ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University (Paperback)

by Gary Rosenzweig (Author)
Key Phrases: space rocks, picture puzzles, casual games, Match Three, Air Raid, Basic Game Framework (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

 

Gary Rosenzweig's ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University shows you how  to use ActionScript, the programming language behind Flash CS3 Professional. The lessons teach you all the basics of ActionScript programming through game examples, but the code can be easily adapted to non-game-oriented projects, such as web training and advertising. Written by a real-world Flash developer, this book presents you with the source code of 16 complete games and lays the foundation for you to create your own games. Gary also provides a companion website - flashgameu.com,  which contains files, updates, new content, Gary's blog and much more. 

 

 

About the Author

As a youngster, Gary Rosenzweig was allowed to play video games whenever he wanted, as long as his homework was done first. His parents got him an Atari 2600 and an assortment of games. He loved to play Adventure, Asteroids, Pitfall, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and even that dreadful E.T. game.

 

At age 13, in 1983, his grandmother gave him a new TRS-80 Model III. The first thing he did with it was learn to program. And then, make games. He made some text adventure games, and then some RPG games, and then some arcade games. He was allowed to stay up all night making games, as long as his homework was done first.

 

In high school, Gary got to play with the Apple II computers pretty much whenever he wanted, as long as his schoolwork was done first. He made space shuttle simulators and spreadsheet programs. And some games.

 

Gary went on to study computer science in college, at Drexel University. There he was told that with his degree, he could go on to be a programmer at any high-tech firm making business applications. But he wanted to make games, even if it was on the side, after he got his work done first.

 

After a side trip to get a Master's degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Gary ended up getting a job where he could make games for kids using Macromedia Director.

 

Then, they invented the Internet. It was soon followed by Shockwave, a way to play Director content in web pages. Gary started making his own games for his own website in the evening,

after his work was done first.

 

In 1996, Gary started hiw own company, CleverMedia, to produce games for the Web. He was soon creating both Shockwave and Flash games with some of the most creative people he ever met. CleverMedia and its sites grew over the years to become the single largest collection of web-based games by a single company. Gary has created more than 300 games in the past 12 years, most of which can be found at CleverMedia's main game site, www.GameScene.com.

 

Gary also likes to share what he knows. His sites http://FlashGameU.com, www.Director-Online.com, and www.DeveloperDispatch.com contain information for other developers. He has also written many books, including Macromedia Flash MX ActionScript for Fun & Games, Special Edition Using Director MX, and Advanced Lingo for Games. Gary wrote this book mostly on evenings and weekends, after his other work was done first.

 

Gary lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Debby, and daughter, Luna. Debby and Gary also own The Attic Bookstore, an unusual used bookstore in Englewood, Colorado. Luna is only 5 years old, but is already playing games on her Macintosh computer, after her homework is done first, of course.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Que; 1 edition (September 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789737027
• ISBN-13: 978-0789737021
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,476 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great read for upgrading to AS 3, entertaining too., November 10, 2007

By	Thomas B. Talbot (Gunpowder, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Lets face it. There are a lot of Actionscript game books out there. This one is good because 1) It is entertaining and readable & 2) It's the first game book I have found that works for the new actionscript 3.0.

The code itself isn't exactly as object oriented as I would like, but thats true of all the other game books out there too. It does have enough object oriented content to show some amazingly different, and simple methods for making game characters, detecting collisions, and managing objects that are possible with actionscript 3.0. I value this book as a 'how to upgrade' from 2.0 to 3.0.

The games themselves are pretty good and there is a nice variety of game styles to appeal to a wide audience. For a basic game programming book, it omits or glosses over a few important topics such as caching vector objects as bitmaps, pseudo 3-D and optimization in general.

All in all, I suggest this book if you are upgrading skills to actionscript 3.0 or want to write flash games. If you get this book, I also recommend Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move! to round out your collection.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent practical book for moving from AS2 to AS3, November 21, 2007

By	J. Michael Birch (Cardiff, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I got interested in this book after discovering Gary Rosenzweig's AS3 tutorials on his Flash Game University Website. I was impressed by his ability to explain things clearly and simply. As other reviews have already stated "AS3 Game Programming University" is an excellent and highly readable book for learning AS3. In practice I find it much more helpful than Colin Moock's book "Essential ActionScript 3.0", which is a little too academic for me (although I'm glad I have it!). I'm also finding that code snippets in Gary's book are just as useful to me as those in Joey Lott's "ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook" (which covers more topics). It's helpful to me that Gary writes from a Flash authoring perspective rather than Flex. He doesn't hesitate to include timeline based assets and code when it makes sense to do so, rather than use the Flex style of generating everything in code.

The actual games are surprisingly varied and complete, but not so complex that they become difficult to understand. The code that I downloaded from the website works well. It is written in a practical concise manner with proper use of classes and other object-oriented techniques as required by AS3. However, as other reviews have noted, this book is not for advanced programmers that prefer a pure object-oriented style.

I recommend this book if you are moving from AS2 to AS3, even if you are not interested in writing games. Gary does not claim it is suitable for beginners without any programming experience but it is more suitable than Moock's "Essential ActionScript 3.0" (which does make such a claim). However it is not for web designers that don't want to learn programming and it is not for advanced programmers that appreciate Moock's AS3 book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I finally understand!, September 18, 2007

By	Jim Berkey - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Just got the book and discovered the website. I like the 'horse-sense' attitude of the author. My goal is not to write tons of perfectly formatted code, for code's sake, but to get a job done. Even in AS2, purist coders tsk tsk the coders that take what I call 'common-sense short cuts', instead of writing many more lines of code in the 'accepted practice' way. Organization is essential, but you don't need the blueprint for a skyscraper to build a tree-house. I am just a couple chapters into the book, and have now looked at a couple of tutes and podcasts on the web site, and am very excited. When I get a mook book or many other books, I learn, but it is work and hard study. When I am reading your book, it is like you are sitting next to me and talking my language. I can't even really identify the difference in language or communication, but in my head it is enormous. I'm constantly saying, 'kewl, so THAT'S how that works.'