Fall x dude whats the deal
Complaining?
Dude, the flash products are very expensive, for someone wanting to make a career choice in what software to learn and implement, a person has to be carefull on what he or she puts there time into!
Time is money! I am very gratefull for Macromedia, I am extreamly impressed by there software, when I was younger and programing in basic and had to make sprites manually, I longed for software that would let me just place a picture and easily tell it what to do!
The thing is, I waited a long time to get back into programing, what I was doing before was back in 1983 with a Commodor 64!
So now I have been turned on to flash, and learning its features, I love it, its so much quicker then Java! But to me just geting started in the software it seems confusing because learning the code takes time, and I dont want to invest time without being cutting edge.
2d games will always have a place, but ask any gamer or the kids at the public library, or the 30 to 40 something kids in the office what they would rather jump on the computer for quick intertainment, and they will play a 3d based game over a 2d if it was simple and quick to get to.
The problem is even at braodband speeds 3d games take longer, and 3d game developers tend to make there games with a bit more depth and complexity in the gameplay.
I sense in you there is worry over if developing games in 2d is going out of style, that you have invested your time an energy into 2d development, and what I have said has more then offended you but scared you!
Dont be, and dont take it out on me either!
2d flash is great for web site development and learning games at least for now it is, but make 3d games smaller, faster to load in and the people will play them over 2d! For example pong in 2d- people remember it, but dont play it anymore, put pong in 3d add some better graphics, and some better looking paddles, put the game on a website easy to get to and people will play it again on there coffie breaks!
I think the market for smaller faster loading 3d games will enventually over run the 2d game market, with games that have a smaller environment, but quick interaction, say what you will, but Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo, know they will never sell another 2d game again! If they want to stay competitive they must develope in 3d!
So here comes new programers to the field, like me, showing up at a time when many changes are taking place in the software used to make these games, what am I suppossed to think? And say? They want me to buy there software, but they are putting so much out so fast, it makes it hard for me to decide.
Its comes down to time and money, both of which I invest only with much concideration!
with flash 8 demo you cant use flash 9 demo
Earlier when I started this thread perhaps I sounded a bit *****y!
And in my questioning of what software would be best for what I wanted to do, I knew only one thing, I wanted the latest cutting edge software, i wanted to learn what was the newest available, from what I can see its flash 9!
Exept that it is a (experimental version) "alpha public" Thats why Macromedia is still promoting flash 8 at this time. Now here is the cetch:
You cant preview flash 9 with out purchasing flash 8 pro!
I downloaded flash 8 (basic) for free 30 day demo, I decided not purchase it, if flash 9 is practicaly available and it has a updated cutting edge version of actionscript (3.0) Why spend money on flash 8?
So I decided to try out flash 9 insted, and downloaded the demo (my falt for not reading the fine print on the website!) But I discovered I could not use the flash 9 demo unless I owned a license for flash 8 profesional first! It just would not install and it kept saying I needed to own a flash 8 pro, in other words the demo of flash 8 was not going to allow me to use the demo of flash 9.
So thats the quagmire!
I did however burn the demo of flash 9 on cd, and took over to my freinds house who turned me on to flash to begin with. He has flash 8 pro license, we installed the flash 9 demo on his machine. My point of view is not really educated enough to critisize or promote any part of the software.
But what we noticed is that it does not have any super dooper new feetures that fly out at you when it first start up.
It does give you options in publishing Actionscript 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0, and your work has to be published in the the actionscript version you are using in order to do a quick alt/enter test of the movie.
As well there are no help files discribing any new commands for Actionscript 3.0, its just blank, all of it just a total blank help window! We looked and could not find and files listed in the flash 9 folder either!
When trying to write actionscript to a movie published in version 3.0 you will learn some things the hard way, it no longer supports writting scripts in moviclips or buttons.
Not sure but seems all writing must be done in the first keyframe of first layer.
We spent most of our time feeling around and experimenting with the window settings, I do like the features for grouping windows together to save space, but was told flash 8 already did that.
So I learned about Macromedia's Director and its 3d based programing, and that it can be done in java anyway, and decided not to fool around with flash 9 at this time, I may try it again if Macromedia provides a version I can use without purchasing flash 8 first. And if I can find info on learning 3.0
