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Showing posts from May, 2010

Gamepad ported to Processing / JAVA

Gamepad, my opensource keyboard input utility, has received a great reaction so far, with many retweets, over 1000 views, and some great partnerships with other libraries in the pipeline. And now it's not just for Flash, because Michael Heuer has ported the whole project to JAVA for use with processing. So, if that's how you get down, go check out Gamepad for Processing on Github. Big thanks to Michael for taking the time to create this.


Geometry Wars in 25 lines of ActionScript source code

I recently noticed that Keith Peters' 25 lines competition and all the entries have been purged from the internet, so in case you missed it first time, here's my port of a Geometry Wars style game, with source code below. Click to view.




Here's the source, under free for commercial or non-commercial use MIT license. It gets cut off quite badly by blogger, so you're better off just clicking here to download. To run, just paste it into the timeline of CS4/CS5. I know that's a bad way to do things, but it was the rules of the original competition. If someone wants to make the necessary tweaks to compile it under the Flex compiler, I'd be very happy to post their code. Enjoy!

/**
* 25-Line ActionScript Contest Entry
*
* Project: Trigonometry Wars
* Author: Iain Lobb - iainlobb@googlemail.com
* Date: 27 NOVEMBER 08
*
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
* of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
* in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
* to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
*
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
* all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
*
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
* IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
* AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
* LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
* OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
* THE SOFTWARE.
*/

// 3 free lines! Alter the parameters of the following lines or remove them.
// Do not substitute other code for the three lines in this section
[SWF(width=400, height=400, backgroundColor=0x000000, frameRate=24)]
stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;

// INSTRUCTIONS: PLEASE NOTE IT CAN TAKE A WHILE BEFORE ENEMIES APPEAR SO PLEASE BE PATIENT!

// 25 lines begins here!

var enemies:Array = [];

function createOrUpdateEntity(props:Object, entity:MovieClip = null, updateFunction:Function = null, drawCommands:Vector.<int> = null, drawShapes:Vector.<Number> = null, colour:uint = 0x000000):void
{
if (!entity) entity = MovieClip(addChild(new MovieClip()));
if (colour) entity.graphics.lineStyle(1, colour, 1.0, false, "normal", null, null,3);
if (drawCommands) entity.graphics.drawPath(drawCommands, drawShapes, GraphicsPathWinding.NON_ZERO);
if (updateFunction != null) entity.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, updateFunction);
for (var thing:String in props) entity[thing] = props[thing];
if (props.array) {props.array.push(entity)};
}

function updateShip(event:Event):void
{
createOrUpdateEntity({x:MovieClip(event.target).x + ((mouseX - MovieClip(event.target).x) / 5), y:MovieClip(event.target).y + ((mouseY - MovieClip(event.target).y) / 5), rotation:(Math.atan2(mouseY - MovieClip(event.target).y, mouseX - MovieClip(event.target).x) * (180 / Math.PI)) + 90}, MovieClip(event.target));
createOrUpdateEntity({x:MovieClip(event.target).x, y:MovieClip(event.target).y, rotation:MovieClip(event.target).rotation, updateFunction:updateBullet, filters:[new GlowFilter(0xFFFF00)]}, null, updateBullet, Vector.<int>([1,2,2,2]), Vector.<Number>([0, 0, 3, 7, -3, 7, 0, 0]), 0xFFFF00);
if (Math.random() > 0.985) for (var i:int = 0; i < 20; i++) createOrUpdateEntity({x:300 + (Math.sin((i/20)*2*Math.PI) * 400), y:300 + (Math.cos((i/20)*2*Math.PI) * 400), rotation:0, array:enemies, updateFunction:updateEnemy, filters:[new GlowFilter(0xFF0000, 1, 12, 12, 4)]}, null, updateEnemy, Vector.<int>([1,2,2,2,2]), Vector.<Number>([0, 0, 10, 10, 0, 20, -10, 10, 0, 0]), 0xFF0000);
}

function updateBullet(event:Event):void
{
createOrUpdateEntity({x:MovieClip(event.target).x + (Math.cos((MovieClip(event.target).rotation - 90) * (Math.PI / 180)) * 12.5), y:MovieClip(event.target).y + (Math.sin((MovieClip(event.target).rotation - 90) * (Math.PI / 180)) * 12.5), rotation:MovieClip(event.target).rotation}, MovieClip(event.target));
if (MovieClip(event.target).x > 400 || MovieClip(event.target).x < 0 || MovieClip(event.target).y > 400 || MovieClip(event.target).y < 0) killEntity(MovieClip(event.target), false);
for (var i:int = 0; i < enemies.length; i++) if (Math.sqrt((((enemies[i].x - MovieClip(event.target).x))*((enemies[i].x - MovieClip(event.target).x))) + (((enemies[i].y - MovieClip(event.target).y))*((enemies[i].y - MovieClip(event.target).y)))) < 10 && this.contains(enemies[i])) killEntity(enemies[i], true);
}

