(Notes from Flash in the Can conference)

Flash 8 AdverGaming Development- Sam Rivello. www.rivello.org

casual games — extremely simple gameplay — allow gameplay in short bursts — 2d, abstract graphics — generally mouse-based

Trial-purchase business model
-try
-buy
-[subscribe…?]
right now: $6b online gaming
2009 — est. $9.8n billion annually

consumer type — 29% casual = $2 to $3 billion a year

Bejewelled is the “crowning achievement” in casual games

the more abstract a game, the longer its shelf life —up to a point

flash games — extremely low development overhead, compared to PC/Console games.

[look up code for surrounding/lasso-ing with a mouse]

how long should the game be played? length of visit
how often should the game be replayed? number of visits

design game to be update-able — keep it fresh

8 weeks seems to be the standard lifetime of a (version of a) casual game

-proposal — just put in enough info to get them to accept the idea. Not so much that the idea appears inflexible . don’t get bogged down in the details.

-pitching the game can be more difficult than building the game

“high frequency gameplay” : Won’t play long, but will play frequently.

-are you measuring number of gameplays, or length of gameplays?

-remember to explicitly point out what is NOT in the game

-Make sure you are specific about WHO OWNS THE CODE!!!!
-review rounds
-payment schedule
-secure assets
-begin programming

-work directly with ONE POINT of client contact

-agree upon a maintenance contract/schedule — update game on a regular schedule — new questions, new power-ups, that kind of thing. Keeps eyes coming back

-DO A POST-MORTEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Notes from “Flash in the Can” http://www.fitc.ca conference)

Bumptop: Pushing the desktop metaphor, by Anand Agarawali

http://www.bumptop.com/

-computers are still in the “cave painting” era of user interfaces

-making it pretty doesn’t make it different or better

-bumptop — new paradigm — gesture based

-mimics the physical paradigm of “stuff on your desk”
-mimics physics without being bound by physics
-rigid body simulation
-the laws of thermodynamics do not apply
– “works for applications at all levels of the interface hierarchy” vis. return a google search as a group of icons of screenshots of the result pages

-user-tested: intuitive, takes advantage of spatial memory.
-feels more realistic than the current “desktop” metaphor

-TONS of buzz — video up on youtube, Dugg twice.

also showed us this thing; kind of a virtual overlay of the real world:

http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~ravin/ — Presentation #60, “Interacting with dynamically defined information spaces using a handheld projector and a pen.” Some of the other stuff on this page looks pretty cool, too

(Notes from Flash in the Can conference)

Making Flash components (Actionscript 1) to create generative/controlled chaos art.

Components are encapsulations of code which allow a more user-friendly way of updating things on the stage, so non-nerds can basically have powerful rendering and animation tools available without having to learn a lot of code, or rely on snarky developers.

How to print the output of a Flash movie:
MAC — save PDF as PostScript

EXPORT FLASH SCREENSHOT AS .EPS

-instructions here:
http://diary.joshuadavis.com/2006/05/29/bmw-estoril-portugal/
instructions about 75% down the page
-no gradients
-no alpha transparencies
-no bitmapdata
Saves (from Firefox) to C:Program FilesMozilla Firefox with no file extension
Add “.eps” file extension to file, then open in Illustrator, or something

• does not seem to work for bitmap-type files, like that matters for vector art.

OR, just download the PC postscript drivers from Adobe (I haven’t tried this one)

JD says “word” a lot. Also, “rockin'”

3 frame Movieclip as button without using actionscript
1. make MC
2. label three frames “_up”, “_over”, “_down”.
3. MovieClip automatically responds to mouse action as if it were created as a button. No ActionScript needed.

Example of springs and damping for “bounce” effect

Useful tool: http://colorstripping.joshuadavis.com/
-generates string color palette from a .gif

EXPORT VIDEO OF ACTIONSCRIPT ANIMATION FROM FLASH

-DIRECTOR
-import desired Flash movie (.swf)
-add .swf to director timeline
-property inspector: END FRAME: 600 (for 20seconds at 30fps)

File-export->all frames->quicktime movie format->

Basically takes a bunch of screenshots of the desktop then compiles them into a Quicktime movie.

Go to Eric Natzke talk — dynamic animation dude.

-be sure to replace Flash 6 plugin (inside of Director) with Flash 8 plugin for good stuff. Search on MM site for appropriate download/plugin

FOR PRINTING: Make sure hairlines are larger than .25. .25 is often too fine to be printed—

Flash 9 can, in theory, do all of this without all of the hoops to jump through

Ideas come from getting out in the world — NOT looking at the stuff other people do or staring at a computer.
Take photos, find patterns, trace with WACOM.

Using drawings in conjunction with Actionscript. Don’t go all Actionscript because it loses that warm, hand-drawn feel.

“I am successful because I make stuff for ME, not because I make stuff for YOU. You hire me for MY stuff, not YOUR stuff”

VERY inspiring speaker.

Experiment all the time, save all of your experiments. You never know when something, years from now, will be useful.