Category Archives: flash
Hi,
months ago i wrote this post where i commented about a tool that adobe was developing that convert any fla into html5. on the same post i also talk about the eternal fight of flash vs html5 and the “end of flash”, i recommend you to give it a quick read. today adobe have released this tool to the public, you can download it from here
of course that the app is on a test phase, is not even a beta version, but i hope flash will continue the development converting it into a real product.
Regards,
Shadow.
![[Digg]](http://cdn1.diggstatic.com/img/favicon.a015f25c.ico){kind=small}
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Related Post
Hi,
today i was playing with inkscape, and i created some shiny balls to share with my readers 
are not a big deal, but could be useful for some project that you maybe have. the good thing about this shiny balls, is that you can just change the color of the ball itself (not of the white half transparent ellipses) , and you will have balls of any color 
the file is on SVG format and the license of this is free for any purpose, commercial or not.
you can download it from here.
i hope you enjoy it.
Regards,
Shadow.
Related Post
Hi,
just today, seeing some news sites, i discover this video where adobe at the MAX 2010 show that is developing a tool that converts a .fla file into html5. seeing the video, i need to say that is a awesome thing and i feel excited about this new way that adobe is approaching the problem between the flash platform and the upcoming html5 standard. also i would like to express some opinions about the subject.
Flash as a tool, not as a platform
if you look on google for “flash vs html5″ or “the end of flash”, whatever you want, you will found a lot of articles complaining about how flash made our lives miserably, with his bad performance, his closed source code, the impossible integration with search engines etc.. but what the people forget in this era of fights for what is the best technology, is that flash allow us to bring the web (and after years, to other platforms) the interactivity, rich applications, games, video etc… but the most strong point in flash is that is the only tool that let you make content fast. is easy for the designer, why you have a well designer interface, integrating a timeline and a vector editor and a lot of other tools. is easy for the developer, why actionscript have classes as movieclips, bitmaps, etc… that let you handle the resources easily making rotations, transformations, etc…
the path that adobe is taking is the right one, sooner or later, html5 will be a reality, the people is using more and more the web for their day to day activities, and only in the PC, from several types of devices, and different from the era when the web was building, when the only king was IE, now we have a lot of strong competitors that i suppose they will respect the standards and implement the correct interpretations for the html5 code i think.
the AIR project was a good idea, but is too big and complicated, even for adobe, trying to adapt a client to all platforms, when it didn’t even worked flawless in the PC, is a impossible mission. stick with a universal standard, that will work in all devices, where the interpreter is even build by other companies, just focus in make a tool that let the people produce content easily.
i’m excited about this news, and i hope adobre will continue this path and focusing his efforts on this matter
Regards,
Shadow.
Related Post
Hi,
some months ago, working over a project and designing the architecture and technical spects, we got a moment where we needed to get or build a streaming platform. the problem was, that the streaming platform will needed to have a Q&A module, a way to share the desktop or ppt and other features. then searching in the web, i found Big Blue Button.
this open source project aims to build a free E-learning and Conference platform, from their web can be read as:
Our vision is that starting a web conference should be as easy as clicking a single metaphorical big blue button. As an open source project, we believe it should be easy for others to embrace and extend. And while web conferencing means many things to many people — our focus is to make the best web conferencing system for distance education.
the software is a conjunction of different technologies as java, flash, red5 etc.. to provide the streaming of the content to the users, is a big project, stable for now that really make the work. the only problem is that is not as-easy to install and configure than use it. for use it you just need a flash-compatible browser, but at the installation part, you need a dedicated server, linux-based, and follow a lot of configurations and installation process. i think is not for all the people but is a perfect project to customize /integrate in your own web application. also, the license of BBB is LGPL so can be integrated in any closed source project.
if you want, can try a live demo here
i hope it help you in some way
Regards,
Shadow.
Related Post
Hi,
when i installed the new 9.10 ubuntu in my new notebook, i realized time after the problem with the clicks in some flash app’s. was really troublesome, like see youtube videos or any other flash app i wanted to use/try.
today, after like 6 months with this problem i found the solution on this blog (in spanish). basically you need to edit the npviewer like this:
sudo gedit /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer
and add this line before the last one:
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
save it and restart any browser that you have running
Regards,
Shadow.
