite + flex like Riffplay mentioned?
reitzensteinm
Oh, definitely - I'm just saying Flex is the way to go, any editor (that you like) will do. I use Flash Develop but I'm (increasingly) neutral on that. :)

Though you might want to try Adobe's Flex Builder alpha on Linux. The Windows version was rock solid, but apparently the Linux version is further behind (I haven't tried it on Linux). It's based on Eclipse so it's a memory hog (slightly uncomfortable even on my c2d 3.16ghz + 4gb), but the debugger, profiler, visual editing tools etc are top notch.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/flexbuilder_linux/

Since it just uses the command line compiler, you can migrate to another editor when it gets released non free (or buy it).

icky
If you do want to play with free tools, try haXe and swfmill.
bprater
If you are a strong programmer, go with Flex Builder trial, later you can ditch it for a basic text editor like Textmate and use the command-line compiler.

Dive into some Flash Game Programming books and Actionscript 3 books and look at free tutorials online.

The thing you'll have to figure out is what tool to draw your "sprites".

Mugurm
The Flash IDE is very important on setting up graphics properly. There is a lot of functionality to be gained from the timeline. Program in whatever you want: Flex, FlashDevelop, Eclipse + FDT plugin etc, but you still want your symbols in the library to be able to be accessed and updated/edited easily.

Flash developers know quite a few tricks to get stuff to act as intended, so I would highly recommend a book on flash game design. I read one a few years back and it helped a lot with the intricacies.