It's been three months since I started in AS3, and I'm getting close to finishing and testing my own engine for hardcore shmups (no libraries used). For some reason the pace of development feels slow though =( But at least I'll be pretty far ahead when I start my CS degree.

At 12/23/12 09:41 PM, egg82 wrote: who's awesome? :D

Pretty good!

But I can't help but wonder if a primarily 3D Flash is a wasted exercise. I've only ever seen one that ran smoothly and could possibly be called a good game, but even that one I could criticize as an incredibly ghetto shooter.

Minecraft: The Story of Mojang

Link

Has anyone watched this? I was super excited for it, assuming it would be as good as Indie Game The Movie. I got it, and I couldn't get past 30 minutes in.

Perhaps it's not that the movie itself is so boring, as much as it was my disappointment in Notch.

I was always imagining Notch to be this super awesome developer and all around awesome guy. From what I've watched of this documentary, all I saw was some guy who got lucky, and didn't even really know what he was doing. And has little charisma or anything.

He even mentioned how he felt like he had Imposter Syndrome. Seems fairly adequate. I do respect the guy, and his work, I'm just really disappointed.

At 12/31/12 08:10 AM, Farza wrote: I like how half my posts are from this thread, yet I have never even opened up Flash before.

Hey you're alive!

hy, i was just wondering around the iterweb and saw this article, is it possible to do this using as3 and how? http://gskinner.com/blog/archives/2012/08/reducing-file-size -for-images-with-alpha-channels.html

At 1/1/13 05:55 PM, nitokov wrote: hy, i was just wondering around the iterweb and saw this article, is it possible to do this using as3 and how? http://gskinner.com/blog/archives/2012/08/reducing-file-size -for-images-with-alpha-channels.html

you should probably make a separate thread for that. We just come in this thread to chill and chat.

Finally released NFM (Network and File Manager) 1.0.0 for AIR!
took me forever to get the ASDoc util working. Had down install Java 5 for it to begin to work, and then copy the folder everywhere.

anyway, what do you think? :3?

(working on removing the AIR stuff so I can upload a regular FP one)

At 1/1/13 08:02 PM, egg82 wrote: anyway, what do you think? :3?

So many packages ! Which one is your code ?

At 1/4/13 07:58 PM, PrettyMuchBryce wrote: So many packages ! Which one is your code ?

oh, sorry :P
main package is org.gametack, NFM package is inside that.

i'm working on MediaManager now, and i'm getting close to finishing the AIR version. It'll handle most aspects of I/O, sound, and video.

At 1/1/13 06:18 PM, egg82 wrote: you should probably make a separate thread for that. We just come in this thread to chill and chat.

Is this also the place to showcase demos of games/programs we're working on?

...Can I spill my guts about something?

Flash is so stressful for me! I have to tell you the truth, I am no coder and I never will be. I simply want to make a halfway decent game as an artistic conquest. I want to code it myself, but I'm also not all that interested in getting into the very heavy, complexities of Actionscript. After looking at some of the code people write, there really is no way I'll get to such levels. I don't have the patience.

I know that great games don't have to be complex, but I still want to try to create something relatively flashy and dynamic. However, it looks like there will be limits to what I can accomplish. My imagination will not get to be stretched in this project.

It's just so exhausting and I know I can be over-eager about it and I probably piss people off with my questions and lack of understanding of their attempts to help, but I'm just an artist, not a coder. I'll never be able to grasp it the way you guys do.

What do you think? Am I somewhere I shouldn't be?

At 1/4/13 11:31 PM, Barzona wrote: What do you think? Am I somewhere I shouldn't be?

For succeeding as a coder (or any other discipline) there are two important factors:

1. love for the work
2. talent

I say talent is important but really it isn't. You can be the worst coder in the world but if you love making videogames you will keep on trying and your love and passion for it will shine through eventually. I think the sheer amount of never ending questions from you have shown that you are dedicated to what you're doing.
Also not to discourage you but mastering the language actionscript is just about the beginning of the complexity. It is then that you can start doing interesting things with it, when you've learned the API and the syntax.
Games are complex creations and it may be too much to ask from one individual to create all the different parts of it.
I don't think anyone in here can answer your question but you, in the end.

