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At 5/18/11 06:01 PM, milchreis wrote: almost ;)
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/main /00001788.html
onData gives you the raw data, onLoad lets you access the variables in your LoadVars Object
see the example to know how to access the variables (their values)

This works for the .cfm example that they give, but not for any .php example I use.

I don't know what a PHP interpreter is.

I looked up LoadVars and I changed it to this:
var DATA:LoadVars = new LoadVars();
DATA.onData = function (src:String):Void {
my_txt.text = myVars;
}
DATA.load("test.php");

and it's still undefined.
I know that it's actually reading the file now, cos if I tell it to my_txt.text = src; then it gives me exactly what's in there.

I'm tryina loadVariables from this test.php

The first thing I did was this basic one:
loadVariables("data.txt", "");

and that worked fine. Then I tried it from this test.php:
<?php
//The value of $x would be printed to the screen but the SWF would not read the data
$x = "abc";
print $x;

//The value of $x would be printed to the screen and because of the prefix 'myVar=', the SWF will //interpret this as being the intended value for the variable myVar in the SWF
print "myVar=$x";
?>

with:
loadVariables("http://tombrien.t35.com/t est.php", "");

and it seems to not be doing anything. I also put both files on the desktop and it just won't read the PHP file at all.

I've got this thing right now where I can only draw a level so big. The bigger levels render halfway down, and then stop.
Should I be using scrollrect(); to get around this, or something else?

At 5/16/11 01:30 PM, PSvils wrote: You should be doing it manually anyways, and rendering any movieclips to a BitmapData, and then only use copyPixels.

BitmapData.draw() is fucking slow compared to copyPixels. Another funny thing is that manually drawing anti-aliased lines on a BitmapData is faster than using the built in vector renderer...

BitmapData.draw(); draws the content of a movieclip to a bitmap. copyPixels can only go from bitmap to bitmap.
It's the only was I can convert any movieclips onscreen.

Mega Drive is a 1 trillion times better name that "Genesis".

Do what the above guy said^, you're not supposed to make a Flash animation that big, and then make your Stage the dimensions your aiming for in the Properties panel.

Now go inside the vCam movieclip, select the ACTUAL RECTANGLES that are in there, and scale those up to the same size as your Stage.
Then make sure they are centered in the middle of the movieclip.

The version of vCam I'm using is a bajillion years old, but yours is probably the same.

Doesn't matter, I mostly worked it out.

The game runs WAY BETTER now that I've took out some movieclips n swapped em all for one fat bitmapData.

cacheAsBitmap sucks, it never does what I want.

Hey I can't get this to work.
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/2b29 b1e23c26e719842845569cabdf98

import flash.display.BitmapData;
var myBitmapData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(Stage.width, Stage.height, false);
onEnterFrame = function () {
COLOUR="0x"+myBitmapData.getPixel(_xmous e, _ymouse).toString(16);
};

It's checkin the colour, but it keeps sayin everything's 0xffffff. Like it's checking a big white square.
Should I put stuff in a movieclip? Use-- attachbimtap(); or something? What should I do here?

It's over 22,000 right now.
Funny in a funny way, or funny in a sad way? I've never bin good at scripting, it's just somethin I have to do to get games made.

Tryin this out tomorrow, hopefully it's better than hitTest!
And hopefully that's what's wreckin my framerate!

HEY, someone just suggested to me that instead of doing hitTests I should make a colour map.

Is there any way, in AS2, that I can specify a pixel and find out what colour it is?

Alright nevermind, I got it.

I think I do ignore like 90% of the suggestions I get for games.

But that's because I ask absolutely anyone, and most of it is complete jibberish.

Hey this is a dumb question, but how do I check whether or not a variable is a number?

I've got if (LEVEL <= 25) {
do stuff;
};

and it keeps doing stuff even though LEVEL == "level select".
AS2.

I'm always amazed when I have 1 new review for a game I made in 2008. Which is ALL THE TIME!

