Just in case you haven't been keeping up with the news; there was a pretty cool announcement from GDC for Flash and HTML5/Javascript developers. Microsoft revealed Xbox LIVE Web Games which means they're opening up the Xbox LIVE platform to web game developers. Microsoft will provide an API for making web service calls into the XBL platform. API's will be available for ActionScript 2, ActionScript 3 and also Javascript. (more...)
A good friend of mine just shared a great link with me and I figured I'd post it here for everyone to check out. Adobe recently released a white paper which outlines their plans for the future of the Flash platform. After reading through it, I'm pretty excited about the direction they're going; specifically in regards to gaming.
The document discusses updates to the existing Flash and AIR players, as well as the next iteration of ActionScript: "While Adobe is working on releases for 2012, including 11.2 and the subsequent 2012 release, we are also modernizing the Flash Player code base in order to ensure that the Flash runtimes meet the needs of developers over the next five to 10 years."
They are also quick to point out that the jump to the next version of ActionScript, currently named ActionScript Next, will be "significantly less burdensome than the move from ActionScript 2 to ActionScript 3."
Needless to say, this is definitely worth a read if you're a serious Flash developer. Check it out!
Out of all the articles and tutorials I've written, by far the most popular have been the Flash and Kinect pieces. Since the February 1st release of the version 1 Kinect SDK, I've gotten quite a few questions about how to get Flash working with Kinect again. Many readers were having trouble with the old tutorials which no longer work as they were based on the beta release of the SDK. I decided to take a break from my current project this weekend and throw together a quick Kinect to Flash demonstration with the new SDK. This isn't a tutorial, but you can download the source files and see how it was made! (more...)
Just a quick update here; I've been working tirelessly on a new Flash project that I'm hoping to wrap up in the next couple weeks. Working on this project has given me an idea for a great tutorial that I think some game developers will appreciate!
I also have started thinking about doing an overhaul on the blog and making it a more general development-type blog as I've been dipping my hands into a variety of technologies as of late. It would probably still be very heavily Flash-focused, but it never hurts to expand one's horizons. In addition to this, a new design couldn't hurt. I'm not sure when I'll get around to this though as I've got a lot of cool stuff going on at the moment!
One thing I'm looking forward to is the upcoming Flash Gaming Summit in San Francisco. The event is scheduled to take place on March 4, and while I've never been to one of these events before, it is looking likely that I will attend this year. If you're interested check out the summit site for all the details! Be sure to hunt around for discount promo codes before purchasing your ticket. They're all over the place!
Welcome to part 3 of the HTML 5 Space Shooter tutorial series. If you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out parts 1 and 2 before jumping in here. We're going to pick up where we left at the end of the last tutorial and implement enemies and collision detection. Let's get right to it! (more...)
Happy new year! 2011 was a fantastic year for me and I hope it was for you as well; hard to believe 2012 is here already! I figured a new tutorial would be a great way to start off the year so here you go: part 1 in a series on creating an HTML 5 shooter using EaselJS! (more...)
After following Lee Brimelow's introductory tutorial to Grant Skinner's EaselJS, I decided to look into it further and create a simple space shooter. No, this isn't directly Flash related, but the EaselJS framework is based on ActionScript and the Flash display list. Anyway, you can check out the game here. Look for a tutorial in the coming weeks!
This isn't a tutorial, but I figured it may still be of interest to some. Below is a sample image manipulation application I created a couple years ago while trying to get a handle on bitwise operators. The bitmap data is manipulated in various ways depending on which button you select. Here's a quick breakdown of what each button does: (more...)
One of the most common tasks in Flash game development is calculating angles. This becomes important in even simple 2D games such as shooters where the player can fire bullets in all directions. If you're anything like me, you're probably not very good with math. I typically will find other ways to get the job done, and indeed I had my own way for figuring bullet paths, but eventually I decided to use real angles and I'm pleased to say it really isn't that bad. (more...)
