Score: 5
"A few problems in an otherwise acceptable tutorial"
date: March 21, 2006
Please accept this as constructive criticism.
Starting with the preloader. I'm not sure how I can accept your advice on making a preloader when yours didn't work properly. The bar moved out and filled the space repeatedly while the movie loaded, most preloaders fill up as a function of the amount of the flash that has loaded (not to mention I was gazing at a white screen for like 8 seconds while the preloader loaded). Also it started in the middle, not really a huge deal but I prefer the traditional left to right action. On the plus side you had the courtesy to use a border. (It really grinds my gears when the bar has no end and you can't tell how close it is to finishing.
Now onto the Frame-by-Frame. It's good that you provided an example movie, but it should have shown more action in the figures, like guys running or jumping. And your method is a bit risky. A better method (in my opinion) is to create the beginning and end looks for a character and fill in the middle (I'm not going into too much detail here) instead of doing it chronologically which can cause scaling problems along with varied speeds of movement.
As for the AS, it was very simple and unnecessary. Most, if not all, of the info you provided can be found with the material that comes with Flash (with a lot more detail, no less). At least you didn't steal a game engine and give it to newbs who don't know how to use it.
The menu seemed a bit slow at times and somewhat difficult to navigate at points (most of the time it was fine, but some points were annoying).
A nice effort but it seems a few more minutes of brushing it up would greatly improve it. Good luck with your next Flash.