Or if anyone knows where I can find the sound of a fish flopping around that'd be perfect. I've tried about 5 sites so far and nothing.

Doesn't sound familiar but it's a good start!

Quick! I forgot! What's the website everyone goes to to get sound effects? I've seen it a hundred times but It's completely skipped my mind. Any help is appreciated.

Well, one of the things you could fix is the character doesn't... um... die.

I like how he bounces off the spikes, it's a good way to regulate the damage. The spikes themselves could be organized a little better. If you create a copy of an object, by holding down the shift button you can make sure it doesn't move up or down while you adjust it horizontally. Or, you can hold shift and use the arrow keys. Or, if you want to be really precise, find out how wide the symbol is, then change the x coordinate of the copy to (width) +/- the original. It'll just look cleaner.

The controls seem pretty solid to me. But one thing that bothered me was the repeated jumping when I held down the "w" key (it's a common mistake in flash games). It can be easily fixed by adding another boolean variable that becomes true if a person has jumped AND still has their finger on the jump key. Use this variable in your jump condition to add some more control for the player.

Other then that, I don't see too much wrong with it. Everything seems to move just fine and the UI didn't bug out on me so I'd say you've taken a few steps in the right direction. Keep it up!

I agree with pretty much everyone here except for Tri-Elect. The concept of an "idea man" is just laughable. Plus, look at all the posts asking for animators. If you ask any of them to explain their ideas in detail, they wouldn't be able to do it.

"Oh, Well I don't have all the details worked out just yet, but it's going to involve these zombies and a samurai. Can you help me out?"

As I said before... laughable.

At 3/25/09 12:25 PM, ThePeasant wrote:

At the moment we are still in the transitional phase between 'the good ol' days' and mainstream garbage. It is already the case that poorly presented flash games will be automatically rejected without looking past the surface, which is all the more possible due to the abundant amount of submissions out there. It is still possible to get by with about the same amount of effort put into presentation as into innovation. As soon as the standard of presentation gets high enough to require complex presentations such as 3d worlds I predict we will see a sharp decline in quality games.

You make a lot of solid points here.

I don't think the "good old days" will come up through the onset of better graphics alone. Sure, users may be clamoring for a prettier package as the medium gets older. But we also have to realize that as time rolls on, the amount of innovation becomes exponentially smaller. The same thing happened to consoles and PC games. We all look back fondly on games like Mario, Warcraft, Doom, and Pac Man because back then they were innovative. Everything since then has just been the same junk wrapped in shinier wrapping paper with maybe another bell or whistle tied to it because they've run out of ideas.

Flash will definitely see a similar pattern, it won't be that producers choose to opt for better graphics, it's that they HAVE to. And all the while we'll start looking back to a time where originality wasn't such a distant memory.

I pretty much agree with everyone else. The animation is smooth a the timing seems to be spot on. If I was to suggest anything, it would be to add some staging to the beginning. What I mean by that is, the character doesn't seem to pleased by the fact that he's there, or that he's drinking (I assume that's alcohol in the flask) and that's fantastic. You can emphasize this feeling by making the character tilt his head down and to the side, as if he's thinking about it first. Also, this way the animation won't seem as abrupt.

Other then that, I love how you kept his head moving while he unscrewed the cap. A lot of animators will only focus on one area of the body. Your way keeps the viewer interested and move involved.

On another note: Don't hesitate to get your worked critiqued on the forums. Yes, there are a few jerks out there who seem to hate for the sake of hating. But there are plenty of people here who have constructive things to say. Getting your videos critiqued first is intelligent and will give you a better quality piece when you finally decide to submit it.

Programming seems pretty solid. Collision, walk animation, bullet trajectory, jumping, and using of multiple buttons all worked perfectly from what I could see.

I'm sure you're planning and adding more levels, enemies, graphics, and equipment so I won't push those issues.

Some areas I think need work:
- The spikes are fatal from all directions. While I can understand this from an obstacle standpoint, visually it doesn't make sense. Two ways you could fix this: Either create an graphic that has spikes pointing in all directions (example: mega man), or embed your existing spike pits in the ground like you did for some of them so the only possible way to hit them would be from above.

- If you keep your levels about the same length as your first one that's fine. But don't send the user back to the level menu when he/she dies. Instead, just start them back at the beginning of the level (WITHOUT prompting them to hit "ok" or "restart"). If you want them to be able to go back to the level menu, you can have a small click able button in one corner of the screen, or maybe an "escape" button that brings up the menu.

- When you're character runs backwards it doesn't change the way it faces. This is an easy fix, just set the Object's scale to negetive when it's moving backwards, and positive again when it's moving forwards.

Other then that, keep it up. When you add more to the game don't hesitate to ask for another critique. I'm sure there are at least a few of us who'd be willing to help you out before you finally submit it.

At 3/24/09 07:55 PM, Judzfell wrote: hopefully in the future flash finds easier ways to animate simple things without the process of it taking hours todo so

That's just animation, man. What we do here is no different then what the 9 old men did for Disney way back in the day. Only difference is that we can do it a lot faster and cleaner, so you should be happy.

