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Heya folks. Some time ago I was quite an active flash game programmer, but I stopped about a year ago I guess. I was wondering, if I were to make a comeback in browersgame development, what programs do you guys use nowadays? Should I just get back to flash with as3 + flashdevelop, or has the game drastically changed?
Hope you guys can help out a bit.

At 1/8/13 12:05 PM, MSGhero wrote:

At 1/8/13 11:57 AM, tomdeaap wrote: Heya folks. Some time ago I was quite an active flash game programmer, but I stopped about a year ago I guess. I was wondering, if I were to make a comeback in browersgame development, what programs do you guys use nowadays? Should I just get back to flash with as3 + flashdevelop, or has the game drastically changed?
Hope you guys can help out a bit.

Most of us use FlashDevelop/FlashBuilder/FDT. Mike uses Sublime Text (matter of preference). AS3 for sure.

I've always used the actual flash program to manage the art 'n stuff, but I've always kind-off hated it. Is there a way to not use it? I recall exporting an extra file with the swf (forgot the name, swc maybe? artist does this) and you can load this in flashdevelop.

At 1/7/13 09:43 AM, Spysociety wrote: ...
Some users like egg82 also develop some tutorials for FD, you should check out.

Alright, I'll take a look at both.

At 1/9/13 11:53 AM, egg82 wrote: taste the goddamn rainbow

that is all.

Wow nice

Was there a game that kicked off your fascination with the actual creative process? For me it's got to be Ratchet and Clank, I got my PS2 with like 4 games but I spent most of my time during the first month playing Ratchet and Clank 1 on the demo disc. Ratchet and Clank was the first game that I felt I could really see that living breathing people had poured themselves into making something, everything had so much character, pretty much all other games were just what they were, games, never thought much about how they came into existence. I probably wouldn't be a programmer today if it weren't for that game, honestly if I had the skill and resources I'd probably make a game that felt just like it.

I'm only saying this cause I just got the remastered original trilogy for PS3, one of the best remasters I've ever seen without a doubt, and the games have proved to not just be glazed over with nostalgic love in my memories, they are just as good, if not better than I remember.

Also, my favourite soundtrack, what a unique blend of quirky electronic and orchestral music (the latter is more predominant after the first game): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjGxXK_ltcs

At 1/9/13 04:57 PM, Innermike wrote: Also, my favourite soundtrack, what a unique blend of quirky electronic and orchestral music (the latter is more predominant after the first game): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjGxXK_ltcs

Oh god yes. I still have the first 4 games. I'm really tempted to buy a PS2 just to play them, but I've been thinking about getting a PS3 for a while now so I may just get one and buy the remastered.

Nostalgia everywhere :(

At 1/10/13 10:17 AM, Sam wrote: but I've been thinking about getting a PS3 for a while now so I may just get one and buy the remastered.

I've heard a lot of people have problems with the DRM on the download versions you can buy of older games. Personally, I'd stick with a PS2. In some areas you can get one of the slim ones with a couple controllers and a memory card or two for < $50 at pawn shops.

At 1/7/13 09:43 AM, Spysociety wrote: To work in FlashDevelop isn't really so different at all from the IDE, despite that FD is a better software for programming flash. I would recommend this tutorial: http://chrismweb.com/2011/01/26/creating-an-asteroids-game-p art-1-setting-up-flashdevelop-and-planning/

Just something I've noticed in that tutorial - he seems to be using the "new" keyword a lot in a way that would be dangerous in C++. For example, in one of the rendering functions of a particular class he uses "new Rectangle" and "new Point" every time the function is called - wouldn't this keep using up additional RAM, or does AS3 handle this itself?

At 1/10/13 07:31 PM, MSGhero wrote: To be efficient, you'd want to avoid that; but it's not too big of a deal in AS3 unless you're making something performance-critical or if you instantiate a ton of stuff all at once.

I see. I'm OCD with that, though so I think I'd use a variable instead :P

At 1/11/13 01:45 AM, PrettyMuchBryce wrote: Speaking of AS3 flaws, I really hate that I can't define variables in an interface. Getters/Setters are significantly slower, and it matters when I'm calling something 60 times per second.. This means I need to use hacky workarounds. Barf

Solution: Use Haxe!

At 1/10/13 12:35 PM, pirateplatypus wrote:

At 1/10/13 10:17 AM, Sam wrote: but I've been thinking about getting a PS3 for a while now so I may just get one and buy the remastered.

