Making Game Development more FLEX'ible

 Updated 19/1/11 22:59 with new screenshot and name below!

I was going to originally going to just quickly post some in-development screenshots of a Tile Engine (Called 'E-Phoria Tile Engine' for the moment) I've been toying around with previously in Flash (it took ages with the side dialogs and desktop standards based stuff, thus it remains unfinished due to this) and now in Flex Builder and leave a brief comment about the size of this paragraph, but, well, here we are.

I've been tweeting about Flex a bit recently (I've had it for a while but never 'got it' till now) and the reason for this is I believe it will be a lot easier to realise interfaces, applications and in-dialog Flash game stuff in Flex (and specifically the builder) since it does most of the wheel (not reinventing and all that) work for you so can effectively focus on the design of the vehicle (nice analogy no? :D).

Flash version (I'm still using cs4 mind)

Flash Builder version (I'm still on Flex Builder 3)

Flex also has implications on the last post regarding gDn in that it will allow me to replace all the user interaction elements with cleaner (or rich as they like to call it) elements that respond to input in realtime rather then via page refreshes and redirects plus offers optional effects and flare (kinda like using javascript via actionscript if you will).

It should also make creating the module dialogs gDn requires for integration within flash games much more easier and unified, creating a consistent and clean experience (if done right it could be a design / code once deploy everywhere effect). That should lower sign-up friction for you wonderful people and speed-up development for me (and make GUI development more joyous in general).

Some of this is theoretical (in-terms of actual completed practice) but provided I keep my focus and have correctly understood all my study / practical around Flex Builder, it should pan out as above in most if not all cases.

E-Phoria in the design view of Flex Builder, still lots of bits & pieces to add to get it to the Flash version's maturity, but it should be a cinch now.

Update #1 - 19/1/11 22:59
Decided to go with the name E-Phoria TileMason (I was gonna go with TileSmith :S) for the moment and I've also added a file menu that works in Windows & Mac with shortcut keys (no additional code necessary) via the excellent code-once work everywhere Flex native menu, sweet!

New File Menu, real shortcut keys and a snazzy new name (TileMason), well, it's better then that other name, right?

Current progress and the gameDentity network

Generally I don't do as many of these blog posts as often as I should because I generally take too long to write em' and sometimes find it hard to justify with currently low views / comments etc, however, on this occasion I'll try to be concise and quick!

Lets go back a few months
As you may (or may not) remember from previous posts , I had been working on completing aDance, my physics-based arena dodging arcade game and even did a vlog for it. I also began talking about big ideas of including achievements and an in-game indie music play system.

All of this was well and good, but I came to realise I was very limited in my ability to actually deliver and implement these features in any of my creations due to the fact that my skill-set was limited in the necessary  areas to do so. I was stuck with relying on other third-party options (such as mochi, heyzap, gamersafe and the like) to implement some of these features or hack around them to make them work in a non-seamless fashion, not ideal and not good.

Now I'm not bashing these 3rd party options, they save time and enable many developers to earn money and socialise their content which is great, however if you want certain features implemented (such as a proper achievements system rather then the medals in mochi) you have to either hope and wait, hack it around the provided features or (as they rightfully often say) implement it yourself, so that's just what I decided to do! :)

Databases, PHP, MySQL, CSS and all things Dynamic Web
Around the 23rd of August of this year (around the same time 2 years that I started my journey with Flash), I began learning all the necessary web technologies to implement my OWN gaming and community platform (an ability I was always missing in my development tool-kit) for the above (and a few other) reasons.

I'm not gonna go through all the technically terms and details (Wikipedia's real good for that), but I can safely say that PHP was a tough but joyful language to learn and was made all the more easier because actionscript is very similar too it.

The hardest parts to learn were probably things like security (very important), relative file loading / linking and the differences in Class and Object based development in PHP vs Actionscript. Once I got my head around things like this it was simply a case of combining it with Dreamweaver, MySQL and AMFPHP, which results in me having a system that has the capability of doing all the things previously stated and all the things in my head, on the website and off via Flash.

