Flash Games... Program to make them? A FREE one?

[Dayzed 0]

Once upon a time, a new Knight rode into town with some nifty tools. He was the designers friend. The hero of creatives. His tools gave special powers to those that wanted to spend more time creating and less time fiddling with code. His name was Sir McMed.Soon all creatives wanted to be his friend. This did not please the Lord of the Manor, Sir McRow. Sir McMed was so adored by the craftsmen. They liked his tools, they were light, powerful and easy to use. Not like the tools of the Lord of the Manor, which were heavy and clunky. So they cast down the tools Sir McRow, the Lord of the Manor had given them in favour of the new ones Sir McMed had brought with him. Sir McMed was so popular that the Lord of the Manor, Sir McRow turned his attention instead to his other interests, and let Sir McMed go about it's own business.At first the tools of Sir McMed, were special and unique, and fitted perfectly the needs of the craftsmen and creatives. They didn't want to fiddle with silly details, but just enjoyed designing things. But slowly over time the tools Sir McMed gave them began to change. Slowly but surely they became heavier, and clunkier, and each time the craftsmen were told how much more useful their tools had become. Slowly, slowly they began to resemble the tools the Lord of the Manor, Sir McRow once gave them, until eventually they even had to start doing work that was not creative and fun, and had to fiddle with with silly details to use the tools fully.Some craftsmen were able to learn the new methods of using the changed tools, others though, just had to make do, knowing that the heaviness of their tools should let them do so much more, but weren't able to manage it themselves. Other creatives had to hire other people to use their tools for them, in order to make them do all they were meant to do.Then one day, a few of the craftsmen and creatives began to wonder what had happened to the light powerful tools they could use on their own. But when they went to look for Sir McMed they found that now another Manor house had been built, and there were two Lords of the Manor.The End, and now it's bedtime. >_>But seriously, I do wonder if Macromedia have left their original audience a bit.I don't have any complaints really about the developments. This has allowed them to capture much of the designer and web developer market. It has also meant improvements in technology that allow faster and more engaging content on the web. But with all this, I do think they have begun to leave the humble designer out in the cold.Designers (okay, I'm not a designer) like me have ideas, revel in creating, but dont have the time to learn programming, actionscript, and how to make what is essentially and animation interface accept programming. Nightmare. What I really want, and what I hope Macromedia will deliver, is the code-less creativity that was one of their champions in the beginning.There is software out there that lets me create computer games, without knowing or learning any programming. Such software as the old Klick n' Play, software like Game Maker, and even The 3d Game Maker.If this technology exists, my question is why don't Macromedia, (who own all the know-how of Shockwave 3d, Shockwave and Flash) produce similar software for creating interactive media, web games and the like. For games you can leave the timeline behind for much of the creation. You are interested in actions, reactions, gravity, if thens, keeping score. If the software I just mentioned can let you create games that have all of that, but without programming, then in my opinion Macromedia need to take the same steps to producing a code-less interface for web game creation. Keep the timeline for making your movie clips, but build onto it a new area, the Playing Field, where I can attach movements, interactions, choose outcomes of collisions and other events in the game. But all without me having to code a single line of actionscript. Some people can code flash animation by hand, but why bother. In the same vain, when the technology is there, why do we have to code interactions and the like, thousands of them could be prebuilt and parameters changed, just like the javascript events in DW.This is my vision for flash and director. Does Macromedia share it? There have to be 1000's of designers out there who could put that kind of technology to work. Lets see it.By so doing they will be back in touch with the designers like me who like to create without having to get into programming. When that happens, we have a verion of Flash or Director that's really worth upgrading for.Summary1. Is there a program that I can make Flash games with little knowledge of coding?2. If there is, what.3. If there is no program, what lanuage would be used to make a flash game?

[spacemonkey 0]

Summary

 

1. Is there a program that I can make Flash games with little knowledge of coding?

 

2. If there is, what.

 

3. If there is no program, what lanuage would be used to make a flash game?

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Answers:

1. To my knowledge: no. Macromedia owns all intellectual copyrights for Flash and the creation of such a program (without Macromedia's consent) would violate those copyrights. It would definitely be possible for Macromedia to allow a third party to develop such a program (or even develop one themselves, though that is unlikely), however, as I stated before, to my knowledge they have not done this.

