S3 Tutorial: Controlling the Main Timeline of a SWF Embedded at Compile-Time

Today I was working a a new piece of the Essential Flash Games framework that allows sponsor swf files to be embedded at compile time and displayed before a game reaches the title screen. I am using Flash Develop and the Flex SDK, but the embed compiler directive is also available in the latest versions of the Flash IDE. I wanted to embed rather than load to ensure that the final swf file is a single self-contained unit that can be easily spread to game portals. I tried this a number of different ways to no avail. Most of the standard swf embed code works fine with assets inside the library of embedded swf, but not when trying to control the main time line of the swf itself. So, this is what we are going to cover: If you have been trying to embed swf files at compile time but cannot get your code to recognize the embedded swf, or the totalFrames attribute of the embedded swf returns 0, or if the swf only shows the final frame of your animation then read on. I had all of those problems today and more, but finally figured out a method to make this work properly.

Controlling the Main Time Line of a swf file embedded at run time.

1. Here is the asset that we are going to embed. I Embed all of my assets in a separate Library class as Static Const variables. This could just as easily be in the main document class for your game or application. I will do it the later way here to keep it uncomplicated. This assumes that the 8bitrocketlogo2.swf is in the same folder as the document class. This logo swf is a multi frame animation with 85 frames on the main time line(its just important that there is more than a single frame because you will want to see if you can play and jump to frames to ensure you have control over the time line)... [more]

amesChart's Barry White Responds (redux)

Last week I did a some coverage of GamesChart and it sparked a little controversy. It seems that one of the principals behind the new venture is none other than Barry White from the now defunct GameJacket. You can't forget Barry as he has the single best name in the games business. Anyway, while Steve and I had nothing but good fortune working with Game Jacket, there are quite a few who were owed money when the company finally went south.  It seems that some people have also been receiving emails directly from Barry about GamesChart and he was being accused of "spamming" people who do not want to receive this email. It is fair for people to be upset about supposed spam, especially when the terms of the Game Jacket user agreement stated that they would not sell or use the email list for anything other than GameJacket related correspondence.

So, my first question for Barry was where he was getting the email addresses he was sending to because 8bitrocket had been a long time member of GameJacket and we did not receive any spam email from him.  Here is his response:

8bitrocket: Barry, we did not receive any email(s) from you about GamesChart. Where did the list come from that you are sending to?...[more]

ad information can be annoying, but bad information in the hands of decision makers can be downright dangerous. An article that was posted today by CIO magazine is just such a thing. The article is entitled "Is it Time for the Web to Abandon Flash?", and it gives current I.T. decision makers some very very bad advice about Flash and HTML 5. (much more after the jump, including vitrol, graphs and funny stories involving coyotes: read on!)

pdated! - Barry White Responds.

GamesChart (Game Jacket Guys Get Back Into The System?) 

Barry White left a message below with some very detailed information on GamesChart.

"I do just want to point out that we are in very early Developer Beta, so there''s lots of things that haven''t been added yet and we''ve still got to include more category charts on the API and also launch the Publisher Beta. That''s the main reason why all the games are being directed back to GamesChart.com ..not because it''s a pyramid scheme. In fact, if all goes to plan - I would be over the moon if none of the games ever linked back to the main site :P"

• Every game that has the GamesChart API embedded in it is tracked by GamesChart
• The API also loads in a series of dynamic charts that actually display within the Flash game itself
• The most popular games each week make their way to the top of the charts
• Any gamers who click on a game listed in these charts is taken to play that game on another portal
• Publishers use an advanced pay per click bidding system to purchase this traffic and drive users back to their own sites to play the games they have bid on
• Games need to be uploaded to the Publishers portal before they can receive traffic (big upside)
  
• Developers receive up to a 50% revenue share of any outbound clicks generated from within their game should they choose to display it (also full blacklisting available)
  
• Publishers also receive 10% of total revenues generated from any GamesChart enabled games featured on their site

...[more]

Here is a short video of the "Plus" version of "Flak Cannon" from the "Essential Guide To Flash Games Book".  I have taken the game beyond the scope of the book.  A free tutorial will be available later this year that describes how to take the game described in the book and enhance to it make this game.  In the meantime it will go out "virally" self-sponsored by the book.

The book now has a release date of March 12, 2010.  since we are in final final minor text revisions, it seems like this date is firm.

pple/Adobe/HTML 5 Saga: Who Is Big Brother Now?

Well, I never expected to be writing about HTML5 years before it will be finished, but the whole iPad/No Flash support saga has me up at night wondering if we need to move sooner than later.

First off, far from Apple relenting on Flash, Steve Jobs called Adobe "lazy" yesterday because they won't fix some (alleged) bugs in Flash.

At the same time, these guys over at Freeciv has done some rendering tests between different browsers and the HTML 5. The FPS seems pretty low, which is what we saw when we looked at the HTML 5 NES emulator a few days ago. Still, the HTML 5 Canvas seems to be gaining steam as Flash has taken a beating in the press in the past few days.

In our view, the iPad appears to be a (new) feature-free, broken system without support for multiple plug-ins. It's a closed, totalitarian universe. Wow, have things changed at Apple in the past 25 years. Remember this commercial?

Who is big brother now?