I've heard a lot of people have problems with the DRM on the download versions you can buy of older games. Personally, I'd stick with a PS2. In some areas you can get one of the slim ones with a couple controllers and a memory card or two for < $50 at pawn shops.

I was planning on buying the physical copy for around £25 - but yeah, a PS2 might be the way to go considering the next gen consoles are being released soon and I'm not a massive console gamer anyway. However, a friend's offered me a PS3 with like 20 games and 2 controllers for 170 EUR so that's quite tempting.

We'll see :)

At 1/11/13 02:37 PM, PrettyMuchBryce wrote:

At 1/11/13 04:07 AM, PSvils wrote: Solution: Use Haxe!

As if AS3 is not an obscure enough language to have too much knowledge of. If I ever want crazy performance I will probably just go C++ / SDL or SMFL.

If you know AS3, you know Haxe! Also, Haxe doesn't mean crazy performance, it just has more and better language features than AS3! (More verbose as well)

Though low level stuff is super fun! You do/have done lots of C++?

At 1/11/13 02:37 PM, PrettyMuchBryce wrote:

At 1/11/13 04:07 AM, PSvils wrote: Solution: Use Haxe!

As if AS3 is not an obscure enough language to have too much knowledge of. If I ever want crazy performance I will probably just go C++ / SDL or SMFL.

It's only slightly different and more powerful, and of course 'just going C++ / SDL' is assuming you want to ditch the whole flash market, at that point you have to weigh how many particles you need on screen or whatever to overall slower development and harder distribution. Which is all assuming we're still talking about things you want other people to use (i.e. games) I went on a short SDL stint a while ago, twas a bitch to setup Xcode perfectly but after a few days it was pretty comfortable, I already know C++ from my previous experience programming basic 3D with OpenGL (no GLUT, GLUT is shit) so I was pretty comfortable, but I think even someone with no prior experience with C++ specifically could brush up quite quickly.

The problem I found was I could either do everything SDLs way and I'd have a bunch of restrictions or I could do something hands on and it would take a boatload of time to circumvent SDL in those specific cases while still having it handle the general shit. It was fun to have a neatly packaged game I could play with a controller and shit but for the small stuff I like to do most of the time, the hands on familiarity of AS3 is worth the sacrifices, all haXe is is less of a compromise.

At 1/11/13 02:58 PM, MSGhero wrote: Adobe made the whole CS2 free. I'm gonna practice my art after I'm done with this game (soon). As far as Flash games, do people use photoshop or illustrator at all, and what for if they do?

Unless they reversed their decision, Adobe was saying that you're only "legally" entitled to download CS2 if you already own a legit copy. Though they also said that they aren't going to waste time suing people who download it without owning it. (So get it quick, they could conceivably remove the download link and serials at some point.)

My preference for art is to use Gimp and/or Inkscape.

At 1/12/13 12:54 PM, MSGhero wrote: I have both of those as well; Inkscape's interface kinda scared me away.

I had the same problem the first time I used Inkscape. It's kind of like a new pair of underwear; at first, it's tight and constrictive, then it becomes a part of you.

I'm not using the newest version, but I read somewhere that they either have released a version with a revamped UI or are currently working on revamping it.

At 1/12/13 01:18 PM, egg82 wrote: I recommend getting a larger size underwear.

I would, but I'm holding out for Spongebob in my size.

I started playing dark souls for the first time.

Fuck. Everything.

At 1/7/13 09:43 AM, Spysociety wrote: To work in FlashDevelop isn't really so different at all from the IDE, despite that FD is a better software for programming flash. I would recommend this tutorial: http://chrismweb.com/2011/01/26/creating-an-asteroids-game-p art-1-setting-up-flashdevelop-and-planning/

Some users like egg82 also develop some tutorials for FD, you should check out.

Why does embedding a bitmap make absolutely no sense in Actionscript 3? I got it to work, but what is even going on with #10 in that tutorial?

At 1/12/13 04:36 PM, Glaiel-Gamer wrote: I started playing dark souls for the first time.

Fuck. Everything.

Hahaha. Yeah, no, I cried.

But seriously, I love that game, I love the fact that you can totally fuck yourself over and cut out pretty big segments of the game by killing off characters (and certain giant birds) I love that you get intimately acquainted with every square foot of the map because of how many times you have to retrace your steps. And oh boy do I love having a dragon head.

Bosses are amazing too