[DISC] What way would you do it ?

Ok i typically started this thread to help myself out with a project ive been working on for sometime now, but i thaught this question might help everyone out a little because it covers such a range of ideas. Now the topic of question is how people dynamically setup their games.

How do poeple put sounds in their game.

1.Have the sounds in a external .swf file and load them in.
2.Have sound placed on the timeline.
3.Setup sound librarys and so on.

My first real main query is how would you set up the following.

ok just say you have a game where the user selects a character. Their is several to choose from.

And each character has like 10 different animations to it.

1.How would you set this up in your game

1a/ Have one character mc and then refrence each character by the number chosen and the frame number.

1b/ Have seperate character mcs and attach each character to a blank mc.

1c/To decrease the file size and eliminate the point of loading all characters when the user only needs the one. Load each character from an external mc eg char1.swf char2.swf char3.swf etc

1d/ Other opinions.


2.How do you generally break up you large games.

2a/ Load them from external files into a main mc.

2b/ Have one file but have a preloader for each section and load other section while the user is in other sections of the game.

2c/ Other opinions


The reason of this thread is trying to workout and also show how people general put together their games.

How they load sound

How they get around decreasing load time but keeping the size and the quality of the game the same.

Do you use scene's insted of frames when moving to different parts of games

Do you make projector games rather then .swf ones.

How do you keep your game organised

Do you break up everything into functions rather then wirte loads and loads of clipevents.

Making and loading graphics and so on.

How do you organinse your librarys.

Things like that.


So let me and the other fkers (flashkitters) :D know how you do it.

Ow and also post a question here if you need it answered.

Mate, I think you've covered everything there :)

Sound:
I just attach it and have it in the same swf. You can get really small filesizes by playing with the samples before hand and then hitting them hard with Flash's mp3 settings ( I always import them as wavs rather than mp3's. Only downside is that your fla gets really big ).

Multiple Characters:
The most I've ever had is two, and with such a low amount I just use method 1a

Large Games:
Never written one to be honest. Thrustar is the biggest and that's going to be about 600k when it's complete.
Using tile based methods really reduces the file size, as does packing your map format. It's just a case of not being wasteful with your resources. I really can't see how an on-line Flash game can ever be over a meg in size ( Well, perhaps 2K, but not something like a platform game ).

Misc:
"Do you use scene's insted of frames when moving to different parts of games"
All my games are no more than three frames, and I only put the pre-loader code in a seperate scene, aside from that I don't touch them ( Funnily enough the pre-loader is about 15 frames where I've just been lazy ).

"How do you keep your game organised"
Everything is on a seperate layer, so I have actions, functions, prototypes, playfield etc. I'm that anal that all my script only layers are always set to black and locked.
I'm also really bad with the library, everything is in a folder ( And I have lots of sub-folders as well, so I have "Imported Art" for the pngs, and within that I'll have "Explosions", "Player" etc. subfolders ). Also all the folders have exactly the same names in every game.
One bad habit I have is having an enterFrame on the player sprite. I just find it easier. Plus I always have a baddieHandler mc with an enterFrame. I know I should just use 1 _root.onEnterFrame but I can't face changing my style that much.

"Do you break up everything into functions rather then wirte loads and loads of clipevents."

Opps, should have read ahead before answering the last one :)
Everything is in functions, and I always use this template for any mc's

code:

---

onClipEvent(load){

var myfunc=null;

}

onClipEvent(enterFrame){

myfunc();

}

---

Cause I just find it easier to alter the functions being called dynamically that way ( So the master function which is called within the enterFrame is a collection of function pointers as well, it really reduces the number of conditional checks you need ).

Pretty condensed, if somethings not clear let me know :)

Squize.

Nope i understand very clearly, thats exactly what i want to hear from people.

All this occured to me on my recent work project. If their is no organisation to such big projects even little ones you just find yourself getting really confussed with what you have done.


As to where if you have a planned system worked out it can take the stress out of it. Like alocating a layer for each item actions,labels,graphics and so on. Or placing all your sounds in a swf and loading them into the main movie.

How to you pick up from where you left off on something ?