Related Post
Hi,
today we going to continue with this series of articles about diferents types of revenue for game developers depending of the type of game or platform you are developing, if you don’t see the first one analyzing the revenue streams for flash games, click here
What are the casual games?
the casual games basically are downloable games with a simple and proved gameplay (as match 3, hidden objects etc..), there are some that tries to improve the gameplay to get a better user experience and get more attention than the rest, but need to be very careful for the type of target of people that play this games.
the target of this market is usually mens and womens from 25 to 45 years old, people that like to play but don’t have the time to waste hours in fps or in a RPG, so usually this games provide a fast and rich fun in 5-15 minutes of game and for a low cost (for the user it cost less than 10 USD).
what are the things you have to considerate at the time to develop a casual game?
there are a few things that you need to get in consideration at the time to develop a casual game, if you fail in some of them, can determine the success of failure of your project.
- Polished game art: 99% of the games developer for this market are made in 2D, but that doesn’t mean that need to have poor art. not only the art need to be nice to view and polished, you need to add several types of effects to keep the user interested in the game and make the experience more rich in that 5-15 minutes of game
- Old hardware compatibility: is known that the computers that the casual users have are old, 70% have a 950GMA intel integrated graphics card. this mean that the game that you make need to be very optimized and need to have a long QA in several old machines.
- Light executable: this games can not surpass the 200MB of total weight, and usually is ideal to have a weight of 40-60 MB.
- Improve but be careful: in this market is a must to improve in anything to have success, if you release a exactly copy of another game, going to lost in the thousands of games in the portals, the key here is to add some minor changes that can make the difference but don’t get excited, if you change too much things from the common gameplay of this games, the user can get lost and you going to lost a sale. everything depends in balance.
ok i understood what are the keys of a casual game, how can i make money from it?
sorry to say this, but you need to relay on publishers and portals. they going to cut a percentage of the sales revenue and is not easy to get published if you don’t have a background history making games.
the most known are big fish games, reflexive, iwin, but are many other, all of them have a developers emails where you can submit your game.
Conclusion:
this market is a risky one, the developments cost is high compared to the flash games industry, and you need to have a team of people maybe for a year or 2 working in a game to get something of quality done. even if you make it, still need to have luck with the portals/publishers and finally with the users. this is not the type of project for a newbie or a small team with no funding.
i hope this article has been helpful
Regards,
Shadow.
Related Post
Hi,
i wanted to write some posts explaining the ways to get money from the web development, and for this first article i going to start talking about flash games.
just a little warnings, all of the exposed here is what i learned from other blogs, forums and people that are in the industry, i tried some methods and other i do not, so, take it as an opinion and not as a fact, i learned with the pass of the time that anything in business is a fact, everything that you think going to go okay could go wrong and vice versa, the only thing you can do is read, learn and try it yourself.
Flash the low entry platform
in my opinion flash is one of the best tool to start with the game development, and here i going to list the most important reason:
- learn curve is not too big as other languages
- have a lot of tools and functions for graphics operation
- exist a market for the flash games today
- you do not need to put a penny to develop in flash, you have great IDE and compiler to create your games
- there are lots of libraries ready for your animation, physics, network etc.. management
Flash games, how to make money from it?
there exist several ways to make money from it, you just need to see what fit better for your capacity of development and the games that you are aiming to make.
game sposnor: the game sponsor consist in that the game portals, pay you a fixed amount 1 time to put her logo and link into your game. there are several types of licensing, exclusive, non-exclusive etc.. each of them have different amount of revenue and obligations from the developer, usually is a common agree between the portal owner and the developer. the only and best portal for this, is flashgamelicense.com, there you can upload your game and the portal are able to test it and send you a offer to sponsor it. also recently has been launched the Mochi Fund, a sponsor program controlled my mochimedia. this is usually the most secure way to get a good money from your games, maybe it take a while to find a good sponsor (up to 1 month) but it can worth the effort
micro transactions: this type of revenue come directly from the user, you offer the game for free but the users need to pay to access extra content (as levels, custom character etc..). it usually have success in multi player or premium games, and you have several already made solutions for this as, gamersafe and mochicoins. the problem with this system is that the charge you 30% to 50% of your revenue and at the same time is not easy make a balanced game with the enough free content and attractive pay content, is usually used for mid-big projects
outsourcing-clone game: maybe this is the most hated of all the way to make money. if you are just starting and need fast funding to continue or want fast money, this is the short path. is like working as a freelancer, usually the portal owners request you to make a game “like this” with new art and maybe some change, you usually have a low rate but is secured money why you are just doing what the portal want and he decide all the game design stuff.
in-game ads: if you want to make your own creations whiteout taking in consideration standards or already proved gameplay, this going to be maybe your only option to make profit from your game. there are 2 main ads network, CPMstar and Mochiads, i used mochiads and is very good but the problem with this type of revenue is that you need to have a lots of gameplay (we are talking about millions) to make some hundred bucks and if you released a game with ads, is difficult to find a sponsor that want to pay a license for it.
donations: maybe this is the most “indie” way to make money from your games. of course that from here you can’t even expect get any money, as it depends from the willing of the people and that depends in the target of people that is reaching your games. usually is very good used for non-conventional games (and not only made it in flash).