Well making a level editor has given me the opportunity to release with the game, so that's cool.
There's stuff you can't do with a level editor, you don't wanna make every game like that, but for a puzzle platformer then yeah that's probably the best way to do it.

I've made tonnes of games where I just draw the levels. This game had like 30 levels or something n I drew em all.

But for the game I'm making now I've made myself a cool level editor, and it's all with tiles.

1. How old were you when you started?
About 15

2. How long have you been making flash games for?
5 years--ish

3. Did you do any sort of animation or programming before flash games?
Programming, no. I spent a while learning to animate cos I wanted to make cartoons for a while before I wanted to make games.

4. What kind of flash games do you specialize in?
Arcade action games, and comedy games. I don't consider that they're made in Flash at all, I just make the games I'd enjoy playing. A lot of people make Flash games based on market research, but I'm not smart enough to be into that.

5. Do you have difficulty making any kind of specific flash game category, if yes, why?
I can't do physics-based games, or really anything interesting with physics. This is mostly because I'm focussing on animation more than scripting.

6. How hard was it for you to get into making flash games, what was the learning curve like?
I learned to make games by downloading already-made games and pulling them apart, so I got the satisfaction of playing a working project straight away. I've bin doing this so long though and I'd still never call myself a good programmer. The learning curve of how to make games is way more interesting than the learning curve of how to use Flash- You can do a lot without being an expert.

7. What got you wanting to make flash games in the first place?
When I was in school I wanted to grow up to make cartoons. At some point I realised that there were a lot of cartoons on the internet, and they were all clearly made by individual teenagers. So I thought it'd be fun to join in and try n make something I could be proud of.
After a while I just realised I was more interested in games, and luckily Flash does both.

8. How long does it take for you to complete a flash game?
Oh god- I've spent a few days on some games and months on others. It depends how much game you wanna make.
I went for a while making 1 game a month to get some steady income.

9. How many flash games have you made so far?
About 26.. I think. Some are huge, some are small. There's tonnes of others that I just deleted or decided to put down.

10. Are any of the games that you've created well known?
Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar got a lot of attention, I got a lot of really cool fanart from that, I'm really happy with how it came out and it really turned me on to the idea of making comedy games. Right now I'm making No Time To Explain with this great marketing guy I met; We've got loads of attention from the games press, we're the fastest Kickstarter project to ever reach it's goal (just trippled it, oh my god!) and we've got a bunch of deals with games distribution services to sell it this Summer. The project's growing like the crazy right now.

11. Have you made any money off these flash games, through winning prizes or sponsorship or another method?
The first few games I made I submitted into these huge contests that MaxGames.com would do every year. They'd give away loads of money, but luckily for me nobody ever entered!
I made a steady living getting games sponsored for a while, ad revenue comes in from Newgrounds and Kongregate every month, and like I said just recently we'll be selling No Time To Explain when it comes out. We've already made money on that from distribution deals and the Kickstarter. Way more than I ever would from sponsoring it.

12. Do you use more than just flash / actionscript to create flash games?
No. Sometimes I use After Effects to make trailers.
I use Audacity a lot.

13. Have you run into any legal trouble with any of your flash games?
No, thank god! That sounds horrible.

14. Do you have any sort of physical condition due to your excessive use of the computer such as arthritis or a back problem or something else?
No. My hand hurts sometimes and I don't know why.

15. Would you consider yourself a professional?
No, never. That's terrifying, don't say that.

16. Do you consider this a likely avenue for a future career?
Wow, that's a difficult question. I got into this as the whole sponsorship/ads market was blowing up and I'm really lucky for that, but now it's really getting saturated with cloned copycat games, cheap games, video ads, and you can't really rely on just making a great game and getting paid for it as much right now. Having some business accumen is getting more and more important, I'm actually breaking out of web games and teaming up with people with the marketing skills I don't have.
Is it a good idea to start making games? Yes. Can you make a living from it? Definately! Should you jump into Flash games to pay your bills today? ...You should really think about it first!