It's a lot to consider.

Really, the only thing that separates "us" from "them" as you put it is that we typically use vector art. C++, DirectX, C#, ActionScript 3.0, and whatever other OOP you can think of are just minor variations of each other and they don't change too much from year to year.

What really separates the main stream gaming community from the flash fanatics are their respective target audiences. For the most part, flash games target casual gamers who have maybe 10-15 minutes of time on their hands and just happen to have access to the internet. These people are on their lunch breaks, waiting for class to start, or (in some unfortunate cases) trying to get through a boring lecture. Main stream console and PC games focus on people with a bigger budget, a comfortable setting, and anywhere between 30 min - 8 hrs (we've all been there) of time.

But going to back to original question of, "Are we going to be retro?" Sure, but not in the way you think. It's easy to tell a retro console game based on it's graphics and what you play it on. And a PC game with display it's age through graphics, features, and compatibility issues with newer OS's. But flash games will always look and feel new. The internet is not going anywhere, so the older games will never be "phased out." Plus, because vector art is mathematically derived through the use of a few points and not dependent on how many pixels, polygons, or bump maps you can cram on a screen, flash games will always look as crisp and clean as their newer counterparts.

So really, yes, flash games from 5 years ago are retro, and yes, the games we make today will be retro five years from now. But will anyone be able to tell the difference? Will, the bored student, or casual gaming cubical drone be able to label them as retro? No, I don't believe they will.

At 3/24/09 06:09 PM, Brycearoni wrote: Is it this way for everyone? 'Cause I can draw so much better in real life than in Flash.

Absolutely. Switching media is always a huge obstacle for artists, no matter if it's from pencil to paint, traditional to digital, or even raster to vector. You can't expect to be a master the moment you decide to move to flash. The only way to really overcome it is to have patience and practice. I know it's trite but it's true.

As was mentioned before, a tablet does help. It's definitely an awkward piece of equipment at first, especially considering you can't angle it to the side like you can a piece of paper, and the proportions are all screwy. Something that helped me make the transition was I laid a sheet of printing paper on top of the tablet to simulate the feel of pencil on paper a little better. I took it off once I started getting the hang of things.

If you're looking for a way to practice. I started scanning in my old pencil drawings and importing them to flash. Then, on a new layer, I started drawing over them using the brush tool (I prefer fill over stroke). This way, I learn how to control my tablet better while preserving the original concept. My advice during this, group things often (Ctrl + G). That way you don't end up overlapping things you didn't want to, and if you feel comfortable with what you got break it back apart (Ctrl + B).

At 7/7/08 01:34 PM, citricsquid wrote: Flash forum spam day? Sounds like a good idea.
Mods vs. Users.

We users have to fill a page with totally pointless topics before you can delete them.
To win it's either a page full of spam, or a page with no spam.

Sounds like it could be a flash game, someone get on that.

At 7/7/08 05:44 AM, fish1892 wrote: spamtheweb might work, i've never used it myself, but i know that a lot of people in the forums link to it....

yeah, that's a great website to just dump your swf's in. It's unorganized, but it's perfect for what we use it for.

Motion tweens are useful for a lot of things. Mostly they are used to change the position of a symbol (group or object) over time. But they can also be used to change the transparency over time. So what you can do is have your symbol in the first frame (or whatever frame it's in), set it's transparency to about 25%, go down 10 frames, make a new key frame (Hotkey: F6), then change that symbol's transparency to 100%. Play the movie back and watch your symbol "fade in!"

If by chance you don't know how to make motion tweens check out the newgrounds Flash Tutorial sticky.

Yeah, it's simple enough, highlight the area you want to fade, make it a symbol, then with your new symbol selected, look at your properties tab at the bottom. Under the "Color" drop down menu go to "Alpha" and change your transparency there. I'm sure you're familiar with motion tweens so I bet you can figure the rest out.

And sweet life is once again breathed into this collab. I am motivated by its sudden gain in interest!

*sits down on the couch and opens up a newspaper*

But seriously, my second submission is done except I should probably slap a background in there somewhere.

As an initial response to the gas, have your character's pupil go really small or really wide and glinty. It's just a common, recognizable way to show your character is in a different state of mind.

As for the clouds, do multiple layers of translucent smoke moving in different directions to give the illusion that it's encompassing an area. The further back the layers are, the lower the alpha (the more see through) should be. Hallucinogens can be symbolized by use of strange colors (purple, blue, etc). What the people see then are completely up to you obviously.

Well... it's... functional. Most of the links work. As for a design scheme, you're a flash user, the sky is the limit. Sit down with a pencil and a pad of paper and just sketch like mad, think of a color scheme, a focal point for your site, and a theme behind it. You have tabs at the top, run with that. Think about what uses tabs like that and apply your own twist to it. From the looks of it it's a tutorial site, maybe use a school or office theme? Use the tabs like manila folders each with stacks of papers inside. Too conventional? Then cyber the hell out of it, give everything a metallic look, treat your main frame as a comp screen, use the tabs like computer menus. Really I shouldn't be telling you this you should figure it out for yourself. But I really stress sitting down and drawing your ideas first. As with all design projects, they must be laid out on paper first if for nothing else other then to get your mental gears turning.