And with your varibles do you try to keep varibles to a minimum or doesnt really matter. Also nameing varibles is a biggy has anyone got a good system they would like to share ?
When you go mad on varibles you often find yourself asking questions like

"Wtf is with that varible vhjdhf = 0.1; dont know why i made that one"

Thanks for reply Squizmiester

Quote:

---

Originally posted by hooligan2001
How do poeple put sounds in their game.

1.Have the sounds in a external .swf file and load them in.
2.Have sound placed on the timeline.
3.Setup sound librarys and so on.

---

3. I have sounds in the library and I attach them when needed. Sounds in timeline are bad choise if you add options to turn sound on and off (every game should have that option).

I have used external swf too sometimes for really long music and really small game.

Yeh i find the good thing about that is you can have the main game .swf loaded quick and then while they are playing the game the sounds .swf can be getting loaded and when thats done the sounds can play. Then if you change sounds you can just change them in the sounds swf keeping the respective name and then you just have to publish the sounds .swf again rather then the hole game including sounds.

Although I prefer single part games, another little advantage from having your sounds in an external swf is that you can set the quality to best on all of them and it doesn't impact on your publishing / testing time.

As a slight off-topic ( But we're covering everything here ) is having a sound off option that important ?
I think sound is an important part of the game and that time should be spent on it, so why let someone turn it off ?
Not picking a fight Tonypa, just wondering why you take that view ( And how many others agree with it ), esp seeing how you spend so much time and effort on the sound in your own games.

"Also nameing varibles is a biggy has anyone got a good system they would like to share ?"

I always give my vars a proper name, even if it's overly long. I know a lot of people here are obsessed about saving every ms possible and are quite happy using 1 char var names, but to me it's pointless and makes the code overly hard to come back to ( If speed is a real issue, such as in a loop, then a simple var t=myOverlyLongAndDetailedVarName beforehand gives you back a little saving ).

Squize.

Hmmm, lots of questions here :)

1) I dont use sounds a lot (but im starting to use it now). What i would probably do is put the sound in an mc that is empty, then put it in the hero mc. Whenever i want the hero to make a sound, i just tell the mc to play. If i have many sounds, then i put them after each other and have a stop(); at the end of the sound. I also put in frame labels (see next questions).

1) (why do you have 2 1's ? :p) I would make an empty mc and load the appropriate mc into it. Then i wouldn't have to change the functions or anything in the later part pf the game. I would not load it from an external file!

2) I load everything at once. I hate having to wait for a loader every other screen. It is freaking irritating! When i wait for the loader to finish i think "Finaly, now i can play the game, YAY". If i see another preloader then i think "aw, crap, cant the game just start?". Its also very irritating because then you have to do that every time you start the game over. If you could just load it once and be finsihed with it, its much better [/rant]

3) In my game i put a lot of comments. The comments are there to explain what the function does and it also breaks up the functions. If I have two functions i would put a comment between them saying //FUNCTION SOMETHING! IMPORTANT, DO NOT REMOVE.

I also use different layer a lot. First layer is a frame label that puts a black frame around the game, so you cant see things outside the game. The next layer is a frame label layer. It has frame labels, like Loading, Menu, Options Game and so on. I make my frames long enough to see the text. Next layer has all the code. Both these layers are usualy empty. Next one i have one called stuff, one called characters and so on until a final one which is BG (background).
(see attachment)

The first thing i do when i open the project after one day or something is to hit ctrl+enter. This is just to see how far i have come. I also catch myself in hitting ctrl+shif+f ctrl+s ctrl+enter a lot of times without changing anything (that is, realign code, save and preview). This is just to get some ideas, make sure i have saved the latest version and to make sure the code is propper.

ok, i think thats everything :)

soundBoard.. hehehe

A little object I made which makes sound loading a breeze.

You just call the load function with a name of linkage in the library and it loads it in.

Its all documented etc. etc.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Squize
As a slight off-topic ( But we're covering everything here ) is having a sound off option that important ?
I think sound is an important part of the game and that time should be spent on it, so why let someone turn it off ?
Not picking a fight Tonypa, just wondering why you take that view ( And how many others agree with it ), esp seeing how you spend so much time and effort on the sound in your own games.

