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OrfBC
03-05-2009, 02:11 PM
I would like to try my hand at making a Flash game. I don't have any serious programming background at all (my jr high school computer class did include some BASIC). I downloaded the trial of Flash CS4 and have been monkeying around with it, and it doesn't seem too complicated (at least as far as drawing and animating goes...scripting is another thing entirely), but can anyone recommend a book/online tutorial/whatever that I can go through?

I tried the Shootorial deal on Kongregate, but couldn't get the scripting to work. Maybe because it was written for Actionscript 2 and I was using Actionscript 3? Are they that different?
Lunch of Kong
03-05-2009, 02:15 PM
I tried the Shootorial deal on Kongregate, but couldn't get the scripting to work. Maybe because it was written for Actionscript 2 and I was using Actionscript 3? Are they that different?

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, it says there is different source code for actionscript 3, with a download link
http://www.kongregate.com/labs


Already know ActionScript 2? Want to learn to port a game to AS3? Here's the source code for an AS3 version of Shoot with many extras...
http://chat.kongregate.com/assets/uploaded_images/0000/0024/Shoot_as3_source.zip
OrfBC
03-05-2009, 02:18 PM
Thanks..So should I start with AS2 and work up from there then? I just figured the latest version would be the best.
Lunch of Kong
03-05-2009, 02:20 PM
That seems like a reasonable approach. It's what I'd do. Thanks for the link to shootorial, btw. Very cool stuff.
OrfBC
03-05-2009, 02:21 PM
Okay then. End of thread!
garin
03-05-2009, 04:06 PM
I would not recommend starting with AS2, actually. You'd be a lot better served (especially if you might want to program in other languages some day) going straight to ActionScript 3.
Coca Cola Zero
03-05-2009, 06:30 PM
I agree with garin. Fuck AS2.
OrfBC
03-05-2009, 06:37 PM
Okay then. End of thread!

HEY!!!
CLWheeljack
03-06-2009, 12:25 PM
From what I understand, AS2 is sort of a mish-mash of ideas from the original days of flash as a purely visual-driven language, and doesn't have any coherency as a programming language. AS3 on the other hand, was actually designed from the ground up to be a sensible, object oriented language. Learning AS3 will actually allow you to transition into other languages, while AS2 will basically just let you use AS2.

AS3 can also be used in many of the same ways as traditional flash code (embedding code in objects, etc), but it additionally can be used as a regular coding language. Basically, I don't know of any good reason to learn AS2 at this point.