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Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Game Programming Review by Akm
Good introduction to game programming with Flash
This book presents all the concepts needed to get started on your own games in Flash. It covers the basics for game programming and even provides a little on advanced topics. This was my first book on game programming (any type not just in flash) and I can definitely recommend it as a good introduction.
The first two chapters start with brief introductions to Flash and ActionScript. With these chapters, existing knowledge of Flash is not technically needed. But, anyone using this book should probably already understand Flash, including some ActionScript. In lesson 3 we code our first game - a simple mouse chaser. Every lesson after that progressed at a nice pace with each adding a little more material and eventually leading to advanced topics. In lesson 10 we use a recursive function to program an AI for a tic-tac-toe game. Even simple game physics was introduced, including the code needed for object collisions and reflections. Some of the math required includes the trigonometric functions (sine, cosine, tangent), the Pythagorean Theorem and vectors. The last chapter wraps up with a few game and general Flash concepts such as a preloader, loading data dynamically and JavaScript calls. Although no game is introduced here, a simple high score board is demonstrated with CGI as the server side language. All the code for each game or chapter is broken down into small fragments with each explained with plenty of detail. The CD includes project files with all the complete game code as well as without code for those who want to type it out.
Like many programming books there were a few mistakes and problems in this one as well. A few of the project files had library symbols with incorrect identifiers in the linkage properties window. Sometimes small code fragments or even functions, which did appear in the final code listing, were missing along with the usual related discussion. Also, the actual placement of code occasionally needed to be clearer. However, the completed games on CD worked perfectly and the code listing at the end of each chapter helped to correct any errors or confusion. Ultimately, a support website with an errata sheet could have helped. One final note is that this book does not go too much into object oriented programming (OOP). Only a single chapter is dedicated to the topic and no example game. Anyone interested in OOP based games will need to look for another book.