Introducing the gameDentity™ network
And so gameDentity (or #gDn) is born. It will be entering beta 0.01 very soon and in a sentence I describe it as a Premium Social Core-Gaming Network.

The primary goal is for it to be a complete back-end, profile / user link and community system for Eternal Syndrome games and content (online and desktop). It's going to be online gaming's answer to XBox Live which I'm a huge fan of and use a lot (once I implement the online game play module).

The features include (some implemented already):

• User Account Profile
• Achievements (Currently 6 - 8 types including Titles, Treasures and classic types)
• Leaderboards (Fully customisable and can contain many columns of criteria)
• Save / Load system
• Site and Flash based Login (works anywhere Flash does thanks to AMFPHP)
• Native virtual currency (gCash)
• Stats via gXP and gPoint (which can be used to get savings on premium content)
• And more...

It has the flexibility and capability of allow third-party developers and partners to use the system.

Most of thee above will much easier to understand and visualise once it's out their in the wild, but as an example, a game like Diamond Raider will have treasure achievements for finding limited special treasured Diamond types that are only available dynamically to a limited amount of players and therefore highly sought after, think of it as the achievement only the quick and great get.

Right that's it, this was almost a hour in writing and I've still got a lot of work to do on this, mainly the Flash gDn modules, so thanks for reading and my twitter (@eternalsyndrome) is really the best place for regular / up to minute development updates. Thanks again!

All your musics are belong to us.

Posted this elsewhere earlier and thought since the image is so awesome and the post became so long, it was worthy of a dev lab update.

So, what I'm thinking of doing is potentially including great indie music artists tracks in-game (with permission first of course). The mock-up image below shows how the music player (called the ES Ra(u)dio Player, pronounced Raw-d-o) dialog will probably look and shows the ability for the user to find out more information about an artist / track as well buy content from them (Your album cover doesn't need to be as dope as Big Dog Mendoza's).

From avoiDance Concept

Basically (to begin with at least) aDance gets free cool music streamed in-game that matches the style / arena theme and musicians get extra listeners / fans for their music, a bit like EA Trax but indie with included artists getting direct links and an opportunity to sell their content to potentially millions of players (that's what a top end flash game gets, I'm aiming at that floor). All content will be served via XML meaning easy live updates of songs, descriptions and links. Artists will have the ability to see how many players do what with your content (ie click the buy button or add to their favourites etc).

This is all brainstorming at the moment and an idea based on the fact that I do exactly the same thing with arena content (xml based data) currently.

Right, that's all, I need to actual get back to game development for some new content to share, back to the carnage I suppose.

All your achievement are belong to us.

A preview design sample of the ingame achievement dialog and achievement icons (as well as some of the actual achievements that will be available for you to gain in-game!)

From avoiDance Concept - Click the image or here for full-fat version!

First ES Dev Vlog by Indie Game Developer Eternal Syndrome for Freemium Flash Game 'avoiDance Concept'.

First off, sorry for the frame drops and any other dodginess, it's my first, I'll get better with time, your help and patience! :)



The game is still in development at this point and the first vlog features some gameplay from arena1_mc accompanied by my (Leroy 'The 1nteger' Frederick - Developer) smooth vocals to boot talking about the game and vlog in general ;)

avoiDance in a sentence is Unadulterated and Unashamed Core-Gaming, Orb-Dodging, Blood-Pumping Arena action experience!

If you have watched or are about to watch this vlog I really appreciate it, to that end, feel free to Comment, Subscribe, Like / Dislike, Follow, Stalk (ok, don't do that, seriously) etc. Links & the like are below!

ES Twitter: Twitter.com
Dev Lab Vlog / ESTV: Youtube.com
Emmunity Forums: Emmunityforums.eternalsynd...
ES Flash Game Portal: Flashgamesretreat.com
 
Thanks again and look out for more very, very soon