9781592001101

Are you ready to jump into the world of game development? "Game Development with ActionScript" is the guide that can show you the way! You?ll cover the basics of programming with ActionScript and will explore the incredible development possibilities offered by Macromedia Flash MX 2004. You'll develop the animation techniques you need to keep players coming back for more. Transform your game as you learn how ActionScript can be used to create amazing sound effects that flow seamlessly into your game?s script. When you?re ready, move on to advanced math and components topics that can take your game to new levels of realism. By the time you're finished, you'll be able to put everything you've learned together and begin creating amazing, eye-popping games!

Lewis Moronta, of Queens, New York, has been programming and working with computer graphics since 1996.

Letter from the Series Editor

xv

Introduction

xviii

Part One The Essentials

1

(122)

Chapter 1 The Flash Interface: Getting Acquainted

3

(26)

Flash History

4

(1)

Flash Today

5

(1)

The Flash Tour

6

(15)

The Toolbar

7

(5)

Properties Panel

12

(3)

The Timeline

15

(6)

Symbols

21

(6)

Movie Clips

21

(4)

Buttons

25

(2)

Graphics

27

(1)

Publishing

27

(1)

Summary

28

(1)

Questions & Answers

28

(1)

Chapter 2 Programming and Design: Concept to Production

29

(16)

What Is Programming?

30

(3)

What Is ActionScript?

33

(1)

Production Pipeline

34

(9)

The Idea

36

(1)

The Approach

36

(4)

Setting Up the Source

40

(1)

Writing the Code

41

(1)

Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs

42

(1)

Summary

43

(1)

Question Answer

43

(2)

Chapter 3 The Fundamentals: Variables, Conditionals, and Loops

45

(30)

Where Do Scripts Go?

46

(5)

The trace Command and Syntax

51

(1)

Your First Program

52

(4)

Commenting Your Code

56

(1)

Introducing Variables

56

(3)

The Operators

59

(9)

Assignment Operators

59

(1)

The Comparison Operators

60

(3)

The Arithmetic Operators

63

(5)

Conditional Statements

68

(3)

The switch Statement

69

(2)

Loops and Iteration

71

(2)

Summary

73

(1)

Questions & Answers

73

(2)

Chapter 4 Movie Clips and Buttons: Methods and Properties

75

(28)

Programmable Buttons

76

(3)

All About MCs

79

(14)

MC Properties

81

(4)

onClipEventHandlers

85

(8)

Custom Functions

93

(2)

Movie Clip Navigation

95

(5)

Summary

100

(1)

Questions & Answers

100

(1)

Exercise

101

(2)

Chapter 5 Arrays and Objects

103

(20)

What Are Arrays?

104

(1)

Referencing Arrays

105

(2)

Creating and Initializing Arrays

107

(2)

Multi-Dimensional Arrays

109

(2)

Using Arrays

111

(5)

The Push and Pop Commands

112

(2)

The unshift Command

114

(1)

The slice and splice Commands

114

(2)

What AreActionScriptObjects?

116

(1)

Creating and Initializing Objects

117

(1)

Using Objects

118

(4)

Summary

122

(1)

Question & Answer

122

(1)

Part Two The Intermediate Info

123

(52)

Chapter 6 Dynamic Movie Clips

125

(26)

Generating Random Numbers

126

(3)

Duplicating a Movie Clip

129

(6)

Duplicating Clips from the Library

135

(4)

The attachMovie Demo

139

(6)

Improving the Particle System

145

(3)

Summary

148

(1)

Question Answer

149

(2)

Chapter 7 Drawing with a Script

151

(24)

How to Draw a Line

152

(3)

How to Draw Shapes

155

(2)

How to Automate Patterns

157

(7)

Drawing Shapes with Fills

164

(2)

Drawing Curves

166

(3)

Drawing Shapes in Movie Clips

169

(3)

Summary

172

(1)

Question & Answer

173

(2)

Part Three Interactivity and Sound

175

(70)

Chapter 8 User Interactivity: The Keyboard

177

(16)

The Hidden Keypress

178

(3)

Using the Key Object

181

(3)

Installing Key Listeners

184

(3)

A Key Object Demo

187

(4)