 

3. ActionScript 2.0. Again, this is Macromedia property, so unless you developed some sort of compiler and made your own language, I wouldn't try messing with theirs.

 

In Flash, the timeline really isn't COMPLETELY necessary to make games. ActionScript, while also completely optional, can control many, MANY aspects of the events that occur within a movie or, in this case, a game.

 

It could very well be possible to make a cool game with ActionScript and have only one or two frames used on the timeline. It has been done. Since ActionScript is pretty much a simple language to learn over time, compared to say, C++, with some dedication you should be making games sooner than you might think.

 

If you are concerned with money issues, let me go ahead and say that you're out of luck if you want to create Flash games. There are student discounts available which can take a nice chunk out of the original retail price for a Flash MX license. However, if that is still too costly, you might as well invest your time into something cheaper or even free. Flash, while cool, can quickly become the least ideal platform to use when developing a game.

[it01y2 0]

yes there is try swish max its so easy to use but need to know the basic functions.

[spacemonkey 0]

I looked into "Swish Max" and found that yes, you can use this to create Flash animations. While it looks like it is basically Flash MX but re-organized, there seem to be a lot of included effects and scripts. I suppose Macromedia allowed someone to crete this or I was completely wrong about the intellectual property rights.Oh well, I stand (or rather, type) corrected.

[lone_wild_wolf 0]

Uhh.... the only way i know is using flash and learning flash's language:Actionscript.........(in short as).There are 2(now 3) versions of AS and according to me its pretty easy espicially if you already have some programming knowledge(like C/C++ or java)

[masterleous 0]

Their is't any program i know, which are ready to make flash games. But if you have some professional skills for Macromedia Flash Mx and Action Scripting, than you will make your ideas of Games.Third party Flash Ready made software "Swish" can't be use for making flash games as a begginer.

[hesham 0]

Does Macromedia share it? There have to be 1000's of designers out there who could put that kind of technology to work. Lets see it.By so doing they will be back in touch with the designers like me who like to create without having to get into programming. When that happens, we have a verion of Flash or Director that's really worth upgrading for.

[iGuest 3]

Eclipse is a free java compiler thingy...Link: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ by Arianell

[dimumurray 0]

The Flex3 SDK is now free from Adobe and there are a number of free third party IDEs (FlashDevelop3 for example).
Check out the following site for a number of open-source flash tools:
Open Source Flash

As for the earlier rant at the beginning of this post I am not sure if you were very fair in you analysis of the situation. At its inception flash was a tool for vector animation and for the most part that meant cool animated visuals. Over time though, web users demanded more from their websites. They wanted functionality that mere pretty pictures, moving or static, could not supply. In an effort to keep up with trends on the web macro-media introduced actionscript. While it would be nice to have click and drag tools I think you've missed the whole point of having a language -- it is essentially the ultimate tool. It empowers creatives with the ability to build their own tools giving ingenuity free reign.
The problem is, like so many other things in life, if you want to get the most out of something you have to be willing to put in the time and the effort. Pre-packaged functionality is a nice concept but invariably you'll reach a point where you'll want to do something that the tool at hand does not allow for. But if you can build it yourself, well, the sky's the limit. Imagination unbound...
Now get up off your butt and go find a book on actionscript and start reading

Edited July 30, 2008 by dimumurray (see edit history)

[iGuest 3]

just 2 addFlash Games...

I'm having hard time looking for games that I may use as my school project...

I'd like it to run as .Fla file..I want it also to be a mid game...Hope u can help me...Thnx..

-reply by nhe xhian

[iGuest 3]

Ya wanna make a game? Flash Games...It aint as hard as ya think ya no. I just made my 1st flash game. All I had for refrance was what I found via GOOGLE, I dunno much about code but I did it pull your finger out love and work @ it. No 1 is gonna let u make a game with out any effort what so ever  -reply by evilkitty75