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20 useful Flash API's and Tools

July 1st, 2009 - Category: Developers, Flash
Reading the MochiAds Forum I have found an interesting post containing a bunch of useful Flash API's and Tools. I elaborated it a lil bit and here it is, the bible for every Flash Developer! Emoticon

Flash Developers

Mutiplayer APIs SmartFoxServer is probably the most used, it is the core of many Multiplayer Games, probably the biggest one is Club Penguin. ElectroServer powers Webkinz. Either one and the other give you the possibility to create your game from zero, lobby included. They cost probably too much for an independent developer. I personally have used a lot the Nonoba, winning many contest on their site and the 2ND place of the final contest. It is easy to use and it is free but sometimes I found it a lil bit slow and it didn't let me customize the lobby. I didn't like very much to have a white and green lobby for all my games. BlossomServer is new and it has been created by Jiggmin, the author of Platform Racing. It is free and it gives you the possibility to download the source code and change if you want. The only problem is that it is based on a PHP socket server... which is not stable as Java or C.Red5 is a free java server, but probably it crashes too much.

3D APIs I have used all of them and honestly my favourite is Away3D.It is quite simple to use and it has a lot of functions for game designer.I wrote an article about it few months ago, you can read it here .

3D physics APIs This is the only 3D physics engine that I'm aware of for Flash. From looking at a few of the tutorials, it looks like you would have use this physics API in conjunction with a 3D API so you can render what's actually going on. I haven't had a chance to actually use the API, so I can't give much of an opinion.
2D physics APIs I have used Box2D in my last game Dynamic Systems http://www.lorenzgames.com/game/dynamic-systems .
They have a nice community and it is easy to find tutorials on Internet.

IDEs From what i have heard FlashDevelop is great. It has great syntax highlighting, auto completion, and it's just overall a whole lot better to use compared to the built in Actionscript editor in the Flash authoring tool, plus it's free! FDT should be good too, but it's not free.

TweenersA Tweener is basically a tool that creates transactions in an object.
For example if you need to move an object from point A to point B with an animation.
The Caurina one is one of my favourite, probably because i have used it for so long.
They have surely saved me a lot of work.

Debuggers

For now this is all, if you have any other interesting Tool please contact me. Emoticon


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Where to submit your Flash Game when it's finished

March 12th, 2009 - Category: Developers
Many times after we make a game is our work to distribute it.
Probably the most important places where to submit it are:

Kongregate

The problem on Kongregate is that usually if a game dosent have theire achivements, the users tend to vote it low and write bad reviews only becouse they can not earn points from playing it, so they are not always accurate.

Newgrounds

Newgrounds is a lil bit more mature, usually they analyze the game better before to review it, but it's good to be sure about your game before you post it becouse if you get a good rating it can go on the first page, generating a huge ammount of hits.

Flash Game Distribution

This is a good place where to put your game becouse they have a program where other sites can go and take your game to put on their sites.

Nonoba

It is still growing, but i belive they are going to be an important site soon, so keep your eyes on it.

And of course LorenzGames Emoticon

Especially the first 2 they have a huge community that will rewview your game and give you some feedback to make it better.

Then for the massive distribution, have a look at this list!
Enjoy Emoticon


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What Casual Players Really Want Right Now Is Multiplayer

July 8th, 2008 - Category: Multiplayer
These last 3 weeks have been very successful for me, I just won 3 contests with 2 of my games on Nonoba. The first one was Connect4 Multiplayer, the classic Connect4 game with something more, the possibility of playing together with people from all over the world. It won the weekly contest of $500 and the Monthly Contest of $2.500, generating 160.000 users in 2 weeks. The game was made in about 2 hours, which means I worked for 1.500/hour, pretty good no? Emoticon The other game is Bombators Multiplayer, a remake of Atomic Bomberman in Multiplayer with the chance to play with 4 players in real-time. It got the front page of the most important game websites as Newgrounds and Minijuegos This is a video of the game. This game won the weekly competition of $500 and its on the first place for the monthly competition of July. But the amazing thing is that in the first 3 days it has generated 70.000 hits and 7.000 new subscribers thanks to the game. This game was made in about a week. The weirdest thing is that any company contacted me yet to create games for them… I think they haven’t seen it yet… Emoticon However, while trying to distribute my games, I found many problems. People from other portals didn’t like to have the Nonoba logo in the game, and so they decided to not publish the game on their websites, probably they were scared Nonoba was going to steal them users? LoL Anyway, if you want to try to make a Multiplayer thing, the first important thing is to know AS3 very good. Then go on Nonoba Developers and download the Multiplayer SDK. I suggest you to start with something very simple, like a card games or a board games. Let me know if it turns in something good Emoticon


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