[DISC] What was the first thing you learned?

[swcAndrew]

Hey

My brother wants to get into Flash actionscript and so I am going to teach him so in the the future we can work together. So, my question for you is What was the first thing you learned when you started AS in flash. If you wish, list things you learned and things you learned after.

[JBS103]

First teach examples of varibles and pathing, then teach the setProperty and getProperty (movieclip manip)...

From there I would teach If/Else/Else if, For, While, onEnterFrame, onClipEvent

etc... etc..

Thats basic actionscripting to look at and set varibles, if your brothers a quick learner you could get into more advanced things like math functions which come into play with games

Good luck, use tuts, they are your friends, very good when it comes to visual learners

[SaphuA]

The first thing I ever made was a side-scroller, source stolen from the tutorials section here, and then changed speed and stuff telling my friend it was my own game

After that I modified the source of a top-vieuw game from Mad Sci, you could walk around some screens and talk to other characters and stuff. (His work was truly amazing at that time, cuz he was one of the first on the boards making such a game )

Then I started learning tilebased games via ja!lb!tch's tutorials (is it still called like that? ) This was also the new hipe back in the time (Tony wasn't even thinking about writing his tutorials back then ) I learned to write tilebased games by copying and chancing the code, the noticed the changes and learned from that.

As you can see... my whole learning process was stealing/leaning code and seeing what happened when I changed that line of code. It was all a matter of trial and error.

Most people suggest to write Pong or Snake as a first game, but these are actualy quite difficult to make. I would suggest what I did, look at sources/tutorails of games you like, and just try to modifie it

SaphuA

[Squize]

Yep, I'd go for variables, conditional checks and loops along with the Flash specific fun stuff such as enterFrames and dot syntax.

I'd also recommend arrays and functions. It freaks me out how many people here don't understand them and yet still expect to be able to code a game.

Squize.

PS. I always spell it jailbitc'h

[ihoss.com]

teach about variables and functions so he has an idea about how it works. IT is very hard to remember _root.mc.hitTest(_x,_y,true); without knowing what the different things do and why they are there. A friend of mine just learned vb script and he constantly ask about the code for the defResponse thingy, not knowing that it's just a variable name, and not knowing that its actually the messagebox that does it all.

[token 3]

splash out and buy him ActionScript: The definitive guide (by Colin Moock)

the tell him to look through the movies section and try to figure out what certain files do, and how they work

I basically started out this^^ way, then I gave up with looking at other peoples code and just focused on working with the book and thinking for myself

this is the approach I'm taking with learning director, but I've got to cram it in to about 3 weeks

~yarr

[WilloughbyJackson]

I would also like to add timeline control. Also, understanding movie clips within movie clips is one of the truely powerful things in Flash, IMHO...

-pXw

[Dr Warm]

Yeah i started out learning by myself without these forums and stuff, my coding was not pretty. Learning stop() and gotoAndPlay() were breakthrough's for me (as i started making animations!) then i progressed to buttons.
Then i got to variables and got stuck with pathing, then someone told me i could get help on forums so i did!

I think a good way to start is to get a good fla, and then try to reconstruct it, even if you don't understand it, just so you can see where the code gets placed!

[Asclepeos]

_x++;

[DancingOctopus]

Originally posted by SaphuA

It was all a matter of trial and error.

I'll second that! Developing a good method of trial and error was about the first ting I learned in flash.

I already had vague function, variable, loop etc knowledge from my highschool vb days, but most of it is essential knowledge.

[andross_88]

Basically I first got exposed to the programming world about three years ago in my flash class. I heard about flashkit.com from my teachers and decided to look around in the tutorials section. I found this cool tutorial on making a complete side scroller space ship game and I started from there.

Just keep on practicing and that is the best tool.

[blakfeld]

I actually started with an interest in Animation. But mmy first programming I did in flash was useing a tutorial on shockanime.com that taught me so many bad ways to do things. lol.

But the first thing Id go over with anyone learning any programming languge would be the onClipEvent and all that good stuff, along with if/else and some loops

[crashlanding]

I already knew JavaScript when i got flash, and to learn Javascript i used these tutorials

They start of with variables and go on to functions blah blah


so teach him variables, then functions, the properties and how they work etc.

[sand858]

Everyone handled the useful bits, so I'm going to add some non-useful fluff.

1) Your brother needs to want to learn, or he won't. To get him motivated, dangle some of the kick ass Flash games some of the cool people on this forum make.

2) If he is motivated, he's going to need time and patience. The only way he is going to learn is by trying, trying and trying. Encourage him to make something small, then build on those fundamentals. Always start small (as tiny as possible). Make a "Hello world" and build from there.

3) Be patient and encouraging and supportive (but from your post, I would imagine this is a given).

[VENGEANCE MX]

Show him this:

http://www.gamesgamesgames.co.uk/MakingFPS.swf

It covers all of the basics for learning how to script, AND making games... in detail.

[rabbitkiller]

Originally posted by SaphuA
...It was all a matter of trial and error. ...

And trail an error!
I mean, finding out what's wrong with your code, using debugger - also very important thing...

[swcAndrew]

well to start THANK YOU ALL very much for your responses. With all of your tips in mind I have started with variables and the buttons and mc's. We are working well and hopefully he will take it on fast. Keep em' coming though.