At 1/4/13 03:33 PM, Innermike wrote:

At 1/1/13 03:38 PM, 4urentertainment wrote: stuff

When the hell did you guys get an office?

I've never actually been physically inside our "office", because that's just Xelu's home.

We do like to pretend that I'm working on the right side of the desk though.

At 1/5/13 07:16 AM, PSvils wrote: I'm super jealous of that Kaoss Pad and those speakers... :( And the fact that you have an office, even if it is just someone's house! :D

Hey PSVils. I saw your name in the special thanks section of an article featured on HN lately, but I can't for the life of me remember what article it was, or what it was about. derp.

I'll just leave this here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=L5F bx-LPk90#t=29s

At 1/5/13 06:10 PM, Rustygames wrote: I'll just leave this here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=L5F bx-LPk90#t=29s

ashkinscript?

The head dude of this game posed it to Tom, and he said the graphics and game engine so far are great :) If that's not enough motivation, I don't have class Mon or Fri for the whole semester, so that's even more time to sleep--I mean work on the game!

At 1/6/13 11:22 AM, Innermike wrote: Hmmm, I suppose I'm not really sparking much of a discussion here, just venting.

I can't live without code completion. Even eclipse's janky code completion worked for me (mainly cuz methods in Java have long, stupid names). I do know what you mean by the panels though, I felt lost when doing Java homework at first. Pressing two buttons instead of command line compiling is also nice :D

At 1/6/13 11:22 AM, Innermike wrote: Hmmm, I suppose I'm not really sparking much of a discussion here, just venting.

Oh yeah I like sublime text. For flash development I really like FlashBuilder, though. A lot of it is probably habit, but I do like a lot of the features. For JS/HTML/CSS/Ruby/Rails I use Sublime Text. It's a great tool. I have talked to people who like to use VIM for everything. Not sure if trolling, or they just say that because they think it makes them look 1337 or something. Honestly it seems inefficient, but maybe I don't understand enough about VIM to know its true power. I guess one big advantage is being able to use it via SSH.

At 1/6/13 05:26 PM, Innermike wrote: Yeah so I guess I'm just going to turn this thread into my personal bitching thread.

Sounds like a really weird/interesting problem. Did you rewrite it entirely using Starling before realising the same thing was happening, or just use its input methods? By the way you've described it, it seems like the only thing that could cause lag is the way input is handled. Have you stripped it all down and implemented things one at a time regarding your input code?

I'm not the best at using libraries either. I tend feel a little bit like a cheater or shortcut taker and I feel like libraries such as Flixel and FlashPunk take a lot of the fun out of programming a game. While I know I don't have to use all of the code supplied by the library (such as a camera system or something), it's almost a case of: "I've used most of the engine so why not just use this as well".

I've got back to using haXe after a massive break, I'm back at uni tomorrow and it's taken me the entire Christmas period to get back into the swing of programming for fun :(

At 1/6/13 05:51 PM, Sam wrote: I feel like libraries such as Flixel and FlashPunk take a lot of the fun out of programming a game.

I feel the same way about those two, but then something like as3isolib is perfectly fine for me. I guess it's because it doesn't replace having to code core stuff like physics or graphics (not having to code z-sorting is also nice). I remember using The Game Factory 2 when I first started programming, and there was a drag'n'drop function for shooting a bullet. That's no fun...

Does anyone know of a good AS3 tutorial series on youtube that uses FlashDevelop? A lot of what I find on the subject is either in the Flash IDE itself or a jumble of random tips. I know C++, so I can afford to skip a lot of the basics but there's some things about AS3 that confound me (IE the fact that the game loop seems to be built into the language already, why I keep hearing that I can't manage memory, etc...)

At 1/6/13 10:36 PM, WizMystery wrote: Does anyone know of a good AS3 tutorial series on youtube that uses FlashDevelop? A lot of what I find on the subject is either in the Flash IDE itself or a jumble of random tips. I know C++, so I can afford to skip a lot of the basics but there's some things about AS3 that confound me (IE the fact that the game loop seems to be built into the language already, why I keep hearing that I can't manage memory, etc...)

To work in FlashDevelop isn't really so different at all from the IDE, despite that FD is a better software for programming flash. I would recommend this tutorial: http://chrismweb.com/2011/01/26/creating-an-asteroids-game-p art-1-setting-up-flashdevelop-and-planning/

Some users like egg82 also develop some tutorials for FD, you should check out.

