Flash Game Development

I’ve received some emails on how to get into Flash Game Development. Well, the first thing I would recommend is talking to someone who is actually in that industry 🙂 I enjoy some of the math problems that arise in game development, but do not develop games for a living (or even a hobby for that matter).

If you want to break into any field, immerse yourself in that field and do lots of research. For game development, I’ll take it as a given you understand the importance of the necessary math and programming background. For books in this area, this one is a classic. This one has been recommended by a few people in the Flash business. Check out these as well.

Study companies that are successful in Flash gaming like Electrotank and Blockdot. Visit some of the popular award sites like FWA and see what sites containing games have been awarded. Study those games and try to implement some of the features yourself.

Study people in the industry. FlashMagazine has a good interview with Jobe Makar (which also contains a list of books you might want to consider). Bookmark his blog along with others such as Vectorkid, Mike Grundvig, and Jason Fincanon. These a just a few game developers in the industry; your research should come up with a lot more. What are these people developing? What tips are they posting? Check out the work of people involved in physics engines and advanced data structures such as Michael Baczynski.

Study what is being done with relatively new developments such as Papervision 3D in games. More here.

Study resources in game development other than Flash. Game technology, low-level algorithms, coding techniques and such are common across all development environments. Learn from others that use different development environments. Gamedev.net might be a good place to start. I’ve never read Game Developer magazine, but I’ve heard others in the industry recommend it. Check out Gamasutra and the IGDA. You might also like this resource.

There are tutorial sites like gotoAndPlay.it containing articles and tutorials relevant to game development. FlashKit has a game forum. Adobe has online tutorials and there are other resources such as Flash Game University.

In any industry, it’s helpful to have visibility into the entire process from concept to delivery. Wikipedia has a decent article on the game development process.

This is just a tiny list of links to get started; keep in mind I am not in the game industry.

If others have useful resource links to help anyone wanting to break into Flash game developments, comments are welcome. Good luck in your game development efforts!