Title: Flash Games – How To Develop Browser Games
Duration: 0:00
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Views: 5 views
There has been a real explosion in the popularity of Flash games in recent years. While demand has shot up, the number of developers on the scene has only risen by a relatively small percentage. Part of the reason for this is that developing games for the Flash platform requires quite a diverse range of skills. A good developer needs to be competent in Flash and Actionscript with solid programming practices, graphical skills, audio skills, a methodical and analytical approach, and the patience of a saint. Here is a guide to how the average developer tackles a games project.
Video games are complex beasts. Even a game as simple as Pacman has quite a number of routines, such as controlling the ghosts, taking user input, checking collisions, keeping score, and generating levels, not to mention non-game screens and functions like pre-loaders and splash screens. For this reason, a methodical approach to game development is essential, otherwise the project becomes chaotic, over budget and a nightmare to work on. The first thing to do is to draw up a solid design, away from Flash, and include complete lists of assets such as graphics and audio. Only then can you begin to develop the game in Flash.
After a design has been drafted, creating a mock-up game in Flash is the next step. At this stage the idea is to write the Actionscript code for the game to be functional, but not worrying too much about how the game looks. I often use place holder graphics at this stage, which will later be swapped out with the proper graphics produced by an artist, and unless it is integral to the game I leave the audio out entirely. Once the mock-up has been developed, and tested, the next stage is to integrate the graphics and audio. If the design phase was completed carefully with consideration to the graphics and audio, the artists (if the developer is not creating the graphics themselves) can be producing the graphical assets while the mock-up is being created. This allows the graphics and audio to be integrated relatively quickly and easily, and the game is now fully tested again.
Once the game reaches the later stages of development, when the game engine is mostly complete and tested, the final touches can be added. Introductions, help screens, preloaders and game over screens should all be added at this point. Leaving these until now means that testing is quicker, with less clicks, keypresses or waiting is required to restart levels or replay the game. Then finally you’ll have a completed game, ready for final beta testing. Even though we started with a complex project, by breaking the design and development process down into bite sized chunks it became manageable.
If you’re new to game design and development then your best bet is to edit an existing game to begin with. Creating an entire game from scratch can be a daunting task, but adding extra features to an existing game, or design new levels, can be a lot of fun and great experience for when you’re ready to create your own creation from the ground up. Hone your skills one at a time, build up an arsenal of techniques and then when you’re ready you can develop your “killer application” and show your skills to the world!
Learn how to make flash game, and download articles, tutorials and Flash game source files at http://www.flashgamesclassroom.com