Summary

191

(1)

Questions & Answers

191

(2)

Chapter 9 More Interaction:The Mouse

193

(28)

Detecting the Mouse Cursor Position

194

(4)

Replacing the Mouse Cursor

198

(3)

Drawing Lines to the Cursor

201

(4)

Programming Lines Chasing the Cursor

203

(2)

Allowing the User to Draw

205

(6)

Simple Drawing

205

(3)

Improved Drawing

208

(3)

Dragging and Dropping

211

(7)

Using startDrag and stopDrag methods

212

(2)

The hitTest Method

214

(2)

A Solid Drag-and-Drop Demo

216

(2)

Summary

218

(1)

Question & Answer

219

(2)

Chapter 10 Sound Effects and Music

221

(24)

Using Library Sounds

222

(3)

Setting Up a Sound Movie Clip

225

(2)

Attaching Sounds Dynamically

227

(2)

Creating a Volume Slider

229

(7)

Panning Sounds

236

(3)

Transforming Sounds

239

(2)

Sound Monitoring

241

(2)

Summary

243

(1)

Question &Answer

244

(1)

Exercises

244

(1)

Part Four The Math

245

(48)

Chapter 11 Trigonometry Made Easy

247

(20)

The Unit Circle

248

(4)

What Are Radians?

252

(3)

Periods, Domains, and Ranges

255

(1)

Trigonometric Functions

256

(7)

The Sine

256

(3)

The Cosine

259

(3)

The Tangent

262

(1)

The Tank Demo

263

(3)

Summary

266

(1)

Question & Answer

266

(1)

Exercise

266

(1)

Chapter 12 The Physics: Making It Feel Real

267

(26)

iVector and Scalar Values

268

(6)

Speed

269

(1)

Velocity

270

(1)

Acceleration

271

(3)

Working with Gravity

274

(2)

Working with Wind

276

(7)

Working with Friction

283

(9)

Summary

292

(1)

Questions & Answers

292

(1)

Exercise

292

(1)

Part Five Advanced Topics

293

(88)

Chapter 13 Server and CGI Communications

295

(16)

Exporting HTML

296

(2)

Browser Communication

298

(1)

CGI Scripts

299

(1)

How Info Is Stored

300

(1)

The LoadVars Object

301

(5)

Sending Info to the Server

306

(2)

Saving Game States

308

(1)

Summary

309

(1)

Questions & Answers

309

(2)

Chapter 14 Memory and Web Management

311

(10)

Designing a Loader Screen

312

(5)

Using the Bandwidth Profiler

317

(1)

Issues with Linked Objects

318

(1)

Summary

319

(1)

Question &Answer

319

(1)

Exercise

319

(2)

Chapter 15 Advanced Interaction with Components

321

(18)

Meet the Components

322

(11)

The PushButton

323

(1)

The CheckBox

324

(3)

The RadioButton

327

(1)

The ListBox

328

(2)

The ComboBox

330

(2)

The ScrollBar

332

(1)

The ScrollPane

332

(1)

Designing an Options Screen

333

(4)

Summary

337

(1)

Questions &Answer

337

(1)

Exercise

337

(2)

Chapter 16 Debugging and Avoiding Common Programming Pitfalls

339

(12)

Common Pitfalls

340

(7)

Cursor Position within a Clip

340

(4)

From Buttons to Movie Clips to Timelines

344

(1)

Working with Curly Brackets

345

(2)

Using the Debugger

347

(2)

Summary

349

(1)

Questions &Answers

350

(1)

Chapter 17 Matridia II: The Project

351

(30)

The Idea

352

(2)

The Approach

354

(1)

The Setup

355

(1)

The Code

356

(23)

The Star Field Functions

360

(3)

The Ship Functions

363

(3)

The Missiles Functions

366

(4)

The Enemy Functions

370

(4)

The Explosions Function

374

(1)

The Boss Functions

375

(1)

The Bomb Functions

376

(3)

The Future

379

(1)

Summary

379

(1)

Questions & Answers

380

(1)

Exercises

380

(1)

Appendix A Keyboard Keys and Key Code Values

381

(342)

Index

723

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Game Development With Actionscript

1592001106

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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