---

I find sound important too, but its also matter of taste. I might find some sound funny or interesting, but someone else might find same sound irritating and stupid (this has happened in my games). So, the player has choice, either he turns the sound off or he leaves the games completely. And I do want players to play the game, even without the sounds.

Another thing perhaps worth mentioning, are games with short loops played over longer period of time. If you play the game lets say for an hour, its such a great game, you just dont want to stop, then after some time the music begins to get on your nerves. Im sure most people have music on their computer, carefully selected by them and when they are tired hearing same loop over and over again, they can easily listen something else.

In the end, its keeping the players happy. People are different, I dont know what exactly makes them happy, so providing options to customize the game, keeps them playing longer.

Well im am alot more disorganised than you people are.

- I only ever have one layer - unless there is something, like a background which appears in every single frame
- To make my variable names, i just bash the keyboard and use whatever it gives me - usually a two or three letter variable which has no meaning whatsoever.
- I dont usually include sounds in games - ( not that i have actually made many games which have been completed - kinda gave up on my Depict game (see ISketch, InkLink) which i started aggggggggggges ago, and couldnt find the solution to a stupid bug i had - apart from the one bug it was basically finished :( ) - so i wouldnt know
- I just use as many onEnterFrames as i need.
- I load everything at once, i cant stand having to wait so it loads Up-to-the-second-dynamically-created-mega-3D-ambient sound files every other screen (unless you dont notice it, in which case i wouldnt care) - just load it at the beginning!

Those are my preferences anyway.

[edit] on the point about loading - i also dont mind loading in games (after the original loader) - if there is a choice of loads of maps for example, and you only want to play a few user created maps - like the feature i hope to add to the game i am making, because IMO it is pointless loading all of the user created maps at the beginning, when only a few will be played [/edit]

"If they game had seperate music and sfx switchs, then I could still hear the sfx while listening to my own music."

"People are different, I dont know what exactly makes them happy, so providing options to customize the game, keeps them playing longer."

Valid points, volume options in all my games from now on :)

thehumanchimp, you are joking about your variable names, please say you are.

Squize.

no,
thats what i do...whats so bad with that?

I have not done much with sound, but with my code, It's partial OOP, total OOP is mad verbose. I organize everything into functions, have one onEnterFrame to run all my functions, a layer for AS, and art(intro, endings), most games are 3 or 4 frames. When I first write one it is only one frame. I try to use concise vars, usually 2 letters that are initials, though I find it tricky when you have to revisit a project. All my functions have understandable names.

Do y'all make your own sounds? Or sample?

THC:
It just seems that you're making it a million times harder for yourself, and debugging or returning to a game must be a nightmare.
I've just never known anyone to do it that way ever, that's why I thought you were pulling the piss. Sorry mate.

kendude:
I'm with you on OOP. Doing it strictly with getter/setter methods is just overkill for a game imho. OOP is there for the coders benefit, and I can see nothing wrong with just using it the way you want to rather than adhering to some strict pragma.
As to samples, I'd love to do them myself but it would take forever. In saying that I think aside from about 2 sfx, every one of them in my games is amended from the original in some way ( I usually mix a couple together to get the sound I want. For example in X the large asteroid explosion is a explosion ( Yep! ) mixed with a thunder storm ).

Squize.

hehehe - dont worry, i didnt take any offence to it :)
- i kinda learn what all of them do as i make them, so debugging isnt too hard - but i can see what you mean should i ever need to come back to it after quite a while of not working on it!

THC:
:)

jtnw:
You're using AS2 ? I guess it's more important to use a stricter approach ( Still haven't written 1 line of AS2 yet ).

My scroll engine is a class, and if I were to use getter/ setters then just to get the playfields x position I'd have to use something like:

code:

---

function playFieldsXPosition(){

return playField._x;

}

var currentX=playFieldsXPosition();

---

Just seems a bit much to me.

Squize.

My Flas usually have 4 frames in them:
1. preloader
2. frame for start button and instructions
3. game
4. game end

The code beside some Start buttons and stuff like that, is all created in the external as file, it mostly has a bunch of different functions and I have 1 empty movie clip to call main function on every frame.