17. Did you start this type of hobby as a passion? If yes, do you still have the same drive as you did when you started? If not, what was your reason for starting this type of hobby?
Yes. And-- y'know I'm feeling kind of fatigued from making so many games that haven't kicked off, and I can't tell if it's because I don't put the effort into getting exposure, or because my games are just bad.
But anyway this game right now is crazy-popular and I just don't feel that excited about it. I'm not staying up all night on things like I used to any more, I don't know if it's the game, or where I am, or what I'm expecting.

18. Finally do you have any tips for newcomers?
Nope!
Make sure you get some excercise! Don't forget that you have a job where you literally sit down all day, and that energy is just gonna stick around. Excercising makes people feel good, it's a fact.

HEY! I have this thing in my game where I generate a map; and whenever I do it, the game stops fr about 3 seconds. Cos hey it's loading!

I put a little spinning icon on there, but no it turns out the whole game actually does pause.

Is there any trick I can use to get a something to anmate while this is happening?

Any way to detect clicking in the mouse wheel? It's not a huge deal, but y'know, it'd help.

Also; does if(Key.isDown(2)){ work on a mac?

At 5/4/11 07:17 AM, SeiniaDotCom wrote: Good luck! And show us your Angry Birds rip-off games ;)

I see the winky face, but-- yo I bet that's the whole point of this tutorial.

HAHA!

Tank Awards: I thought they already had a page fr that. There's a lot o stuff that has a page but is really hard to find.
I hope Road of the Dead wins.

You can export it as a video file by going to File > Export Movie.

Sometimes that doesn't work great, so what I do is a literally just film it with Hypercam, which is a free record-what's-on-screen recorder.
It's not perfect but hey it's free and easy!

Switching to AS3 would take an absolute fucking year, and I hate scripting. i'm tryina get to the point where I can collaborate with someone who's good at this so I can focus on what I like doing, which is animation and design.

But thanks for the help, I'm gonna take that as a yes.

Yo this draw(); thing is pretty good, I just drew like a thousand shapes n it doesn't seem to av effected the fps much at all.

What I've bin doing with maps so far is I've bin using attachMovie(); and then cacheAsBitmap();
Would it be more efficient to draw(); all the tiles onto one bitmap?

Alright I figured a dumb way around it, nevermind.

I know, I'm super bad at this. I'm an animator who's just learned the basics to get some stuff done.

I'd super appreciate some help in this, I'm trying loads o stuff and can't guess my way through it.

I don't know what you're suggesting.

I'm here because I'm bad at scripting.

Hey I've got a script here I've bin using to make dark levels with like a mask effect:

import flash.display.BitmapData;
import flash.filters.BlurFilter;
import flash.geom.Matrix;
this.createEmptyMovieClip("bmp", this.getNextHighestDepth());
onEnterFrame = function () {
var bmpd:BitmapData = new BitmapData(640, 480, true, 0xFF000000);
var objects:Array = [guy];
for (var i:Number = 0; i<objects.length; i++) {
var obj:MovieClip = objects[i];
var matrix:Matrix = new Matrix();
matrix.translate(obj._x, obj._y);
bmpd.draw(GRADIENT, matrix, null, "erase");
}
bmp.attachBitmap(bmpd, 1);
}

I used a gradient circle called "GRADIENT" to erase bits of this bitmap. So it's like a masking effect.
I've never used all this bitmap matrix stuff before though, is there any way I can control the _rotation of the object named GRADIENT? it seems to just draw it on at a 0 _rotation and I can't get it to spin around to face the way I'm telling it to.

At 4/20/11 11:40 AM, I-smel wrote: Fancy Pants comes out today on PSN, I wonder how that's gonna do.

I guess PlayStation Network's bin down all week. Sucks fr that guy! :(

Oh man, I was fucking sick of Flash games about evil computers! Seriously.