Flash for games

#1 Flash would limit you to using database access for game-saves and such (without third-party plug-ins that often break with updates to the Flash core).

Torque 2D would be a good option if your initial coding is in C/C++, and especially if your scripting is in TorqueScript.

If you're looking to roll your own, then I'd recommend SDL over Flash.

#2 I'm guessing that this is just a .plan not an actual engine yet?

I guess what I should ask is how would I use this for what I am doing?

It would actually be good to use this because I can learn torque script then move into 3d later as I have found 2d to be infinitly easier for myself. Is there a place to download a compiled version of this engine or is it some kind of script I have to compile with my torque SDK?

#3 Paul, definitely use Flash! Even if it just to make a prototype. Flash is really easy to use and there are alot of resources/examples available to learn from.

Please check this thread and scroll down to my second and third posts (around there). I posted some links re RPGs and online Flash games, etc. Shows what you can do.


Re Saving,
Because you want to make a demo and not a full game, you are probably not concerned about the player being able to save his game, right?

Nothing could be better than Flash for this IMO... there is one thing though... do you want to have smooth panning between areas, because that will probably be too slow (if you use high resolution sprites), but there are lots of ways around this.... if you are going to have simple fade-in/fade-out transitions between areas/screens then it's no problem.

#4 It is not just a .plan, but a reality. It is an addition to Torque. It will be showcased at the IGC '04 (though Melv will sadly not be in attendance) in Breakout track #4 of the Torque track.

He's worked on extensive tiling code and has an amazing particle engine integrated into it. It is a 2D toolbox for Torque.

We'll know a little more about GG's plans for it here in the future.

I just noticed that you're looking at making this a gameplay demo rather than full game. If that's the case, then Flash actually might be a good option since file io won't be necessary (no need to save in a demo). I also noticed that you said that you have movement and collision scripted. Did you already do this with Actionscript or have you pseudo-coded out the basic logic?

#5 I actually emailed melv and told him I will contribute whatever artwork and otherwse he needs to make the project move to the next stage. I want to see it work for the community to use, plus it would be great for begginers to torque to learn how the engine handles images. Good stuff. But for now I am going to continue in flash. Once it's done in flash I'll move to something else.

@david yeah everything is in action script. There are a ton of tuts out there for mx as it is more like director now since they combined the tools. I'm getting ready to work on one of the tuts that handels save games, which believe it or not, actually is supposed to work for offline apps. Action script is also much more simple and better doc'ed then torque script (At least it was when I last checked) but I still would like to use the engine I purchased for this project. Sadly thats not gonna happen :( Flash to the rescue!

In case anyone cares I can post the tut in this thread. The key to getting it to work is the sharedObject function in Flash MX

#6 Actionscript is based off of the EMCAScript standard (same as Javascript, which Director has converted to though it still supports Lingo). You may have some problems with the save tutorials since the projector apps have been patched to avoid major Flash exploits.

But, yeah, with each passing day, Director is getting further and further behind.

Since you started it in AS and Flash, keep it there for the time being. If you decide to make a full-blown game, you'll be able to evaluate whether it is the correct platform or not.

GarageGames has Torque 2D in their hot little hands, so there's little worry about it coming our way. When is the major question on my mind.

#7 So i'm guessing that if the flash PLAYER is patched then even if I did my game in the earliest version of flash, that patch would f0ck up something in my game?

That would be incredibly lame if true.

#8 The version of Flash doesn't matter nearly as much as the player. The problem was that malicious code could be embedded into flash programs (like a nifty Happy Birthday flash that runs in a browser and has a "save me to your desktop" link so that they can run it whenever they want...but outside the browser, it has the elevated rights that the projector uses and can cause problems).

There are third-party projector extensions that have been built for file io, though. You'll just need to make sure that all of your target platforms are supported.

#9 You could still make it in Torque with a 3rd person camera, but i guess you want 2d sprites, in that case, Flash.

#10 I've been coding in flash for many years. So, yes I would say that flash would be the best for a rpg.

Check out http://www.flashkit.com/index.shtml if you search around you'll find all the answers you need.

#11 @Will yeah I could make it in torque but I have found it very hard to get working models into torque through 3ds, mainly because there are so many tuts to read to get all the little nuances of the exporter. I don't have that kind of time anymore to mess with it. I'll be sticking to 2d because it's easier.

Thanks everyone for the posts. Now all I have to find out is if there is a way to do a save state function or something I can do to get around that little annoyance. Thanks.

#12 Flashkit will have some different save-state methods, but some of the projects have broken with patches. It's definitely a good resource, though.

#13

Quote:I could make it in torque but I have found it very hard to get working models into torque through 3ds, mainly because there are so many tuts to read to get all the little nuances of the exporter.

Had you been able to contain your temper for 5 more minutes, I would have been able to show you EXACTLY how to get your models into Torque.

#14 For saving, you could read/write information from an xml file on your server.

Or maybe use cookies and javascript with FSCommand somehow.

#15 @gonzo wow talk about a response out of left field! Who are you and why are you on my porch?

@Will I don' think I will include save features because there is the possibility it will break. I may just include a password save, or something like it. Like I said, it will be very small, just a game play demo. Still learning Actionscript but so far I like what I see. Very easy to use.

@Dave that is actually the site I have been using to get all my action script tuts. Great site.

#16 If you need any help with the action script feel free to ask me.

#17 If you're gonna use Flash for such a game, might as well use Director. It's Flash on steriods and would probably be much easier to build with. It's a macromedia product, and I am pretty good at it, working on my own game in it as well, already did two so far, but never finished them.

#18 Just wondering what the state is of creating games in flash and then create a .EXE file (for Win XP !!).

I know something about 'publishing' projects on Director (shockwave), but I never found out if you can do the same with Flash !!

#19 There are tons of programs to convert flash swf files to exe files. You can actually use flash it's self to export exe files.

#20 Actually, I've noticed that Director has fallen further and further behind it's former glory. It is more organized than Flash, but it seems that most of the power that it used to have has been migrated into Flash since it's easily Macromedia's most popular product.