Conclusion:
basically here i detail the different revenue sources that you can get making flash games, but at the end just depend of what is your capacity of making games and what you are aiming (make original games or just make money from it). is proved that the art and the original ideas can make a lot of money, but is just proved by a few smart people that was able to find the balance between art and diversion.
i hope this post has been useful for you in some way
Regards,
Shadow.
Related Post
Hi,
there sometimes where is needed to dispatch an event when some action is taken, so other actions can be done in the right moment and timming.
usually, if you want to dispatch event, the best way is to create a custom class that extends from Event and then use it in your classes, if you are looking for that, here is a good tutorial.
but maybe sometimes you only need to dispatch 1 or 2 type of events from your custom class that extends from movieclip, sprite or whatever, and is too much work to create a class and maintain it, for that here is a little trick
basically you can use the dispatchEvent() in your class (that are in most of the classes), passing a new Event() object, here is how need to be done.
package{
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
public class MySpriteClass extends Sprite{
public static const MY_EVENT:String=”My Event”;
public function MySpriteClass()
//do your stuff
}
private function dispatchTheEvent():void{
dispatchEvent(new Event(MY_EVENT));
}
}
here we have defined a new class that extends from Sprite, this class in some moment fire an event and we can catch it like this:
var foo:MySpriteClass = new MySpriteClass();
foo.addEventListener(MySpriteClass.MY_EVENT, listenerFunction);
was easy right? with this you save to create a custom class to fire events in your classes
Regards,
Shadow.
Random Posts
Hi,
today i wanted to share the final and absolute way to embedded fonts in as3 for flashdevelop or flex, why is something that is not real clear when you search in internet and like you usually don’t get warning and that stuff when something is wrong, is hard to diagnostic the problem.
this is an example class using a embebbed font:
package{
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.text.TextField;
import flash.text.TextFormat;public class test extends Sprite{
[Embed(source = "C:/7theb.ttf", fontFamily = "7th Service",fontStyle="normal", fontWeight = "bold", mimeType = "application/x-font")]
private var theboldfont:Class;
public var txtFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
public var textTest:TextField = new TextField();
public function test(){
txtFormat.font = new theboldfont().fontName;
txtFormat.color = 0xFFFFFF;textTest.embedFonts = true;
textTest.defaultTextFormat = txtFormat;
textTest.text=”Testing font”;
}
}
}
now, let analyze the code:
1)the EMBED tag:
maybe this will be the most common source of the problems when you need to embebbed a font. in the example, the font have 5 parameters:
source: this is where the font file is located, as you see, even it’s windows. is needed to use / and not \ as is commonly use for this OS
fontFamily: this is basically the fontFamily that the font belongs, to know it just open the font and you will see it
fontStyle: this is as the word say, the style of the font, can be normal, italic etc..
fontWeight: this could be bold or normal
mimeType: for fonts is always: application/x-font
also there are other properties that can be defined:
fontName: this is the name of the font, if you open the font you will see it and you can define it (some times is necessary but other times broke the code and the font is now showing, like the example i put here)
usually the use of this tag is something of try and fail thing with each font, some fonts will work with all parameters, others you just need to ignore them or you put the wrong family name, weight or style.
then following with the code, we are setting the textFormat.font instancing a new object from the class “theboldfont” that is the one that keeps the properties of the embebed font. in the same line we access to the fontName property that the class have to assign this value to the textFormat.font property.
them, line below, we set the property embebedFonts to true in the textField object and the defaultTextFormat to the textFormat previously defined. i tried to use the function setTextFormat for this also but didn’t work, maybe is why i’m using flash develop but i do not know why
and we are done ! you have embebbed your font and should be working
if not, check and play with the properties of the embed tag, adding/changing/erasing the attributes.
i hope it help you to save some hours of work
Regards,
Shadow.
Related Post
Hi,
something weird that happened to my 2 days ago, i was working in a component that load images in a slideshow gallery, and like can load images from other url’s that are not where the swf is hosted, you can’t access the content of the loader for the security policies of flash, so the only way to show the loaded images is getting the loader (and in bulkloder the Loader-get(ID).loader don’t work also).
the solution was easy, just update your version of bulkloader to the last revision where this bug has been fixed
just i wanted to share this tip so someone else don’t lose time searching for it
Regards.
Shadow.