Heya folks. Some time ago I was quite an active flash game programmer, but I stopped about a year ago I guess. I was wondering, if I were to make a comeback in browersgame development, what programs do you guys use nowadays? Should I just get back to flash with as3 + flashdevelop, or has the game drastically changed?
Hope you guys can help out a bit.

At 1/8/13 11:57 AM, tomdeaap wrote: Heya folks. Some time ago I was quite an active flash game programmer, but I stopped about a year ago I guess. I was wondering, if I were to make a comeback in browersgame development, what programs do you guys use nowadays? Should I just get back to flash with as3 + flashdevelop, or has the game drastically changed?
Hope you guys can help out a bit.

Most of us use FlashDevelop/FlashBuilder/FDT. Mike uses Sublime Text (matter of preference). AS3 for sure.

At 1/8/13 12:05 PM, MSGhero wrote:

At 1/8/13 11:57 AM, tomdeaap wrote: Heya folks. Some time ago I was quite an active flash game programmer, but I stopped about a year ago I guess. I was wondering, if I were to make a comeback in browersgame development, what programs do you guys use nowadays? Should I just get back to flash with as3 + flashdevelop, or has the game drastically changed?
Hope you guys can help out a bit.

Most of us use FlashDevelop/FlashBuilder/FDT. Mike uses Sublime Text (matter of preference). AS3 for sure.

I've always used the actual flash program to manage the art 'n stuff, but I've always kind-off hated it. Is there a way to not use it? I recall exporting an extra file with the swf (forgot the name, swc maybe? artist does this) and you can load this in flashdevelop.

At 1/8/13 12:13 PM, tomdeaap wrote: I've always used the actual flash program to manage the art 'n stuff, but I've always kind-off hated it. Is there a way to not use it? I recall exporting an extra file with the swf (forgot the name, swc maybe? artist does this) and you can load this in flashdevelop.

Yeah, just export your fla as a swc, add that to FD's library, and you're set. You can also go the spritesheet route to avoid Flash Pro completely (my artist is using MSPaint). Look up "blitting" if you're interested in that, it's basically copying images from the spritesheet and pasting them onto the stage to simulate animation.

At 1/7/13 09:43 AM, Spysociety wrote: ...
Some users like egg82 also develop some tutorials for FD, you should check out.

Alright, I'll take a look at both.

I love it when the writer doesn't only check his pms/emails once a day since I have a question about how an if statement should resolve about 5 times a day.

My new semester...holy crap! I'm taking the minimum number of hours while still being full time, and I'm gonna be busier than last year when I had an extra class. My advisor told me this one class is where people decide to leave ME because it's so much work. Tomorrow, I get to disassemble an electric toothbrush and write a 4 page report on it. Thankfully, it's a group effort each week, but still. Then I have fluid dynamics, where they expect me to have taken def bods and thermo, def bods, and thermo. Plus research, which I'm getting paid for (yay!).

taste the goddamn rainbow

that is all.

At 1/9/13 11:53 AM, egg82 wrote: taste the goddamn rainbow

that is all.

Wow nice

At 1/9/13 04:57 PM, Innermike wrote: Also, my favourite soundtrack, what a unique blend of quirky electronic and orchestral music (the latter is more predominant after the first game): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjGxXK_ltcs

Oh god yes. I still have the first 4 games. I'm really tempted to buy a PS2 just to play them, but I've been thinking about getting a PS3 for a while now so I may just get one and buy the remastered.

Nostalgia everywhere :(

At 1/10/13 10:17 AM, Sam wrote: but I've been thinking about getting a PS3 for a while now so I may just get one and buy the remastered.

I've heard a lot of people have problems with the DRM on the download versions you can buy of older games. Personally, I'd stick with a PS2. In some areas you can get one of the slim ones with a couple controllers and a memory card or two for < $50 at pawn shops.

god damnit, the flu that's been going around here finally got me. I'm tired and I ache everywhere :(

At 1/9/13 04:57 PM, Innermike wrote: Was there a game that kicked off your fascination with the actual creative process?

pretty much every game, which is part of the reason i'm such a terrible gamer. I get distracted by the tiniest things, think about how and why they were built into the game, then try and finish as quickly as possible because an idea hit me.