8 replies to this topic

[necroside]

Hi all...

I've landed into a nice job as game developer for a flash game development company, but I have a problem. I'm good with As3 using flex framework... using bitmaps and stuff but they want me to work with flash and learn it in no time. It's like Chinese to me 'cause I've never been a flash designer' I'm mostly a programmer that learned As3 some years ago and now that found a job where I can do what I want I'm about to quit it because I don't know how to work with flash (Cs3 or Cs4).
Anyone knows a good tutorial site or book about flash game development (Using As3)?
Some words of advice?

[TheNut]

Adobe Flash Pro is catered to designers and less so for programmers. It is possible for you to work with AS3 in the tool; however it's a much different paradigm. It does not have your typical IDE environment Flex Builder offers and is a lot more cumbersome to work with from a developer point of view. You'll be dealing more with Flash primitives like movie clips, sprites and the graphics api and less with conventional game development.

I would personally try to convince your company the benefits of Flex Builder and using the Flex SDK over Flash. It is very much possible for the two to coexist. Animations and vector art can be designed in Flash Pro and loaded as SWF content into Flex. From gaming development and practices, it's a much better combination. Don't just say it, but get them into a meeting and present them with facts and show them you mean business.

If they are stiff about it, I would jump ship. You will never build engine grade code from CS and as a developer you're only kidding yourself working with a designer tool. I know this isn't what you're hoping to hear, but it's a life decision right now. You can bite the bullet and read up on the Flash API (Adobe Live Docs) and CS help manual, but that's no life of a developer.

[fireside]

I've always been more of a programmer and recently tried to learn CS4 and really, I think it's one of the hardest things I've tried. It just seems so odd to me, but quite useful once you get into it as far as using short consecutive movieclips. At least you know Flex, because it's just joining up the graphics to AS3 that's a little weird. I have Flash CS4, the Missing Manual, which helped me quite a bit with just generally figuring out what flash is and what it does. I've had it for quite a while and it still kind of scares me to be honest. Makes me mad because everyone made it sound easy but it just doesn't work with my head.

[necroside]

TheNut said:

I would personally try to convince your company the benefits of Flex Builder and using the Flex SDK over Flash. It is very much possible for the two to coexist. Animations and vector art can be designed in Flash Pro and loaded as SWF content into Flex. From gaming development and practices, it's a much better combination. Don't just say it, but get them into a meeting and present them with facts and show them you mean business.

I was thinking the same, if they call me it's because they need me, so, I guess, I can have an opinion in the tools we (I) use and how the development works. About the team, most of them are designers and few work with java and php backend; this make me believe the reason they hired me is because they wanted a As3 developer to work on more complicated games, hand on hand with the designers. It's hard work but right now I'm going to the meeting you suggested.

I don't see the problem if they don't want to buy Flex Builder I can use Flash Develop. I'll let you know how everything ends.

TheNut said:

If they are stiff about it, I would jump ship. You will never build engine grade code from CS and as a developer you're only kidding yourself working with a designer tool. I know this isn't what you're hoping to hear, but it's a life decision right now. You can bite the bullet and read up on the Flash API (Adobe Live Docs) and CS help manual, but that's no life of a developer.

I guess they can sink alone :p
Thanks for the advice. Take care.
Forgive my crappy english

[necroside]

fireside said:

I've always been more of a programmer and recently tried to learn CS4 and really, I think it's one of the hardest things I've tried. It just seems so odd to me, but quite useful once you get into it as far as using short consecutive movieclips. At least you know Flex, because it's just joining up the graphics to AS3 that's a little weird. I have Flash CS4, the Missing Manual, which helped me quite a bit with just generally figuring out what flash is and what it does. I've had it for quite a while and it still kind of scares me to be honest. Makes me mad because everyone made it sound easy but it just doesn't work with my head.

Same situation here, I just found that an all in one IDE is a good solution, but flash is designer oriented, at least for now. Hope adobe fix this and work in a programmer friendly flash version. BTW nice book you have there, here at the company they have a copy. :)

[stupid_programmer]

I think you can tell the games that were coded using Flex versus doing everything in CS. Flex games usually have a higher level of polish to them I think. I picked up AS3 recently for some projects and used FlashDevelop. I coded my own engine with Box2D integration pretty easily. Don't think I could have made it just using CS. Needed to make a couple of movies and had Flash MX on a old disk so I installed that. Flash just seems completely foreign to try and make a decent game with.

I second that you try and get them to go the Flex route and use either Flex Builder or FlashDevelop. If they really want you then I think they would choose the path where you could get the most done in the least amount of time. The FlashDevelop route costs them zero money so I would think they would at least give it a try.

[necroside]

stupid_programmer said:

I think you can tell the games that were coded using Flex versus doing everything in CS. Flex games usually have a higher level of polish to them I think. I picked up AS3 recently for some projects and used FlashDevelop. I coded my own engine with Box2D integration pretty easily. Don't think I could have made it just using CS. Needed to make a couple of movies and had Flash MX on a old disk so I installed that. Flash just seems completely foreign to try and make a decent game with.

That's the case most of the time, but also depends on the graphic designer, the game designer and sound. The difference is that flex games uses a lot of third party software like Photoshop and alike.

stupid_programmer said:

I second that you try and get them to go the Flex route and use either Flex Builder or FlashDevelop. If they really want you then I think they would choose the path where you could get the most done in the least amount of time. The FlashDevelop route costs them zero money so I would think they would at least give it a try.

I hope they do, thanks

[necroside]

Thanks everyone.
After a week I can work with FlashDevelop and Flex when it doesn't require extra work from the graphic designers. I'm ok with working with swf files so that won't be a problem. But also I'll learn flash, just to gain experience and knowledge.
Thanks again for the advice.

[salcha00]

I have the same problems but is the other way around. I don't know a thing about AS3 but I am starting to get the hang of Flash. It is not too hard to learn if you really put your mind to it.