Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Graphics

Creating graphics for Flash games can be fun and rewarding, especially when you can channel your imagination into your art and provide potential players with a fun entertainment experience. Written for anyone creating games with Flash, Macromedia© Flash(TM) Professional 8 Game Graphics teaches the essentials of Flash game art. You'll learn all about what Flash graphics are, how to create your own, and how to import them into working game source files. The book covers vector and raster graphics and explains how both can be used to improve the performance of your game. Helpful tips and techniques are included throughout to help you become more effi cient at creating user interfaces, game character sprites, and special effects. And several real-world game examples are used to teach about the development process for creating game graphics and preparing them correctly for a smooth transition to programming. You don't have to be an artist to use this book, because the graphic techniques taught don't require a painter's hand. So if you want to create awesome graphics for your Flash games, this is the place to get started.

If you want to take your Flash Professional 8 skills to a new level while learning how to produce games that rival anything available on the web, this is the book for you. Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development is written by a professional game developer. Using the power of Flash and the most recent advancements in ActionScript, the book progresses through the entire development process to teach programmers and Web developers how to create professional quality games quickly. It teaches techniques for producing fast 3D effects that can be used with "cheat" techniques to produce powerful, high-performance results. It details the actual science of game development, including design, character development, the physics and motion of a game, and audio issues. And in this new edition, all of the latest features of Flash Professional 8 are covered, including the new sound channels, bitmap caching, texture pages, and more. The book covers many advanced topics in a simple, easy to understand way. It emphasizes the incredible power of the new BitmapData class and teaches how it can be used to take the performance of Flash games to a whole new level. It has never been easier to get right down to the pixel level and manipulate things at blazing speeds, making previously impossible games a breeze to make. So get to your computer, insert the CD-ROM, and prepare to begin your journey into the world of Flash Professional 8 game development.

So you wanna be a hotshot game designer? Well, if you have a basic grasp of Macromedia Flash MX, you can. Unafraid to tackle some of the more complicated aspects of game creation (including physics and trigonometry!), this comprehensive reference covers it all. Macromedia Flash Game Design Demystified starts out with the basics: planning, adapting ActionScript techniques, using introductory Flash game techniques, and more. Then it gets down to the real business of building simple games. You'll tackle simple-logic and quiz games before moving on to multiplayer and complex-logic games (chess, for example)--learning about importing 3-D graphics, adding sound effects, and licensing your games in the process. The book's companion CD includes the source files for a number of games as well as the tutorials and lessons that go along with the book and XML server software to facilitate multiplayer games. If you're tired of the games that you have and want to make your own action, this book offers comprehensive coverage of sophisticated techniques--but put in easy-to-grasp, practical terms.

"Create quality, professional animation with Flash! Create professional animations and discover the capabilities of Flash with this comprehensive guide. Stay ahead of the pack with gaming code and graphics functions from five PC commercial games and 7 Flash Lite II games. Take advantage of free files on the accompanying CD-ROM and put into practice everything you learnt in the book - a great quick way to learn!" - back cover.

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. Creating games for mobile devices is now also covered! 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.

Andrew Rapo and Alex Michael explain all the important programming concepts from a designer's point of view, making them completely accessible to non-programmers. Completely revised and rewritten this second edition will help you develop professional ActionScript 2 applications, and communicate knowledgably about current, Object Oriented ActionScript 2 techniques. Divided into four sections to take you from novice to professional results: * Flash Fundamentals: Introduces the Flash authoring environment and basic core Flash concepts. * ActionScript 2 Fundamentals: Explains basic programming concepts and terminology, and shows how ActionScript 2 classes are constructed and used. * Built-in Classes: Describes the built-in ActionScript classes that are available for use in applications, including the MovieClip class, Key class, Sound class, etc. * Using ActionScript to Build a Game: Describes the development process for creating a complex Flash application and presents commercial-quality game coding examples.

Get ready to explore all that Flash Professional 8 has to offer! Giving you a firm foundation, Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Revealed allows you to master concepts on both a technical and artistic level. Begin by examining the concept behind each task-the goal and the necessary features that are involved. Then go in-depth with the objective of your task as you study examples and learn the steps necessary to complete it. Working your way through comprehensive, step-by-step lessons, youall develop the confidence you need to create eye-catching movies and graphics using Flash Professional 8.

Anyone with moderate Macromedia Flash experience who is looking to acquire or improve their understanding of ActionScript will find this book a valuable resource. For this edition, the author has updated the games from the previous edition and has added several new projects.