Real-World Flash Game Development: How to Follow Best Practices AND Keep Your Sanity Christopher Griffith 9780240817682

Your deadline just got moved up. Your artist has never worked with Flash before. Your inner programmer is telling you that no OOP is a big Oops! Any Flash developer can share similar tales of woe. This book breaks down the process of Flash game development into simple, approachable steps. Never heard of a game loop before? No idea what a design pattern is? No problem! Chris Griffith gives you real-world expertise, and real-world code that you can use in your own games. Griffith has been building games in Flash long enough to know what works and what doesn't. He shows you what you need to know to get the job done.

Griffith covers Flash for the everyday developer. The average Flash developer doesn't have luxurious timelines, employers who understand the value of reusability, or the help of an information architect to design a usable experience. This book helps bridge the gap for these coders who may be used to C++, Java, or C# and want to move over to Flash. Griffith covers real-world scenarios pulled from his own experiences developing games for over 10 years in the industry.

The 2nd edition will include: completely new game examples on more advanced topics like 3D; more robust physics and collision detection; and mobile device coverage with Android platform development for us on phones and tablets. Also coverage of the new features available in Flash CS5, Flash Player 10.1, and AIR 2.0 that can be used for game development.

The associated web site for the book: www.flashgamebook.com gets close to 1,000 visits a month. On the site, readers can find all the source code for the examples, news on industry happenings, updates and special offers, and a discussion forum to ask questions and share ideas.

"The volume's 16 chapters (and 3 online bonus chapters) in this new edition (1st ed., 2010) provide a series of discrete challenges: animation, audio and video management, implementing mathematical functions, collision detection, game physics, and creating platformers and iOS games, which gradually build user competence and confidence. Although the examples increase in complexity as the book progresses, it is not necessary to do them in order. The book could be used as a course resource for advanced undergraduates or as a reference for experienced programmers who want t o use Flash. The excellent companion website supplies all the code needed to build the examples, as well as a forum where questions can be posted and answered. The author frequently inserts commentary about best programming practices (what to do and what to avoid), which differentiates this book from many similar titles."

--E. Bertozzi, Long Island University

"The book could be used as a course resource for advanced undergraduates or as a reference for experienced programmers who want to use Flash. The excellent companion website supplies all the code needed to build the examples, as well as a forum where questions can be posted and answered. The author frequently inserts commentary about best programming practices (what to do and what to avoid), which differentiates this book from many similar titles. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through researchers/faculty, two-year technical program students, and professionals/practitioners."-- E. Bertozzi, Long Island University, CHOICE