ABSTRACT

Learn the professional skills you need to make the best use of Flash for creating interactive animation and producing exciting, dynamic Internet content. Nik Lever, writing as an artist for artists, takes you through the entire process from creating the art and animation for games in Flash, to adding the interactivity using Flash's ActionScripting language. He also provides valuable extra coverage of how Flash integrates with Director 8.5 Shockwave studio and C++.

As a designer using Flash you will see how you can apply your creative skills to the many stages of game production and produce your own interactive games with this versatile package. As an animator you will be able to add interactive functionality to your own animation and produce a game. As a web developer you will see how to make the best use of the sophisticated development environment Flash offers for the production of both artwork and code to create low bandwidth, animated web content that sells!

The free CD-Rom includes all the code and files you need to try out each tutorial from the book so you can see exactly how each game was created. Learn from the many different types of games provided as examples, from simple quizzes to platform-based games. High score tables and multi-player games using sockets, vital to higher level online games, are also covered in detail to ensure you have the complete skill set needed to succeed in this competitive arena.

chapter 1|20 pages

Your first game

part |2 pages

Section 1: Animation

chapter 2|20 pages

Drawing with Flash

chapter 3|14 pages

Simple cut-out animation

chapter 4|16 pages

Using CGI programs to create animation

chapter 5|14 pages

Background art

part |2 pages

Section 2: Action

chapter 6|29 pages

So what’s a variable?

chapter 7|21 pages

In tip-top condition

chapter 8|20 pages

Using loops

chapter 9|12 pages

Keep it modular

chapter 10|17 pages

Debugging

chapter 11|17 pages

Using external files

chapter 12|20 pages

Tweening in code

part |2 pages

Section 3: Putting it into practice

chapter 13|21 pages

Small games to keep them loading

chapter 14|24 pages

Quizzes

chapter 15|19 pages

Mazes

chapter 16|18 pages

Board games

chapter 17|24 pages

Platformers

chapter 18|28 pages

Sports simulations

part |2 pages

Section 4: Flash for boffins

chapter 19|20 pages

High score tables

chapter 20|16 pages

Multi-player games using sockets