Hi there! Can Macromedia Flash 5 be used to make games like the one in http://www.neopets.com? Thanks! "The feeling of mastering and understanding hard stuff in Game Programming is just like the feeling u get when u perform an Air-Walk in the basketball court, soaring.....and everyone''s watching in awe......."

I believe Shockwave is more popular but if you can do it with Director/Lingo I''m sure you can use Flash. Lingo is pretty easy to learn too.

http://www.robotduck.com - tutorials

http://www.habbohotel.com - cute GUI chat

http://www.macromedia.com/software/director/download/power_aps/ - macromedia server thing

Wierd Al




“...some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don’t help.”
- Calvin & Hobbes

Making simple 2D games in flash 5 is not only feasible and easy, but actually kinda fun (anyone who ever tried in flash 4 knows what I''m talking about).

"If consquences dictate our course of action, it doesn''t matter what''s right, it''s only wrong if you get caught."
- Tool

Thanks for all that replies, guys! :-D

But regarding the Neopet and Flash thingy again...does Flash handle all that complex stuff like u know, keeping track of which users are online and show the list, so that other surfers can see them too and challenge them? Or do we need to program in Java too? Thanks!

"The feeling of mastering and understanding hard stuff in Game Programming is just like the feeling u get when u perform an Air-Walk in the basketball court, soaring.....and everyone''s watching in awe......."

Actually, Flash 4 & 5 can be used to make Flash games (I do flash for a living...) I have been able to make full blown 2D RPG''s in flash 4. Of course they were only 50 minutes of game play max (Ill check my computer and if I have it, Ill send you the .fla file...). Its not easy to learn how to do it, actually, I had to teach it to myself, and the concept, too. Try these sites for tutorials:

www.flashkit.com

www.virtual-fx.net

They were the only two helpful sites I have ever found.

If you ever need help, send me an email at:

bg_darkelf@hotmail.com

"I''ve sparred with creatures from the nine hells themselves... I barely plan on breaking a sweat here, today."~Drizzt Do''Urden

Multiplayer games in flash are the hardest thing you could possibly do with flash. I still struggle quite a bit with it. I suggest you make some small games before the multiplayer games.
Check out www.candystand.com to see some of flash''s multiplayer capabilites (thier pool game(the billiards))

"I''ve sparred with creatures from the nine hells themselves... I barely plan on breaking a sweat here, today."~Drizzt Do''Urden

Also, I would say go with Flash 4 for learning purposes, and then when yo have something advanced, just convert it to Flash 5.

I always make my games in flash 4 and then convert them to flash 5 to make them multiplayer, or to make them save data to cookies.

Flash 4 will be alot cheaper nowwadays if you can find it. Your better off with it untill you really start advanced stuff. If you found a flash game programming book, it more than likely uses flash 5. If you buy a book, youll need flash 5, not flash 4.

Good Luck.

"I''ve sparred with creatures from the nine hells themselves... I barely plan on breaking a sweat here, today."~Drizzt Do''Urden

Hi again Drizzt! Thanks for that replies! They were most helpful! Is Neopets built entirely outta Flash, without any Java programming? Because of u know, taking care of the member signing up and create the pets, and then allows the surfer to navigate here and there and play the games and the most complex part is fighting with rivals and u''ve to animate the stuff accordingly and calculate the scores etc.......this seems to be only possible in real programming languages(for real men) like Java or C++. How can ActionScript do such stuff? Thanks! :-D

"The feeling of mastering and understanding hard stuff in Game Programming is just like the feeling u get when u perform an Air-Walk in the basketball court, soaring.....and everyone''s watching in awe......."

It would be a waste of time to make a site like that in Flash.. I could do the whole thing in java-script and HTML, including the game and stats (OK, I might need some CGI or PHP at most...)From what I saw, nothing there was made in flash.

Check out:

www.candystand.com

And play thier pool game in the billiards, thats a flash game. If you want to know if something was madei n flash(and someone said this before) right click it. It should say "About Macromeda Flash 5" or something of that nature..

Flash may seem hard at first, but after your first game, you won''t believe how simple it is. After working with flash for about 4 or 5 years now, I have gotten into C++ and OpenGL for more advanced games. Most people will do the same.

Flash is great to know. I was offered a job for 65k per year as a starting salary as a flash designer but I have school (and it was a full time job) so I could not do it. A guy who I would have worked with, he was working there for five years and was making 93k per year.

Thats more than a C++ programmer averagely makes, and thats the main reason I have trouble believing game programming slaries are so low...

"I''ve sparred with creatures from the nine hells themselves... I barely plan on breaking a sweat here, today."~Drizzt Do''Urden