In Foundation Game Design with Flash, Rex van der Spuy introduced the reader to the rudimentary Actionscript programming skills required to create professional quality games developed in Adobe Flash. A direct continuation from that book, Advanced Game Design with Flash explores more advanced game programming techniques including grid-based pathfinding for enemy AI, loading and saving game data using XML, particle systems, and creating destructible environments.
Unlike Foundation Game Design with Flash, Advanced Game Design with Flash does not rely on the reader owning a licensed copy of the Adobe Flash IDE. The Actionscript examples in the book can be compiled with any alternative IDE, such as Flash Develop or Eclipse.
While his first book focused on the beginner, in Advanced Game Design with Flash van der Spuy assumes a basic knowledge of Flash game development and Actionscripting on the part of the reader. As such, this is not a book for the inexperienced. However, van der Spuy covers each topic with the depth and detail which makes Foundation Game Design with Flash such a valuable resource to the budding Flash game developer, and readers of that first book will find themselves on reassuringly familiar ground.
Breaking Down Advanced Game Design with Flash
The first chapter of the book, Modeling Game Data, covers the Model View Controller system of Flash game design, and provides a crash course in the drawing API. This is followed by an extensive chapter on vectors, which leads into several sections on advanced collision detection methods, culminating in pixel-perfect collision, and the creation (and destruction) of destructible environments.
Chapter 6 introduces particle systems, and includes an excellent section on blitting using the copyPixels routine and 2D sprite sheets, which can substantially speed up game performance. The next section covers sound, interface and enemy AI in a chapter that would seem convoluted in its mixture of content if it did not culminate in a game design project using all of the techniques taught in the book so far.
Tile Based Game Design Using Flash
Chapter 8 focuses on tile-based (or grid-based) game design, demonstrating how to efficiently use graphics to build game levels using arrays. This game development system makes full use of the blitting technique explained in Chapter 6, and includes code examples for constructing a platform game.
Chapter 9 concentrates on pathfinding, an important aspect of game design. This is followed by a section on using XML to save and load game data, concluding a book that touches on every major aspect of using Flash actionscripting to make games.
Developing Games with Actionscript Instead of Flash
Like van der Spuy's first book on Flash game development, Advanced Game Design with Flash does not look especially involving at first glance. The current trend in game design books tends to be to furnish the reader with a series of games - a vertical shooter, a platform game, a racing game - that are then used as templates that can be reskinned by the reader with their own graphics to create pretty much the same game as the one in the book.
Rex van der Spuy's approach is very different. By teaching the Actionscripting skills required for any game creation situation, he equips the reader with the skills needed to create any game type using Flash. The framework he supplies to build a game upon is robust and object orientated and is thus easily adapted.
The result of this teaching technique is a book that is very Actionscript-centric, which may be off-putting to those Flash users who are more used to incorporating the Flash IDE timeline and layer features into their game design projects. However, it is only through competent Actionscripting that the full power and flexibility of Flash game development can be harnassed. Advanced Game Design with Flash is not a quick fix to making games using Flash. Rather, it is a complete guide to learning better Actionscripting.
Outstanding Books on Actionscripting and Flash Game Design
Rex van der Spuy's 2 books on developing games with Flash, Foundation Game Design with Flash and Advanced Game Design with Flash, equip the reader with all of the Actionscripting skills necessary to create complex professional quality games using Flash. Unlike many games programming books, which can tend to the dry side, van der Spuy's relaxed and conversational manner is a joy to read, and the depth to which he treats his subject makes his books must-have reference material for any Flash game designer.
Both books would be of particular use to educators wishing to teach classes on game design using Flash, as the structure of both books introduces Actionscript programming concepts in easily digestible chapters that build on the tutorials of previous sections.
Advanced Game Design with Flash takes readers of van der Spuy's first book to the next level of game development, and experienced game programmers in other languages or readers familiar with Flash Actionscript will find the topics comprehensively covered and explained through the inclusion of expertly coded examples. Finding a programmer as gifted as Rex van der Spuy who can also teach effectively is a rarity. As such, Advanced Game Design with Flash and its precursor, Foundation Game Design with Flash , should be considered as compulsory reading for anyone considering game development using Flash.
- Advanced Game Design with Flash by Rex van der Spuy
- Available from Friends of Ed
- 500 Pages, Soft Cover and eBook
- Originally Published August 2010
- Cover Design by Bruce Tang
- ISBN 1-4302-2739-7
Nicolas McGregor - Nicolas McGregor studied English at Stirling University, and later, Information Technology. Amongst his interests are: independent ...
