I wanted to write a real quick post today about the basic methodology of developing Flash games. I’ve had a couple of people email me recently after filling in the survey about whether the Flash Games Classroom course will cover subjects like design, planning and asset management and the answer is yes it will! In this post today though I just want to give a really brief into and explain why just sitting down at Flash and starting to code isn’t a great idea!
A good developer needs to be competent in Flash and Actionscript with solid programming practices, graphical skills, audio skills, a methodical and analytical approach, and the patience of a saint. Here is a guide to how the average developer tackles a games project. Video games are complex beasts. Even a game as simple as Pacman has quite a number of routines, such as controlling the ghosts, taking user input, checking collisions, keeping score, and generating levels, not to mention non-game screens and functions like pre-loaders and splash screens.For this reason, a methodical approach to game development is essential, otherwise the project becomes chaotic, over budget and a nightmare to work on.
The first thing to do is to draw up a solid design, away from Flash, and include complete lists of assets such as graphics and audio. Only then can you begin to develop the game in Flash. The first step once the design is completed it to create a mock-up – an outline demo in Flash using placeholder graphics, which can be used to test and develop the game logic. Once that is nearing completion you can begin to start adding graphical assets and audio. It’s a good idea to leave out all extras at this stage however. Things like splash screens and mid-level animations can slow testing down considerably, so leave them for the beta version.
Once the game reaches the later stages of development, when the game engine is mostly complete and tested, the final touches can be added. Introductions, help screens, preloaders and game over screens should all be added at this point. Leaving these until now means that testing is quicker, with less clicks, keypresses or waiting is required to restart levels or replay the game.
Then finally you’ll have a completed game, ready for final beta testing. Even though we started with a complex project, by breaking the design and development process down into bite sized chunks it became manageable. If you’re thinking of getting started in Flash game development then it’s a really good idea to edit an existing game or two first. Making changes to an existing game, such as adding new levels or power-ups, can be a far less daunting task than building a whole game from scratch. You can even take the source code for an existing game and turn it into a new game entirely. Then once you’ve gained more experience you’ll be in a better position to start building your own games from scratch.
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