My action script

when I made my game, the enemy cars were coming down the screen all over the place. To cancel this, I put in an action script which makes them come down in lanes. this helps me create my road graphics easier. Here is the action script.

{

var lane:Number = (Math.round(Math.random() * 2)+1); 

trace("lane " +lane)

var myframe:Number = Math.round(Math.random() * 3);

var tempEnemy:MovieClip;

//Make sure a Library item linkage is set to Enemy...

tempEnemy = new Enemy();

tempEnemy.speed = 3

//Math.random(); gets a random number from 0.0-1.0

if (lane == 1 )

{

tempEnemy.x = 95;

}if (lane == 2 )

{

tempEnemy.x = 235;

}if (lane == 3 )

{

tempEnemy.x = 385;

}

trace("tempEnemy");

addChild(tempEnemy);

tempEnemy.gotoAndStop(myframe);

enemies.push(tempEnemy);

}

Comments

Evaluation

Creating this flash game has been an easy and difficult process. To begin with we were following demos to create the script that would allow use to create a flash game for android. I feel that my understanding towards flash has increased, that I might be able to understand Flash easier and create better things in it. Although my Flash skills are not that good to enable me to create a more fuller game, I feel that my graphics were the real strong point of this game. I think that my graphics make the game better as this game is not very complex. I added lanes to the script with some assistants which helped the development of my game and graphics. This allowed me to create a better road graphic, which I was then able to animate. There are a few things with my game I would have liked to add to the game, these would have been audio and a leader board. I feel that these things not being in my game, don't make it as professional as others. Overall I feel that my understanding for Flash has increased and that this Flash game has been successful. 

Work in progress

Beta test

I ran beta tests with people to get there feedback on my game.

during this beta test, I was told by Jordan and Ryan that the game was good. They said that I should add different enemies which give different points, create an animated background and add a leader board.

Creating an APK file

Creating an APK file allows you to make the game you have created into a game that is able to run on an android. You do this being changing settings and creating icons for the game.

36x36

 48x48

 72x72

Here are screen shots of my graphics and my game during play.

This is the original background I created for the game.

Final graphics

Main menu

Final background

End game

Enemy graphics for my final game.

The Hummer H3 graphic is worth 3 points

 The Range Rover Evoque graphic is worth 4 points

 The Lamborghini Sesto Elemento graphic is worth 5

Game during play

Ideas generation

Ideas generation

After completing game research, I began idea generation.

Undercover gunner

I decided to go with the idea of having a car along the bottom shooting enemy cars which come down from the top of the screen.

This is an image of an enemy I will use for my game.

action scripting demos

These are screen shots of the notes of action scripting we completed during demos.

Games research

Research/ find (6) examples of “Asteroids” games from the past to the present.

Summarise their similarities and differences. Think about:

• Replay values
• Difficulty levels
• Scoring systems
• Themes/graphic styles
• Animations
• Sound effects

Asteroids Raid

 There is replay value to the game because it is very smooth and has a nice retro look to the game. I feel that this game becomes very difficult too quickly, level 2 of the game has too many enemies for you to be able to get through to level 3. There is a scoring system in the game but I feel that this is unnecessary as there is no leaderboard so you can’t see your score after a level. The graphic style for the is a retro style, I think for a game like this, a retro style works as it is a classic. The animations keep within the look of the game, simple and retro looking. They are slow and laggy so it seems like an old game. The audio for this game sounds unrefined, old and classic to continue with the classic theme.

Space Invaders

This game is the original 'asteroid' game. Space invaders is so simply done and it has survived the test of time. Its graphics are very basic and its audio is very basic. This game is an addictive game, it tells you the points of each enemy at the beginning and tells you the score at the end of the game. Its audio is simple and effective as are its graphics. This is a simple game that has a classic feel, it doesn't have a leader board but will continue to be played everywhere.

Galaga

This game is very similar to Space invaders. The graphics have a basic retro style, but there is more detail and has stronger animations. The enemies provide more difficulty to the game as the move around the screen and fire at you, this makes the game more exciting and gives it a replay value. The audio is again like space invaders, it has basic firing, explosion and death sounds. This makes the game seem old like space invaders to give it a retro feel. The scoring system is clear and it has a leader board which helps make the game better as it allows you to know your score when you die.

Asteroids

This game has a different game play style compared to the others. This game allows you to move your player around the screen to avoid and shoot the moving hazards and enemies. Again, like some of the others, the graphics and audio, are very basic. The animation when you shoot an asteroid is basic, it becomes smaller and duplicates. At the end of the game, it displays you score but does not have a leader board.

Phoenix
This game has gameplay similar to Galaga. It has enemies which move around the screen and have a some detail. The game has difficulty due to the enemies moving around the screen making this game more difficult. The game has a score count and tells you the score at the end but doesn't have a leader board. Its audio, like the others are very basic.

Cubefield
This game has stronger graphics and animations than the other games researched. This game is more fun I feel as it is something different. It is a very smooth game where you have to avoid cube. This is a good game but it has no sound which I think makes it a bit boring, but this game counts your score and tells you it after. I think this is a good different game which has a lot more replay value.

Flash as an IDE

Having used Flash for a few years to create animations and games, I feel that Flash is a program that is extremely useful. It has a friendly user interface where you can complete simple tasks such as motion tweens and create graphics; it can also be a very hard program to use as it is capable of creating highly complex games and animations.

It is easy to create graphics on flash using the line tool and the brush tool, although I will sometimes use Photoshop for more detail. Onion skinning is a helpful tool where if you are drawing an animation in flash as a frame by frame animation, you can see what the previous frame looked like allowing you to create more detailed pieces of work. Flash has gradient tools, transform tools, effects tools and other tools where you can refine a piece of Both Flash and Photoshop are Adobe, so it helps when importing graphics because the file formats will be the same, then allowing you to adapt the graphic further in Flash if you wish to. With graphics you can create tweens; this is where a graphic in one keyframe can be animated by having the same graphic in another keyframe. This allows you to put the tween between the two same graphics creating a small animation. The types of tweens are Motion, Classic and Shape. Scripting in Flash is easy once you have understood how it works and then it becomes a quick process with the help of code snippets. The layout of for the code snippets are easy to find and go through. The code snippets are pre-sets for simple pieces of interactivity like “click to go”. Code snippets make Flash easier to understand and get into. As action scripting in Flash can be quite difficult, it has a compiler error section where it will notify you of what is not working and on what line of code it is. If you are not an advanced user of Flash action script, this will help you understand the problem so you can fix it and learn how the program works.

Flash allows you to import audio files, different image file formats and videos files. Being able to do these allows you add audio to a game or animation you’ve created, adding audio brings the game to life, without this, the game would be less entertaining. Importing images and videos lets you go to each frame of a video and draw around the image so you can complete a rotoscope. Brining images in allows you to put what you want in as a background you’ve created in Photoshop or for other uses.

One thing about Flash is that you are not able to create 3D games. 3D games are popular for games on smart phones. Although Flash does not support 3D games, 2D games are still popular such as angry birds. It is a 2D game which has become a huge well known game and showing us that a simple concept can be made in Flash.

I feel that Flash is a program that is capable of continuing to be top IDE. Flash has competition from HTML 5 which is slowing becoming the more preferred IDE you use when it comes to apps. I feel that Flash is still a program that can compete with the competition as it has been around for a long time. Its user friendly interface and code snippets, will help bring people up to speed to create some high pieces of work that can be successful on the games market.