Customer Reviews

Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development (Charles River Media Game Development)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

With Flash 8 Game Development by Glen Rhodes I expected to get a step by step process on how to develop games in Flash in the form of Actionscript examples and tutorials. I didn't expect much in terms of the other processes of game design, but was pleasantly surprised when Glen related the importance of all game components. While the book doesn't go into as much detail with other processes as it does the code (and as it is a game development book it shouldn't), it describes the importance of each part, and gives several extra items beyond what I expected. There is a section on sound, optimization, game physics, portable games and 3D simulation as well as a section by Chris Hildenbrand about game graphics. And you make some fun games as well as explore more complicated versions which are included on the CD that comes with the book.

You should have at least an intermediate understanding of scripting. The basics of Actionscript are not described here - if you need an introduction to Actionscript read another book first. If you are confident with your ability to pick up Actionscript you will do fine, especially given the Actionscript for games primer at the end of the book.

This book gives a lot of helpful information on how Flash works and how to make games with this software. If you're interested in Flash 8 in particular, it details the creation of a tile-based side-scrolling game using the new bitmap class. I learned several methods of number manipulation and Actionscript methodology that will help me save time and processing power on future games. I learned ways of creating games that I hadn't thought of before, and he broke the physics down very simply and made it easy to understand. The tutorials and examples were thorough and easy to follow, with explanations of what each part of the code was doing.

The only qualms I had were a few typos in the code (which are easily fixed), the order of presentation of some topics (I would have liked to read about the physics first before some early examples), a few spots where "why the math works" was not completely explained (but can be found through experimentation) and the process of planning the code/outlining functionality wasn't as prevalent as I would have liked.

Overall though, this book has been extremely helpful in understanding how to implement different types of games. I was making my own version of the popular "Breakout" by Atari in no time. If you are interested in making games with Flash, this book is loaded with ideas and information on how to go about creating them.

Glen Rhodes' Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development is for those who have the basics down and want to learn to produce professional-quality games. The latest enhancements to Flash are taught to programmers and web developers who want to get up and running quickly. From producing fast 3D effects to the hidden powers of Flash Pro 8, this book provides methods for understanding advanced techniques and getting up to speed: indispensable for game developers.

Don't believe the negative reviews of those who don't understand what a second, or revised edition is.

This book is a superb, tutorial-style introduction to programming games with Flash 8 that quickly gives the reader a basis for learning Actionscript. Within one hour, I had my first game tutorial running and was analyzing the actionscript driving it.

Nice work Glen, thanks!

For programmers who are new to flash, this book is a "must have". It is an excellent introduction to, and explanation for, Flash 8 Game programming. The book includes a companion CD containing all of the images and Flash files (games) referenced.

As a note, another reader commented that this book contains much of the content from Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Game Development. I must admit, I have not read that book, but if you already have it, you may reconsider buying this one. It is good for learning how to use some of the new features in Flash 8, though.

(Playing with.. I mean learning, the games in the examples is fun too!)

I've bought this book with the purpose of starting to make flash games. Well, i couldn't have chosen a better way! The book is very easy to read and understand and the the examples are incredible. It explores the appropriate tools to create games like the BitmapData while giving other tools an explanation too. 5 stars!

If you've worked with strongly type languages like Java/C++/etc then this book might make you cringe a bit. First, the code is very terse with clever tricks to shorten the number of lines. Eventually it makes sense but methods like makeFader() don't really make a fader, they do other things like remove a game object from the scene.

So along with softreferences ( for i to 10, make a variable box_i=i ) - ew, and bad naming conventions, it plays out more like an Oreilly Cookbook that encourages bad habits. Granted, I ordered it and I'll keep it as a book full of complete examples. But I think any of the examples that I copy/type/study, I'll refactor later to be more clear and well-coded.

It's a fast ramp-up to ActionScript 2.0. If you're looking for smarter and more mid-level code then maybe wait for a book on AS3.0 that is more class oriented and less procedural like this book. Else, if you just want to see end-to-end examples as fast as possible the author does a good job of explaining code blocks as he goes even if he's encouraging bad habits.

I found the book easy to read and very practical. The use of examples to explain things is great. And of course, examples that do work is great also!!!

It's the right book for those that already know something about flash and actionscript (doesn't need to be an expert), and want to learn to develop some games in flash, and perhaps aplly those technics on other apllications.

The book is great fun!!!

This book has several inconsistencies, broken code, and an outdated website. Within the second game I quickly noticed that the author cited a section of code two different ways (j%4)+1 and (j)%4+1, that is a pretty big mistake considering that the simple swap in parenthesis causes the code to run entirely different.

I also noticed that game #3 doesn't even work right. The author obviously didn't even test his own code. When you click the start button it needs to reset the fadercnt variable, or the game won't register multiple wins/losses correctly.

On to the website, there is a contact us link that requires a captcha before it will send. I've tried 3 different browsers and 4 computers and there is no captcha, therefore making it impossible to send an email to the author.

I am highly opposed to wasting money on this book.

This is a fantastic book. The instructions are simple and easy to follow. All the actionscripting is explained, so you know what each piece of code does. A must have for people just learning Flash gaming

I enjoyed reading this book a lot compared to the other Flash books I've read. If you are trying to make Flash games and don't know where to start this might be the book you should buy! :)