Just wanted to stop by and say congratulations to you all. You did some quality unique work there. And you did it all without using sprites or sticks! Magnificent. I was happy to give you a five on it.

At 6/25/08 09:37 PM, Shadow-1409 wrote: Just to make things clear to people, i originally made the whale thing for THIS collab, but saw the music vid collab and edited it a bit for that but it was too late to submit, theres nothing in the rules stating i can submit a part to only one collab, its not in it either, but i submitted the part with music to the portal anyway. Ok?

I thought that was the eleventh commandment or something, "Thou shalt not submit to thy neighbors collab."

I think I just had a seizure. Congrats on that.

At 6/25/08 06:41 PM, zrb wrote:

Damn man...Is this whole Kayn thing putting everyone in a kinda sad/sappy mood...or just me?

It kind of affected me. It made me realize I haven't really accomplished anything so far. My account has not a single submission. I used to just go around the flash portal and play games knowing that I had the capabilities to make a game. I never knew what forums had to bring until I came across this one. I've seen all those topics where people had problems and I knew the solutions to those same problems. So I started helping out here until I've reached over 1000 posts. I might not have made a flash but I'm still satisfied knowing I actually used my knowledge to help people.

I can understand that. I'm pretty much in the same boat as you... only at a much smaller scale. I finally dinged my 100th Post doing exactly what you said, helping others with problems yet creating nothing of my own. Although my 100th was really just a preachy sermon...

I'll be honest I've been avoiding this thread. I was afraid I would open it only to find a slough of cock/poop jokes and a few wrapped up flame wars. But after reading these last two pages I realize I couldn't be further from the truth. The people who post here are names that I recognize as experienced flash users that I have come to respect and learn from. I am glad I have finally cracked open this thread and I hope I can achieve half a much as those who post in its hallowed gray halls.

Really we can't make fun of a person based on who they are. Our true, cruel, yet legitimate judgment should be saved for their submissions. I don't care if someone makes millions of dollars, or if he drives a car that can transform into a plane or a smoothie maker, or if he has a personal army of concubines, or if he's some kind of religious idol or even a social pariah. When you strip away the cameras, the glitz, and the fame, they're still just a person submitting what they consider to be quality flash animations and games. And to render judgment based off of anything other then the quality and care of their work would be an insulting blow not only the person, but to all of us as newgrounders. So let soulja-boy do his work, we'll blam or save him as we deem fit.

After all, we're not 4chan'ers.

It doesn't hurt to shop around either. Wacom tablets are well built so there is no harm in getting one that is gently used. I bought mine off of my professor for $100 less then what it costs. Just make sure, when you're looking at a used one, that it has all the software, peripherals, and instructions you need for it to work.

At 6/25/08 04:53 PM, Shadow-1409 wrote: Twud be nice, but as its 3 seonds it has to be GOOD. Not just good lookin. :)
I was thinkin of adding more detail to mine actually. Unless its ok as it is?

I like yours as is Shadow, it's very stylized and the whale character is perfect. You should make the whale and the wings one clip though in the last movie. They split apart a lot when it takes off.

I agree with everyone else here about the quality over quantity. I spend far too much time on my animations to keep up with the 20 submission spammers. Although I don't really care too much if I get co-authored. If I do "woo," if not "meh." This is one of my updated submissions. I added color and SOME highlights.

Submission 1

There's still a LOT of work I want to do on it but I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far. For some reason it comes out a lot slower on the internet then when it's in .fla form. Are there ways to get it go at the full speed 30fps that I'm not getting?

I have another submission done as well, lower quality but completed quicker. It'll tie in with my other two.

At 6/24/08 07:30 PM, Shadow-1409 wrote:

At 6/24/08 07:22 PM, dumbcook444 wrote: land on a trampoline, someone, or in water

I was gonna go with a trampoline or old woman, ideas are appriciated. What does everyone think of them?

Have the whale slide through a man hole like it was no big deal with a man looking at it casually drinking a slurpee, have a splash noise, then have a truck hit the guy with the slurpee (or snipe'em, crush'em, you get the idea). It's just a tad more random.

I swear by this book. It teaches you everything you need to know for basic AS3 and runs you through 5 or 6 types of game programming.

Since reading this book not only have I been able to program the 5 games he mentions, but I've also applied his methods to many other types of games and ideas. It's really a great learning guide.

And by the way, if you're learning AS and by chance you have some previous programming experience. Go for AS3.

:*Agrees with Neo-13*

it would help to know if you're working in AS2 or 3 as well.

At 6/24/08 06:49 PM, Neo-13 wrote: Why would you need trigonometry? It's plan view. He just needs duplicateMovieClip and send them out :in a straight line. Anyway, he said he had that bit sorted out... apparently.

I've always had to use trigonometry to shoot bullets along any other angle that isn't divisible by 90. But if he's just shooting in straight lines then my bad.