Having a sound toggle is super important.

Ive had to recode whole chunks of games because the client DEMANDED sound toggle.

Some people dont like sound.

I even had to go to the hassle of making all buttons MC's, so I could:

code:

---

onRollOver = function(){

if(sounds) {

sound.start();

}

}

---

Since then I code my games with that in mind from the get go. Makes it easier

I organise my games in the way that a new programmer can find fix anything very fast and knows what to do when I explain it via email or phone.

Here we use code rules, which means you have to follow several rules to organise und programm. I may ask if I can publish our rule book, but I'll guess chances are quite low.

I have a well sorted libary making massive use of folders. All the code is kept in a seperate as-file. For editing I use SciTE Flash, which is the most stable tool I found so far for this purpose.

I use rather long varible, function and movie names, but they are self explaining. At least 20-30% of my code are comments and remarks, i would guess.

Before starting to programm I make a concept and workflow-paper. If more than one programmer works on this I mostly do the main guideline.

During the development of the game I enter any activity which takes longer than 15 minutes in an excel sheet. This doesn't cost much time, but shows you later on how many time which thing took. Each day I update the Microsoft Project files. This way everybody can see who is in time, where problems might occur or what to do next.

All this is meant to help develop the next game faster, keep the deadlines and to write code which is easy to understand and to modify.

Quote:

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Originally posted by youmex
For editing I use SciTE Flash, which is the most stable tool I found so far for this purpose.

---

Not to advertise or anything, but I must agree :)

Since its free we don't really advertise it ;)

For everyone who want's to give it a try:

http://www.bomberstudios.com/sciteflash/

I try to make my game fully variblised(don't even know if its a word)
What i mean by this is have a varible for everything which is loaded in the first frame.

me1 = 1;
me2 = 0;
me3 = 1;
me4 = 0;
me5 = 1;
me6 = 0;
me7 = 1;
me8 = 0;

I even add varibles that dont do anything until you change their varible to higher then 0. Just so that i can come in and rather then go through my functions i just change it their and customise my game through varibles.

I try to avoid placing any actions inside movieclips and on them apart from stop(); just for the matter of organisation and confusion so i know where all my code is. I avoid container clips for on enterframe things all my code is in functions and anything that need to be changed every frame i put in a master enterframe function which calls them.

Eg

Code:

---

function trace() {
  for(a = 0; a<= 50; a++) {
    trace("hello"+a);
  }
}

function trace2() {
  for(b = 0; b<= 50; b++) {
    trace("hello"+b);
  }
}

function trace() {
  for(c = 0; c<= 50; c++) {
    trace("hello"+c);
  }
}

---

then the master one

Code:

---

this.onEnterFrame = function() {
  trace();
  trace2();
  trace3();
}

---

An all this is on my actions frame which is a locked layer. This has its benifits but im not sure how effective the way i do it really is.

Another area im curious about is planning of a production.

What steps do you normally take. I know sometimes for clients i just do an inspiration peice when its a little job where i just make their game in one sitting and all ideas are moment ideas and no planning is involved. But for biggger jobs i do alot of planning.

But after planning comes development of the actual ideas for the game. Now i find working out where to start was a big problem for me but ive read into it and come up with a little planning thing that help's me alot in the planning or even the development stage.

The steps i go by are
1. - A text description of the game.
2. - Work out my assets
3. - Go into more detail on what my assets do.
4. - Do a breif sketch and write down what i want my graphics and sound for the asset.
5. - Work out the structure for my assets for they will be put together.
5.1 - Work out each propertie that will effect the asset
5.2 - Identify the user interactions with the asset.
5.3 - Identify the user interactions.

Thats pretty much how i do it what about everyone else?

"Ow and for record im talking about game assets in the above guide not my asstets :D"

chow

Ow and on that sound toggle thing. I agree with both of you cause sounds in games are essential. 50% of the film experience is made up of sound. Heard that today somewhere just really wanted to use it :D but you can get a game with that friggen enoying "boink!" sound. So toggle does comein handy.

Errrrrrrrrr "boink!" "boink!" "boink!" "boink!" "boink!"