function killEntity(entity:MovieClip, doExplosion:Boolean):void
{
if (this.contains(entity)) { removeChild(entity) };
entity.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, entity.updateFunction)
if (doExplosion) { for (var i:int = 0; i < 10; i++) createOrUpdateEntity({x:entity.x, y:entity.y, rotation:i * 36, updateFunction:updateSpark, filters:[new GlowFilter(0xFFFFFF)]}, null, updateSpark, Vector.<int>([1,2]), Vector.<Number>([0, 0, 0, -10]), 0xFFFFFF) };
}

function updateSpark(event:Event):void
{
createOrUpdateEntity({x:MovieClip(event.target).x + (Math.cos((MovieClip(event.target).rotation - 90) * (Math.PI / 180)) * 12.5), y:MovieClip(event.target).y + (Math.sin((MovieClip(event.target).rotation - 90) * (Math.PI / 180)) * 12.5), rotation:MovieClip(event.target).rotation}, MovieClip(event.target));
if (MovieClip(event.target).x > 400 || MovieClip(event.target).x < 0 || MovieClip(event.target).y > 400 || MovieClip(event.target).y < 0) killEntity(MovieClip(event.target), false);
}

function updateEnemy(event:Event):void {createOrUpdateEntity({x:MovieClip(event.target).x + ((mouseX - MovieClip(event.target).x) / 45), y:MovieClip(event.target).y + ((mouseY - MovieClip(event.target).y) / 45), rotation:0}, MovieClip(event.target))};

createOrUpdateEntity({x:300, y:300, rotation:0, filters:[new GlowFilter(0x00FF00)]}, null, updateShip, Vector.<int>([1,2,2,2,2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2]), Vector.<Number>([-7.3, -10.3, -5.5, -10.3, -7, -0.6, -0.5, 2.8, 6.2, -0.3, 4.5, -10.3, 6.3, -10.3, 11.1, 1.4, -0.2, 9.6, -11.9, 1.3, -7.3, -10.3]), 0x00FF00);


// 25 lines ends here!

The Essential Guide To Flash Games... infomercial?!

Just wow. For a couple of months I spent many of my evenings writing the "technical review" for "The Essential Guide to Flash Games" a new book about programming games with AS3, by Jeff Fulton and Steve Fulton, aka 8bitrocket. Which basically means Jeff and Steve wrote it, and I marked their homework. I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive from the publisher, but now I really can't wait, because there's a full-on infomercial?!? This is freakin' awesome...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4WXmv-JtAY&feature=player_embedded

I learned some neat new tricks from Jeff and Steve, and I also added some of my own suggestions, so you've got at least 3 brains worth of knowledge right there. More about the book at 8bitrocket: http://www.8bitrocket.com/book/

Help! How do I generate classes for a new project?

Ok readers, I gave you my indispensable Gamepad class, now I need something back: Whenever I start a new game, I make a whole bunch of classes that extend my base classes, so:

  • com.blah.Game extends com.iainlobb.Game and has some setup code
  • com.blah.Player extends com.iainlobb.Player, and has some setup code
  • etc
Now all I need is a way to generate these classes at the start of the project so I don't have to create each one manually. It will save me at least an hour of faffing around per game. So how do I do it? I normally use FlashDevelop but I also have FlexBuilder 3, or I'm happy to download whatever other software I need (PC). Thanks. I'm looking forward to your thoughts - check back to this post for the solution soon (hopefully!)


Update1:

In FlashDevelop there is an option called "templates" that lets you generate classes. Explained here: http://catfacegames.com/2009/01/19/flashdevelop-templates/

"First, inside of FlashDevelop access “Tools > Application Files” from the menu. This should open an explorer window where you see a few folders. Drill down into the following folders: Templates > ProjectFiles > AS3Project."

Adds options to the right click menu. Doesn't add all the classes at once like I originally wanted though...

Update 2:

I think we have a winner! No lesser person than Philippe from the FlashDevelop team has suggested this in the comments:

Duplicate FlashDevelop's AS3 project and add whatever classes you need (FD/Projects in Program Files).
At first I thought he meant look in the AppData>Local>FlashDevelop>Projects but there was nothing there. So, I re-read and found what I was looking for in C:\Program Files\FlashDevelop\Projects. I copied this folder and pasted it into the AppData>Local>FlashDevelop>Projects, and renamed to "001 Game". Now when I hit new project, I have an option called "Game" which builds the folder structure I need, creates and names my classes, etc. This is really powerful! Thanks again Philippe for an amazing bit of software and for your help. Readers who haven't used FlashDevelop: you have no idea what you're missing (and it's free ffs!)