Flash MX Games : ActionScript for Artists

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to take their Flash skills to the next level, that is grasping the fundamentals of Actionscript and how to formulate and execute code based solutions for interactive games. I came to this book using Flash MX only on a visual basis, adding basic interactivity only with Flash's preset commands. I can honestly say that now I have a firm grasp of the Actionscript basics (Variables, Conditions, Loops), and even tackled collision detection in the later sections. The text is clear and concise, and the accompanying CD compliments this, containing the completed projects for you to disect and see the code in action for yourself as you read the book. Used together with a Flash MX reference book, it is definitely possible to gain enough knowledge from this book to put together your own games, and as this was my original reason for buying it, would say that it was money well spent. Learn the professional skills you need to make the best use of Flash for creating interactive animation and producing exciting, dynamic Internet content. Nik Lever, writing as an artist for artists, takes you through the entire process from creating the art and animation for games in Flash, to adding the interactivity using Flash's ActionScripting language. He also provides valuable extra coverage of how Flash integrates with Director 8.5 Shockwave studio and C++.As a designer using Flash you will see how you can apply your creative skills to the many stages of game production and produce your own interactive games with this versatile package. As an animator you will be able to add interactive functionality to your own animation and produce a game. As a web developer you will see how to make the best use of the sophisticated development environment Flash offers for the production of both artwork and code to create low bandwidth, animated web content that sells!The free CD-Rom includes all the code and files you need to try out each tutorial from the book so you can see exactly how each game was created. Learn from the many different types of games provided as examples, from simple quizzes to platform-based games. High score tables and multi-player games using sockets, vital to higher level online games, are also covered in detail to ensure you have the complete skill set needed to succeed in this competitive arena. Rather alarmingly it is now nearly 20 years since I wrote my first bit of code using a Sinclair Spectrum computer and Sinclair Basic.