Just getting into this, and did a few searches but didn't find any recent/strongly relevant threads. Wanted to toss this out there and see what everyone thought.

This wouldn't be for a business or anything along those lines, but more of a hobby. Maybe upload a few games to some of those massive online flash game sites, but that would be the extent, and again way down the line.

I'm looking to learn everything I can about programming a game in Flash. I am not new to programming (C++, html, java, the basic stuff) but haven't worked with Actionscript before.

What are the "must have" books/online tutorials that are out to really build a strong foundation, and get you rolling?

The software I currently have access to is the Adobe Flash CS3 Professional.

5/25/2010 2:19:39 PM

I am not sure if Actionscript 3 was introduced in CS3 or CS4. But either way, don't waste your time with actionscript pre 3...because the two are so different.

5/25/2010 2:26:53 PM

didn't you know? steve jobs said we're not allowed to use flash anymore

5/25/2010 2:27:43 PM

learn silverlight instead

5/25/2010 2:42:17 PM

5/25/2010 2:53:45 PM

AS2 - CS2
AS3 - CS3

Learn AS3- It's Object Oriented Programing so it should be a little more in line with what you've done before. 2.0 uses a lot of the same syntax that javascript does.

[Edited on May 25, 2010 at 3:19 PM. Reason : bleah]

5/25/2010 3:18:52 PM

AS3 is the way to go FOR SURE. I learned on AS2 and the transition drove me to learn PHP instead. AS2 is built around a location based system, VERY VERY rudimentary. AS3 is a full programming language all to it's own. Similar to Java/C++, but still it's own animal.

http://library.creativecow.net/tutorials/adobeflash
http://www.lynda.com/

If you know Java/C++ already:
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-ActionScript-3-0-Colin-Moock/dp/0596526946/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274824400&sr=8-1
(Consider the FLEX book also in the 'recommendations' section. Flex enables you to deploy to a ton of devices without learning new stuff - but I think that's CS5 only)

http://www.amazon.com/ActionScript-3-0-Game-Programming-University/dp/0789737027/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274824504&sr=1-10

Have Fun You may also want to seek out some sprite sheets to make development speed along. We made some rudimentary games for the heck of it, but we were too lazy to get into AS3 heavy. It's promising and fun, just found that PHP was better at paying bills

5/25/2010 5:57:01 PM

Fuck Steve Jobs. AS3 is pretty easy to code, specially if you have a java or c background.

5/25/2010 11:55:26 PM

flash is going to get killed

5/26/2010 12:29:13 AM

^ I can't see a company controlling 10% of the market is going to bring down a company with deployment rate of 98%+ of the market.

5/26/2010 12:59:01 AM

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to check out some of those books and maybe see if I can find some AS3 tutorials online

5/26/2010 8:18:50 AM

^^ It wont kill Adobe, but will have a large impact on Flash, one of their products.

5/26/2010 8:35:07 AM

Quote :

"Fuck Steve Jobs. AS3 is pretty easy to code, specially if you have a java or c background."

lol. What does Steve Jobs have to do with AS3? You do know AS3 is used for more than making silly video players right? And that all internet traffic isn't generated through mobile devices only, right?

that being said...

If you have a Java or C background you will find objective C pretty easy to code as well.

5/26/2010 11:01:15 AM

If you have a Java or C programming background you will find objective C programming languages pretty easy to code as well

5/26/2010 11:15:30 AM

If you're going to do anything 2D and platformy I'd highly recommend giving the Flixel framework and FlashDevelop a try.
http://flixel.org/
http://www.flashdevelop.org/

5/26/2010 12:05:21 PM