Game Programming at scriptedfun » gamedev

Co-founders of Codemasters made ‘Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)’

Chuck — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:02:31 +0000

I am happy that the brothers David and Richard Darling, who started their company in the mid-80′s, were honored for their “services to the computer games industry”. They have blazed a trail for independent game developers to follow, and I am truly grateful to them for their pioneering efforts as bedroom coders.

David and Richard, I salute you.

Poor Man’s Flash

Chuck — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:05:31 +0000

John Hattan has written a review of Express Animator on GameDev.net, and Flex SDK / Silverlight developers who do not have access to the corresponding designer’s tools (Flash / Expression Blend) might find his review interesting. Express Animator, as stated in the product name, is a tool that allows you to make animations, and publish them in SWF format for Flash, or XAML format for Silverlight. This basically allows you to make animations for your Flex / Silverlight project for just US$39, instead of paying US$699 for Flash or US$499 for Expression Blend. You won’t be getting all the features of the more expensive products, but you might be surprised to know that Express Animator has features which the other two do not, such as “hierarchical bones”. From the review:

In fact, the combination of Express Animator with the free Flex or MTASC compiler would make for a pretty good “Poor Man’s Flash” product that could be used to make full Flash CS3 quality games, and for quite a bit less than the $699 that you’d spend on a new license of Flash CS3.

Music and Sound Effects for Games

Chuck — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:15:57 +0000

A great article called Tools of the Trade has just been posted on MochiLand. It gives a list of software and libraries which you can use to generate sound effects and music for your games.

Among the different aspects of game development, I think I’m weakest at sound matters. This is something that has to change though, with the success that audio-based games have been having, such as the IGF winner Audiosurf and the Python-based Frets on Fire.

It’s good that Kunal Joshi pointed out in the comments the amazing DrPetter’s sfxr, an excellent (and free!) piece of software that generates retro-style sound effects. This was used by Kian in his very funny, and VERY ORIGINAL (you have to see it!) game You Have To Burn The Rope.

Make a Flash Game for Free

Chuck — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:41:20 +0000

One of the main reasons why people aren’t able to make their own Flash games is because the development environment is expensive. Currently, a copy of Flash CS3 Professional costs US$699, an amount which most people can’t just pull out of their wallet (although I think that this price is very reasonable, considering the product’s quality and the possibilities that it offers).

Fortunately, there are several alternatives to Flash for making Flash content. One of these alternatives is the Flex SDK, a free product which Adobe itself offers.

I’ve spent some time with the Flex SDK over the past months, and I’ve had success in writing games with it. Herder is my first game with the Flex SDK, and I have a few others which I haven’t had the chance to release yet. The Flex SDK is NOT Flash however – the development style is different. But this is good in my opinion, because making games with the Flex SDK is very similar to making games with a traditional programming language like C++, C#, or Python. Instead of the graphical approach that Flash offers, the Flex SDK offers a code-centered development platform.

If you want to make games for the web now, I suggest that you look into the Flex SDK. With this product, you can even make Flash content using Linux!

The article Intro to the Flex SDK on GameDev.net is a good starting point for anyone who wants to learn how to make games using the Flex SDK. Hopefully, I’ll have the chance to make my own tutorials as well. Any suggestions?